Not my Chi - she is at my heels all the time, UNLESS my son comes home, then she's with him. She is good at following commands from either of us.

My Border Collie (died the day after Memorial Day, 2013) was really good with commands EXCEPT when it came to taking his medication. I then had to put it in a hot dog, which he snarfed down - the mean trick was that it had pills inside. I didn't feel guilty about it at all.

The word 'treat' is a very valuable tool in our household. My three dogs are SO food-motivated that they'll come running in from the back yard if I yell 'want a treat?'.
One of my dogs is so freaked out about getting Frontline applied to her back that I have to use a treat to get her to cooperate.

We deceive our dogs too. Well, we try. Our dachshund and basset hound are too smart for their own good, and they know our tricks. However, more often than not, pretending to toss a treat will get the girls to go outside when necessary. Our poor hounds have an air conditioned dog house in their private, fenced back yard. Life is tough for our spoiled kiddos.

I have rung the doorbell on occasion to get Sparky to move off the stairs or if I drop something messy to keep him busy barking at ghosts!

I've got a Pom. If he makes that quick dash out the door, I yell out "treat" or "cheese". I actually give him what I say so it isn't a trick, but at least he comes when it's important.

I used to let my dog think he was going along in the car with us to get him in the house when I was leaving. I'd get him in the car, grab him and put him in the house. That only worked for awhile. Pretty soon he wouldn't get in the car at all for fear of being put in the house and left behind. Then he learned to stay out of my reach and chase the car down the street after me. Once I was too far to go home, I'd stop, open the door and then he'd jump in.

Dogs.

My sweet Georgia would read my mind on Bath Day. I COULDN'T deceive her if I wanted to. She would evaporate even before I got up which was totally unlike her usual behavior. I would have to drag her from under somewhere and shut us both up in the bathroom. Amazing how a 16 pound dog could suddenly weigh half a ton!

But once she was in the tub, she acted like she loved her bath and the whole drying process. She absolutely loved the hair dryer.

This is very funny. Sometimes we just have to do what we have to do. The only thing I disagree with is pretending to throw in a treat into the crate. Treats are very important to a dog and I think in this case you should throw a tiny piece if something in the crate.

vicki7, I would smear a little peanut butter on the washing maching to put on frontline. They have to stand still a minute to lick it off.

Yes I trick mine all the time.

I don't trick by telling them "treat" and not delivering, that would be mean. But I do put Dusty's pills in a hot dog to get him to take them. The little rascal can be way far away and hear me open that pill jar and he'll come running for his treat. A word of warning with hot dogs and small dogs--I was in a hurry last year and put his pill in a bigger chunk of hotdog than I usually did. Since he doesn't chew, just inhales, he inhaled it and blocked his airway and started choking. I kept my calm (thank goodness) and picked him up and did some abdominal thrusts and back blows and it came spewing out. Finally, CPR training paid off. Scared the heck out of me and I am very careful to cut small pieces now.

My daughter's dog had an annoying habit of not wanting to follow me outside when I go to get the newspaper or the mail. Since she's an apartment dog you'd think she would be really anxious to go outside without a leash. So I pretend I'm throwing a ball and she will come dashing out the door. That dog will chase a ball all day if you have the energy to do it. No yard anymore, so Hannah is on the leash when she comes to visit.

I love the "peanut butter smear on the washing machine" idea!
No, I don't offer dinner, treat, toy, walk or ride, without delivering. Just seems unfair to me. I do hide meds in a squirt of Kraft Easy Cheese.

I like hearing all these tricks and you've given me some good ideas. I, too, think you need to deliver on offering treats for them to do something.

I have another thing to ask you about. A neighbor has a big yellow lab. They have an invisible fence and the dog charges anyone who walks by, barking his head off. The dog does respect the fence, but can get quite close to the street. When the dog is doing this, the neighbor sometimes stands on the porch and in an effort to get him to back off, she is yelling for him to come get a treat. In my mind, that is rewarding the dog for his bad behavior. By the way, it doesn't usually work and he just continues to bark and charge.

That behavior might scare someone who was walking down the sidewalk - they wouldn't know there was an Invisible Fence or that the dog wouldn't just run through it. It would have been better if they ran the wire further away from the sidewalk so that the dog couldn't get that close.

