So you got a dog.....

sillysmiles

....as I've mentioned before I recently got a dog. He is (we guess) about 3 yr old and he is a lab (maybe a cross-not sure). He was rescued from the pound about 6 months ago and lived with family until about a month ago.

Since we got him we have been working on come commands generally sit, wait, leave, heel, come and keep in (for when walking on the road).

With the dark evenings I want to do more training with him at night for something to do as well as re enforcement of things he is learning.

So....what have you taught/trained you dog to do?
What training so you do on a regular basis?
How long should training session last?

Is there one command that you feel has been really worth the time and effort to train.

Last night I tried training him to lie down, but I can't actually get him into the down position to reward so I'll keep working on it. It's not an important one for me, more for something else to teach him.

Also, is there a fear/risk of training him to too many commands?

hadook

I couldn't get mine to down for love nor money using conventional methods in the beginning so I set him up one side of the coffee table and I went the other with a treat and made him crawl under for it. Once he was in a down under the table I treated with the command and he had it in about 3 minutes. Best not to do it in company though as it makes you look like a right eeijit crawling under a coffee table with a dog

I personally like 'watch' to teach them to make eye contact and give you their full attention. I'm currently clicker training a 'tidy' command to get them to put the toys back in the basket at night. I can see no downside to teaching more commands if the dog loves to learn but I'll leave it up to the experts to say whether teaching can have a downside...

I do ~10 minutes a day of straight obedience work with mine on top of daily exercise and I have two of them in class once a week (basic & higher obedience). The only things I practice religiously on every walk is recall and wait.

aonb

"Leave it"
"Stay"
"Come"
are the most important for your dogs safely and your peace of mind when you are out. If you can get your dog to do those 3 on command EVERY time - even when theres another little gurrier-dog running loose around him, or if hes seen something he wants to investigate, or has found something disgusting to gobble up, you will be doing very well.
Being a lab-type he will be very intelligent (!) and will love the training and the treats. You will know when you have done too much - he will get distracted easily.

If you could get him to "Close the door" that would be epic - thats my dream dog-command :cool: (well actually theres lots more on the list)

wexie

sillysmiles wrote: »

So....what have you taught/trained you dog to do?

stay, wait, stop, leave it (very important, just means ignore that what you're looking at, baby, dogs, cats, food, anything) and touch is super handy, he'll touch my hand from wherever he is, handy for getting them in the car or so and also we're working on move (out of the way) as he's a rather big clumsy oaf.

sillysmiles wrote: »

Also, is there a fear/risk of training him to too many commands?

I certainly don't think so, too many at a time yes but not too many. Make sure whatever handful of commands you're working on has sunk in properly and then introduce new ones. Remember to repeat regularly and lastly, very importantly (I think) is to train continuously. It's good to have training time but you need to be training all day, every day. As in keep repeating commands and labelling and reinforcing behaviour. (after all you're not training your dog, you're just labelling things he can already do) (provided you're not doing agility or something)

Zapperzy

Getting into his bed on command is a handy one. Especially when the doorbell rings or we've visitors. Or just when he's under your feet when your trying to do something. He has a tendency to hop into his bed without being told and then stare expectantly waiting for his treat.

Quite funny when he's out and about somewhere or in someone else's house and someone tells him to get into bed, frantically looks all around him for any sort of mat or bed looking object Taught the cat to get into bed too, just had to say bed or point at the utility room or down the stairs and she'd 'talk' back at me and plod into her room

I taught the dog 'spin' and 'spin other way' just for fun too, although he's a natural spinner when excited so it was just a matter of getting it on command, don't know how he hasn't mad himself dizzy and fallen over yet.

wexie

Zapperzy wrote: »

Getting into his bed on command is a handy one. Especially when the doorbell rings or we've visitors. Or just when he's under your feet when your trying to do something.

Yeah was thinking about this earlier, actually loads of stuff I forgot 'in your bed' is definitely important. Also I taught him 'with me' (stay with me), 'front' come to the front of me and sit down.

