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Thursday, March 7, 2019

Thankful Thursday - Another Puppy Trick

One of my favorite tricks to teach our dogs is specifically for photography. I like to teach them to rest their chins on the floor either on or between their front paws. It's also fairly easy to teach so I started on it with Hachi.

He knows how to touch things with his nose. He'll touch almost anything that I ask him to touch. So, I started by asking him to touch a rubber disk target with his nose. I placed it on and then under his front paws. When he touched it, he was in the position that I was aiming to teach him to adopt on cue.

After he got good at touching that disk, I removed it. He immediately tried to earn a treat by putting his nose where the disk had just been. Bingo! I clicked and treated him for doing that. He did that repeatedly without me giving any verbal cue yet but with me using an informal hand signal.

In the very last stage, I added the verbal cue which is "head" (I don't know why I chose that word instead of "chin" when I taught my first dog this trick a couple of decades ago - it's funny now!).

Here's a video of the process. You'll see that the big dogs are on a bed behind Hachi. Shyla started creeping forward. Then, I thought that it was hilarious that she began putting her chin on the floor when I said the verbal cue to Hachi. I picked up the camera so that you could see her at one point in the video.


It lets me get fun photos like this one.

And his one...

And because his head is so still, I can focus in on his beautiful eye!
It's so much fun teaching Hachi new things!

Thanks to our friend Brian for hosting the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.

20 comments:

  1. love it... and specially how she came closer LOL... I had to turn the speaker off, the two started to look for the puppy who barked hahahaha

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  2. It's so much fun to see him when he gets it! Good girl Shyla, I hope you got a treat too! Thanks for joining the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!

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  3. Hachi is soooooooooo smart. I had to laugh since I can get all shot of Big with his chin on the floor, he needs to be trained to pick his head UP.. ha ha

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    1. You definitely could make lifting his chin off the floor into a trick! That would be fun.

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  4. It's so much fun watching you learn, Hachi, and yes, you do have such gorgeous eyes!

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  5. Hachi is coming along very nicely. He's so smart and eager to please.

    Have a woof woof Thankful Thursday. My best to your peeps. ♥

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  6. I Completely Feel In Love With Your 'A Beautiful Bluebird Day' Photographs. Well Done!!

    Cheers

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  7. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh welllllllllllllllll done Hachi.....and I just love that your siblings are sitting there behind you I can tell they are very very proud of you too
    Hugs Cecilia

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  8. Hachi sure is a quick learner. He sure is a cutie and has such beautiful eyes.

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  9. He is just too smart and way too cute!!! Shyla must have a great "stay" to resist coming over when Hachi is getting treats.

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  10. Love him trying to tell you that the treats are coming too slowly. In this household, the older dogs would NOT have stayed out of the way of treats being dispensed!

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  11. Hari OM
    Oh those eyes... such a spirit in there! YAM xx

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  12. Loved watching the process!! What a smart boy!

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  13. Love how 'enthusiastic' he is with his barks. Too cute.

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  14. What a fun trick and it sure does make for some awesome photos! ♥
    Jan, Wag 'n Woof Pets

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  15. Excellent. Very interesting video.

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  16. Oh, my stars!!!!!! He is as smart as he is adorable!
    KZK

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  17. We all learned to do that as puppies too. Hatchi is one smart pup!

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  18. So cute and so smart!!
    hugs
    Hazel & Mabel

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