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When you teach a dog tricks / commands, what do you start with & do you teach one at a time?
Striker only knows sit, semi-stay & recall (except when he sees a cat or something that's reallly exciting). Bibi is starting to sit when I ask her. --I know, bad mommy for starting to teach them only now
I'm a little lost with the teaching however, maybe it's because there's so many things I want to teach them & I can't do everything simultaniously. Example: It's obvious they have to know 'sit' before you teach them 'stay', but when do I teach them 'leave it / drop it'? Only later on?
So I'm wondering if it's possible if someone could maybe make a list of what to teach first, second, etc?
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams
Oh, I forgot to add -
I'm having difficulty finding a clicker - a vet will ordered it for me (after I had to explain to them what it is) but they are still waiting, so I'm still waiting...
Not sure if it will be easier to teach more than one thing at a time with a clicker? But for now I'll have to do without one
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams
I taught Herman leave by whenever he had something he wasn't meant to, I'd take it off him, say 'leave' and give him a treat in exchange. We haven't quite mastered 'drop' yet, but he definately knows leave now! TBH leave pretty much covers drop for us though.
As for tricks - Herman only really knows 2 - shake hands and high five - they are pretty much the same trick, just one is higher than the other! It was really easy with him though because Weims use their paws a lot in play, so I'd hold a treat in my hand so he could sniff it and then as he lifted his paw to bat my hand out of the way of the treat I'd say 'paw' - now all I need to do is hold my hand out and say paw. High five was the same, just higher!
Cool!! Now I just want to know - for him to sit so you could teach him those tricks - did you have to teach him sit / stay / watch me first? Or how did you get him to stay put to be able to teach him the trick?
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams
In puppy class our progression was watch me, sit, stay, down, then we learned the show-off stuff crawl, roll over, shake. But I don't know if that's like "the way" or just the way we learned it.
In the area I live there's no trainers / classes / doggie-parks, not even a pet shop. We have one vet that's very sweet, but not always very bright (sorry, but it's true). People here also don't teach their dogs tricks, or go on walks (because it's too dangerous; the crime rate is extremely high - even when I walk my doggies there's a whole lot of preparations to do). So I don't have anyone to ask or try 'new' things with me.
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams
I hope this doesn't totally bum you out, but... you didn't really have to go to all that trouble of special ordering a clicker: you could just use a pen that you have to click in order to write with it. Or a jar lid, that makes that sound when you push on the center. But no matter... use the pen or lid now, while you're waiting for the "real" clicker to arrive.
And with my two, I can get them to do just about anything if I have food in my hand: I use the food in my hand as a lure to guide them into the action I want-- her nose will be glued to my fist, trying to get that morsel out. For example, to do a circle: holding a small morsel in closed hand, wait for dog's nose to connect with hand, then slowly move your arm in a large 360, slowly enough for the dog to keep up. When the circle is complete, praise and open your hand for the reward. I teach the name of the command by saying it while we're doing it, then praise with "good circle," or whatever it was we're trying to learn. After several repetitions, you can try the motion without the food, then reward immediately after.
For some weird reason, clickers don't really work all that well with my two, even after trying to "condition" the sound. They have their eyes on my little cup of morsels, and on my hands. And they are not really using their ears-- they are all nose and eyes. So luring is the way to go with mine.
That leads me to another question: if we do the "clicker challenge," is it okay if we don't actually use a clicker? Is just luring and hand motions okay?
If an opportunity comes to you in life, say yes first, even if you don't know how to do it.
Hey Fundog. I did read that you can use a click pen, etc, but (and I'm not sure why), I WANT a clicker Silly, I know
I really hope the clicker work with my two though
I'm just not sure if they will get confused if I teach them more than one thing at a time - take Bibi for example - I'm teaching her to sit (with a treat), if I also want to teach her to 'shake', can I teach sit & shake at the same time or will that confuse her? Or do I teach 'sit' untill I get a solid SIT everytime before I can move on to 'shake' or whatever?
