Back when I was training folks on how to work with their dogs I had a mantra that “training should be fun for everyone”. While part of that was advice on how to engage their dogs with training games, the other piece of that was that the humans should be having fun with the training as well. Part of that was having cue words that made the person smile or laugh, as a way to help change our brain chemistry during difficult training scenarios.
So, what are your jokey funny cues for your puppers?
My boy dog, instead of rolling over, loves to do trust falls to ask for a belly rub. It’s adorable.
Some people call it “capturing” a behavior but (if you haven’t) you can pair cue words or phrases to habits your dog already has, and with enough practice and reinforcement your cue can prompt the behavior instead of trailing it. Trust falls might not be appropriate for all locations even though there’s some “wacky hijinx” potential there
Oh, he knows. He only does it on soft surfaces. When he doesn’t have one of those he has me trained to notice his cues that he wants one, in which case I flip him over. :)
XD training works both ways!