[Dogaroo]

It's certainly easy to inadvertently teach a dog something you don't want him/her to learn. Have you ever discovered, though, that your dog has learned something fun or useful that you didn't deliberately train him/her to do?

I never worked on "find it" with Kaija, although I had hoped to eventually get to it. (She had other stuff to work on that was much higher priority.) One day I suddenly realized that she was doing "find it" when I said "Where --"!! She would either stare at the target or go up to it & touch it with her nose. (We did work on "touch" in OB class.) She has an amazing vocabulary: Gunnar (other dog), cat, slippers (okay, so she probably already knows where those are

), purse.... She still has trouble with "where keys" though.

When I reach for my glasses in the morning I often manage to send them skittering across the room or under the bed somewhere. Without glasses I can't see to find my glasses, so it's pretty handy to be able to say "where glasses" & have my Automatic GSD Locator find them for me.

 

[jinxieab]

That's way cool! I've been semi-working on that with my girland the kids..LOL
Find..._______.. and they have a squeaky toy and she goes to them.

 

[Remo]

"Beep Beep" means please get out of my way. We just say it, and they know to move.

I don't even think about it unless we are out somewhere and I say it and I hear people cracking up when they see my dogs comply.

 

[Powell]

When I brought her to the radio station the other day I told her 'have a seat' and she promptly sat. Also a hand command that looks like sitting. She knows that. She also learned "home" as I would say that when going back to the house on a walk.
Today, on the mile walk about a bit over half, after she finished peeing (she had already pooped)....she turned around and headed BACK to the house. Maybe she knew I felt bad and hurt.... my arthritis decided to hurt big time and I didn't feel like walking.


Powell

 

[kaslkaos]

Hotter-Colder.
If Dynamo looses sight of her frisbee in the long grass, or stick in the pond I play an accidental version of Hotter-Colder.
It goes like this. Me, pointing to item and saying get it, over there, there, there, no, nope, yes, yes, uh oh, yes, yes, uh uh, get it, get it, get it and all the while pointing, leaning, lunging & pointing like a maniac.
The astounding thing is that Dynamo actually looks back at me for a direction, and will change her search according to my mad dancing and she really does find it using my 'help'. The first time I thought it had to be coincidence (I've never 'taught' directionals, or left right commands). After doing this dance over and over again through the years (never on purpose, she's usually really good at keeping track of projectiles) I realize that she's somehow figured out that all that random noise and weird behaviour can actually be useful to her.

Oh, one other thing. If a stranger says, "You have a beautiful dog", she instantly swivel her head back to me looking for a treat. Go figure.

 

[WereWolf]

My former dog learned how to open the garden door withou anyone having ever teached him . he just observed how we put our hands on the handle and push it down i think, once he was big enough to reach he would jump and put his paws on the handle and pull down!

 

[Karin]

I had been trying to get our newly adopted rescue GSD to go in her crate and she just wouldn't do it. Then, frustrated, I said, "Go to bed," and she immediately went in there, and always did it ever since, but only when I say those words!

She also has a new one out of the blue. When I put her in her crate before I leave the house, I'll normally get a piece of freeze tried liver, tell her to "go to bed," then shut the door and leave. The last couple of times right before I'm ready to leave, I'll go to the cupboard and get a piece of liver, and when I go to find her, she's already in the crate, looking at me! It's so CUTE!

Now if I could get her to stay in the crate without whining and carrying on, I'd be even more pleased!

 

[Bridget]

Congratulations for figuring out the correct wording! When I went back to work, our lab puppy was four months old and I was not sure of her housebreaking yet, so I put her in the crate before I left. Gave her some treats in there each day, and I experienced the same thing you did; she would go get in her crate before I was even ready for work and just wait!

 

[Lin]

Originally Posted By: Remo"Beep Beep" means please get out of my way. We just say it, and they know to move.

I don't even think about it unless we are out somewhere and I say it and I hear people cracking up when they see my dogs comply.

I do that too! I didn't know others did as well. Its really funny because they are usually in my way by walking in front of me and slower than I'm wanting. So I say "beep beep" and they backup to get behind me and out of my way. On occasion they've walked backwards between my legs lol.

 

[pupresq]

Mine know lots of phrases - Move it (though I like the "beep beep"!), here, there. Grace knows TONS of words most of which I didn't teach her. She also knows all my clothes and shoes and what they mean for her - heels -> might as well go get in the crate. Yoga pants and running shoes -> has potential! Cargo pants and hiking boots -> NOW WE'RE TALKIN'!

One of the more annoying things they do is that she and Renny have learned the "grr arg" that comes at the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (my favorite show). They hear it and run to the back door to go out because they know the show's over.

Oh - the best one was when I discovered she actually knows enough different phrases to tell her to pick up a stick and bring it to me to use as a prop when I was halfway across a stream and hit a tippy rock.

It's stuff like that that makes me LOVE GSDs. Grace is like the dog I dreamed of having when I was a little kid and thought dogs could talk!

 

[DanL]

Gunnar will go outside and run around looking for a toy. If he can't find one, he'll go to the back door, bark to be let in, grab a toy, and come back outside to play.

We trained our Dane Daisy to ring a bell to come inside (good), rather than having her dive at the door (very much not good). Now she figured out on her own that if she goes to the door and jiggles the handle with her nose, we'll let her out. When it's poor weather, we feed her in her crate. She's learned to go into the crate, sit, wait for me to put her bowl down, close the door, and give her the "ok" to start eating. I don't have to say anything to her any more except the "ok". Pretty good for a dog that lives to eat, to leave her food alone while the it's shut into the crate with her until I tell her she can eat it.

 

[thaliasmom]

Puppy learned "find it!"
Then she learned to find different things- most often "the other one."

We almost always play ball with two balls at a time - and sometimes she'll drop the one she's bringing. Then we say find it, and she wants the one *we* have - so "go get your other one." works great. This is also handy when we can't find a ball - we can stand on the porch and say "find it" and she'll go hunt around in the yard until she gets one. She can also find her "rock" - the dayglo orange "rock" we got to help with the missing ball problem.

She also knows "put your feet in." She wears a harness for walks and it clips over the back- so she'll sit and put one foot in the hole and then the other. Unless she's excited, and then she'll try to LEAP her feet into the harness while I still have it in midair.

She knows "feetsies," too, for when we come inside with muddy paws. Feetsies means lie on your back with tail wagging while mom gets the acre of mud off feet, legs and belly.

I was a little worried about her- for the longest time she didn't seem to know her toy names- rope, ball, cuz, etc., but at 8-9 months she suddenly seemed to know them all.