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams
Fundog, have you tried just capturing behaviours throughout the day rather than setting up a session and having treats ready and where the dogs can see them? The treat doesn't have to be delivered within a split second of the click. Doggie zen may be an idea too I'm not a fan of luring in general and try to avoid it. I find Rupe is much slower to understand a behaviour if he's just blindly following food or my hand or a target stick than if I shape him to do something or capture the complete thing as he does it naturally. He also tends not to offer behaviours he's been taught with a lure.
Melissa, I stick to one trick per session but not necessarily the same trick every session coz it gets old and boring for both me and Rupert. I wouldn't start teaching her to shake paw while sitting until she's reliable with sit personally, it may lead to confusion. However, working on sit in one session and something like spin in a circle or bark on command in another session is something I'd do, they're completely different behaviours whereas sit and sit and shake paw both require her to sit. If you understand what I mean
Thanks for the idea, but since I work graveyard shifts, I am asleep "through the day." I have thought of that, though ("capturing" behaviors), and I am trying to capture a couple of really cute things my Dottie does-- it's just that I never actually have a treat in my hand when she does it. Mr. Fundog is home in the daytime, but he is recovering from some injuries/surgeries and cannot get up and play with them the way I do. Luring has worked very well with Annie though-- she knows lots of stuff already, and she will automatically start trying different behaviors when she sees that I have treats.
Dottie is a bit slower to catch on, but she's had some challenges to overcome.
Let me noodle that some more, though-- I might be able to come up with something, even if it only means getting the timing right by being prepared in advance.
If an opportunity comes to you in life, say yes first, even if you don't know how to do it.
I'm not a big fan of luring anymore either. I've found that free-shaping (once I learned to fine-tune it) works way better for Murphy. We play 101 Things... a lot, stuff like that. But if I try to lure him, like my unsuccessful attempt at leg-weaving, he doesn't learn anything but "follow the treat and she'll give it to me eventually!" When we're free shaping he knows I have treats in my bag and he's got to offer me behaviors to get me to give him one.
L isn't a big fan of leaving bowls of treats all over the house and capturing behaviors...but I've been breaking her down the last several months (we rarely use his bowl to feed him meals nowadays, he eats raw a couple of times a week, we changed his diet last year to a "special" brand we can only get at the holistic pet store, etc.), so I may get her to bend on leaving "treat pots" around...maybe eventually. Because I would love to capture a bow when he stretches, stuff like that. And I want him to stay alert and pay attention to me and not just when I'm wearing the bait bag!
The click is what needs to be delivered at the exact moment, the treat can be slightly delayed. Just have the clicker on you and make it part of the reward to run to whichever room the treats are in to get one I have to admit I don't like the idea of having treats all over my house, I have a plastic tub full of treats that stays on top of Ruperts crate but that's it. If I capture a behaviour upstairs or in the garden then I'll say "lets go get your biscuit!" and race him to the crate to grab a treat, I think he actually enjoys the race to the treats more than the actual treat itself to be honest It isn't ideal for a full training session but if you're just trying to capture a behaviour as and when it occurs I've found it works really well.
Dammit we need an edit function. Not trying to say luring is bad and absolutely shouldn't be done or anything like that, just trying to throw some ideas out there.
Sarah, I do that sometimes. "Come with me, let's get your treat!" A good way to teach recall too. But I should do it more often, it isn't that difficult as we're just in a 2-bedroom apartment. I just need to remember to keep my clicker around my wrist.
I can't leave treats in bowls around the house as I have a very guardy little boy. In fact, when we do a lot of our training we have to separate ourselves outside or in another room because the weenies will crowd Bru and make him nervous so he gets snappy
Now I just want to know - for him to sit so you could teach him those tricks - did you have to teach him sit / stay / watch me first? Or how did you get him to stay put to be able to teach him the trick?
Silly, I know 
