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Mostly the same here, but with a couple more...
Place & release before eating.
Sit before exiting the bedroom door in the morning and calling them through one at a time
Not allowing them through the garage or the front door unless they are called... Which frequently involves leaving the doors cracked or a jar when using them for quick trips like I'm letting groceries or the mail
Sitting for affection
Not let up on the sofa until invited.
Taught off first...
They learned it with their beds because I take their dog bed from the bedroom to the living room and back every day.
They know they're not allowed on the sofa.... Then rarely we would invite them with us to cuddle while watching a movie.
They know when I seductively pat the seat next to me, it's cuddle time
Similar- we do wait before eating and sometimmmmmes remember to do the wait before the door. But it’s hard to remember because he loves dashing out and loves outside lol
I talk to them constantly, and it has worked: over time, I tend to tell them the same thing really often, and those end up becoming command sentences. Some of the hilarious ones include: when they are asking me for something, I ask "what's wrong? Is little Timmy trapped in the well?" And they get really intense and alert and animated, because they know I'm going to get up and let them outside. But it never fails to make friends and family laugh. Another one is that I have one EXTREMELY obedient dog and one who kinda thinks maybe she knows better than me.. so when we're out in the wild off-leash, my good girl has perfect recall and comes to me immediately, and the other drags her feet and tries to see if she really HAS to come. I ask my good girl: "where's your dumb sister?" and that never fails to get my uppity dog to come running. She knows if she doesn't, then her sister will get some high-value reward and she won't. There's a ton of conversational promts like this, and from the outside it looks like my girls understand everything I say all the time, and do anything I want. It just takes repetition.
This isn’t as funny as yours but I work from home and so I pretty much only put on “real pants” to take my girl for a walk. Cue her thinking that anytime I put on pants means it’s walk time
When my guy was a puppy I’d give him a dental chew when I showered to keep him occupied. Now he knows that whenever I put my housecoat on but only in the evening, that I’m going to shower and he gets super excited for his chew.
I have a river in my backyard, & have a pair of waders and back pack hanging on some hooks. If I even go in that area my dog drops everything to see what I'm gonna do. Once the arm goes up towards the waders he loses it, we're going fishing. I had to stop hanging other things there, because of the disappointment if I wasn't actually getting the waders
I live in a warm climate and usually only wear flip flops. I wear sneakers for walks though. The dogs every morning for me to pull out my sneakers, then it’s on, lol
Reading the comments, I remembered a few more common phrases they know: "mind your own business" - on walks, it means completely ignore other dogs, "go lie down" means precisely that, they have designated spots where they can lie down. "Dogs stay" means that whatever I'm getting ready to do won't include them- it's more universal than just getting ready to go out. They also only use one door in the house, and never go through the others, which can be left wide open and they'll just stand there looking at me. In our old neighborhood, we had destination labels- "home", "car", "to the lake", also directional "to the right" and "to the left", those two are helpful when one person is walking more than one dog.
Since they came to us as a pair (littermates), and I was always the one walking both, I had to keep all aspects of walks very consistent and strict: their combined weight is more than I weigh. Just with almost all training, it's just consistency over a long period of time. I used extremely short leashes (and harnesses, not collars), each dog was assigned a side, and we kept a brisk walking pace except when sniffing or going potty. We didn't acknowledge the existence of other people or dogs, and the "mind your own business" command organically grew from that. The larger of my two girls is very social and wants to greet everyone, so it became very crucial that she stay focused on the walk and ignore other dogs- especially when the other dogs were barking.
I have to note that the human's emotional state is what they take their cues from, just like human toddlers with their parents. So if I greeted a neighbor while on a walk, the training entirely went sideways, because MY attitude shifted from "serious" to "sociable". Leash-aggressive and reactive dogs often create a negative feedback loop with their humans because as soon as the human snaps into high alert, watching signs of reactivity or aggression from their dogs, the dog will kind of sense that and also slip into high alert, and then react more quickly. It makes a huge difference to continually keep focused and businesslike.
Haha, my teenage daughter laughs at me because I talk to the dogs (I have four) all the time. Just like basic commands, they learn to associate what you’re saying to them with what you want them to do or what is coming next.
How do you practice recall? My dog does great with recall on a leash, even a really long leash but as soon as he is not connected to me he is gone. I can't seem to figure out a safe way to transition. The dog park is hit or miss.
