[Marian]

Teddy informed me today that he considers 'rolling over' to be humiliating and demeaning. He said that he can see a usefulness in all of the other tricks I've taught him, but not that one. He also says he wouldn't do it for all the chicken breast in the world. So I'm not going to force him to do it. I kinda see his point, to be honest.

Is there anything you've tried to teach your poodle that he/she just wasn't interested in doing?

 

[BlueSpoo]

Bella has no interest in putting anything in her mouth that isn't delicious, so 'fetch ball' has been kind of a dud, but at her age, I'll cut her some slack if she'd rather lie in the shade and watch.

 

[Birdie]

Sit Pretty/Beg! Desmond will NOT do it lol. I've been trying since he was a baby, it was one of the first tricks we tried after he learned sit and down. He seems to think that it's either Sit on my bottom or Up on my back feet! No in between, it's all or nothing!
I've tried all the tricks in the book, he just won't put his front feet up and his butt on the ground at the same time. Maybe we just need to try some more! I would LOVE to see him do it, I think it's unbearably cute when dogs sit pretty. <3

 

[Marian]

Teddy does both of those things. I tried to teach him how to take something from me in his mouth, like earlier today I tried to get him to take my business card to someone. I said "take it" and he did, and he immediately spit it out and looked at me like, "where's my treat?"

He accidentally did a sit pretty/beg once when he was excited. He said it won't ever happen again. Des probably thinks it's degrading too.

 

[bigpoodleperson]

Bang!/Play dead. Riley will NOT do it! Im not really a trick trainer though, so that might be the problem. He knows the standard shake (and knows to shake with the paw coorisponding to which hand is out), roll over, down/sit (in 3 languages and hand signals), stand, etc.

 

[Marian]

I don't think it has anything to do with your training skills, BPP. I don't imagine Ted would do that one either. He just muttered under his breath, "leave that one to the big DUMB dogs".

 

[flufflvr]

fetch.

Really, she'll go get it and bring it back a few times, but then she looks at me like "Hello numskull! I already brought it back to you 3 times, if you want it so badly, why do you keep throwing it? Go get it yourself!"

 

[Spencer]

Can my final answe be, "to listen"?



No, Tate listens pretty well... And also has no qualms with begging. He stands on his hind legs and does something I can't describe with his front (similar to the poodle dance). We call it "pumping the gas". He loves to sit (not pretty) and lay, as well as hop. He was pretty good at crawl, but we haven't done that one in awhile. He WILL NOT roll over (he kind of flails on his back like a dying fish) or shake OR jump through my arms. He runs at them full speed then hits the brakes and looks at me like, "I could hurt you! I'll just come and lick your hands instead." My little pansy.

 

[TZel]

At puppy class they taught us to hold a treat as a lure in our left hand, while walking, to train for heel. Then stopping and giving a treat from the right hand. As soon as Sam figured out that he would never get the treat from the left he would not follow that lure for anything!

 

[Marian]

Did anyone watch Sci-Trek last night on the Science Channel? It was called "What Animals Think" and it was fascinating.

If you missed it, they will be showing it again.

Of course, we poodle owners already knew that our dogs are capable of reasoned thought.

 

[BlueSpoo]

Sit Pretty/Beg! Desmond will NOT do it lol. I've been trying since he was a baby, it was one of the first tricks we tried after he learned sit and down. He seems to think that it's either Sit on my bottom or Up on my back feet! No in between, it's all or nothing!
I've tried all the tricks in the book, he just won't put his front feet up and his butt on the ground at the same time. Maybe we just need to try some more! I would LOVE to see him do it, I think it's unbearably cute when dogs sit pretty. <3

That was Pearl exactly. Once she 'sat pretty' by accident thouggh, & was so proud she works the balance out & does it on command.

I think it's a matter of awkward body type on (esp young) spoos; those colty legs aren't really built for it (I have short arms & torso & long legs, & could no more do a cartwheel as a kid than fly to the moon- but I (used to) can do a lotus behind my neck. Body type defines athletic specialties, to a degree. )

 

[puppylove]

Jackson is trying so hard to sit pretty. Hoot does it perfectly and will hold it as long as I want. Jackson always rolls over. He finally figured out how to gather his haunches underneath himself but the best he can do is lift both paws into the air for about 2 seconds and then he falls over.

So far he likes doing tricks and is usually quicker to respond than Hoot (from whom he picked it all up).

 

[Sami]

Prince is really good at learning tricks he learns them within 30 minutes usually. But he never did like Rollover! It took him 2 months to get that down. He would always just roll back on the same side!