[this was going to be a blog entry in reply to Pooka's Trick Jamboree video where I got questions on how I got her to do tricks but I wanted it to be discussed too and I think more people can benefit from it here]

If you're here, I'm sure you've done some research and know about the basics of starting out, and that certain tricks should be taught first because they're so basic/ for safety/ to be a good citizen (come, stay, leave it, off, go potty).

So I'll skip that!

The truth is, Pooka is real smart.
A lot of Youtube videos on how to train dogs show rewarding for tiny behaviors starting out (just looking at the item gets a treat, etc) and slowly asking more and more of the dog. We don't really have to do this cuz she usually takes big steps towards doing things. I start out rewarding her (she is VERY treat motivated) for doing the full out thing, or if she really tried hard to get it right or if she's getting real upset at me ;) just to keep her from getting frustrated. Eventually, I only start giving it for the exact behavior I want, and then start getting her to do 2 or 3 tricks (or a few of the same trick) without getting a treat every time. Don't forget at the end of the session to act real happy and give'm a triple reward! (depending what they like) Pooka doesn't seem to care about praise as much as she does treats "good girl" just means "Hey look! you're about to get a treat!"

How Often: I train with her ...4-5 out of 7 days a week, sometimes more than once a day if I'm not busy. If she's getting whiney/bored, its often reminds me and I'll train with her for 5-15 minutes.

Training Treats: I use Moist and Meaty dog food I got at Walmart cuz its little strips and I can break them whatever size I want. You buy a box of pouches in bulk so they don't go stale. (Pooka is lean-as-a-bean but if your corgi isn't, make sure to give them less food if they're getting a lot of treats)

When you first start, you TRY to not say the command BEFORE they do it, only right as they are doing it and right after while rewarding. also TRY not to say "good" or act like you're going to give the treat until they are completely done with the trick. That can be a problem with tricks like rollover cuz they'll stop halfway through if you're already saying "Good!" It's unavoidable if you're still baby stepping it up, though.
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SIT:
I started when she was real young... maybe 3 months, my mom was disapproving, but it was just for fun, I didn't care if she didn't get it. I was kind've naive, didn't really have a hand motion, just said sit over and over and held the treat above her head. We actually had trouble with sit (so embarrassing) all the way until I taught her to beg (2 months ago), because I had to reinforce "sit" before I could get her to sit up.
(with my mom's dog, a 5yr old dauchshund, they would hold the treat in the palm, then curl their hand towards themselves and supposedly, this naturally makes a dog sit. It worked!)

DOWN:
This one can be kind've hard for corgis. All the videos just say to put the treat between their legs on the ground and make'm come down to get it. But corgis can reach it while sitting! So I had to keep the treat hidden in my hand and I either slowly slide it forward, or slowly slide it back (toward her) and she'd either settle down, or slide backwards (so cute!) Of course, this got my hand bit A LOT, and of course she usually just got out of sit and walked to follow my hand. BUT, eventually we got it. Then we could go Sit, Down, Sit, Down a few times in a row without getting a treat (though she would get feisty!) For several months, Sit always required my hand over her head, and Down always required my finger pointing down, often touching the floor.

SHAKE:
took Pooka FOREVER! I've heard others say it was way easy, others say tough, like it was for us. Pretty much, just, grabbing the paw, saying "Shake" and giving her a treat a bunch, then trying to see if she would do it when I said the word shake and put my hand out. Then seeing if she would do it if I said Shake without putting my hand out. Let me tell you, more often than not, my hand got bit. I just... I think I've blocked out the details, but it probably took us a full month to get this one (we worked on others in the mean time). Just keep trying if you have trouble. I a lot of people then go for the "Other Paw" trick, but we just never found that interesting.
(with my mom's dog, they would keep the treat hidden in their hand and she would paw at it).

