City Dog: Dog Tricks in the City

We know that too often people are quick to judge pit bull-type dogs, and some people will even judge the entire breed based on their experience with one single dog. Since I used to fall into that category too, we work extra hard to get our pooches out there and allow people to have positive interactions with the pups (sometimes it's even the first time they've met a pit bull in real life!).
I learned one way to really get people to interact with the pooches is to take the 'circus dog tricks' we learned out of the classroom and into our everyday lives. Doing these tricks on our daily walks has increased the pooches' focus and communication with us, plus we love when people come up to compliment us on how well behaved our pooches are. Here are some of our favorite tricks to draw an 'audience':

Conversation:

We use the 'watch me' command so the pooches are always checking in with us and paying attention. This helps with many of the distractions we find on our daily walks, not to mention the recent adoring comments from onlookers at an outdoor cafe seeing how two smaller breed dogs with 'good reputations' completely lunged and snapped at our pooches who were able to walk by without a reaction. We've also gotten a lot of people stopping us to say it looks like we are having a real conversation with our dogs.

Sit and Look Both Ways:

We have trained our pooches to stop and sit any time we stop walking and to automatically sit at corners. We have also taught Miss M a 'look' command where it looks like she is actually looking for traffic before crossing. This is another trick we love using at busy corners where there is outdoor seating (and we get great comments!).

Waving:

This is one of our favorite Circus Dog Tricks that I never realized would have a realistic application. We like to use this one if kids or strollers pass by 'looking at the doggies'. They are always amazed when the 'doggy' waves back at them. It's also good to use when we're stopped at a curb with people walking towards us, or we're near a bus stop.
If people do seem edgy with the dogs, or over-react when they see us coming, I typically have Miss M over-act my completing a finish command--walking around me in a circle--and waving.

What other tricks or commands do you use to promote your pup?

Plus, the training command that changed our lives and Miss M's most notable trick yet (that also helps with the chores!)