We frequently put on dog shows with Honey, usually termed Steve’s Silly Dog Tricks. She used to entertain guests at the President’s Residence for Embry-Riddle and she always put on performances for parties that were hosted by Nancy and Steve.
Honey’s Tricks/Show for Guests
| Command |
Description |
| Give Me Your Nose! |
She would put her nose in your hands. |
| Shake! |
She would give you her paw. |
| Other Paw! |
She would switch paws. |
| Both Paws! |
She would sit back on her haunches and give you both paws! |
| Show Me Your Scar! |
Rolls over on her back and shows you her belly with her scar from being spayed. |
| Get Your Tail! |
She would go around in circles until she would get her tail. |
| Roll over! |
She would roll over 360 degrees. |
| Low Bridge! |
She would walk behind you come through your legs and sit beneath you. |
| Figure 8! |
From the low bridge position, she would do a figure 8 through your legs and then sit. |
| Play Catch |
Toss her a foam cup holder or ball and she would bounce it with nose back to you. |
| Stay! |
You could put one or more treats on her nose of various sizes and then say OK! She would toss into the air and try to catch. She was pretty good! |
Honey’s Most Useful Tricks
| Command |
Description |
| Get the Newspaper! |
She would go and get the newspaper. In California that would mean going out the front door, down two flights of steps, down the driveway, down the connector road to the line of newspaper boxes on the main road. She would choose the right box and paper every time, carefully pull it out, grab it, and then bring it back to the dining room. Of course, since we got two newspapers at the time, we would send her back down for the other. |
| Frisbee! |
Her absolute favorite toy was the frisbee! You could say the command anytime and she would immediately go to her toy box and look for one. She loved to play frisbee. Her goal was for you to throw and she would try to jump in air and catch with all four feet off the ground. It was more important that you did a good throw as she rarely missed the ones that were catchable. |
| Frisbee! |
In California, she watched our neighbor’s dog who was a ferocious watch-dog. She thought that looked like fun and really enjoyed pretending to be a watch-dog. Of course, she was like Lassie, she wagged her tail the whole time. Anyone who knew Goldens wouldn’t be fooled. But she looked ferocious and she even bared her teeth. So we would tell people if you were ever scared, just use the command FRISBEE! She would immediately break off the ‘watch-dog game’ and look for a frisbee to bring you. |
| Pull Toy! |
She knew most of her toys by name. There was pull-toy, snoopy, ball, bone, frog, etc. |
| Jeep, Run, or Walk! |
Time to go on a trip … |
| Quickie! |
Time to go #1! |
| Hurry-up! |
Time to go #2! |
| Leash! |
Get your leash. Mostly she preferred to carry it herself. So she would walk various places by walking herself. She especially preferred carrying her leash when going to the vet or the groomer … that way she felt like she was in control. |
| King of the Nose! |
She used to love to play a game like thumb wrestling. Only I would try to get my hand on top of the bridge of her nose starting from under her chin. She would try to raise her nose up and pretend bite my hand and I would try the other side and so forth. |
Honey’s Puppy Tricks
| Command |
Description |
| Fireplace |
She would run as fast as her little legs could take her and jump up on the fireplace ledge and lay down. We would use it mostly when she was in trouble and we agreed to never punish her on the ledge. So if she was chewing something we would shout fireplace and she would run. |
| Go to your Room! |
If she was mischievous, I used to say, “Go to Your Room and Stay There until you can behave!” After about 20 minutes she would slink down and make nice. |
| Ouch! |
You bit too hard. Stop and kiss the hand! |
| Ladder! |
We built a ladder for the dock for Honey. Before we went to the lake, we would prop the ladder up on the house and then shout ladder. She would run from wherever she was and run up the ladder. When we took her to the lake and she immediately dove in, we put the ladder in the water and shouted ‘Ladder.’ She swam to the ladder and we never had to worry about her getting stuck in the water at the Lake again. Not bad for 4 months old. |
| Jump! |
She would jump over small fences. |
| Fetch _____ ! |
She would go and fetch whatever you said, as long as it was in her extensive vocabulary. |
