Tricks of the Month for July: Bow and Balance a treat on the nose!

Squeeker · 07-02-2009, 10:57 PM

The Tricks of the Month for July will be to teach your dog to "take a bow" and to balance a treat on their nose.

The "beginner" trick will be "take a bow" (you might consider using "take a bow" as your cue word because using just "bow" sounds a lot like "down"). The idea is to get the dog to do a play bow on command, with their front legs out straight and their chest on the floor, while their butt is in the air. To train this, you could try capturing the behaviour (morning stretch, or an actual play bow), or check out the following videos:

These two use some physical manipulation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NYPlBLUZUI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izw92I_HttM

This one uses a target stick to teach the behaviour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiOhddRO_E

The "advanced" trick will be balancing a treat on your dog's nose. The dog should remain still with the treat on their nose until you release them. Bonus points if the dog can flip it off their nose and catch it in the air!

Again, some videos. I actually couldn't find any instructional videos for this trick... but we have had a thread on DF regarding this very skill!

http://www.dogforums.com/3-dog-train...food-nose.html (Balancing food on nose)

Videos from Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZNHT0ZpPns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5WZM9nim5w

As with the previous months, questions, videos, comments, and alternate methods of accomplishing the tricks are encouraged! Have fun with it, and it doesn't matter if you end up with a well-polished trick at the end of the month or not! As long as you and your dog are having fun, that's all that matters!

rosemaryninja · 07-02-2009, 11:12 PM

Yup, I tried that a few months ago and I'm sorry to say I gave up... I had this grand idea for a trick in which Spunky flipped the treat backwards and Honey caught it, but it never worked out. Maybe I'll go back and try again.

As for Bow: I think I want to teach this with Spunky. Unfortunately, she doesn't play bow much (weirdly enough, her version of a "play bow" is a full "down"). She stretches occasionally but only when getting up from sleep and I rarely have a clicker or treats with me then. And I would catch her in the middle of a "down" but she folds down (if you get what I mean... she doesn't start with her butt in the air). Kind of stuck on this one

Squeeker · 07-02-2009, 11:19 PM

Quote:

As for Bow: I think I want to teach this with Spunky. Unfortunately, she doesn't play bow much (weirdly enough, her version of a "play bow" is a full "down"). She stretches occasionally but only when getting up from sleep and I rarely have a clicker or treats with me then. And I would catch her in the middle of a "down" but she folds down (if you get what I mean... she doesn't start with her butt in the air). Kind of stuck on this one

Did you watch the "take a bow" vids? The ones involving physical manipulation would probably help in your case.

hulkamaniac · 07-02-2009, 11:30 PM

I may try the bow with Zero. He does this every morning when he wakes up so there's definitely room for shaping. I spent about a week once trying to teach him to balance food on his nose, but did not have a single success or anything remotely resembling a success. He discovered that if he lowered his nose, he got the treat anyway.

FourIsCompany · 07-03-2009, 06:42 AM

I'm excited about both of these tricks! I've always wanted to do them, especially the treat on the nose! I had no idea how to start. But I'm sure the videos will help. I'd like to do that with Jaia and the play bow with B'asia, but we see how that morphs during the month. Thanks, Squeeker!

MissMutt · 07-03-2009, 11:13 AM

We're got take a bow down pat already, although Marge NEEDS the hand signal or else she'll just go down.

She'll balance a treat on her nose, too, to some extent. Will try to get videos.

Entwine · 07-03-2009, 08:08 PM

Misty LOVES bow--I taught it by luring. And you're right.. I made the mistake of using "bow" as the cue and, as a result she'll sometimes lay down instead. I need to rename the cue word.

But I can't seem to get her to balance a treat on her nose. I suspect it's her size. Her nose is so short, treats are difficult to balance to begin with.

Bird-Dog · 07-04-2009, 09:42 AM

Hershey and I are in for bow - I've been wanting to get this one down (eek, bad pun) and just haven't had much luck.

CoverTune · 07-04-2009, 12:11 PM

Cool, I'm in with Corona and Aria to try and teach bow! Unfortunately I'm away all next week, but we'll do what we can!

FourIsCompany · 07-04-2009, 12:30 PM

I've always had trouble with the treat balancing because they always tried to grab the treat and I didn't have the patience to work with them on it, so today, I decided to start with something that doesn't have a smell.

