Hi all,
Just wondered how do i teach my puppy new tricks? ie, not the normal, sit, stay etc, but rollover, 'speak' etc.  I have taught her sit already (she's 12 weeks) and to give me her paw, but thats it and i have no idea how to start teaching teh other ones!

we taught Mia to 'speak' by saying 'speak' then making a barking noise straight afterwards, we carried on doing this and then one day my partner told her to, sit, paw then 'speak' and she did it, dont think its the correct way to teach them, but it worked for us :)

Beware the teaching paw thing with large dogs - Willis has split my lip on numerous occasions :rolleyes: he thinks its the way to get everything: "paw paw mom, look PAW" *BASH* :D

Yikes... and she's gonna be HUGE. I only want her to do it when i ask though - hopefully she will get the idea! the one thing we dont want her doing is jumping up. i read in a book that one way to do that is to slap your thighs like you are wanting them to jump up,but make that the cue to sit!

Hi,

Unfortunately, all dogs will jump up if they see that it is necessary to :-( they do it because they like to be on your level or they want to get a reaction, or they just get too damn excited :D I know what you mean about the split lip, I have a Briard and somehow, i have managed to let him think its ok to give me a paw (it was cute when he was 4 months old) Lets just say I am regretting letting him do it, if you saw my face and chest, legs, arms, as he runs the paw down them you would understand :rolleyes: I do the speak bit, probably not the right way to teach but it also worked for me ;-) If your dog jumps up, you fold your arms and turn your back on it, ignore the behaviour and dont pay any attention until they are sitting, (having been told to of course) My OH lets our boy jump up at him and is now paying the price, his back, when he turns it on the dog, now looks like he has had a wild night out with a wild cat :D  Aaah, just deserts me thinks :D

Get Captain Haggertys book on teaching your dog to speak; it has loads of tricks in there or Take a Bow WoW 1 and 2 videos.

Ever since we taught Sparky to speak, he has found his voice! My daughter started saying "Whissssper" if he gave a little grunt or groan instead of a bark when she was teaching him, and now he "whispers" to me about his day - sounds a bit like Scooby Doo! The more I talk back, the more he does it, tail going ten to the dozen - really funny.

That is sooo adorable tracyL!! I think that it must help with a 'chatty' breed though - our other dog who is an aussie cattle dog cross, he is very talkative and will use his voice to get your attention (i taught him to 'say woof' and now he preempts me saying 'sit' by woofing instead! v annoying!) but he is very barky anyway. our new pup isnt that noisy - but she does make lots of noises all the time. not sure how to get her to make them on command though!

These are some of the tricks I've taught my dogs, the methods may not work for all. Try and teach the dog the word and a hand signal, hand signals make the tricks a lot easier for the dogs to remember.

ROLL OVER. Make the dog lie down, gentle push him to one side, then drag the treat near his face and over. Tell him "ROLL OVER" then give him the treat. You can either have him go all the way, or just lie on his back. I've taught my dog to lie on her back because it's useful for things like the vets :)

Another cute trick you can try is BEG. Have the dog in a sitting position, then drag a treat slowly over his head until he leans back on his back legs with his front paws in the air.Tell him "BEG" and then treat.

You could also try BOW. Have the dog in a standing position, kneel beside him and tell him to lie down and at the same time place your hand gently under his stomach so his front half is lying down but his back half is still standing."BOW" treat. When he's more used to it, try just touching him to remind him what to do, then progress to just the word and hand signal.

HIDE is really cute. Get a piece of cellotape and stick it on your hands/clothes a few times so its lost its stick (be careful in making sure it isn't sticky because it will pull out the dogs fur and hurt it), then place it just infront of the dogs right eye. When the dog tries to get it off by placing his paw infront of his eye, tell him "HIDE" and reward him. Another way to teach this is by blowing in his face! but don't do it if the dog is shy or sensitive.

CRAWL. Make the dog lie down, slowly drag a treat across the floor infront of him so he follows, tell him "no" if he stands up and reward for staying low. It might help to hold his collar at first to stop him trying to stand up. When he's crawling across the floor, "CRAWL" treat.

ROUND. Have the dog standing infront of you, have a treat in your hand, put it to his nose and drag it around him so he turns round in a circle."ROUND" treat. Start off slowly then increase the speed. Try it the other way aswell.

