Anyone teach their dog to 'wink'?? Some help :)

[Dreeza]

Sooo, I've decided I wanted to teach Oakley to wink...cause, well, he does it a lot...and its friggin cute.

I googled it & they said to poke him in the eye (ok, not actually touch his eye, not meanly, haha)...so he closes his eye & then to treat him for that...

tried this & Oakley was just NOT getting it...

Now i'm trying to catch the behavior & treat it when he does it (kinda hard cause I obviously am not treating it the majority of the time cause I don't see it)


Oakley catches on to tricks VERY fast...I'm talking within 10x of me doing something, he is understanding that I am teaching him something new...

This thing, he is NOT catching on to...I think he is so confused cause maybe he just doesn't realize he is winking...

I think he just thinks i'm rewarding him for waiting patiently for a treat, haha

any tips? Or do I just give up

[Doberluv]

This thing, he is NOT catching on to...I think he is so confused cause maybe he just doesn't realize he is winking...

I think that is a distinct possibility. LOL. That would be very difficult to single out for him because it's probably involuntary. So, he's not aware of what it is he's doing. If you used a clicker to precisly mark that, eventually, he may be able, by a process of elimination of all other behaviors happening at the same time single it out and realize what he's doing. I'm not much of an expert on trick training so I could be wrong. But this seems like a very difficult trick to teach. I can tell you, since I'm not a very patient person, I'd give up before I started.

But capturing it with a clicker, if it happens frequently, would be your best shot. Let us know how it all goes if you decide to try and bring this out of him.

[colliewog]

Odd thing with this, but all of my collies do this naturally. I have no clue how to teach it (if I somehow DID teach it). ??

[Dreeza]

Originally Posted by colliewog

Odd thing with this, but all of my collies do this naturally. I have no clue how to teach it (if I somehow DID teach it). ??

hehe, yeah, Oakley does it naturally....i just want it to be on cue!

haha, thanks doberluv...yeah, I gave up kinda quickly too...he just keeps winking and its so cute that it keeps reminding me about it, haha

[colliewog]

Originally Posted by Dreeza

hehe, yeah, Oakley does it naturally....i just want it to be on cue!

haha, thanks doberluv...yeah, I gave up kinda quickly too...he just keeps winking and its so cute that it keeps reminding me about it, haha

I meant that they do it on cue - I wink at them and they wink back. (Not a verbal cue, but it's cute when I say something and wink and the dog winks back).

[Doberluv]

Wow Colliewog, that is so cute!

[Dreeza]

Originally Posted by colliewog

I meant that they do it on cue - I wink at them and they wink back. (Not a verbal cue, but it's cute when I say something and wink and the dog winks back).

ah that is sooo cute!!! I tried winking at Oakley too, and he just looks at me like I'm crazy, haha!!

[mrose_s]

I tried teaching Buster to lick his lips on cue a while ago, he just wasn't clicking. He has it in his head that if I'm using the clicker its eaither soemthing he's got to touch with his paw or something he has to poke with his nose.
I only practiced once though and havn't since.

[lizzybeth727]

Yeah, this is one behavior that will take a long time to capture because it's involuntary.

Have you captured a lot of behaviors with him before? Maybe if you start with larger movements that might be easier for him to identify, he will start gaining more body awareness and clicker-savy, and he will get it quicker. I taught Luna to wag her tail, it was a similar situation - even though she was a quick learner with most tricks, wagging her tail is pretty involuntary, and it took her a long time to figure out what was happening that got her the treat. I just stuck with it and waited her out (I did try poking her tail and everything that the "books" tell you will work, but it seemed to just distract her), and eventually she figured it out.

I'd probably suggest carrying a clicker around (on one of those stretchy wrist bands or something so that you don't have to actually hold it) and whenever you sit down and lok at him, you'll be ready to click. Maybe if you can do more short sessions he'll figure it out faster too.

[JessLough]

Oh oh oh Rosey winks on cue!! That is really her only "cool" trick

She winks to the cue of "wink", or if we wink at her, she will wink back. We just did it as a monkey see monkey do type of thing. Every time she winked back at us, we gave LOTS of applause (for some reason she loves to be rewarded by clapping lol)