Training Your Dog—For Fun, Bonding, and Maybe 15 Minutes of Fame
If you think that training your dog to sit, stay, come and stop barking is hard, take a look at this.

Associated Press, reports that a new Animal Planet series, “Fetch Me a Beer”, features trainer Zak George, an internet superstar who has a 2 million strong fan base on YouTube.  In this George asks people to propose tricks, then teaches them to train their dogs to execute the move.  George gives them three home visits to check progress, some homework to refine results, and they get one shot on television to make it happen.  Will the dog learn to play baseball or win prizes for his square dancing style?  We’ll have to wait until July to see how old dogs take to new tricks.

George and his border collie Venus have wowed the likes of Dave Letterman and many competition judges with their partnership.  You can check out his YouTube site if you haven’t already.  There are even a couple of training examples you can try out on your dog!
Developing the bond between people and their dogs is George’s purpose. All tricks use the dog’s natural motivations of play and food drive, and are taught with kindness.  This one -on-one quality time should be fun for the dog and their person, and deepens the bond between them.

Animal Planet’s press release solicits those who are willing to put in the time to turn their dog into a “super stunt puppy” to apply via video (see press release link for details).
With thanks to www.dancingdogblog.com