on your nose??? Well Luna can, here is our latest trick…
On VIDEO, yes I finally did it. Now let’s see if I can remember how to share it with you, let me know if you have any problems viewing it.
This is a new record for her, 3 in a row. We have not been working on this long though so the patience to wait is still a work in progress as is the catching… especially when I switch up the treats. Did you catch how she went to eat the treat all of .5 seconds before I gave her the release of “take it”??? She is just that quick, can you imagine what general trick training is like with her? Which is totally why I have been using the food tube much more often while teaching tricks. I hope to one day be able to stack treats on her nose and get a picture. I have another video of various tricks she can do in one big sequence, I will try and get to sharing that as my back allows. Here is a link to the video through my YouTube
Hope everyone has had a nice week. Things are busy here with the kennel being full of training dogs and thus lots of lessons to be given . Soooo off to sleep I go.
Vizsla Inspiration 
Nice video! Saw you mentioned something about training dogs and was just wondering what you do because I’m sort of interested in pursuing training possibly. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, nothing fancy I just wanted to document her new trick. I do train actually, along with running a boarding kennel. I thought about going to school for it but neither had the funds or time to do so… so I found a backdoor into the industry by working for a trainer. Experience is the best teacher sometimes for things like this, so I feel even if you go to school for it you need lots and lots of hands on time with different dogs to be your teachers too. You may look in your area for some trainers and talk with them about the field too.
Good luck and thanks for stopping by.
Wow! I’ve been trying to train Riley to balance a treat on her nose, but the smell drives her nuts. She does GREAT with “leave it” – the problem is when I give her that command she doesn’t want the item she is “leaving” to touch her at all. Should I use a different command, such as “wait”?
Yes a new command like “wait” would be good… “leave it” for us means you are not allowed to have it, whether ever or just right then… “wait” means simply that, and can apply to food, doors etc.. she simply waits. Then I will give her a “take it” command and that lets her know she can have it. So I would first get a good solid “wait” going with treats, say in front of her, or on her paw while she is in a down… then a “take it” so she knows she does in the end get it. If you use “leave it” it is important that when she does she gets a different treat instead. So for the balance and catch trick I wouldn’t use “leave it” because I do want her to have it in the end. When you get to the balance stage, start with a more mild, boring treat and see if that helps… the guidance of the muzzle helps too eventually I am sure she will put two and two together. In the beginning don’t plan on her waiting long at all, gotta kinda give her the chance right away and then build on it. I am sure if you pick a new word and break it down for her she will pick it up. Good luck!
Awesome job Luna! I’ve tried to work on this trick SOOO many times with Ilsa, and we’ve never been able to master it. We can do it on a paw without a problem. There’s just something about her muzzle that she doesn’t like, and she always fights me when I try to balance the treat there. You’ve definitely inspired me to try again.
Fantastic! How did you teach her to catch it? This is where we are struggling. I can get Shiva to balance something on her nose and have even worked up to balancing about five treats at a time for more than a couple seconds. But I have no idea how to get her to catch them mid-air. She sort of just drops her nose and then scrambles to eat them when they fall to the floor.
Kristine, Luna’s reflexes have always been insanely fast… so that always helps. They say to get them really used to catching things/treats first. Since she was already good at that we just went with it. Most dogs toss their head up and catch, her jerking it backwards is actually abnormal. She also will drop her head when we put toys on it, so she does what shiva does too. Maybe work on teaching her an actual “catch” command.. and use that as a release for her? You could also put one on her nose and then toss one to her as you say catch and maybe then she would start to do the right motion. That might work, I really don’t know what else to tell you as Luna did it naturally.
Good job Luna! We could do that trick with our Golden. The Chessies do not like to keep things on their noses but I have been working it…lol.
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