At puppy class we have been set some tasks we have to pick one of these three and be able to do it by Mon 3rd May,
1. get your dog to walk backwards
2. get your dog to push a ball trrough goal posts(chop sticks)
3. get your dog to bow
Has anyone any ideas
Many thanks
Mary

It sounds like a fun class you go to, what a great idea.

Walk backwards is quite easy.  Dog is standing, you stand infront with a treat held to his nose, step towards him and say 'walk back' even if he only puts one foot back at first, reward him. Just build it up gradually, he will soon get the idea.

Dog Bowing.  I have taught this with a clicker, firstly show what you want with dog standing infront of you, treat in hand, quickly place hand and treat on floor (sort of level with nose), he should bow if you are quick enough and not go fully down. Click and treat.  You have to be quick with your movements on this one, just keep building it up and eventually stand still and wait for him to do it, he will work it out by himself, click and treat as soon as he does.  I usually say 'good bow' when he has.

Don't know about no.2, I would be interested if someone does.  The backward one is the easiest to teach, but you could show off with the other two :D

Sandra

Walk backwards should not be too difficult why not try for 2 of them, do you use clicker or what method do you use.

Do you clicker train?  All of those will be a doddle if you do. :)
Sally

no Im afraid that I dont clicker train. Thank you to everyone for your advice will start trying tomorrow.
Mary

What method do you use Mary, clicker would be a doddle but if we know how you train we may be able to make suggestions.

We use treats ranging from interesting up to jackpot treat, interesting treat sausage for sit, stay etc and jackpot treat tripe burger for harder stuff like recall or anything new.
Mary

How do you let the dog know that what he has done is what is wanted, it takes time to treat, do you give a audible clue?

I taught my dog to bow just recently and he does it lovely, i started by kneeling by the side of him putting my arm under his belly and lowering the treat to the ground with my spare hand and once he got to the position i sad 'thankyou' (he go confused with down and bow) and eventually progressed to hand movements and then just the command.

HTH

sorry yes lots of praise and always have a treat in hand we also use non reward so for sit we stand infront show treat at the same time say sit if she move forward towards the treat we close hand and bring it up to our chest but as bum touches floor treat is given at the same time as praise.
we are learning hand signals for sit, down, come and stop at the moment in puppy class so far we have only managed sit but we will get there in the end.
Hope this makes it clearer sorry I am not very good at explaining things I know what I want to say but cant always seem to get it out properly
thanks Mary

You may find with the walk backwards that the dog will walk back wonky or almost diagonally.  We were taught to do it between a row of chairs and that way the dog gets used to going back in a straight line.

Walking backwards - stand in front of dog with treat held about chest level, dog should look up, if it does not move backwards pretend to throw it, dog will move a paw back click and treat, shape it so that the dog then gets clicked only for increasing backward movements.

push a ball through goal posts - move ball around on floor, when nose touches it click and treat, place it between goal posts and repeat, then shape the behaviour by moving the ball further away from the goal posts and clicking for pushes rather than touches.

Bow - point treat to floor and click as soon as front legs go down before the back legs do :D