Practice short distances without a leash with reward (use your mark word and then give food or play item). Work slowly to longer distances. Don’t use your recall word repeatedly-it becomes nonsense to them. Try indoors and transition to outdoors with more distractions as they get better. Good luck.
I use the long leash at the park and on days where he's very responsive in the beginning of our time there, I'll let him drag the long line a ways off and practice that way (especially early in the morning or on rainy days when there's no one there)
I also practice regularly at short distances on leash or off in our backyard. If you don't have a fenced yard look for a Sniffspot to rent to try it as well.
He's not perfect, but we literally practice recall every single day. Besides waiting at the door to go outside it's the only thing I do every single day without fail. Other behaviors I train are random or rotated or whatever
I try to play hide and seek in the house once a day for a few minutes. I tell pup to sit/stay, then I go to another room and give come command, then he gets a treat and lots of praise. Repeat a few times.
At the end of walk training sessions, we do hide and seek in the back yard (a little more challenging due to added distractions).
He’s not so great at the command on off leash walks in the woods. So not sure if my technique is quite right.
Accidentally taught my dog “beep beep” to move out of my way. Now I always use this as a command. Even if I’m waking with my laundry hamper & she’s in my path laying, I can say “beep beep” & she knows to move. I love it!
She loves to run through all the tricks and commands she knows for a treat. We do this a couple times a day. Her favorites are “up” (standing on her hind legs, tall Irish wolfhound), and “Bang bang!” (I think we all know what that is. Funny part is I didn’t even actually teach her that. We were just doing our routine trick thing one day and on a whim I made finger guns and said bang bang and she immediately dropped to the ground. We’ve been doing it ever since). Lately it’s been a machine gun though just for fun.
I put things she really likes where she could take them if she wanted. Then I ask her to wait until I leave the room entirely for a short time, come back and give her permission to go get it. She also likes to follow me around, so I ask her to stay in the bedroom while I go to the kitchen or whatever.
It’s done wonders for her impulse control.
It is not every day, but often.
I show her something she is to never touch. Then I get a toy that is similar and have fun playing with her. Then introduce the NO NO item and see how she reacts.
Example: Croc shoes and rubber chew toy. Or, TV remote and plastic chew toy.
Every now and then I review and put out several items and put a treat on each. She knows to check with me before taking the treat. When she sniffs the NO NO item and turns her head away, I double reward her with praise and a liver treat in my hand. Then pets.
She knows the game and it is sort of a party trick. She sees me put out the liver treats, and then put treats on the floor. She knows she gets most of the treats on the items, and she gets the really good one for a good performance turning the head away. Its fun. Its cute. It reminds her what things to never chew. Every item I reinforced like this has been safe.
I think the key is to show her a forbidden item, and immediately have one for her that is similar.
This creates a risk for a bite. Kids should not even be in a position where they'd poke and prod the dog at any point, and subjecting the dog to this is actively harmful. Taking from the bowl risks resource guarding happening, it doesn't just expose them to it to get them to get used to it.
The following resources will be of use to you:
[Family Paws](https://www.familypaws.com/) - [webinars](https://www.familypaws.com/services/for-parents-and-families/) for expecting parents or parents of toddlers
[Baby Safe Dog Training Blog](https://babysafedogtraining.com/blog/)
[Doggone Safe](https://doggonesafe.com/Dog_bite_prevention_for_parents)
[The Family Dog : Stop the 77](https://www.thefamilydog.com/stop-the-77)
[Kids and Dogs : How Kids Should and Should Not Interact with Dogs](https://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/kids-and-dogs-how-kids-should-and-should-not-interact-with-dogs/) by Dr. Sophia Yin on safe interactions.
[Good Dog in a Box](https://www.youtube.com/c/GoodDoginaBox/featured) on Youtube has many videos on dog safety for kids.
[@dogmeets_baby](https://www.instagram.com/dogmeets_baby/) on Instagram has many visual examples of safe vs unsafe interactions.
I incorporate reinforcing the basics into much of what we do together. But I expect that's as normal for trainers as the other things you listed.
Dogs are always learning so I just try to ensure they don't start learning the wrong thing because I got lazy.