ROLL OVER:
in the down position (often have to give a treat for this, before trying a second step to prevent frustration), start moving treat, to the side and behind their head and making them come ALL the way over to get it. I guess you could give it to them for a partial at first but... I thought that might confuse her so we aimed for the full roll-over. This one is a struggle with them getting up and going for the treat. You have to convince them to stay in the down position while you do it. If they get up, you remove the treat from sight, say No and ignore them for a second ("correcting"). Then start with Down again. This trick... is a trouble trick for us. It is hard if she is excited, she wants to be close to me when she does it, and/or biting my fingers, and or, get half way through, get confused as to which way she is going, wiggle a bit, and go back to where she was. OY! (To help with biting, hold the treat in your OTHER hand so they learn that the treat isn't there, but it will come after the trick is done. OR, I hold a treat in both hands, but only give her the treat from the opposite hand, muHAAHAHA!) So, this trick is just... always entertaining and a constant sore spot of jealousy when I peruse other dogs doing roll-over on youtube.

I slowly tried to transfer the hand motion from being the treat going around her head to that I was spinning my other finger in her face.

SPEAK:
My husband and I were sitting on the couch (he isn't really involved with the training too much) and he decided we should teach her to bark on command. So we did! We got a toy that she wanted and teased her a little (whatever you know will get them to bark) and said "SPEAK", and made a quickly opening-closeing motion with our hand (like a mouth) right when she barked. Next, just act like its the OMG craziest best thing she's ever done. This is the strategy when teaching them something they naturally do on their own. They'll be like, "OH, I barked like I always do, but its something special sometimes" And eventually they'll learn that its only special when you're making that hand motion (more effective, the voice command came later). I don't really remember the details, but she got it really quick (she likes to bark, so we got to practice) A lot of times when learning a new special trick, for that trick only I will use pieces of American cheese (I have tried this her whole life to make her like baths, and it has never worked. Hair dryer? comes running, but baths? miserable).

One point, we decided that we would accept any noise as "Speak" with Pooka (as you can see in her video) because we didn't want her to think barking was awesome. It's worked out for us

DO-SI-DO:
I wanted a different word than "Spin" cuz it sounds like "shake" and "sit". I didn't want to make "shake" be "paw". But I made ONE FATAL ERROR! DoSiDo sounds like "Down" *shoulders slump* OH WELL! =) She gets it most the time. She LOVES dosido so she usually does it when I want her to go Down, or whenever else she doesn't know what I want.
This one is like Roll Over, but the pup is standing and you kind've have to make a real wide circle with the treat(they might try to roll over if they think that's what you're signalling). It took her a while to get this one when she was younger, longer than I hoped and there's no real hand signal for it. I thought I would spin my finger around to make her do it, but she just thinks I'm signalling "roll over" GOLLY! doesn't she understand y-axis rotation vs z-axis rotation (I will tell you a funny quirck later). Anyways, it's just one that takes repeating and correcting when they do it wrong. Eventually you can try making them spin more than once before giving them the treat. Pooka has never really agreed with this policy.

HIGH FIVE:
Well, I was really wanted her to learn this trick. I'd seen lots of corgis do it and it looked really cute. BUT! We had started using the hand/palm for "STAY" while she was learning. So I was stuck and sad because I didn't know how to fix it.

Then, one magical day, I was training her while sitting in the kitchen and she was excited and frustrated and I told her to STAY and I put my hand up but she was so excited she jumped up on my hand in perfect High Five form! I gave her a fricking treat! And she did it again! And wham-o, she was on her way to learning this new trick which I didn't think I'd be able to teach her until I figured something out (at this point she could pretty much do STAY with just the voice command so I thought transitioning was ok). Because the hand signal used to be one that made her sad, I made sure to get really really happy whenever I said "High Five" and whenever she would do it and she caught on real quick.

Part of the trick that's actually really important is that I don't just hold my hand up and say high five. I was training her that when I bring my hand up quickly from a normal position, that means high five. If she doesn't do it the first time I put my hand down again and bring it up real quick and say High Five! real excited. She really likes this trick because its so high energy AND, she gets to jump up at you, which is normally discouraged.

PLAY DEAD:
first, I must tell you a story. A story that nearly ripped our relationship apart... actually, I already wrote a post about it! So nevermind! Actually, in the post, I leave out the part of how very very frustrated I was that I couldn't make her feel better. That all my best comforting and best treats meant nothing to her, when I hadn't even done anything in the first place! That pissed me off. In the end, I had to get over it and realize she's a super good dog and we'd just have to wait until she got over it, trying it once a day, and ignoring the scared behavior.

