Friday, February 14, 2014

Teach Your Dog "Hide Your Eyes"

The goal is to have Rocco put his paws on the ottoman and hide his eyes!
We're starting the last week of K9 Kamp, and we hope you all have had as good a time as we've had finding new twists on the game of "Doggie Hide and Seek."

The last two weeks we played "Find It" and "Go Hide" and this week we are working on "Hide Your Eyes."

Once Rocco has this trick perfected, he can hide his eyes while I hide something for him to find! It's yet even another twist on Doggie Hide and Seek!



You can't see them, but Rocco's
front paws are on the book!

How to teach Hide Your Eyes

Teach Hide Your Eyes (or some folks like to call it Say Your Prayers) in two steps.

Step #1: First teach paws up.  I started teaching Rocco to do this on a phone book.

I shaped the behavior by rewarding him every time he touched the phone book with his front paws.  In no time, I could send him to the phone book and he'd place his paws there!

We started this when Rocco was a little pup, so we used a small phone book covered in Scotch Colors and Patterns Duct Tape (the duct tape made the book more stable and the colors made it pretty!)

Rocco performs paws up on the ottoman!
You can train this on any object that your pup can easily reach with his paws.

Next, I taught Rocco "paws up" by encouraging him to place his paws up on everything from the side of a sofa or ottoman to placing his paws on my arm.

To start, I lured him with a treat to get his paws in position.





Step #2: Once we had "paws up" we could start training "hide your eyes."

Rocco shows how he hides his eyes on my arm!
I started training it on my arm, and used a treat between his paws to help lure his head down. Rocco's legs are pretty short, so this was a bit of a challenge at first!

Then we started transferring the behavior to the side of the ottoman.

Rocco hides his eyes on the ottoman!
Here's a look at how we trained Hide Your Eyes…


Tip: Treat low, between your pup's legs to keep his head down.

We just starting training the trick on the ottoman this week, so we'll continue to perfect it until Rocco can hold the position longer.

Remember, next week is the final week of K9 Kamp. We'll gather round the Kampfire to see how you all have been playing Doggie Hide and Seek at our February 21 Blog Hop!

We'd love to hear what you've been working on and if you've taught your dog any version of Hide Your Eyes! Please let us know in the comments below.

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With LoveSlimDoggy and Peggy's Pet Place to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

And, from now through February 21, FitDog Friday will co-locate with K9 Kamp. So we'd love for you to link up all your FitDog AND K9 Kamp posts here!  And, don't forget to enter our K9 Kamp giveaway! You'll find it in our FitDog Friday post from last week. 



32 comments:

  1. Hide your eyes is brilliant. What a clever team you make. Happy Valentine's Day to you and may you and your family have a fabulous day.
    Best wishes Molly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Molly. Happy Valentine's Day to you and your family!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Rocco

      Delete
  2. Hi Y'all!

    Oh I've never tried that. My Human uses a sit stay or down stay with me facing away from where she is hiding something. Rocco looks so cute doing his trick!

    Y'all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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    Replies
    1. I think you'd be good at it Hawk. You should give it a try!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Roccco

      Delete
  3. Love it! This looks like one I should put on my list for tricks I want to teach Maya and Pierson in 2014. Thanks Rocco!!! You're so adorable. :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! It's a fun trick to have and portable when you perform it on your arm!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Rocco

      Delete
  4. Very cute trick! :) Going to add this to my trick to do list!

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    Replies
    1. It's a great trick for a rainy (or snowy) day!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Rocco

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  5. This is adorable! We're definitely going to practice this since we have ANOTHER snow day today!

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    Replies
    1. It's a good indoor activity for sure. Stay warm!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Rocco

      Delete
  6. Your training him for the movies aren't you? Well done Rocco.

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    Replies
    1. Movies would be good! I think the Roc would like that!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Rocco

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Love this trick! And I mus comment on Roccos hair ties...SO CUTE! Happy Valentines Day you two!

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    1. Ha! He's got preppy pink and green in today. I feel I must defend his boyhood sometimes! Thanks for reading!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Rocco

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  9. How cute is that trick! Love it. We learn hop from when we are little on. For most that would mean jump but for us it means to put our front feet up on something but we never thought of hide.

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    Replies
    1. Oh that's cool! You're halfway to Hide Your Eyes!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Rocco

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  10. We've got "paws up" - I'm going to start working on this one - so cute!

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    Replies
    1. Awesome! You're halfway there!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Rocco

      Delete
  11. I first thought you meant "shame" where they paw at their nose. Mr. N knows this one, it makes people laugh. We use the term "pray" though.

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    Replies
    1. We may need to teach the paw at your nose trick next! I've seen folks use "pray" too!
      Your pals,
      Diane and Rocco

      Delete
  12. Fantastic! Definitely trying this out with Kate this weekend!

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  13. I love it! I've been wanting to teach Bella this trick but couldn't figure out how to move from the first step to the next. I still need to figure out how to get her to sit after she puts her paws up (or I'll need a 6 foot ladder to do hide your eyes) but thank you for getting us started on the eyes part!

    Rocco is too adorable.

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