A new trick?

[crysania4]

Dahlia is learning a new trick. I think. When we got home from session on Saturday I came bearing pieces of steak. I can never finish my open steak sandwich and so I always cut up the rest and bring it home to Dahlia (no she's not spoiled, not at all!). She can smell that stuff from a mile away and so combined with her excitement over our coming home, she is also excited over the smell of that wonderful, still warm steak. Well, I asked her for a "sit pretty" and she sat and then immediately came up on her hind legs to rest her front legs on my chest. It was adorable. I gave her a piece of steak, and patted my chest and up she went again. So I think I could train her to do this for some command. Maybe "give me a hug" or "up" or something.

But I don't know. Is this dangerous? She's not the type of dog to jump up on you and never does when we come home usually (instead she prances around, licking frantically, and curls herself into a C-shape while grinning). So I don't THINK this would result in her starting to jump on us when we come home, but is that possibility there? Something to think about.

Comments

[jeannekins.livejournal.com]

it's not really dangerous - at least not to her. it actually helps build the muscles in her back legs when she goes from a sit to a 'dance' on her hind legs. i do that with chase every time we do tricks and treats - it helps with jumping in agility. if she doesn't normally jump on you, i don't think this will have her starting to. and if she knows 'off', she'll learn quick enough that she's only allowed to jump on you when you give her the command. chase, however, always jumps up and hugs us when he gets home. he doesn't body slam, just rests his paws on your chest - and usually stretches. he doesn't do it with people he doesn't know and we love it, so we've never trained him not to.

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

Yeah I meant dangerous only in that I don't want her jumping up on everyone she meets. She'll sometimes jump up on us and stretch like that too, especially when we ask her if she wants to go for a walk and she really wants to. She doesn't know the "off" command because she's never jumped up on us without our sort of inviting it and so we've never had a reason to teach it to her.

She's so well-behaved and I don't want to make her less so. lol

[tarsa.livejournal.com]

You could always start the trick with the "sit pretty" and then "up". That way, she can show her excitement, but there's no risk of the jump.

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

*grin* We tend to bring boxes from restaurants home to Sophie.

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

Somehow it makes up for the going away part. ;-)

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

Some of the militant dog folks yowl about feeding dogs people food, but I don't see a problem with it. We always give Sophie bites after we eat dinner.

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

I don't quite get it either. We tend to make her a little bit of what we have. Usually we'll cook up a bit of chicken or beef or even eggs and tofu, without all the sauce on it, and put it in her bowl with her food. We try not to give her some of the really bad stuff with all the sauce on it, but the rest we have no problem with.

Like yesterday we had french toast and there was one little piece left, so David cooked it up and we fed it to Dahlia. It's just bread and eggs and a bit of butter (and god knows she loves butter!), so I really have no problem with it. Dahlia's fit and active, so the people who are militant like that can just shove it. LOL

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

Yeah.... for Sophie, I think it's kind of a part-of-the-pack thing. I think the people who are so strident about it are also the same people who are very into being Alphas rather than "parents" (even though I don't really think of the critters as kids).

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

Yes...the whole alpha thing. Dog must eat last, dog must eat only dog food, dog must not walk out of the house ahead of you. I'm not much into the alpha idea. I treat Dahlia a bit like it's a parent/child relationship. She has to abide by my rules just as a child would have to, but she's allowed to have her own mind and express her wishes (asking for food, asking to go out, asking for petting, etc.). I don't think it makes her respect me any less because I allow her to go right instead of left on the walk, or because I allow her to walk out of the apartment ahead of me.

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

OK... I didn't know about the not-letting-the-dog-out-of-the-house-first thing. I had thought that we kind of did the Alpha thing until a friend was telling me about the Temple Grandin book. It was important when we got Sophie that we teach her good manners: not begging at the table, not jumping on people, not being too mouthy, that sort of thing. Part of this is because she's a big dog, but part of it was that we wanted her to be the kind of dog we wanted to hang out with who wouldn't scare our friends.

The thing with dogs and respect is a little weird for me. Yes: I believe that people need to be really consistent when socializing their dogs, but I don't think about the level of "respect" that Sophie has for us. We're her pack. She's happiest when everyone is home.

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of sort of out there ideas about dogs and the alpha thing. Like not letting them walk in front of you on a walk (which I actually prefer because then I can keep an eye on her), etc. Teaching them manners I get and if Dahlia was a horrible begger she wouldn't be allowed near the table (all she usually does is sit next to you and drool a bit...lol) and if she were mouthy or jumping on people she would have been taught not to. But luckily she came to us with awesome manners so we didn't have to worry about it. But we're not going to make sure she eats last or walks behind us or whatever.

[scribblekitty.livejournal.com]

Pi knows 'paws up' to give me a hug (he doesn't quite reach to my chest hehe) or when I'm sitting down to put his paws on my lap. It's not really caused him to jump any more on other people - he only really jumps up if people bend down to him anyway though because he wants to lick their faces SO BADLY.

I'm sure plenty of people would say that it's OMG an awful thing to teach but you've got a well socialized dog so I don't see any problem, personally!

[petulant.livejournal.com]

Darce knows "up" (he jumps up and his front paws land on my extended right forearm) and "hug" (paws on my chest). He wasn't a particularly jumpy dog either so I taught it with a low value reward, started by having him sit first, and never did it when he was excited to begin with - as in, I'd get him all riled up so he'd be in the mood or whatnot to jump, but not when I first walked in or whatever.
I think the key is to simultaneously teach an "off" command, for which she gets a much higher reward. Store-bought treat things for up vs. steak/chicken/cheese for off, for example.

[stubberella.livejournal.com]

Hope knows "up" which is typically followed by a hug with her paws around my waist. Hope has always been very excitable and she jumps occasionally at visitors, but knowing "up" has never seemed to exacerbate that.