Having A Hard Time Teaching Grey Tricks

[Guest cheltzey]

I'm trying to teach Lando how to do a bow, and I just can't get results anywhere close to a bow! He's got those long greyhound legs and neck, and he just kind of bends them like a giraffe instead of going into a bow position when I lower the treat to the ground to lure him into the bow position. Any suggestions? I've also found it impossible to get him into a sit like it suggests in all the books. Am I giving up to early? Or are there tricks that I should try? I'm training him because he seems bored to death at our house, and I thought that it would be fun for the both of us. The only two commands that I've been pretty successful at are "jump" (it's his favorite) and "stay." "Come" works sometimes. Any other tricks that are easy to teach greyhounds? Thanks for the help!

[Guest NJgrey]

Does he stretch at all? A lot of greys stretch those long legs out front when they stretch, just like a bow - it may be possible to catch him in the act and have him learn that way. That's how we got our girl to learn the sit command. She did it anyway, just had to catch her and reinforce.

[Guest Spencers_Greyt]

Does he play bow? If he does then treat him every time he does it and say "bow" and he will get it. The sitting thing was very difficult and I gave up because it looked like Spencer was just too uncomfortable doing it. He will do it if I offer cheese though but I don't have him do it any longer because of his weak back. The only thing Spencer knows is "leave it" and that was from his obedience class a long time ago. I have no idea why that command stuck!

[Guest Sweetreba]

Both my dogs learned quickly to give paw which yours' may do already. My greys just will not sit at all. Petey did it maybe twice in two years. I am not patient enough and consistent. As far as stay they do that very well because I was very consistent with that when someone was at the door and also when we are on walks I pull slightly on the leashes and say stay so now they stop right away. Good Luck with your teaching.

[Guest ShanYu]

"Bow" was the first thing Nike learned and now bows in response to "do you want to go walkies?" "do you want a cookie?" etc and at dinner time it his way of asking permission to eat. As others have suggested, try rewarding anytime you catch him in the act of stretching or play bowing - and pretty soon you will have a bowing fool like Nike!

[Guest Sunset123]

I had this exact problem with "bow." I finally found a video on youtube that presented the solution that worked for us.

 

It's a two-person job. One person lures the dog down to the floor with a treat, while the other person stands behind the dog and holds a leash under the dog's waist to show him that you want the head to go down and the butt to stay up (thus preventing him from going into a "down"). Worked like a charm. After weeks of trying, Arrisa picked up on what we were trying to get her to do almost immediately. She had a lightbulb moment.

 

Does that make sense? I can try to dig up the video if it doesn't.

[Guest krystolla]

I haven't tried 'Bow' yet. The easiest things I've found to teach Hack are 'touch' as in touch my hand. It scales well too, you can transfer to touching the end of a pole, closing a cupboard, pushing buttons . . . I haven't got that far yet.

 

Teaching 'back up' was pretty easy, too. The hard part was getting him to back up in a straight line rather than jumping to the side, it was easier in the house where I could guide him along the furniture.

 

If he enjoys jump, maybe you could teach him to jump onto and off of specific pieces of furniture? On the couch, off the couch. On the automan, off the automan. It could make for an enthusiastic game.

[2greytgreys]

My female sits but she's on the smaller side. She will also give me her paw when I say "shake". My boy won't sit but he does "down" and "stay" on command.

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

I trained the bow command using the lazy method. As others have said, every morning my hounds stretch, when they do, I make sure to have something to give them (treat) and give the command. They picked it up after a few days. I also teach the lay-down command the same way. Dogs always lay down, so as soon as they touch the floor, "lay down" and they can pick that up fairly quickly as well. For the sit, I have taught many fosters as well as my own sit by using the "tuck and hug" method. This method is not suggested for shy or very new hounds. What you do is get on one side of the hound, squat down on the side of the hound. Put your right arm around the chest of the hound, put your left arm around the back end of your hound, your arm should rest in the "bending" part of their hind legs. Then gently push back with your right arm, while holding your left arm in place. The placement of your left arm will force the greyhounds legs to collapse below them, while your right arm pushes them back into a sit position. This requires patience as some hounds get very nervous if they are not comfortable with you. Depending on how long you have had your hound, and how comfortable everyone is, you may muzzle for this training. Good Luck.

 

Chad

[NeylasMom]

What others have said regarding capturing the behavior - that's easiest. You can also shape the behavior, but I won't get into that unless you want me to/don't have success with capturing it.

 

If he doesn't sit on his own, then I think the easiest way is to lure them out of a down into the sit. It can be problematic b/c then you have to get them to do it without lying down first, but usually the lightbulb goes off and they get the behavior you want and can then do the sit on its own.

 

As for other tricks, Zuri LOVES spin. You can teach them by luring them with a treat. You should watch your dog's natural movements first - they generally have a preference on which way they like to spin. If you can't lure the full spin at once, then start by luring part way and rewarding. Once that's pretty reliable, then you can start gradually increasing how far he has to turn before rewarding until you're doing the full spin. Then you phase out the lure, but just using your hand, and finally, when that's consistent, say "spin", then give the hand signal. Eventually you can phase out the hand signal if you want to.

[Guest caelanarcher]

I wonder if you couldn't shape a bow the same way you'd go for a "down", luring them under a bent leg.

 

Like this?

 

Other fun tricks? After Aaron picked up "sit" (easy for him, because it was his "I'm bored/frustrated" pose), I've started him working on "beg". There's not really anything more amusing than an 80-pound dog sitting up like a toy poodle.

[GeorgeofNE]

I taught George how to sit using the tried and true "tuck and fold." Let me say George is handsome and was fast, but he is neither interested in obedience nor particularly interested in pleasing me! If he can learn sit, any hound can!

 

I wouldn't be teaching him to jump. It's all good fun until he knocks someone over (child, older person)!

[Guest KansasGrey]

One suggestion is to be enthusiastic and get the dogs excited. My DH is so good at getting them excited and they seem to be more open to learning. He taught our new girl, Lisa, to sit and shake within a week. We give the dogs a cookie at bedtime and Lisa will run in the bedroom,

sit and hold her paw up for that cookie.

[Guest auforygirl]

My girl sits, gives paw, other paw, both paws, down, leave it, come (start heading my way), come quick (that is drop what you are doing and run here now),back, roll over (which is really just show me your belly), and we are working on Bow (I am basically luring her in like a down but keeping my other hand under her belly and right now only really good treats get the reaction I want so far.) I try to constantly think of new tricks, after we learn bow we are going to learn touch, we almost had it when we were in classes like 4 or 5 years ago but when we tried going to the stick she was gnawing on the stick... I tried sticking some PB on it. Can we say backfire...

[AnneGTS]

Don't give up, I'm sure he'll learn it.

 

I tried almost the same down-method as shown at the link caelanarcher gave.

 

Spriet loves the "give paw"-trick. Now she does it all the time! As soon as she wants you to pet her, she'll give you her paw. She loves to "bark" ( ) and "touch" too. A video of her tricks:

 

Right now I'm trying to let her roach on command..

Edited July 10, 2010 by AnneGTS