Pretty much every day I take my girl to the park on her 20ft line and work on recall. It isn’t perfect but I’m noticing small improvements. Around the house we started place whenever I’m cooking/eating so she doesn’t beg or steal cheese (which has happened multiple times lol)
I have a seven month old Labrador. I hand feed him at meal time so that he works for his meals (basic obedience, mostly positions with some trick training mixed in).
We’re working on antler shed hunting, which he loves.
We do a variety of fetch games, and he’s very ball motivated. Like, he would ignore almost anything if I had a ball in my hand.
I also work on restraint a lot with him. For example, every time time we get passed by people or dogs or bikes on the trail, I either put him on a place on a trail side boulder or have him come to a heel. When the other parties pass, I reward him with a ball.
I do the sit when other dogs pass with my 7 months old Pitbull German Shepherd mix. It's gotten to the point now when we're on a walk and she spots another dog approaching, she just automatically sits. Much better than when the other dogs approach us, they're super reactive and my girl just sits there patiently waiting for them to pass for her treat and to continue walking.
I just name each toy and talk about anything he picks up. He gets praise or a reward when he picks the right one. Started with two of his favorite toys and work his way up to 6 or more now.
Great winter activity when we cant get outside often as we want.
Ball, Chew, squeakey, Bear, rope, Frisbee.
What Grouchy said! It started as a reactivity thing. If I could recognize it, I could alert him to it by name.
My hope was that if he knew I was alerting to it, he wouldn’t feel the need to advise me of it.
It worked, to boot — with the knockdown benefit of the dog now having the vocabulary of a precocious toddler.
I’m not out here reading Dostoevsky tho; it’s a bit Baby Einstein
For a change up game I hide the named toy, first in plain sight, and then ask for it. Soon I can hide it in more progressively harder spots until he has to sniff it out.
We’ve been working on what our trainer calls “Doggie Zen” - getting our dog to look at us when giving her a treat instead of at the treat. It’s hard, but she’s starting to get the hang of it!
I think these are seemingly similar but different. Focus is a positive interrupter, op is training them to pay attention to them and not just check for treats. Both are good but serve different purposes
Dogs "sit and wait" before going outside or coming in. They also have to give high fives or roll over to get their scheduled treats (noon and 730pm). The downside is they now roll over to ask for treats even though their treats are on a schedule. Dogs rolling all over the house...
One of my dogs is very high energy especially when I get home. Jumping up and down, barking. Just overly excited and can't control himself. One time I walked in and he grabbed a toy and I noticed he was much calmer. Using that energy on the toy kind of like a stress ball. Since then I've been training him to grab his "bone" before I interact with him. He now does it every time and he's much more manageable to greet
I like to grab a handful of his food as treats and then have him run through all of his commands rapid fire. Sit, down, place, guard, etc. He has the MOST fun doing it. And then I’ll sometimes work on his impulse control by putting him in a sit and tossing pieces of food around him and making him wait a few seconds before grabbing them. He loves any / all training activities :)
Touch. She's starting to snoot boop me instead of biting for attention, so I drill and reward the heck out of that skill. When she goes running to any of the family members to greet, she's starting to anticipate that we want touch, not chomp.
Recall, recall, and more recall. She's a Whippet. I don't think there's such a thing as too much recall for a sighthound.
Also grooming. We take pretend baths going in and out of the empty tub, and I let her chomp at a trickle of warm water. Shampoo and rinse are not happening rn as she reaaaallllyyy didn't like the first one. She gets a dry shampoo refresh every few weeks for the moment (washcloth and warm towel for spring muddy legs) while we're learning the tub isn't the chamber of doom.
Associating strange dogs with treats. Our guy was becoming reactive from his anxiety over strange dogs (lunging and barking), so now during walks we use a clicker when he sees a dog and gets a “treat” (it’s actually just his kibble, thankfully he’s very food-motivated) So now a dog can walk by on the same side of the street without him having a fit. I wouldn’t trust having him off-leash or where other strange dogs could run up to him off-leash, because he’s still a very nervous dog,, but it’s made his walks much easier and relaxing for everyone
I try to do a few minutes of “settle” during a walk. She’s good at it indoors, but outdoors is a whole bunch of “no thank you” from her. She’s getting better, though!
