Brisbane Plays the Piano

Today Brisbane learned how to play the piano. Yesterday I set out to teach Sisci this trick and learned that she was worried about the slightly wobbly piano bench. While we were addressing that issue, Brisbane volunteered to hop up and at least hover a paw over the keys. Today I invited him up onto the piano bench and he started offering gentle touches.

It's is pretty adorable, he carefully touches the keys instead of just randomly waving a paw or stepping on the keyboard. Holding a sit on the slippery bench while raising a paw requires quite a bit of core body strength, and I'm pleased he is feeling good enough to offer this behavior. Brisbane is very good at communicating when he doesn't feel up to something, mostly by offering other behaviors and acting as if he doesn't know what I want him to do.

Having Brisbane so excited to learn a new trick is, frankly, amazing. He has bone cancer, and had his first round of chemotherapy six days ago. He felt a bit ill for a couple of days, and has improved dramatically since then. He is definitely happier than he was before his surgery a month ago.

I saw "play piano" listed as a Trick Dog Title trick, but I only looked it up in the trick book this evening after training time. Turns out the official trick is to get the dog to stand with both front feet on the keyboard, and alternately lift their feet up. I think our version is much cuter, and nicer to the piano as well. The finished trick probably looks like several paw touches in a row on different keys, maybe alternating feet. Having Briz hold a sit while using both front paws is probably too much to expect, but I'm quite proud of him already. Here's his piano trick after about five minutes of total training time:

We're on YouTube!

Brisbane, Sisci and I are working on their novice Trick Dog titles. These are titles and certificates awarded for doing a variety of tricks and behaviors. These are a lot of fun, and something that can be earned even by dogs with serious health issues and behavioral problems. Brisbane has had back issues since he was a baby, so he won't be able to do every single trick on the list. That's ok though, he doesn't have to do all of them to get his title.

The lower-level titles are earned on the honor system, you perform them for a witness who provides their information to the organization. I'm told that when the form is submitted, they usually contact the witness to verify that your dog can do everything you claimed. Do More With Your Dog also has support groups or teams that can be joined via Facebook. Rather than performing tricks in front of a witness, you can upload videos for your team to watch and have them sign off on your titles. I have friends who would happily sit and watch my dogs do silly tricks, but I like the feedback I am getting from the Facebook Spark Team.

I uploaded a few videos to YouTube and wanted to share them here as well. We're not as impressive as some of the really amazing trick dog teams out there, but I'm having fun with the challenge of performing with two dogs at a time. Here's our first video:



The trick is "Paws Up", I'm asking them to put their front feet on something. We started with the little stools because those are slip-proof and stable. From there, they had to learn that "paws up" means to put their feet on whatever I am pointing at, even if it is small, unstable, or weird. In this video we used a small balance disc and a jaguar skull aquarium ornament. When I take the dogs on outings, I often ask them to put their paws up on fences, rocks, tree branches, and whatever else we find.

What tricks do your dogs know?