When we first got Sully, our now 1 year old pitbull, he was a little terror (you can read about it here). In order to tame his ferocity, we started teaching him tricks right away in the hopes that he would gain some listening skills and would be less likely to bite our hands. Over the last year, we’ve taught him a few different tricks and I’d love to share them with you today.
#1 Grapeness Comes to Those Who Wait
This was one of the first tricks we taught Sully. If you want to teach your dog this, I would start by becoming the owner of all food that enter’s his/her mouth. This takes some time, but it’s very rare that Sully will now eat ANYTHING without my permission (at least while I’m not watching… cite the destroyed wicker garbage bin). Once he figured out that the only time he was going to get to eat was when I said so, this trick became possible.
#2 Taking Candy from a Baby
This trick is simply an evolution for the previous one. Sully had become very good at holding food in his mouth and drooling non-stop until I allowed him to eat it. First, I added the element of him taking the food from my own mouth. Once that was done, I decided to make it a little harder for him to get the food.
#3 Third Times a Charm
This is another food related trick where Sully is only allowed to go get his food when I say so. I did not train Sully to do this trick. One day, I was eating something and tossed some at him as a treat. He let the food hit him in the face and fall to the ground, not allowing himself to get eat it. When I said ‘OK’ he went and got it. Such a sweet dog.
#4 Sully, Turn Off the Light
This is the most useful trick for those lazy people in the world (most/all of us). Often, when I’m in bed, forget to turn off the light, and cannot convince my wife to turn it off, I would have to get all uncomfortable and cold and turn off the light myself. Problem = solved!
If you have a crazy puppy that seems out of control and you’re wondering “How can I make this little monster manageable?” I recommend two things. #1 WALK YOUR DOG!!! It’s important and gives their brain something to do. #2 Teach some tricks. Once again, good for the brain AND fun for both of you 🙂
Ok, one more video just because he’s the cutest…
Have a great day!
The Gneighbourly Gnome 