Hello! I thought it would be fun to share the tricks your dog knows on this thread :) I'm always looking for inspiration to teach new things!

The tricks (outside of basic obedience like sit/stay/down etc) I have taught my dogs so far include: playing dead, spinning (both directions), backing up, jumping off all fours, targeting my hand with their nose, wave from a distance, crawl, jumping over each other, hugging each other, looking left/right, weaving through my legs

What has your dog learned to do?

nice, My dogs won't crawl unless I have a treat right next to their nose to lure them. Jumping over each other, that is pretty nifty. What size are your dogs?

I have one dog that will find my coffee cup when my husband hides it on me. And the both help with laundry. I drop items on the floor and they Find Laundry and Bring Laundry. I don't have them drop it into the machine, though. My boy doesn't like going up on his back legs for long since he's a big guy.

They also both Tell Me A Secret (a previous dog I owned Whispered) which is a soft quiet vocalization. And the both kinda know Right Paw, Left Paw

My staffy knows how to crawl but sometimes doesn't like to so I have to reinforce with the treat too! The staffy is about 65 pounds, my golden mix is 50 pounds. They can jump over each other standing/bowing/laying down, it is pretty adorable :) Hugging is definitely the "crowd favorite" whenever we do tricks for friends!

I love the laundry idea, my golden mix can "clean up toys" and pick up trash and place in garbage cans. I'll have to try the same with laundry! He has helped me before in picking up socks that I've dropped, and he'll pick up my keys if I ask after dropping them when my hands are full. I have a video of him picking up trash actually!

I've wanted to teach the whisper trick, I love it! But no success with that one

that is adorable. I've thought about doing a video of my dogs with the laundry. It is cute when they carry in a shirt together.

Hi Rachel and car2ner! What a fun topic! If either of you would like to upload videos or pictures to show off your dogs tricks you are more than welcome to do so on our social media pages located at the bottom right hand corner of this page. We love to show off Darwin's Dogs participants! :)

thanks for the reminders

I'll have to reach out through social media! I did write a blog post for work a bit ago about teaching my dogs to "cover their nose" and there is a video there too :)

My 2.5 year old shep mix knows basic obedience such as sit, down, stay, come etc. I also taught her to take our socks off our feet and either hand them to us or put them in the basket, she knows how to pick her toys up and put then in her box, "touch" which is where she hits my hand with her nose, roll over, crawl, play dead. Our plott hound hes something else... He also knows basic, roll over,.play dead, knows how to open the pantry and doors, heel, turn in a heel in both directions, spin, leave it, hide n seek, "find it", weve also started him on scent trailing.

such inspiration! we've only had our 18mo mutt for a month, so still working on the basics, especially heel and come. he's keen- he mastered shake and high five this weekend! his one special trick is 'boogie' (standing & walking up on 2 legs), which was a shaping of a natural behavior, then adding a cue. can't wait to get to scent training!

I've been working on "Left" and "Right". This comes in handy when I walk my dogs and I get near a corner. Since they like to walk in front of me, barking a "Left!" or "Right!" at them just before the decision/tangling point prevents issues (sometimes). It also comes in handy when we need to double back down a dead end street as things are easier if we all circle in the same direction.

In addition to basic obedience and getting them to stay put on a blanket for a time, I've got one to be quite proficient at "hide and seek". This basic scent work involves parking the dog, allowing them to smell a treat, then hiding it and releasing the dog. Difficulty is increased or decreased by how you handle the treat (closed hand transport well above the floor - expert vs. dropping it and kicking it along - novice, how long you wander around after dropping the treat, how high off the ground you hide the treat etc. etc.). Great fun! You can really see them transition from "run to the spot you think they came from" to real nose work.

left and right also come in handy if you do herding or a pulling sport like bikejoring. People oftern use Gee (right) and Haw (left)

I love your explanation of your hide and seek game Dan! I'm going to have to start doing that with my dogs :)

Zoe: knows basic obedience (sit/stay/down/come/stand) and a few minor tricks--stand up (she stands up and puts her front paws on me), paws up (on an object), speak, spin, weave right/left, and crawl. We also play the "seek" game where I hide treats and she has to sniff them out.

Esme knows basic obedience, and I'm teaching her the same tricks Zoe knows. She also knows "jump" and will jump over her make shift agility hurdle too.

https://youtu.be/1faFmrPiIIY It is interesting that both dogs like the same game, but my big boy prefers to catch leaves and my little girl prefers to catch pine-cones. They both had some obedience drills mixed into the game and as the Autumn wore on, the obedience got a bit tighter and a little more exacting. My gal is now rewarded for bringing me the pine-cones with a sit in front holding the cone quietly. (she still taunts me to chase her, though. That's not happening).

My ACD, Rocky, loves to learn new tricks. We were part of a doggie line dancing group for a while and among other things, he learned to circle around me backwards and bow. To get attention he finds a small blanket, spreads it out and covers up in it. When the grandkids come I give one of them a bandana to hold out of sight, I sneeze and tell Rocky to go find me a hanky. Of course, he gives them all the once over (to squeals of delight!) until he finds the one with the bandana. When he brings it to me he gets a treat.

those are wonderful tricks Barbara! How did you get your dog to backwards around you? My big boy is just now figuring out where his back end is.

car2ner, Rocky already knew the "back" command so I started him out close to a wall with a corner and used the command "circle back". I used my hand, with a treat, to guide him behind me. There wasn't enough room for him to move any way but backwards. It took a while and lots of praise (and treats!), but soon he had the idea. As he got half way around me I dropped the "back" out of the command and just used "circle" with my hand motion. I've found short sessions with lots of fun make us both happy. Neither one of us are pros, but we sure enjoy figuring things out together.