One of my shelties has started anticipating commands. For instance I tell her or give her the hand sign to sit and she does, but before she gets any other commands she goes down and then rolls over. (If she is just told to roll over, she does that without a problem.) She does this with her whole repetoire. I realise its probably my own fault for being too predictable but has anyone any idea of how to get little madam to stop anticipating?

Try jiggling the training routine up a bit!  My girl used to do this when I started training ehr to roll over, as it was always down-roll over-up! every time - so I couldn't put her in a down without her rolling over.  If you introduce a "wrong" word, like "no" or, oddly enough, "wrong" :D, you can say it whenever she does something you're not asking her to do - say she sits then goes into a down, you praise for the sit then say "wrong" for the down; it may take a few goes, but she'll stop and start thinking "what's different?  Why aren't I getting a treat?" Eventually she'll offer a different behaviour to try and get a reward, giving you the chance to get her to do something different and praise her for it.

Stick with it, it might take a while to make her realiser you're not that predictable!  It will also free you from any un-removable behaviours in the future - for example, I once used dinner times to train my dobe to spin round, he got the routine, and now every dinner time he spins furiously until the bowl is on the floor, and I can't stop him!!

In addition to varying your routine, don't always do a routine. If she knows that you're going to go through all her tricks she'll be trying to guess what comes next. Sometimes just do one command, or alternate between two, e.g. sit to down to sit to down, to get her focussing on commands rather than "guess the routine".

Retrain/progress some of your commands, ask for a sit and reward after a second, gradually increase the amount of time that the position is held for - this won't work with all commands, but it will with most. When you have worked on this and go through a routine you can expect your dog to hold the position/keep doing it until the next command comes.

Make sure you don't accidentally encourage this behaviour. If you, or anyone else, thinks it looks cute and rewards with treat, praise, or "ahhs" it will reinforce her efforts. This can be difficult to do when you have taught your dog something new or have a particularly cute trick. You have to force yourself never to give in and reward.

My dog did exactly the same as your dog in that she would roll over whenever I told her 'down'.  I didn't have a routine but the rollover was taught in parts as in 'down' then 'rollover'.  What I have done is to stop the rollover trick for a while and as soon as she is 'down' I immediately tell her 'wait' and then reward her.  This seems to be working although if I produce a really tasty treat she will 'sit', 'down', 'rollover' and raise a paw in the vain hope that she has covered all and will get the treat quicker.  I then have to think of something she hasn't done. Taught her 'high five' today that was fun

I did the same by teaching in parts. Like your dog she began stringing things together on her own. 'Wait' or 'wrong' seems like a good way to go. Thanks. :) I'll try the high five too.

Hi Karen, thanks for the reply. We must have cross posted as we do find it very hard not to at least smile at her being cute. :) This isn't just happening in training sessions. I just called her to me for instance, and she came, trotted round me, sat and looked at my hands- despite the fact that I'm sitting in a computer chair.

Hi

I know it's difficult not to smile and if she finds that rewarding it'll be tough to undo her routines. Perhaps drawing pins on your computer chair will help maintain an unhappy face? :-)

LOL @ Karen

Hi Nikita, thanks for the reply. I'll try 'wrong', as 'no' means 'stop that [bad behaviour] this instant' and I don't want to confuse her. Unfortunately tid-bits are no good as she is not food orientated. She is a bit of a comedian and her biggest reward seems to be to please us and it isn't easy not to smile at the cute little monkey when she strings things together. :) The trouble with shelties is that they are so blooming quick and willing to learn - unlike our big hounds :D and that they pick up what you don't want as fast as what you do.

I know exactly what you mean about spinning dogs. I taught our other sheltie to 'dance' when she was a pup and now she spins everytime she wants something. Maybe she thinks she has a future in heelwork to music. :)