Tricks for your Icelandics

Hello Folks

I was working the dogs this afternoon in their training session, and was amused to see the dogs offering a play bow to me.. an couple of them did it, and of course I clicked it, and it got me to think about No Trick, Tricks, these are wonderful tricks that we can put on cue with just a little work..

Just a few examples, In our house if an Icelandic has their tail down, we smile at them and in a sing-song voice, say, "turn that frown upside down" and the dog responding to our happy voice and the song, will indeed put its tail up and wag it.. this is something we have been doing for years, and now if we say this, the dogs will wag its tail.. you could say Wag instead..

Same with Kiss, I always start with my hand, and say, Kiss, or Good Kiss, if they need a little help (not that I have meet an Icelandic that does not do this naturally), you can use a bit of butter on the spot.. Soon enough they learn to give gentle kisses, and you can work from your hand (which is a boy dog, can seem very gentlemanly) to a kiss on the cheek etc, the nice thing about this, is you can also teach, No kiss.. which tells the dog, that this person does not want a kiss.

I love this photo of Blue hanging out in the wagon, again a good no trick trick, if blue likes to get pulled around in wagon, its a cute trick, he could be taught, Go to your wagon, and jump in and get pulled around in it.. which in and of itself is just cute, but how about if he likes to retreive as well, we could expand this to put your ball in the wagon, and then put yourself in the wagon.. expand it again and you could have his put a few things in by name, his stuffed toy, his ball and his throw toy and suddenly he is a very smart doggy indeed..

You get the idea, anything that the dog does in a natural way, you can put on cue with the clicker, playbow is great, because all children love the trick of " XXX Bow hello" just as they love, Shake a paw, high five, give ten, and wave hello or bye.. which I will write about in detail in another listings.

Barks