ABC Tricks

“We’re not going to be able to do it,” said Mum about the Alphabet Challenge which is to do a trick for each letter. “We are a few short,” said Doubting Thomas.

But out of curiosity, she listed down the tricks I could do in the alphabet –

A is for go AROUND, B is ring the BELL, C is CROSS my paws,

D is obviously DOWN, what do we do for E? I can’t pick up EGGS because I don’t like carrying things in my mouth when asked to.

Ah, there’s a way around it. We can do the figure EIGHT – which we used to call Infinity. I basically weave my way around Mum’s legs in a figure eight. Sorted.

FOOTSIES for F,

G is GIVE it to me as in me holding something and Mum says, GIVE. A bit of a stretch. LOL!

And of course we can HOP! HOP!HOP!

Then she commanded me to go IN the box – which I was wondering why. I kept going in and out immediately for my treat. It frustrated her until she realised she had to say – IN and WAIT!!!

JUMP into arms for J – this was something Mum had always wanted me to learn ever since she had seen Pudsey do this. Remember Pudsey?

Ah, K for Kiss – that’s easy but too straightforward. She wanted me to do something clever like the “Reading” trick. By now Mum was becoming more creative herself. She decided to use the Reading trick for “Kiss” and R became “Rollover” – that I can do.

We used the LEAVE It Challenge back in early Lockdown for L.

Then came M – which is “Mark the Spot”. It was one I had to learn in a very short time. What Mum hadn’t realised is that somewhere at the back of my mind I remembered this from when we started last summer during the first lockdown. That was something Mum had said about me. I may not get it the first time and then after a break, I would miraculously do what she wanted. Maybe I needed breaks – learning new tricks can be exhausting. So this time around, with two attempts, I MARKED the spot.

With that, we were half way through the alphabet of tricks.

N was Nose Balance – easy peasy.

And remember the Toilet Paper Challenge also from the first lockdown and everyone was hoarding toilet paper? Luckily for us, Mum had always liked the security of having lots of TP on hand because she hates carrying them home from the supermarket. So we had quite a few at home. With that it was “O” for jumping Over.

Mum always thinks it is funny when she gets me to do Paws UP on the toilet seat like I am getting sick. Humour me.

What on earth do we do about Q? Some of the other dogs on the challenge had done Queue and Quarantine. What about Quick? What does that mean? But aha! Julie suggested – Quiz! We can do a nose game and call that a Quiz. Woohoo!

So we had decided that R is for ROLLover, S is simply SIT. T became TWIRLING pirouettes.

And we used V to VOTE for Julie as the Best Dog Trainer! LOL! Very creative, thanks to Julie.

I WAVEd like crazy for W, and I had to learn to nose touch an X on the wall.

Basically we had to be creative renaming the tricks to fit into the alphabet. With that tackled, we cleverly substituted the last few remaining obstacles – like Y!!! Mum searched the dictionary of action words that began with Y – and there was YANK! Now Mum has never played tug-o-war with me. She thought that created unruly behaviour and so when she tried to get me to play, I stared at her with confusion. You never wanted me to play this and now you’re waving the pull toy at me? It just wasn’t happening. But aha! The lead – that is something I still get excited about when we go our for walkies. Mum got our neighbour to help – and I yanked away while Mum filmed me.

Finally, I zig-zagged my way through the weave poles – and voila! We did the Alphabet Challenge!!! And here it is!

P.S. And Mum learnt to use iMovie! Woohoo! We all learnt something through the alphabet.

May’s comment: As you know we have been a part of the Barnaby’s Trick Team. Through Julie’s encouragement we’ve managed to get Darcy to the Do More With Your Dog Expert Level and even George made it to Advance. Who knew?!?! Then this month came the Alphabet Challenge.

It is a trick specialty title; a fun project engineered to reinvigorate your training. Utilize your dog’s skills and your creativity to complete the challenge.

We had to submit 26 tricks, starting with each letter of the alphabet, in any language. There are no official criteria for difficulty or trick description. Use your dogs skills and your creativity to fulfill the challenge. You can make up your own tricks. There are no prerequisites.

That’s why we were allowed to be creative.

We did have to learn three new tricks very quickly. And through all this I realised there are certain tricks that I know how to teach Darcy and George relatively easily. And there are tricks that would require a lot of precision timing and patience. I haven’t been able to do that with both of my dogs. So I realise my own limitations as well as Darcy’s and George’s. Besides them getting tons of treats, they loved that I was engaging with them.

There goes another week of cappuccinos so I can get Darcy her certificate and ribbon!