Toula - America's Most Talented Pet

Posted by Clare Bristow

PETCO has named Toula, a three year old rescue Border Collie, as America's Most Talented Pet.

In a competition to find the next PETCO Star, Toula beat off the competition with her ability to get a tissue for her Mum when she sneezed, fetch a soda, flush the toilet and numerous other tricks.

Here's a video of Toula showing what a helpful house dog she is:

Clearly Toula's owner, Christine, has put an enormous amount of time and patience into training Toula to do these tricks.

You can train your dog to do similar tricks too. Every action Toula does is prompted by a specific word or sound, for example, when Christine sneezes she knows she needs to find the tissue box and get a tissue.

You can start with getting your dog to find the TV remote for you.

The first step is to teach your dog the name you are going to use for the TV remote and get him used to retrieving it for you. Do this by using the command 'find remote' when you send him to retrieve the TV remote.

The second step is to teach your dog to find the TV remote after you've hidden it.

To do this get your dog to sit, stay and watch you go and place the remote just out of his sight. Return to him and release with the command 'find remote'; repeat this a number of times so he really understands what the command means.

The third step is to make the game harder by going out of your dog's sight to hide the remote.

Keep making the game more challenging for your dog by hiding the remote in obscure places and giving the release command to find it whilst you're sitting on the sofa or wherever you sit to watch TV; remember to give lots of praise when he brings the remote back to you.

Once your dog is reliably finding the TV remote it's time to impress your friends with your dog's new trick - then start teaching him the name of other objects to find and bring to you.

Have fun!

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Comments

6 Responses to “Toula - America's Most Talented Pet”

Johann on August 23rd, 2007 6:44 am

Toula is amazing! We know her Mum Christine, they are friends of ours. Rescues rock!!!!

Woof, Johann
Clare on August 23rd, 2007 1:55 pm

They are an amazing pair - I bet they'll do a great PetCo advert too.
Christine & Toula on August 23rd, 2007 2:15 pm

Hi There everyone-
Its the very, very proud mum of Toula- I was so thrilled to see this article on your site, thank you very much.

This win has become a personal crusade for Toula and I let the world know that rescue dogs are amazing creatures and so deserving of good homes.

In the mean time, Toula will keep greeting me with my slippers~

Christine & Toula
Clare on August 24th, 2007 7:34 pm

Hi Christine and Toula,

Thanks for taking the time out to drop by and say hello.

I'm blown away by how well trained Toula is, and it's inspired me to teach Fritz and Zoe how to do a few more useful things around the house.

I'm sure this will help to raise the profile of rescue dogs; they are so deserving of new loving homes. I don't think there can be better examples of what great companions rescue dogs can make than Toula and her friend Johann.

Have a great time in LA, and good luck with the filming!
Lyle & Deb Scranton on August 26th, 2007 2:25 am

Yeah Toula !! - Lyle & I adopted our border collie Dughall who was fostered by Christine last year. We travelled all the way from central Illinois to Michigan to adopt our dog. Dughall lived and played with Toula during that time and he is very proud of his foster sister. We can't wait to see the advertising.
Clare on August 26th, 2007 10:36 pm

Hi, thanks for your comment, and I expect Dughall is a proud dog.
Hopefully Toula taught Dughall a few tricks whilst he was staying with her and Christine!