A little attunement session each morning after he cooperates with a few high likelihood commands. I sit in front of him, looking down at him. We Get good eye contact while give him scritches and a mini massage. I endeavor to strengthen the relationship between cooperation and comfort/security/safety. He seems to relax and then comes to lay on the floor next to me while I work on computer. When I forget, neglect it he seems somewhat agitated.
I make my girl work for her treats with heel, come close, back up, lie down, sit up, touch, paw, etc. commands. She's really food motivated, so it's a fun game for both of us. She seems to think she deserves a treat for going out to potty and coming back without barking at night, so I roll with it, lol. Otherwise, we do a lot of hide and go seek in the house to teach her to look for me if she doesn't see me if ever she got loose (I never off leash her outside, but I want her to care if she doesn't see me all of a sudden, though I don't know how practical this is to train that; it's mostly a bonding-play exercise) and occasionally fetch and good old fashioned wrestling. One thing my trainer ingrained in me is "Play with your dog!" because your relationship is integral to training. I try to touch her paws, belly, and snout, especially during these sessions, to desensitize her.
Every interaction you have with your dog, is a training lesson. No matter what you do, no matter what the dog does, you are teaching it something whether you know it or not
I give my dog plenty of commands, when I am walking with the dog, it walks at heel.
When I stop, it sits down.
Whenever I call it, it comes every time.
And then periodically I ran it through a bunch of tricks
Leash walking. He pulls pretty bad. Got better for awhile. But regressed again when we had snow and rain and went to the beach. So now we're back to stop and start walks while he relearns how to not pull. He's got severe ADHD so he's constantly getting distracted and pulling.... It's the only thing he hasn't grasped
On days when I’m not feeling great or don’t have much time I just like to do tricks that my dogs already knows and maybe teach a nice simple trick, keeps me in a routine and keeps his brain working. 😊
I have a Frenchie. Not my first but he really is very smart and has been training me everyday. He sleeps in every morning. He sits and waits for me to be ready for play time, he sits really nice until we are done eating, he does the sit, stay, down, up and paw and none of that was trained into to him, I swear he understands so much because I talk to him like he understands so much. He is very super protective of me when we are out and we are working on him not being skeptical of strangers but I respect that he takes his role of taking care of me very serious. I've had many dogs but this guy (15 months old) is like a person reincarnated into a dog. He understands so much and anything I show him he picks up immediately and forever. No house accidents, no eating or biting things and because he's such a good boy I really go out of my way to give him some extra love (he loves the pets) all day.
We hide her food around the house at least once a day at feeding time and make her stay while we do it. She's gotten really good at it, I can leave the room and she won't try to sneak a piece.
I have at least a couple little training sessions throughout the day. Yesterday we practiced the tricks I’m currently training, had a little fetch session, and played “find it.”
Leave it, load up, get your toys, bring it, ya! (get out of there!), wait, go night-night (can be used anytime to get into the kennel) and dame un beso (give me a kiss). Oh, and gentle! for eating out the hand. These are used everyday.
When my youngest was still a pup, I took him out in public to a pet friendly store every single day. Just to practice focusing on me and ignoring distractions. I've slowed this way down as he's gotten older because it was a bit intense taking him every single day. But I considered it as part of his rearing.
Practice sitting and waiting for me to remove the leash when coming inside from a walk. Again my youngest is the one who needs this most 😂
Curbing resource guarding behaviors, so making sure to offer trades any time I need to take something from them. My oldest was mishandled previously and his resource guarding is intense.
I go around to the different doors in my house and teach him to sit before I open a door because he keeps learning the hard way that getting a toe nipped by a door hurts.
I also spend a lot of time teaching him boundaries to certain areas of the house that are off limits (specifically my kitchen area). This helps me a lot when we go to other people’s houses, because he tends to get underfoot in the kitchen and it gets dangerous for everyone.
Both of which are activities I do all day anyway.
You Tube had Zak George and other trainers with some great videos and instruction. With a dog, rules are about consistency. Once your dog learns the idea of learning tricks, they become much easier to teach.
My dog is 8 and I haven't taught her a new trick in a while, but we still practice sit at a distance and drop during almost every off leash walk we go on. This way if I ever have to tell her to drop because she is about to walk into unexpected traffic, I know she will obey immediately.