STAND. Have the dog in a sit or beg position, have the treat above his head and slowly bring it up until the dog is standing. "STAND" treat. If the dog touches you tell him "no" and stop for a few minutes so eventually it will be clear to him that he's supposed to just balance on his back legs and not allowed to touch you.
You might not want to teach your dog this if he is boisterous because it might encouarge him to jump up, my one was okay with it - just make sure you make it clear you don't want the dog's paws anywhere near you! You shouldn't teach a dog this trick if it has a long back e.g sausage dogs!

You can also try combining tricks like stand and round or beg and hide etc.

Remember to BE PATIENT! Unless your dog is a qualified genius, he probably wont get it straight away! The hide trick took my dog a few weeks before she learnt it correctly, but all dogs have different learning rates and it depends on how much time you spend training. If the dog is taught something well they'll remember it for the rest of their life so its worth putting in the time teaching:)

Sorry for rambling!

Use clicker training - it is great for tricks as you can reinforce movements towards what you want then gradually shape the final behaviour. We got our  13 month smooth collie 6 weeks ago and since then have used this to teach him roll over, paw (paw into palm), high five (paw straight onto palm verticall), high ten (two paws to palm), twirl (both directions), walk backwards etc - as well as the normal obedience exercises. He loves it - and when he is not sure what you want will run through his whole repetoire trying to get a click! It takes him on average 4 or 5 clicks to realise what is wanted and from there you can shape it to be exactly what you want.
As an example this is how we trained high ten - I hid a treat in my hand and held it up slightly over his head when sitting. He already knew high 5 so first tried that - when it didn't work he jumped up and put both paws on my hand so I clicked and gave him the treat. Once he was consistently putting two paws up I only clicked when his bottom was on the floor so if he jumped up on his hind legs I didn't click - ie shaping for a two paw touch while sitting on his haunches. Once he had got that I introduced the words "high ten". Each stage took a few minutes a couple of times a day - he learned the whole thing in about a week of short sessions.

It is great fun. And completely force free - if he doesn't want to do a particular thing he doesn't have to.

Good luck
Janet

Thank you all for those brilliant tips!!

I'm interested as to why adding a click makes it easier for htem to learn? is it because they know that a click means a treat? surely just a treat works just as well? I am relaly interestedin trying this, so i'd love to know more and also what books would be good ones for clicker training.:)

The way i have taught boo to sit (boudicca!) is just stand over her and say sit, and for some reason she sat first time! it was lucky i know, but i think mabe the breeder might have been playing that game too.  Anyway, she sits when i say to and i have also taught her to give me her paw - i did this by asking her to sit first then put my hand palm up in front of her and said 'give me your paw' and eventually instead of licking my palm, she gave me her paw, then i rewarded with treat and 'good girl' and cuddles.  She wont do it in different situations though! I am really going to get into this trick training.

I love Boudicca! :D what a great name is she your Leonberger pup? The clicker works as a 2 stage reward the click is like a tick on a correct answer to us followed by the treat and I found it helpful when learning to time rewards properly, as I kept fumbling with the bag in my pocket.

I got Millie at 8 weeks, and by 9 weeks she had mastered 'sit', 'give paw' and occasionally 'lie down' (took the arrival of the clicker to get that one mastered!!!  She then learnt to 'speak' (although sometimes she only responds to 'woof' where I tried demonstrating!) and to stay, and this week I've taught her 'on your bed', but the more difficult ones (like roll over) I've given up before I've started.

Anyway, what I was going to say is a good one to teach is 'Down From A Distance'.  I don't think Millie will ever get this, lol, but I read it in my book and if you can get her to lay down whilst being quite away away, it could come in useful should you ever be in a situation eg. she is over the other side of the road from you and you need her to wait still until you can get to her, so it could potentially save her life if you can teach her this one.  Worth trying.  Unfortunately I move away and ask Millie to lay down and she immediately runs over to lay down at my feet so I must remember NOT to try this one should she ever be over the other side of the road!!!

when is it normally to late to easily teach tricks ? lily learned to sit and lay down by 10 weeks, and at the same time it only took her half an hour to learn paw, we continued to try and teach things but they are the only things she has learned. we have been trying to teach rollover continuously since we got her, but she's 7 and a half months now and still doesn't get it - she just tries her repertoire of sit, paw, lay down, paw, sit, slap my face, whinge, etc....

is it too late now ? i think she finished her learning stage at 11 weeks !

sarah
x

Its never too late to teach a dog anything, Sarah. We didnt get Morse till he was 6 months and once we learned to get his attention hes been a wee spotty sponge :D The more you teach them the more they love to learn. It sounds as though shes not sure what you want and so tries everything shes got to get the reward! Break it down into little steps and when she gets each step dont reward for anything less, and be impassive if unasked behaviours are offered.

