brid! that video was so fun. phoebe--what a cutie, very good job Phoebe!!
I've only just started to teach tricks--roll over is our first one, we've been working on it for a few days. It just delights me when he does it, and he seems to see it as a play thing rather than a work thing, he gets his happiest laughing smile when he's rolling over and them jumping back up on his feet. but he doesn't always seem to get it at this point.
i think of tricks as things like roll over, play dead, shake hands, speak, whereas stuff like sit, stay, come, heel, lay down, i think of as just obedience. i never thought of those as tricks before. I guess there really isn't a distinction.
When zack was little i taught him to fetch and i hadn't thought of it as a trick but rather as a game, but i see how it could be called a trick, and tricks are games too.
with roll over, i'm using treats. but with fetch, i never used a treat--the game itself seems to be the reward in itself with zack.
I guess you could call it a trick that i taught zack to stand up on his hind legs and put the ball in my hand when we play fetch, so i don't have to bend over.
finding the ball when it's lost has always been part of the game of fetch, zack always did this--aren't they impressive when they are so determined to succeed in their search? it wasn't something i taught zack so i thought it was instinctive. zack will rarely give up in finding an elusive ball that i've thrown that has gone into hiding. sometimes, i will go on with some other activity like watching TV and 10 minutes later, he'll show up with the ball long after i forgot about it. When he can't find a ball, if i try to give him a different one, he doesn't accept it, it puts it down and goes on diligently searching for Ball #1.
i thought all dogs loved to fetch and search, but belle doesn't know the game of fetch at all. Her favorite game is to chase Zack while he is fetching. She is so fast, she overtakes him and then she runs him off, cutting in front of his chest and making him turn away from his destination (which was the ball thrower). :lol: i think zack is more object oriented than belle, and she is more social, more relationship oriented. typical gender stereotypes when it comes to those two.