Eventually she did get over the hand-gun so we got to start training the trick (didn't try "BANG" though at this point in her life, she doesn't care at all) So, in the end, we use "Pyew Pyew".

Its hard to remember how I got her to lay on her side, but if I remember correctly, I did kind've a half-roll over then told her to Stay!, and maybe holding her in place. The next step was getting her head to rest on the floor. This is a hard concept for dogs. To teach them that a trick can be the ABSENCE of motion and that they just have to trust you, instead of like normal, when she keeps her eyes on the treat at all times. So, this one requires a lot of correction and I would guide her head towards the floor with treats, and feed them to there as her head was laying on the floor. When trying to move to the next step, I'd get her head down, not give her the treat, and actualy hold her head down (softly of course!) and slowly move my hands off her telling her to stay and if she moved her head, immediately but my hands back on her head holding it down. She got the idea pretty quick and new that she wouldn't get the treat unless she stayed.

With a complicated trick like this, trying to associate it with a voice command/hand motion is rough. Mostly I did the hand motion/command before, got her in the right position, then said "GOOD [name of trick]!!" And its just an act of repitition. Eventually, they see you do the hand motion, then move to get them in the lay down position and they start doing it before you get there.

A big point on this one (which my husband often forgets!) is you don't say "Good!" until you are satisfied with how long they have laid there playing dead, which I like to make at least 1-2 full seconds. In the video I posted, she is still looking at me for this trick. Eh... I'm just a lenient mommy I guess, I like it both ways, they're both cute =) Some dogs might not be able to handle inconsistancy, but with Pooka, if she does it the lenient way, but I ask for it again, or reinforce with the hand motion, she'll do it proper.

DANCE & SING:
Well, I just... She jumps up for a treat and kind've dances and I just started doing like with "speak" and rewarding it and giving it a name "dance" and a hand motion *twinkle fingers*. She almost always barks when she does it, so i call it Dance and Sing. This is not one we've learned properly, she just sort of jumps up, and sometimes can dance on her hind legs for a few seconds, but usually not.

CIRCLE ME:
I came up with this one on my own. "Circle me" was the best phrase I could come up with. I always would do this trick standing up (though now she can do it if I'm sitting). I would hold a treat in both hands and she'd start out in front of me. With my left hand, I would guide her behind me, where my right hand was waiting. I'd quickly withdraw my left hand while getting her attention with the right hand so she'd continue going around my legs and then give her the treat from that hand immediately, saying "circle me" all along. Replace treat in right hand and repeat.
Of course! It's not that easy. She often follows the left hand back the way she came, or gets distracted by something behind me or tries to go between the legs even. Just takes repitition and then trying to get her to follow your hands without a treat in them.

Now, the funny quirck I mentioned. This one really doesn't have a hand motion either. If she's not getting it, I kinda point behind me and she gets it, but the thing is... DoSiDo, Roll Over, and Circle Me, all three she pretty much does just by voice command. BUT! for some reason, she has figured out that they are all circle related so often mixes them up!! It's so weird! they don't sound the same, and they're all mostly different rotations, but she mixes them up very very regularly. I guess she's just smart?

BACK UP:
I moved the couch a foot from the wall and got some cheeese. I got her to get in the space with me (using the trusy ol' "come" command) and of course she's looking at me cuz its cheese! and I say "backupbackupbackup" as I slowly walk forward (I kinda bob my head too, which became the signal) and it kind've forces her to walk backwards. Repeat. This one took a while, I tried walking slow, I tried taking big steps forward, I dunno, nothing worked better or worse. It just took her a really long time to do it without me moving toward her. Eventually I could just sort of lean forward and she'd go and she was kind've inconsistant for a while. We also went through a phase where she'd back up one step, then sit down. Or, just plain sit down *slaps forehead* this was frustrating and took some correction. When you get to this point, you just have to get stricter on when you give them the treat.

HOP:
hehe, this one I kind've tricked her on. I'd go for the high five, but I'd have a fist, instead of an open hand, and I'd pull it away when she jumped for it. and she'd get a treat for it! Everyone wins! Its half of a previous trick. The hand motion is now me just holding a fist up by my shoulder quickly. Its like "HIGH FIVE" in that, if she gets it wrong, I put my hand back to normal and try again, bringing my hand up quickly. She only gets it with just the word "hop" about half the time. Another work in progress.