Also teaching him hand signals for some commands such as sit, stay, wait, down and come. Sometimes he seems to respond to them better than voice commands

ShaShaBear

Opie has sit, lie down, paw (kinda just for novelty, but you'd be surprised when a time does come that you want him to give up his paw willingly), leave it (drop), go to bed, get your ball (fetch whatever toy he fancies, but will look for it on command), look at me (still working on that one, he will look, but not always for long) and we're just getting stuck into stay.

Got a clicker in Mr. Price for 1.50 and couldn't recommend them enough. 20 minutes of just clicking and treating and he realised that the clicker "makes" treats when he hears the noise. Hold it where he can see it and he stops dead, nomatter who is in the house or what is going on, and comes to me and sits. He walks perfectly to heel watching my hand like a hawk if I take it on our walks, and I periodically click and treat for this to reinforce that what he is doing is right

Tranceypoo

aonb wrote: »

If you could get him to "Close the door" that would be epic - thats my dream dog-command :cool: (well actually theres lots more on the list)

Mine would be 'bring the turf in' but it would be far too complicated and take far too long.....easier to get the husband to do it I guess...:)

Pretzill

All the training (in the loosest term of the word) I've done with mine are mostly through game commands;

Here - (is the exception with a treat on it)
Bring it to me
Wait
Leave it
Come by (that's for my young guy so that he doesn't rush ahead of the other dog in play - instead he circles back to me - bc's innate sheepdog ability!)

Drop (good one if they pick up something they shouldn't)

Ball (this is the main command for my girl she would stop anything if she thinks the ball is near!)

It's amazing how they pick these commands up during a game of ball or frisbee -

Zapperzy

wexie wrote: »

Also teaching him hand signals for some commands such as sit, stay, wait, down and come. Sometimes he seems to respond to them better than voice commands

I taught my guy with hand signals and voice commands, it's mostly the hand signals or body language he's responding to. Even without an obvious hand signal, I'd say a command but I'm guessing 90% of his cues are from subtle body language, a subtle head nod or a change in your posture. I know my fella is very sensitive to body language, my old cat was too. Used to nearly be able to have a conversation with her through head nods, posture changes and changing my tone of voice.

We done a slightly mad but brilliant thing in college where we clicker trained each other to perform a specific command, but the 'dog' wasn't told what this task was and the trainer could only teach the 'dog' using positive reinforcement and a clicker. Even had a French girl shout commands at us in French to get across the point that screaming aimlessly at a dog is pointless and intimidating. Interesting exercise I thought.

DBB

wexie wrote: »

Also teaching him hand signals for some commands such as sit, stay, wait, down and come. Sometimes he seems to respond to them better than voice commands

Dogs are waayyyyyy more visually tuned in than they are to verbal stuff. Visual cues are much more salient to them than aural cues, although some dogs, especially terriers, are better than others at verbal stuff

BetterThanThou

I've managed to teach my dog what a beer looks like, and I can ask him to get me a beer, provided I've left it in an easily accessible place and he knows where it is. If I could only teach him to open the fridge and close it, it would be great.

DBB

BetterThanThou wrote: »

I've managed to teach my dog what a beer looks like, and I can ask him to get me a beer, provided I've left it in an easily accessible place and he knows where it is. If I could only teach him to open the fridge and close it, it would be great.

Ahem.
:cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyw5kN3K8Nc

ShaShaBear

We just started "Close the door" with Opie last night and he can do it once you are standing at the door and pointing the clicker at it (he thinks the treats come out of the clicker). Going to work some more today, and hopefully in the next few days he'll be able to do it on his own :P
Not teaching him to open doors as with the baby I'll want to be able to separate them if needs be (although he is remarkably gentle with her and we do make time for him to smell her and lick her toes).

Nody

BetterThanThou wrote: »

I've managed to teach my dog what a beer looks like, and I can ask him to get me a beer, provided I've left it in an easily accessible place and he knows where it is. If I could only teach him to open the fridge and close it, it would be great.