First, I C/T for just putting my finger on the bridge of Jaia's nose. Then I folded up a small piece of paper and put a little tape on it to stick to his nose. Using the clicker and treats, it was pretty easy to get him to stay still for that...

Then I turned the paper over so the tape was up. That encouraged him to hold still because only if it stayed on his nose did I give the C/T. If it slipped off, I said, "Uh-oh"! Once he started holding still to balance it, I started adding the cue (nose), because I could tell he understood what he was supposed to do.

Then I tried a few other items that were laying around, one of which was dental floss. LOL

Finally, I slipped in a treat, using the cue and he didn't even budge. This was in our first session! It's amazing how fast they can pick something up once they really understand the whole behavior marking thing.

(Don't mind his superfluous third and fourth ears. He's kind of embarrassed about them.)

Squeeker · 07-04-2009, 12:44 PM

Hey, great job! That was quick! Since you did it so easily, now you should try all of your other dogs... see if you can get a photo of all 4 of them with treats on their noses!

FourIsCompany · 07-04-2009, 01:24 PM

You don't ask for much, do you?

Squeeker · 07-04-2009, 02:44 PM

Quote:

You don't ask for much, do you?

Your fault for posting success on the 4th day of the month!

FourIsCompany · 07-04-2009, 04:17 PM

I learned my lesson. *blush* But now I feel obligated to teach them all and get a picture, so that's my new goal...

Squeeker · 07-04-2009, 05:10 PM

Quote:

learned my lesson. *blush* But now I feel obligated to teach them all and get a picture, so that's my new goal...

Oooh, and I didn't even need to "double-dog" dare!! LOL

Bird-Dog · 07-04-2009, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squeeker

Your fault for posting success on the 4th day of the month!

Thanks, Squeeker! 4IC's success is intimidating

...especially since I just had my first bow session with Hershey and I realized two things: 1) she ain't having NONE of that hand under the tummy manipulation and 2) we really need to get "stand" down first.

winniec777 · 07-04-2009, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FourIsCompany

(Don't mind his superfluous third and fourth ears. He's kind of embarrassed about them.)

LOL! I stared at that pretty hard to figure out what was going on.

Haven't tried bow yet, but I'm making progress on balancing a treat on her nose. I've been teaching her night-night (same as bang - can't bring myself to pretend shoot my dog), alternating that with leave it from the floor, from her paw, etc. With a few rounds of leave it done, it was a short few inches to leave it from the side of her muzzle while she was in the night-night position. Then I had her sit, put the treat on her nose, and gave the leave it command again -- she's to the point where she'll wait a couple of seconds. I'm putting my palm close in front of her face in a stay gesture, so I think she knows she needs to stay put. Seems to help reduce head movement that would knock the treat off.

We'll see how it goes from here. Not sure about the bow thing. I can often get her to play bow if I do a semi bow myself but that's a play gesture. Will try to cue it for a trick. That's going to take more effort, though, since she's usually 8-10 ft from me when she stretches or bows.

JustAnotheRunner · 07-08-2009, 08:24 AM

So, I've been trying 'balance treat' here and there for 2 months now with some, but little progress. So when I read FourIsCompany's post I was very excited to run home and conquer this trick.

..

That of course was not the case.

Not fair 4IC, stop making things look so easy! Maybe it's just because my collie-lab mix is 7 months, but he seems to get irritated with paper on nose, I switched back to the treat because then he pays attention to it and steadys himself better.

As for take a bow, I think things like this are what make monthly trick threads brilliant. I had no clue this trick existed and in 2 days (2-3 sessions) I have him consistently bowing to get the treats(w/ my hand propping his butt up). I'll start naming the command on our next session.

Good luck everyone.

melgrj7 · 07-08-2009, 10:50 AM

I've been working on bow with Nash and Lloyd. I clicked for standing first, then when I give them the treat I give it down a little low so they have to put their head down some. Then I waited, they offered the head bob, c/t that for a bit, then I waited, they eventually put their head lower, I c/t that a few times, then when I gave them the treat for that click I put the treat low enough they had to bend their elbows. When they did I c/t that and move the treat back up fast so they don't lay down.

BigBlackDogGal · 07-08-2009, 12:40 PM

I taught my parent's SCWT to bow by having her stand and then putting the treat to the floor in front of her. It's never been one of her more solid tricks though - it often results in a down. She knows a million tricks but I haven't tried the balance one yet. Darn dog could join the circus but we can't get her to stop jumping on people