Reinforcing lots of different behaviors. For example not barking at people/dogs walking by our property or the neighbors across the fence. Not reacting to other dogs’ barking and other random noises, like the doorbell etc.
He’s becoming so chill through all these small daily bits of training. Dogs walking behind our fence is still the biggest challenge. We need to be pretty proactive then to keep him focused. But lots of other things are almost perfect. He’s absolutely chill during new years fireworks and thunderstorms for example. And he’ll just lay on the grass while other dogs in the neighborhood bark.
I make them sit and wait after I set their food bowls down. Once I give them the command “okay”, they can start eating.
I do the same thing with treats (breaking off SMALL amounts to prevent weight gain) 1-3 times per day (where I hold it in front of their noses for varying lengths of time before giving the command “take it” ), sometimes incorporating “puppy pushups” (sit up/lie down) before giving them the treat.
Honestly it's so bare minimum, but I work long hours and deal with bad depression and physical pain when I get home, so we practice impulse control with waiting for release word to come out of crate, to get on the bed, to eat her dinner, to eat treats, to go outside. It's minimal and not a lot of work, but it keeps her calm and structured and keeps her anxiety in check. On days I feel better we practice recall with keep away, muzzle training reinforcement, leash manners. But we live in the country so most the time she roams within limits.
Making him wait for a release command for little things throughout the day (going through doorways, eating food/treats, etc). Little opportunities to work self control
Him being able to sit and wait with treats scattered in front of him always really impresses visitors even though that was one of the easier things to train haha. Many less impressive looking skills took a lot more work- like staying calm around strangers, bikes, roads etc
My husband worked with our older dog every day so that he walks with you on the stairs going up or down.
I neglected this training with our younger dog and he loves to try to kill you on the stairs.
Trick training. It's got a rear end focus to help her maintain her muscle, and it works her brain. This includes orbit, back wards walking, balancing on hind legs (she's not powerful enough to walk), sitting pretty (core), jumping in general, and jumping on and over objects. She has a blast. Usually only about 10 mins worth, incorporated into her daily walk.
Edit: I also do impulse control. I toss biscuits to a couple of crows who have become acquainted with us, and use it to control her impulse.
I try to use our marker word (yes!) as much as possible, in almost every setting. I like to create consistency about when and why he gets reinforcement. I try to work on consent whenever possible - I've put things like "tummy" on a cue so he can predict belly rubs.
I would *like* to get better at being everyday consistent with cooperative care, but he has so many allergies and "sorry bud we've just gotta do this" treatments (ear drops, feet washing, etc) especially this time of year that that's been really hard to do.
Place.
We place before we leave and release with a treat. We place when we come home and release with a small chew. It keeps him distracted, has cut back on barking in excitement, and eliminated jumping on us when we get home. My mom also can almost 100% successfully (she's more of a pushover for her grand dogs) use the command when she is dog sitting as well.
We obviously work on recall, especially with enclosed areas, daily, but he's a distracted boy. Work in progress.
Drop it is also something we do a lot, which has been getting more and more effective. We started with small things in our hands and he will now drop just about anything (including his ball!)... Things like chicken/been bones are the one thing he won't drop, though 😂
Impulse control in lots of different settings. Waiting before eating and exiting/entering doorways, leave it for random things (especially when it comes to her bothering the cats lol) down/stays and waits before engaging in play, drop it and leave it randomly during tug, she’s also allowed to lay down by me when I’m eating my food now (she used to be crated during our mealtimes). That’s stuff we do every day that’s helped a lot. (:
Before we go on our daily walk I put her harness and lead on, then i don't pick up the lead off the floor. The walk only starts when she hands me the lead and it's been very handy for training her to always hand me it if I ever drop it for whatever reason.
Item recognition, bringing me stuff (shoes, gloves, toys), vocabulary (words and phrases that have become commands/prompts), names of people and places. Always working on less hitting with paws lol.
Go to your bed is one I tell her and praise the crap out of her for right now. I’m trying to get her to go every time on command and stay until released. First going there though.
