July 2010: Sit in a Box This month's trick must be shaped (no luring). Teach your dog to sit in a box - any size or shape of box. As always there are some guidelines for the challenges of the Month: You may teach the July trick by shaping or capturing. When demonstrating a stationary trick, your dog should hold the behavior for at least 10 seconds without further cues or assistance from you. The finished behavior cannot be lured; You may reward your dog after the behavior but not during the behavior. Show the trick to a member of the Waggles staff in person or on video (we LOVE YouTube!) to be entered in the drawing. If you get stuck teaching this trick, please don't be shy in asking for help - either in person or on the Waggles email list. Most importantly....Have fun with your dog!

June 2010: Balance This month's trick is about balance. It's summertime and the living is busy! There's lots of really busy weeks and weekends for us wagglers. So in keeping with that theme...This month's trick is called "Balance". The goal of the June challenge is to teach your dog to balance an object on his or her nose for 10 seconds. It doesn't have to be a food object - use your imagination!! We can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

May 2010: Trout What is the opposite of Perch? Trout of course! The trick that we are calling "Trout" is sort of the opposite of "Perch" - instead of posing with their FRONT legs on the can (bucket, pan, stool, etc), your dog should put both hind paws on the object. If you taught your dog the perch game you can use the same object when you shape "trout" or you can use a new prop - it's up to you! CONGRATULATIONS to our May "Trout" winners Alan and Cleo!! Way to go!

April 2010: Perch Shaping anyone? This month shape your dog standing on an object (we like paint cans) with his (her) front feet. Trick may be stationary (as above) or "circus-style" where the dog's front legs remain on the perch while his body pivots around in a circle. WOW - We are so proud of you guys - we had SEVENTEEN entries in the hat for this month! Lots of new names in the hat too! You should all be very proud of yourselves! Congratulations to all! By random draw, our winners for April are Bee and Billy-Bob (the Pyr Shepherd)!!! CONGRATULATIONS Bee and Billy!!

March 2010: Figure-Eight Back to a moving trick this month! Lori and I tend to use the figure-eight trick as a stretching and warm-up exercise with our dogs prior to our agility runs. Not only does it help get our dogs excited to play agility (and get them connected to us), it also stretches out their latissimus dorsi and abdominal oblique muscles which they use as they jump and turn on course. For the purposes of this trick there are two ways to teach the figure-eight. The first is stationary: you stand in one place with your legs apart while your dog figure-eights around and through your legs. The second is in motion. As you take one step at a time your dog weaves through your legs. Our March winner is: Bob R and Avery the golden retriever! CONGRATULATIONS Bob, Kim, Max and Avery!!

February 2010: Go to sleep. One of our favorite silly pet tricks and known by several names: "Put your head down", "Go to sleep" or "Are you pathetic?". It's another shaping trick this month; the finished product should end up with your dog's chin on the floor between his (or her) front paws on one cue (verbal or signal). Questions? Be sure to ask us - and have fun with this one!! Our February winner is: Judy and her lovely standard poodle Minna! CONGRATULATIONS Judy and Minna!

January 2010: High-Five! We love seeing all of you Wagglers stepping up to teach your dogs our monthly challenge - I can't speak for Lori, but I think the best part of the challenge was watching everyone grin as they asked their dogs to give them a high-five. I think some of the dogs smiled too! Our January winner is: Alan and the Dynamic Dancing Danny!! CONGRATULATIONS Alan and Danny!

December 2009: Silver Bells We'd like to thank all of the Waggle'ers who stepped up to the bell challenge - we had a lot of names to put into the drawing this month! Our December winner is: Abbey with one of our favorite little agility pugs, Tsunami CONGRATULATIONS Abbey and Tsunami!!!

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