We’ve been taking an obedience class organized by the West Los Angeles Obedience Club and taught by a fantastic trainer, Lynn Medlin, for the past six weeks. To our relief, we’ve been making great strides in our walking skills (taming the pulling, husky side of Toki) and reinforcing the lessons learned in our initial puppy class. It was during our most recent session that we picked up a 30-second dog trick: how to get our pup to catch treats in her mouth.
The technique was so easy, we taught her in the 30 seconds or so it took to describe the trick!
All you do is toss a treat into the air and let your dog try to catch it. If she doesn’t, scoop up the treat before she can get to it, ask her to watch you, and toss it again. It took only a few tries for Toki to figure out that she needed to catch the treat if she wanted to eat it. It took her another half dozen or so tries to actually succeed in catching the treat in the air. (If you’d like, you can also add a command, like “catch!” to alert your dog before you throw the treat.)
It’s a fun and easy trick that takes almost no skill to teach! : ) And it’s a great way to get your dog’s full attention too.
Happy training!
I love this photo!
Haha – I assume you mean the one where Toki is looking up at me with sad eyes, waiting for me to say she can have the dog cookie?
Exactly! I am so impressed by her discipline!
Hehe. Bowdu is a master at this trick. It’s also how I sometimes get him to taje his little thyroid pills that we stuff into mini marshmallows… I’ll send three or four flying, and one of them has the pill. Since he snaps them out of the air, he doesn’t really taste them. At least it keeps pilling interesting for him.
Great idea. I’m learning new uses for this trick every day . . . : )
Oscar might be able to pull off this trick—he’s so food motivated! I just have to make sure I don’t toss a watermelon at him! 😀
The best part about this trick is that the motivation is built in! Let me know how it goes : )
That’s fun. I should try it with Gretel. She needs her own trick. Chester will roll over for treats, Thanks for the tip 🙂
I’m impressed by the roll over! I only got as far as playing dead, but I haven’t been able to get Toki to roll all the way over on her other side…
Good trick…I will remember this and tell mommy if she decides to give me a dog-brother. Btw, that bone looks delicious.
Mmmm. It smelled so yummy and peanut buttery, I kept wanting to eat one with my tea. They were a homemade dog treat gift from a friend!
sigh, dobby still only knows how to sit…100% my fault, of course!
I remember that he knows “watch me” pretty well too! : ) Well this is your chance to teach him a new trick, in less than a minute!
Fun trick, and I love that picture of Toki saying, “Ok, I haz the cookie now?” 🙂
Um, I have 2 words : Adorable and Baby. “Adorable” because, well, what’s not adorable about this furry love of yours? And “Baby” because, honestly, I think Baby the Cat should get a guest blog post on here. Or maybe we could at least arrange for these two to have a little canine-feline date on Abbott Kinney. I’m telling you. I see magic in their future. {Insert wink here}