Now, you do know, that dogs don’t talk right? So, I don’t even have to start explaining all the mouth-moving stuff. Although, I found interesting videos about talking dogs, so we might get there someday. Until then:
Today we are going to talk about the movie “Air Buddies”. The main characters of these movies are 5 amazingly cute Golden Retriever puppies, B-Dawg, Buddha, Budderball, Mudbud, and Rosebud.
Each puppy has there own, unique personality. Let’s take B – Dawg for instance.
“I am the ultimate P-U-P!”
B-Dawg is the type of dog, who is cool, enjoys hip-hop, bling and rap. All you have to do for your dog to be like this, is to get a necklace and sunglasses for your puppy, and tell everybody, that he listens to rap. Pretty simple.
Now let’s see Buddha.
“Be one with the ball”
Now he’s harder. Buddha likes yoga, basketball and meditation. I looked it up, and I’m not sure if dogs can actually do regular yoga that is for people, but there is yoga for dogs! Here is what I found: “During doggie yoga, owners go through stretches and try to put their dogs into some yoga poses.” That’s not so hard. But dogs don’t actually do it by there selfs like Buddha, so this is excluded. The next is basketball. Teaching your dog to do silly tricks is easy. And I think that throwing a ball in a hoop for a dog, is a silly trick. And here’s how you do it:
1 – materials: You will need bite sized treats, a clicker, a toy basketball, a toy basketball hoop, and of course, you will need your dog. (You can find them in most dog supplie shops, online, or in sport shops – small sized basketball hoop, for kids… Except for the dog. I’m assuming you have that already. And you can buy mini basketballs in toy stores.) But keep in mind, that these materials were not made for dogs, so make sure that the set you buy does not cause choking hazards and make sure the basketball is not filled with air. But is entirely out of hard plastic, so your dog can’t chew it apart and swallow it.
Clicker – The clickers use is also called shaping a behavior. This means, that when a dog preforms an action all by him self, you use the clicker for him to be aware of his upshot. But remember to click the clicker at the exact moment your dog preforms something right. And always give your dog a treat alongside the clicking.
Now set up your basketball set, and let’s begin!
1. Click and treat your dog. (He doesn’t have to do anything for it) You’re just letting him know, that when there’s a click, there’s a treat! This step is very easy. Although it can get harder. Also, make sure to add a command of your own to each steps, so your dog can do it whenever you tell him to
2. In this step your dogs job is to simply look at the basketball! Click and treat your dog just for looking at the basketball. Once your dog is able to do this step several times, you may go to the next step. But remember, the click and treat has to be perfectly timed. If it’s too early or too late, the dog may not know why he’s getting the treat. Misunderstandings can occur and that’s never good. So always treat your dog while he’s looking at the ball. This step doesn’t need a separate command, but is an important step.
3. Next, click and treat your dog for picking up the basketball in his mouth. Once again, you will have to repeat this step more times to move on. After this, he should be able to know that he’s getting a treat for this step. Make sure that the dog spits out the ball right after he hears the clicker. It’s best if you have a command for this step, for then your dog will pick up the ball anywhere it is. Not just when you put it in from of him. But sooner or later he’ll love the game so much that he’ll pick it up on his own.
4. Now you want the dog to drop the ball voluntarily for the treat. This should not be that difficult after the 3rd step, but can be challenging depending on the breed of the dog mostly. If he doesn’t let the ball go, make him open his mouth by pinching either side of his jaw, forcing his mouth to open. When the ball falls, give the treat, whether you made him or he did it voluntarily. When he lets go of the ball voluntarily for about the third time in a row, then you can move on.
Keep in mind, that most dogs are too impatient to learn for that amount of time at once, so this can’t be done in one day. When you see your dog getting tired, take a break, let him play or sleep or eat.
5. Put the hoop on the ground, and only treat him when he drops the ball in the hoop. This may be one of the most difficult steps. You may find your dog doing all sorts of stuff with the ball in order to find out what the task is. Once the dog drops the ball in the hoop (because this WILL happen) wether it takes hours or days, you may move on to the next step. If it’s really hard and he doesn’t do it once, you can lure him to the hoop with a treat with the ball in his mouth, and make him drop it above. Or you can show him that you drop it in. To learn this will take one day, don’t overdo your poor dog.
Remember: Only click and treat your dog for dropping the ball IN the hoop. Not next to it, not almost, but inside the hoop.
7. Now you will get the hoop a little higher. Not 2-3 feet higher, but like 10-20 inches higher, and teach him to throw it in there, and then higher, and higher (of course with clicking and treating). And then eventually you will get it on the top, and he will be able to shoot just like this:
… Or like this:
……. Or, like this:
But I hope not the last one 🙂 . If you did everything right, it should look like the 2nd video
Now I guess you know, that dogs can’t actually meditate, because they probably don’t even know what it means, so I won’t even start. Let’s just move on too… BUDDERBALL!
“Never skip a Pizza meal”
Budderball loves food, football, and when he gets his paw pulled…. well, he farts. Well, I guess I don’t need to get into the food loving part, bacause that’s normal, but maybe the football part: I looked it up, and it looks like football is too difficult for dogs to understand, and it has no point if you don’t understand it, so they don’t really teach them. That leaves the last behavior, or more like a sickness of Budderball: Pull My Finger: I looked it up, and some really stupid things came out, like “how can you fart whenever you want”, “Can you control other peoles farting?”, “the top 1000 awesome things” which I didn’t dare to open if it has pull my finger in it. So, that leaves us with one ordinary dog, who can do the Pull My Finger trick perfectly.
Let’s move on to Mudbud.
“When things get a little dirty, dive in!”
You know exactly what he’s like by his name. He’s a mud-lover dog. And that is not a very extra personality with dogs. Mud is a good thing. But Mudbud has other personality’s too, like chillin’ out, and playing volleyball. Chillin’ out is like the same thing as B – Dawg and the Hip-Hop music. You walk on the street, and tell everybody, that your dog loves to chill out. But the volleyball! Now that’s something! What you have to do for a step 1 is to put the ball right in front of him, and when he pushes it, give him a treat. When he did that several times, throw the ball right in front of him. When the dog goes to get it, give him a treat. Next, bounce the ball on his nose. But not like a basketball, just drop it on his nose. You have to get him used to that feeling. If he’s used to that, then you can upgrade the ball to a basketball. (But be gentle, the basketball can hurt him) Then get him to go further away from you, and try to throw a lighter, softer ball on his nose. Then call him back, and dropp it on his nose again, but this time when you catch it (because I hope you’ve been catching it) treat him, and then he’ll sort of know what he’s supposed to do.
Now that’s it for Mudbud, let’s finish this post with Rosebud.
“Girl power!”
Rosebud is the only girl, but just as vivid as her brothers. She likes soccer, fashion, and Brad Pittbul. Ok. So we all know, that Brad Pittbull is not real right? Teaching a dog to play soccer is easy. You just make them role the ball with there nose, into the net. Thats it! But don’t forget the treat. Rosebud is like the logic between the pups, and when they don’t know what to do, usually Rosebud does.
So these are the Buddies, and for a big finish, I would like to tell you, that Bud, the super dog is actually a real dog! He can play hockey, soccer, basketball, football, and baseball. You can teach your dog how to play these, from a video called: Buddy the Wonder Dog’s Instructional Exercise Video. I found it online while I was browsing, and I think it’s cool.
ProPuppy 