1. Get a soft surface and teach down by lowering the treat so she can only get it by dropping down - coffee tables are good - then put treat between front paws

2. When shes happy to lie down on command hold a treat in your fingers show it and move it round behind her head so she has to turn to get it and when she slips onto her side, give treat.

3 Work the treat round so she rolls right over

Some dogs dont like down and over as it puts them in a vulnerable position so it can take a while for them to be confident with it. Have fun :D

The way that most people have trained dogs is to give the command and then "model" or "lure" the dog into the correct position.  The trouble with this method is that for example manhandling a dog into a position usually creates resistance, if you push most dogs/horses/people their first reaction is to push back! Also how can a dog obey a command when it a) does not speak english and b) has absolutely no idea what the command means?

You have hit the nail on the head with regard to your comment that your dog "won't do it in other situations though".  Therefore the dog is not trained.  The test of training is that the dog will respond the command every time it is given, it will never offer another behaviour, it will not offer it if not asked for and it is "generalised" thoroughly; this is where so many people go wrong.  Just because the dog sits at home the wonder why it will not at class or in the park! 

Again we must differentiate using a clicker alone as opposed to using the clicker system.  There are lots of people I observe that have no idea how to use the clicker.  In "operant conditioning" we wait for the animal to offer the behaviour and then give it a signal that it is correct.  This signal also indicates that a treat follows.  The click is "a promise" that a treat will come, therefore you MUST treat even if you click at the wrong time.  The "click" can be a clicker, your voice or a whistle (see dolphin training).  Once the dog offers you the behaviour you shape it so that it becomes faster, higher, longer etc eg you shape the dolphin to jump out of the water higher before it gets rewarded.  It is only then that you put in a command.

The clicker is useful because it is distinct from the voice eg if you say ok or good etc you use these terms too much in ordinary conversation for the dog to respond, the words become like lift music and they ignore them.  Also it is consistent, some people cannot retain neutrality in their voice and so the command sit will sound different in the room than being screamed at across a field :D

Timing can often be improved by using one too and some people are self conscious about using their voice.

I would recommend the Motivation Movie for clicker training or going to a class as learning it from a book is a bit hit and miss.  http://www.dogtrain.co.uk/ good books re operant conditioning must be Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor, anything by Elizabeth Kershaw or Sarah Whitehead (see Crosskeys Books)

Visit www.learningaboutdogs.com and look at their clicker training books (foundation and novice) they're set up like courses rather than books, so you can do the exercises and learn the fundamentals about training. Once you've learned those, you can teach your dog any trick you want, from simple like shutting a door or bowing, to more complicated like collecting toys and putting them in the toy box, helping you to load and unload the washing machine, the list is only limited by your imagination!
Don't run before you can walk though, you need to know how dogs learn (not in great detail, but just enough to get by). There are lots of things to consider, the more you learn the more you think 'how did I teach my dog anything before?'. I've come to the conclusion that most dogs learn things despite our training methods, not because of them :)
Simple things like not adding the command until the dog knows the behaviour (too soon and they'll ignore your voice because they learn it means nothing) being careful about the body language signals you are giving out, being careful about where you train (dogs are very context specific, and can understand something in the kitchen but not in the living room) etc can all lead to both you and the dog getting frustrated. If you want to teach tricks and more advanced training, then it's not fair to put your dog through unnecessary stress through bad training and mixed signals so you need to understand the concepts first.
Once the basics are there in your mind though, the skys the limit!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll have a ball!

Jo

I got my clicker today - and have already started with it with Boo. She has figured out already that it means she will get a treat and as i have been up till now for hte past two weeks we've had her used no clicker, i'm getting her used to it. at the moment she just barks at me knowing that i have something for her!  She knew up till today (and still does) sit, give me your paw, and speak.:)

I think clicker training is great, and have used it with my dog since he was a pup (he's now nearly 2).  At dog club last week our instructor said we have to teach our dogs something to do with a bucket, so I thought I'd teach him to pick up bits of rubbish and put them in - with the clicker he learnt in only two sessions of less than 10 mins.
  Hilda