New tricks for a retired dog? - Page 1

 I have a female that is 10 1/2.  I am looking for some new tricks to teach her.  Any ideas?  Just something for fun.  Its time for her to just kick back and enjoy life.  She loves to work and please you still, so I am just looking for new things to teach her.  She already can count to 10, by you saying the number and she will bark that many times.

Texgsd,
There are many good tricks to teach an older dog.  Roll over, play dead, the counting trick is awesome.  I have a retired 10 1/2 yr old SchH 3 female that I still do tracking with.  I have just begun teaching my Police K9 some tricks because we do so many demos.  Many of my demos are for kids and they get upset when they can't pet the dog.  My dog is not very social.  I can talk all day about his most recent apprehension or the track for the armed robbery suspect and the kids always ask "Can he do any tricks?"  So, I've taught him to "wave" and to "bow" when we finish.  I'm still thinking of new tricks for him.  I though briefly about teaching him "bang and to play dead."  I've taught that to other dogs, but I was afraid I'll actually be shot at (definite possibility)  and he'll play dead thinking it's the trick.  Not the best trick for a police K9.

The other cops always get a good laugh when the dog waves goodbye to the bad guy. 

Jim

I teach to retrieve early on;  but it is great for the older guys and you can tell them to go get the dog dishes, have them get the telephone and bring to you and retrieve anything and everything  and bring to you.  They love it, also hide and seek in the house, get their favorite toy and hide it for them to find.  Let them get the clothes out of the dryer and bring them for you to fold.  OH the list goes on and on. 

However, I haven't figured out how to teach them to vacuum, but I am working on it.

 :D  Thanks for the laugh Slamdunc.  When you were saying "bang and play dead" I was thinking "wouldn't that be a little fraught for a police dog"?  The image of him waving goodbye to a suspect practically had me rolling on the floor laughing.

In response to texgsd, I've been teaching a fair number of tricks to my dog.  It's a way of keeping him mentally occupied and teaching him to calm down and focus (since he's adopted, and wasn't well cared for before he came to me).  My guy knows: sit, down, paw (giving the left paw for shaking), shake (giving the right paw for shaking), touch (my hand or some other target), bow, "dead" (no bang in the command), high five (sit up and slap my hand with his paw), circle (spin to the right), spin (spin to the left),  relax (cross his front paws while lying down), hide (go behind me), bring X (where X is one of his toys specifically by name), and we're working on wave, crawl, and shame (there's a video link in the last one).

All of those are low impact and shouldn't give your older girl any trouble, though you would have to consider whether she has joint pain before asking her to crawl or roll over.

When I'm bored I teach my dog to retrieve anything and put a name on it. 1 day I hope to throw like 10 things out and have him bring the correct item back. So far he knows (baby) his fav toy, (kong), (shoe) and (stick). When he's an old guy and living inside, I'll teach him (remote), (phone), (towel) and whatever items seem handy for him to bring.

Another handy trick is to teach a dog to clean up their own mess/toys and put them in a basket or box. Maybe you can even go one step further and have them pick up kids toys or dirty laundry. LOL

 All good ideas.  The shame video is so cute.  I bet it is funny to see the dog wave bye to the bad guy.  We already do searches in the house, but I decided to stop that because all house manners go out the window when she is searching.  She about tore up the house the other night.  My poor Christmas tree:)

I put my older girls through AKC rally. They really loved it. Easy excercises and you may praise them through the whole thing, and they still got to feel special going out with mom to train and show off. I saw a woman earn and advanced leg with a 14 year old poodle!

Jackal,
I like the wave, we have to have a sense of humour some times.    Those are some good tricks you mentioned, I may have to add some of them.

Jim

I had a friend who taught her dog to play dead but it was in story form.  She would say - Buddy, what happens to bad dogs that run in the street?  He would drop and play dead.  It was really cute.  Of course she would end it with him coming back to life.  The kids loved it.

Cheryl

 I'm glad you enjoyed the suggestions.  :) Trick training is great for keeping the dog busy, and it's also fun.  Everything doesn't have to be about precision and perfection!   It seems like the dog also gets a kick out of entertaining people sometimes, and it's a great ice breaker when people are nervous about the GSD.  (It's different if you want them to be intimidated by the dog of course!)