No needed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFg3HBMJyV4

Ashbx

DBB wrote: »

Dogs are waayyyyyy more visually tuned in than they are to verbal stuff. Visual cues are much more salient to them than aural cues, although some dogs, especially terriers, are better than others at verbal stuff

I didn't know terriers were better at the verbal....you learn something new everyday on this website!

SillyMangoX

Tranceypoo wrote: »

Mine would be 'bring the turf in' but it would be far too complicated and take far too long.....easier to get the husband to do it I guess...:)

Our dog was never taught, but if my uncle is cleaning out his fire, doggy will come in and out to the shed with him bringing a stick or log each time for the fire. She's very helpful Pity she won't learn anything I've actually tried to teach her, she will sit, give paw and occasionally lie down but only if I'm with her on my own, if anyone else is around she just is way too unfocused. Pity too because she's very smart!

DBB

Ashbx wrote: »

I didn't know terriers were better at the verbal....you learn something new everyday on this website!

Terriers are much more hearing-focussed because they worked blind underground, with just smell and hearing to work with to locate their quarry! It causes problems of course, everyone knows more than one terrier that goes berserko at the doorbell, and they seem to be able to hear the lightest breeze!

Whispered

SillyMangoX wrote: »

Our dog was never taught, but if my uncle is cleaning out his fire, doggy will come in and out to the shed with him bringing a stick or log each time for the fire. She's very helpful Pity she won't learn anything I've actually tried to teach her, she will sit, give paw and occasionally lie down but only if I'm with her on my own, if anyone else is around she just is way too unfocused. Pity too because she's very smart!

Phoe brings in sticks for the fire but he brings them onto to the couch and goes back and forth until I stop him so if I don't keep an eye on it he'd end up with a big pile. He doesn't do it on cue either, just when he feels like it. (Typical bloke?)

anamaria

DBB wrote: »

Terriers are much more hearing-focussed because they worked blind underground, with just smell and hearing to work with to locate their quarry! It causes problems of course, everyone knows more than one terrier that goes berserko at the doorbell, and they seem to be able to hear the lightest breeze!

Well mine has the most amazing capacity for ' optional deafness' in that case!

DBB

anamaria wrote: »

Well mine has the most amazing capacity for ' optional deafness' in that case!

Lol, yes indeed! Nothing like a terrier for Selective Deafness

anamaria

DBB wrote: »

Lol, yes indeed! Nothing like a terrier for Selective Deafness

Or mindless excitement! My girl is a Cairn crossed with something bigger/chunkier. She really responds well to clicker training and picks things up very quickly.......when she wants to! One of the biggest obstacles I have come accross with her is her excitement levels, if something interesting or fun is happening I may as well be talking to the wall

Zapperzy

anamaria wrote: »

Or mindless excitement! My girl is a Cairn crossed with something bigger/chunkier. She really responds well to clicker training and picks things up very quickly.......when she wants to! One of the biggest obstacles I have come accross with her is her excitement levels, if something interesting or fun is happening I may as well be talking to the wall

You may well have described my cairn cross. Brains to burn but he's like a four year old after drinking a few bottles of coke and a multipack of skittles :rolleyes:

Ave Sodalis

aonb wrote: »

If you could get him to "Close the door" that would be epic - thats my dream dog-command :cool: (well actually theres lots more on the list)

My dog can do that

Although, when he's learning a trick, he gets super excited and over exaggerates it so if we tried to get him to do something like put his toys away, I would imagine there would be even more of a mess because he'd get so excited, he'd start missing the basket... So in the case of the door, it did have to get slammed a few times as he threw himself at it to close it before he calmed down.

anamaria

Zapperzy wrote: »

You may well have described my cairn cross. Brains to burn but he's like a four year old after drinking a few bottles of coke and a multipack of skittles :rolleyes:

Oh my god! In a nutshell!! :-)
Couldn't stop laughing as that description is so accurate!