As for tricks - one of my dogs didn't like to take his pills but rather than put peanut butter on it or wrap a piece of boloney around it I discovered that if I just dropped it on the floor he'd scarf it up - he thought he was getting a piece of real food that I had dropped.

silly dogs.

If you lure your dog with "treat", look forward to the day he is deaf and can't hear you. I started including a "come on" arm sweep with Eliot. Now he comes with just the gesture. (And gets a bit of a treat.) His eyesight is still keen.

Eliot learned "shh" by the sound plus the finger to the lips. I reinforce this by holding a bit of a treat to my mouth *sometimes*, but not every time.

El is very good about meds. Now he is getting Pepcid AC 5 mg twice a day. I just put in in with his food. For bitter stuff I offer him two morsels; the first given has the meds, and he bolts it to get the second bit without meds.

A granddog from years past had an electric invisable fence at her house. To keep her from wandering into unwanted places in my yard when she was visiting we used the little white flags that were used for training her to her fence at home. No 'fence' in grandma's yard, but she wouldn't go past that line of white flags.

Yes and he does the same to me :)

Thanks for your repsonses. I do hate deceiving my dog by not actually throwing a treat into her crate at night. The problem is that our dogs get put in their crates twice during the day, once from 7:00 a.m. until 9:00a.m. and again from 3:00p.m. until 6:00p.m. as I work a split shift, part time job. I just didn't want her to start thinking she'll get one EVERY time she's being asked to go in it, as she's bordering on being overweight.

The dogs do get a treat earlier for sitting nicely while I get their leashes ready for our midday walk. I think I'll take ellendi up on her suggestion and just give her a small treat to lure her into her crate at night by only giving her half of her earlier 'pre-walk' treat. That way she's not getting any extra calories, but no deception will be involved!

I guess I'll have to do exactly the same for the other 2 dogs, or she won't know why she's the only one getting a smaller treat at walk time and they wouldn't know why she's the only one getting a small treat at night! Gotta be fair, lol!

This is a great thread. Picky, thanks. Your dogs don't need a big treat to go in their crates. Sometimes I give my dog a treat the size of a pea, and he's fine with that. Think about how often our dogs troll the kitchen floor in case a crumb fell. Anything is good, right?

We keep a cellophane bag handy to get the dog in the house if he doesn't want to come when we call. We just rattle the bag and he comes because he thinks he's getting a treat (he is, if he comes).

He likes to chase the indoor cat around the house, so my petsitter stands at the back door and calls for the cat, and the dog runs in because he thinks Kitty is out and about for chasing.

Hey, how come we have to trick our dogs??? Aren't we the "boss of them?" I guess not! LOL. They are the "boss of us!"

Picky - What do you give as treats? I have read that if you give treats you should reduce that amount from your daily feeding so that they don't get too many calories. I use one piece of their kibble as a treat and call it a "cookie". When I was crate training my now one year old, I would offer that one small bite and he would be excited that he was getting a "cookie" and would go right in. Eventually I wentto random reinforcement as he no longer would balk at going in. Now I don't have to offer anything, just tell him to "go in your house".

I often wonder if dogs can distinguish between large and small treats. I've never seen anything to show they would.

I heard a long while ago that anything you feed directly from your hand is very special to a dog. That's why I can give him just one piece of his regular kibble, call it a cookie and he's delighted. Try it and see. I don't like to buy special 'treats' especially if a dog is
on a limited ingredient diet, which my last dog was. But he loved his "cookie" just as much as if it were steak.

Now ice cream is another matter. When I treat myself to some, my Sheltie goes nuts, and he does get about a tablespoon full.

I have occasionally deceived my dog, but only when it's absolutely necessary as I think it's important to have trust between you and your dog.

On occasion it happens that my dogs get tricked. To me which would be harder on the dog, not getting a treat when I need to bring them in. OR me picking up a 80 lb plus dog or pulling and dragging him in I have done both. (this is not the norm occasionally my lab gets it in his head that he wants to stay out all night) Trust me the fake out is way better especially at midnight. Also works turning out the light and closing the door wait for 5 minuets then go get him. ( that trick I learned from my dad and me not getting home on time ) As for those who think resorting to a trick as poor training I say forget you. There is a lady at work likes to compare her oh so trained border collie which she got as a 3 month old pup to my big lab that I adopted when he was over a year old and had no socialization. When I share stories about my dohinkuses which are intended to be funny glimpses into the trials and tribulations of my dogs she always has a comment about how her dog always listens etc. In my own defense there have been many behaviors that I have resolved so I understand the need for training for safety of the dog and humans, and their of course needs to be rules but I would never ever ever want one of those overly trained dogs who have no free will cause their owners have replaced it with theirs. So yeah I have and will continue to trick my dogs if I need to if it means they get to be themselves. Oh yeah and did I mention the well trained border collie never gets walked cause she pulls on the lead.... hmmm :) Love my doggies

Frogged, when my now-deceased Border Collie was a year old, he pulled on the leash, too. I found a pinch collar to be the answer. He wore it for one week and that was all that was needed - he never pulled after that.