SIT LIKE PEOPLE (aka, beg):
I saw so many corgi videos of cute corgis begging and waving I just had to try it! She didn't get it AT ALL, I figured cuz she didn't have a tail. She was also young and I didn't REALLY want to do it before she was a year old because it might mess up her spine. A few months later, one of my friends on flickr had a video of her pup Buster doing it, and he was young, with no tail, so I asked her how and she explained that you should try it on the bed/pillows first so they're not scared to fall.
I used my hand to hold her up for a long time. She wouldn't do it unless my hand was there a lot of the time (her muscles weren't ready) and she'd just try to stand up sometimes. Actually, for a while, I'd give her a treat EVERY time she did this, and usually a GOOD treat, even if I had asked for a different treat, just cuz its so cute and I don't mind her doing this one anytime =) I always make her sit before doing it, so she often does it automatically after I say "sit".

CRAWL:
I just saw a bunch of people had this trick in their repertoire and decided I'd teach Pooka. I wasn't real committed to it (cuz it wasn't my idea, it doesn't really excite me). I just... forced her to do it, like play dead. Had her lay down, then kept my hand on her back and made her chase the treat, and eventually without the hand with corrections. We've never worked on it too much so its still a frustrating trick and she bites my finger the whole time and we've never learned to do it more than 2 crawling steps, or without my finger having to be touching the ground (getting bit). *shrug*

RIGHT PAW, LEFT PAW [repeat]:
Saw this in a video, thought it was cute! She learned it pretty quick because its like shake, even though I never taught her to shake with her left paw. Just placed my foot out and ... I think I started out saying shake, and then I'd do it with the other foot and wait for her to understand. She'd get a treat for every time. Sometimes she'd jump and put both feet on my foot or try to jump up and put her paw on my knee and that had to be corrected. Pretty quickly got to stop saying Shake and started saying Right Foot and Left Foot. Soon would only give her a treat if she did a right and a left one perfectly, then only when she would do a right, left, right, left perfectly. This is as far as I've gotten, I think its really cute and she would probably do it in any order, but I want to get this right-left-right-left consistent before I go CRAZY with it =) Only silly thing is if I'm sitting in a chair and my foot is up, she'll come and lift her paw up and it takes me a second to realize what she's doing!

That's all the tricks I'm going to describe (unless I have a request)
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General Tips

I pretty much give treats all throughout when we're training because I know she will do them all without treats. I also make her do tricks to get me to throw the frisbee, though she'll only do certain ones seeing as she's extremely focused on the toy. So tricks are ALSO associated with Fetch, which is her favorite thing in the whole world!

I just accept that Pooka's not good at certain tricks. I don't know how I could get her to do rollover super-fast and consistant, so I don't really try to stress either of us out and intensely work on it.
She might be good at learning tricks just because we've always been doing it? Since being a puppy she understands that I'm going to teach her a NEW trick every few weeks. When teaching a new trick, I really only try it like 4 or 5 times each training session, but that's probably because I've got so many tricks to do. When we first started, I'd have to work a lot harder and when you only have 4 tricks, you end up repeating more.

It's fun whenever my family comes to visit, I always have a new trick to show them. Most of Pooka's tricks are works in progress. Like I said, I just try not to get real intense with any one trick and there are certain ones she's got down for life(high five, dosido), and others we may always have trouble with (back up, roll over). If there's other people around, about 50% of the time, she'll only do it if I've got treats OR!! a ball =)

Sometimes with a new trick, she just isn't getting it, so after a week I stop (out of frustration, honestly) and then when I try it again a week later she seems to get it better. This might just be a coincidence or I'm remembering wrong, but my theory is she thinks it over and is better prepared to learn it later (like taking a class, and then understanding it better when another class repeats the old information)

If your puppy is barking at you and just not acting interested its (probably) because you haven't established training as a fun time (actually... Pooka barks and bites my fingers all the time if I let her, she's just excited. She did it more when she was a puppy). I try to mostly do it in the same area, and the treats are in the same tupperware so she knows what's coming. You really gotta be a good actor and make it seem fun, even if you're frustrated and to always end on a happy note with lots of praise and treats. It's good practice for when I have kids, I'm sure!