Complicated Commands/Tricks

Both of the girls know more tricks than the boys. I have a hard time training our boys but they do know sit, lay down, and are getting better with stay.

The girls know a large series of commands. Velvet knows more than Dawn, naturally, but Dawn knows neater tricks. Such as "whisper".

I want to step up to the next level with them.

How do I do it though?

The two things I want to teach right now that my methods are failing at are Nose Touch (covering their nose with their paw) and Bow. I've looked up many different methods and tried these.

With Nose Touch they think I want to shake paws. Even though i don't offer them my hand at ALL.

With Bow, they instantly lay down or back up. Neither of which are what I want. I could probably teach Eclipse how to Bow because he automatically does it sometimes in place of lying down.

There are other neat tricks I'd like to teach them too... but these are my obstacles right now.

Any suggestions for these, or for other "complicated/fun" tricks?

I'm actually working on some other "complicated/fun" tricks myself and I know just how frustrating it can be when your dog doesn't seem to get it... what methods have you tried for the nose touch out of curiosity?

For bow I really like this tutorial
YouTube - Dog Clicker Tutorial - Take A Bow

In fact, if you want other ideas for more challenging tricks... this girl YouTube - zsianz1's Channel has a TON of great tutorials for training different tricks.

Bamm is currently working on his weaving through my legs at a crawl... and then we're going to work on him weaving backwards.