Here is a link that shows what it looks like:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754857&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo

Here is a link that might be useful: Pinch collar for training a dog to the leash

I don't think I'd ever have a border collie, not that I don't like them.
It's just that they're w-a-y smarter than I am!

Our dog knows lots of words. If we gather up our stuff to leave for dinner out or something, he goes nuts, like he wants to go along, unless we say..... we have to go to work. Just that phrase and he goes and lays down and is quiet. If we don't, he whines and cries. Very strange. If you are talking and say "park" he will whine and fuss. if you spell it or say something like go on an excursion... he won't. So if DH is telling me what time he is taking the dog out later for a walk to the park... he has to use a different term or the dog goes nuts and we can't get him to stop.

He hears a doorbell and even if it is on tv and not our house, we have to go open the front door to actually show him nobody is there or he won't stop barking. It gets annoying. But we love him dearly and he is full of tumors now and age of 13. Can't survive any surgery and isn't in pain yet. Still can see and hear well. We just cater to him lol. He won't be around much longer. We got him as a pup and 3 days home he came down with parvo... we got him through that when Dr.s and others said, you just got him, put him down.... no, 5grand later and he was ok. He was ours, we were going to do everything to save him. Now, unless he starts getting painful, or his life is worse, he will be around. now I am misty..... sniff.

I realize I could easily pick up the dog who refuses to go into her crate at night, but I have to catch her first, to do that! She zips around the house hiding from me when she knows it's bedtime and she needs to go into her crate. However if I go over and touch the treat jar and pretend to toss one into her crate, she comes running and torpedoes herself into the crate, after which I say "Night night" and close the door. Although I never actually say anything to her about getting a treat, I do feel guilt as she clearly thinks I threw one in there.

On the other hand, I'm thinking it might be rewarding her bad behaviour of not coming when I call her and making me chase her around the house to get her into her crate, if I actually DO throw a treat inside. frogged, our dogs were all rescued as adult dogs as well, with obviously no behavioural training. We've succeeded in undoing most of their idiosyncracies, and are thrilled to have given them a loving home, so we aren't above using a little bribery when traditional training methods don't work, lol.

My dog considered a baby carrot a huge treat. She would race into the kitchen and 'dance ' in front of the fridge when I would say, "do you want a cookie? "

I buy Snausages and cut them up in thirds or you could cut them in quarters. I keep a jar of them available for when Georgy goes for walks and behaves nicely when someone passes or to lure her in at night (I have the same problem). This way, instead of getting a whole treat she can have three or four and it's really only one . They are easily cut and I cut four or five of them at a time. I just line them up in a row and cut. I, too, would not renege on a promise of a treat.

I ask my dogs if they want a "ham dog"....which is what my niece called hot dogs when she was little. That will get them all to come in and run to the refrigerator. Sometimes I am out of ham dogs and I have to give them a dog biscuit, and one of them, Gertie, looks at me like I am crazy. They think I should always have an unlimited supply of ham dogs. I agree....if I promise them a treat, I always give them something. My newest dog (Tricia) is hard to catch when I let her out. She runs and runs....although doesn't leave the yard...and wants to play with the other dogs. She doesn't always come when I call her, so I have made it a habit to always give her a treat when she comes in. I never promise them a treat and not follow through.

Our Westie has an acid stomach. The only 'treats' he tolerates are the cheap Alpo 'Snaps'. He gets a quarter of one of these inch-square pieces. We had an overweight teenage DS, but never an overweight dog.

Eliot can be quite fastidious. On walks he leaves p-mail, but in the yard he will often squat like a puppy, then avoid the wet spot by walking a few steps on his front paws, with his rear in the air. When the laundry basket in DH's closet is full he starts bringing me DH's dirty socks. "Time to do laundry!"