Teaching the Treat Cannon Trick

Recently I taught Tristan the Treat Cannon trick, and when I posted the video of him on Facebook, others mentioned giving it a try.  So here is the process I used to teach him and some alternative suggestions for different dogs.

1. Paw targeting

Fortunately Tristan already had worked on targeting something with a single paw for his fitness training and the cross your paws trick, so I just reminded him of that skill.  If your dog isn't used to touching something with their paw on cue, you may wish to start with something that they are more likely to paw at.   If they tend to naturally use their feet to interact with things, you may be able to start right with the flipper.  If your dog knows shake a paw, you may want to do a few repetitions of that, then hold the flipper so the flat end is in your palm when you present it to your dog the same way you would for shake, then gradually move it closer the floor before removing your hand from under it, leaving just the flipper.

2. Where to paw target the flipper

Since the dogs need to hit the flat end in order to launch the treat, I wanted to make sure that was the part Tristan targeted instead of the handle.  To start, I held the handle and placed the flat end on the floor for him to step on and marked and rewarded any paw contact with that area.

3. Paw target flipper unaided

Once Tristan could consistently step on the correct part of the flipper, I started lying the flipper flat on the floor, marking and rewarding him for targeting the correct spot.  This is the point at which it will move, so if that will startle your dog, you may want to show them that it will move first, and be quick and generous with your rewards for interacting with it, even if they don't push it all the way to the floor at first.

And if you get attempts like this, that is normal.  While I didn't reward him in this video clip, when he was first learning I absolutely did.  This just happened to be a moment he was focusing more on me than his foot after doing it successfully several times.

Note: My marker was late here!  Please be quicker than I was and mark as soon as your dog pushes the flat end to the floor.  

4. Hit flipper with treat on it

I won't lie - when I first introduced the treat on the handle of the flipper, Tristan did try to just eat the treat directly off the handle.  Holding my hand like a little cage over the handle allowed him to focus back on the task of pushing on the flat part of the flipper, and after rewarding him a few times for that, I could remove my other hand.  Some dogs may be hesitant to interact with the flipper when you put the treat there.  This often occurs because the dog wants the treat, but feels like they aren't supposed to touch it.  You can try demonstrating how hitting the flat end of the flipper will launch the treat and allow your dog to catch it (or chase it down).  You can try doing a few repetitions without a treat on the handle, toss your reward treat away from you on the last repetition and set up the next treat on the handle when your dog isn't looking.  Some dogs when they get in a pattern will run back and target the flipper without really looking at it and may not notice the treat (especially if it is a similar colour).

Catching the treat

Tristan was already quite used to catching tossed treats (despite his missing 3/4 in the video!) but if your dog is not, you can teach this skill separately.  Start with your dog sitting, and drop the treat from directly above their mouth in a straight line, so all they have to do is open their mouth to catch it.  Once that is going well, you can start to drop it a little off center to see if your dog can learn to adjust their head position to catch it.  If that goes well, try some slow, underhand tosses.  Sometimes larger treats help.  Some people introduce it with plain popcorn, as they feel that is easier for dogs follow.

If you end up giving this a try with your dog, I'd love to hear how it goes, and see some video of the finished trick!