# New tricks for fast-learning puppy?



## breyer08 (Jul 4, 2012)

Hi, everyone! I have been reading through this part of the forum for some ideas on different tricks, and I've found a few that I'd like to try, but I was wondering if you all have some other ideas? Our puppy is 13 weeks, and she is completely outpacing me in the training routine! She has already learned "come", "sit", "lie down", "shake", "spin", "high five", and we are working on "drop it" and "take it". I'd like to teach her to wave, since that would be an easy progression from shake and high five, but for some reason I've drawn a complete blank as to other "tricks" to teach her! She just started obedience classes today, and we'll be working on the other basics in that class, many of which she has already learned. I am glad to have her in school, though, for her to practice all her learned commands with a lot of distraction!

So, any thoughts as to good tricks to teach my puppy? We practice everything in short training sessions usually 2-3 times per day, and her recall so far has been very good. I feel like she is becoming bored with it, though, so any and all new ideas are much appreciated!


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

honestly at 13 weeks, I would work on proofing the basics your pup already knows in various different situations and once your pup is 100% on those in all kinds of situations with various distractions, I would start adding in additional tricks.


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## Laney (Feb 12, 2012)

I love teaching my GSD new tricks! A couple cute ones you can try are:
- "Hide" - your puppy covers her eyes with her paw (Rivers picked this one up really quick!)
- "Back up"
- How to retrieve specific toys (ex: "get your ball", "get your rope", "get your moose", etc.)
- Better yet... "clean up" (put all her toys away in a box) 
- "On your bed"
- "Oops" (when I drop a treat/food on the floor and I am okay with him eating it I say "oops" ...its helpful because he knows to "leave it" if I don't say "oops"). 
- "Look both ways" before we cross the street 
- Rivers knows when I say "Hungry?" to run to the kitchen and lay down until I serve him his food. 
- And if you're a sports fan... "Touchdown!" (when we say this command Rivers barks and gives us a high five ). 

Also, one of the most useful "tricks" I've taught Rivers is anytime I drop the leash he has to sit, no matter what. This comes in handy for me cause I'm always carrying tons of things + the leash, and if I accidentally drop it I know he won't run away. (In the beginning I tied my keys to the end of the leash so he could clearly hear when the leash hit the floor. I started with saying the command "sit" and then dropping the leash when his butt hit the ground, and click + treat. I started just using the hand signal for sit. After he mastered that I just dropped the leash and he knew it meant sit. Then I took the keys off and got him used to the quiet sound, which was a little difficult [a friend of mine just permanently put a piece of plastic on the end of the leash so the dog could hear it]. And lastly practice this while walking, that way if you are walking quickly and you don't notice you dropped the leash your dog should still sit). 

Hope this gave you some good ideas. 

Your puppy is still young, don't get frustrated if she doesn't pick these up right away (although she sounds like a smart little pup!). Good luck and let us know what she learns


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## TaZoR (Jan 26, 2012)

Hi..just wondering how you taught your dog.."hide". I tried it with the rolled up piece of scotch tape on Tazors nose..and he left it there so I couldn't give the command for the result....thnx




Laney said:


> I love teaching my GSD new tricks! A couple cute ones you can try are:
> - "Hide" - your puppy covers her eyes with her paw (Rivers picked this one up really quick!)
> - "Back up"
> - How to retrieve specific toys (ex: "get your ball", "get your rope", "get your moose", etc.)
> ...


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## Laney (Feb 12, 2012)

TaZoR said:


> Hi..just wondering how you taught your dog.."hide". I tried it with the rolled up piece of scotch tape on Tazors nose..and he left it there so I couldn't give the command for the result....thnx


I used scotch tape at first too and he didn't seem to care about it. I started adding more pieces of tape or rolled up paper/post-its to it. I ended up just crumpling up a bright pink post-it and taping it to his nose with scotch tape. The bigger I made it, the more determined he was to get it off his nose...maybe because he could see it better. Also, where I put it made a difference too. If I put it on the tip of his nose he would ignore it, but if I put it higher, almost in between his eyes, he would paw at it and it looked better too cause his paw covered his eyes more.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

German Shepherds don't do tricks, they obey commands (a
little Shepherd snobbery). your dog knows a lot for 13 weeks old.
i didn't really start to train my dog untill he was 4 months old.
he knew a few things before 4 months old but at 4 months old
that's OB started. teach your dog not to door dash. if the door
is proped open and there's someone calling your pup teach him
not to exit. if there's a cat or dog in your yard and the door is open
teach him not to exit. you could also teach him to enter and exit
the car on command. as KZoopa said you should proof the commands
your pup knows.


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## TaZoR (Jan 26, 2012)

Thanks...I never thought about postie notes..lol, and I will try higher up...I was actually thinking about bubble bath but your idea sounds better, thanks again. 



Laney said:


> I used scotch tape at first too and he didn't seem to care about it. I started adding more pieces of tape or rolled up paper/post-its to it. I ended up just crumpling up a bright pink post-it and taping it to his nose with scotch tape. The bigger I made it, the more determined he was to get it off his nose...maybe because he could see it better. Also, where I put it made a difference too. If I put it on the tip of his nose he would ignore it, but if I put it higher, almost in between his eyes, he would paw at it and it looked better too cause his paw covered his eyes more.


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## breyer08 (Jul 4, 2012)

Just an update 

We've continued practicing her learned commands outside and inside in different places, and today she finally mastered waving. I taught her to wave when I say "Hola" in Spanish.  It was a pretty easy progression for her from "shake" and "high five". So now she knows "come", "sit", "lie down", "shake", "high five", "wave", "spin", "drop it". We'll keep practicing all of these and next week add another.


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## Kev (Sep 11, 2011)

Wow nice, way more than what my 6 months know lol.

Instead of new tricks, try new exercises.
Hide and Seek or tracking, but very little at first.


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## breyer08 (Jul 4, 2012)

Another update:

Today we had our second obedience class. The trainer told me that she wants me to work on getting a good "stay" and cueing Ava onto a release ("okay"). She also showed me how to teach Ava to crawl. We aren't having our next session until two weeks from now (trainer has to go out of town next week), so that should give us a good amount of time to practice these things. Today in class, Ava did all of her learned commands for the trainer right on cue, and when new people walked in, she even waved to them! I was very proud.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Tricks are FABULOUS for our pups! click this --> Teaching a trick is the least important part of teaching a trick


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## Narny (Sep 8, 2010)

I just ordered this book from leerburg if you really want more tricks to teach your pup.

Leerburg | 101 Dog Tricks


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