
A couple of weeks ago I shared my latest trick stacking doughnuts on my Facebook page and I also performed it during two demos this week and mom and I have had a lot of inquiries on how I learned to do this, so today I am going to touch on the three core tricks you need to know to eventually perform the stacking doughnuts trick.

You need to learn to have a reliable take on cue. To begin you will need a favorite toy, yummy treats and a clicker (the clicker is optional). Sit on the floor with your human in a room with no distractions have your human hand you the toy if you take it with your mouth your human should click or mark with a "yes" and give you a yummy treat, give the toy back and perform several times. Once you are reliably taking the toy your human needs hand you the toy and say "take" this will become your cue to perform the trick. If you are not a custom to taking the toy from your humans hand this cue can be taught by taking the toy off the floor in the same fashion I explained if it was handed to you (It is good to learn to "take" both ways... but once you learn the cue "take" it wont matter where the toy is). Humans always remember to positively train your dog, training sessions should last 3-5 minutes, they should always be ended on a good note and I am in favor of jack potting your dog with treats for a job well done... just be sure to adjust his daily food serving to allow for treats.

The next trick you will need to reliably learn is "hold". To learn this your human will need to delay rewarding you with a treat after they cue you to "take" an item. So they will tell you to "take" and then they should count to 2 then click or say "yes" and give you some yummy treats, gradually the time will increase and they will begin to say "hold" after they ask you to "take". For example when I hold a sign mom says "take" after the paper is in my mouth she says "hold" when I'm done posing she says "all done" and I give her back the sign and I always get a jack pot of the yummy stuff.

The final trick you will need to learn is "place" your human should begin by having you "take" "hold" and then release the item back into their hand, they should say "place" and as always give you yummy treats. Once you are reliably releasing items to hand your human can redirect where they want you "place" the item, for example I "place" my basketball in my hoop, or I "place" an object in my trash can... "Place" is different from "drop" because there is specific place I need to put the item. When mom uses "drop" it usually means you best get that thing out of you mouth right now... BOL!

Always soften your eyes and smile for your human after you performed the task at hand they will melt like putty in your paws and reward you with a galore of incredibly yummy treats..
Hope you enjoyed my latest blog and if you missed my stacking doughnuts video and bloopers you can watch it below... Mom and I are working on a "How to teach stacking doughnuts the tutorial" for her tricks class, I will be sure to share it in an upcoming blog!