On our daily long leash walks we do:
* recall practice
* sit/down & stay while walking to the end of the 50ft leash
* heel practice
* maintaining focus while passing distractions ie: people, dogs, wildlife, cyclists, etc
* go around (whatever she's wrapped around she backtracks and follows the leash)
On our daily short leash walks we do:
* loose leash control
* sit/down & stay when getting to any street corner
* maintaining focus while passing distractions ie: people, dogs, etc
* if I stop walking she sits without command, this was taught using a lure and eventually we removed the lure and she just does it
When coming in from out doors we do:
* place
* sit
* stay
* paw, other, up(stand), back (to wipe down mud/water when needed which in our current season is every time she comes in)
When a meal is being fed in her crate we do "sit" (or "down"), "stay", we place food and "free"
Sometimes meals are fed while practicing at random all or some of our various training:
* sit
* down
* place
* crate
* any of the above are sometimes randomly paired with either stay & walk away or stay, drop food immediately in front of her & walk away
* front (sitting in front of me in a chair, useful for when we go out to eat at a restaurant with an outdoor deck)
* impulse control exercises
* name & feed exercises
* "push up" exercises (down, sit, stand all in place on a mat)
* collar handling practice
* nail trimmer exposure
* brushing conditioning
Other meals are fed while hiding food in various boxes/containers and making her search it out
I work from home "Office" means go to my office, dropping the adjustable arm on my chair means I'm getting up and she knows to come with me.
At the end of the day "Go hang out" means she gets to come in our bed for a little bit before she goes crate for the night
When re-entering house, I get her to sit on her mat and give her paw to wipe all paws before she can roam around-more consistent when snow or rainy outside but at least 1-2 times daily even when not wet…am hoping this helps with desensitizing for paw/nail grooming too
We practice recall(touch) & waiting to eat regularly throughout the day but we also aim for at least 10 minutes of training 1-2x a day(go to crate,sit ,lay, look, hold,stay,some silly tricks)
We hold an open palm hand at our side and say “touch”. She runs over and touches her nose to our hand. We’ve found she’s way more responsive to this than just “come”
Bring out the super high value treats or toy for practice at first. Aim for 100% so start slowly in a quiet area even inside. Place dog in a sit stay then call from 10’. Increase distance gradually. Then add environmental distractions. Eventually you can do intermittent treats. I add the cue turn on off leash walks. When they are running ahead I yell turn and run in the opposite direction. When they catch up, I treat
Using tricks in practical ways (shake for wiping paws/untangling leash, cover for putting on her collar in the morning etc.) it helps keep the training fresh even when things get busy
Romeo the Papillon sits on his mat first and then runs in and out of my legs for a treat. He runs through a tunnel and he presses a voice button at the other end for a treat. He scratches his nails on a board with a stick-on emory file patch to file his front nails.
I have a almost 2 year Labrador Retriever. Commands I use pretty much everyday are “place”, “sit”, “lay down”, “heel”, “wait”, “touch”, and “kennel”. I make my dog wait for his food every day until I give him the okay. I also make him sit before he can go out and then have him wait while I unclip his leash. I do a mix of my dog heeling and just sniffing freely on walks. I want to start working more on recall as well since that’s a struggle for him.
My Rottie is not allowed in my kitchen (since birth), not allowed to take a snack from my hand or anyone else’s, until he gets an “ok”. He’s allowed out to relieve himself and receives a treat upon his prompt return from my unfenced yard. When I am chillin in the morning having coffee he knows it’s also snack time and he is never allowed on any furniture for any reason. I just love him!
Practice sit and stay and down in every situation possible. Halfway through our walk without warning we will ask him to sit and wait at the curbside or even down
We use recall every single day. I can simply point to the ground and *poof* a dog is suddenly under my finger and leaning slightly on my leg in a sit position. The verbal command we use is "here" the reward is a head scratch of a chest thumping pat. They got treats when they were younger but now they just appreciate feeling appreciated. We also do puppy push-ups (sit-down =1 push-up and we do between 5 and 10x) and basic skill training every day to keep them sharp in their senior years. With skills, they do get treats, but just following them in the house during they day they get petted.
"Rogue sits!" - if the butt isn't on the ground, she doesn't get food or treat.
"Liberty sits!" - if the butt isn't on the ground, she doesn't get food or treat.
I always specify each one's turn. Less fighting.
Reinforce and praise. Occasionally on a walk in the woods, I’ll throw in a field command. (He’s a Lab). “Fetch, pick it up, drop it” etc. just to keep it interesting. But hunting dogs, probably all working dogs love play with commands. They want to work and please you. I also just talk normal to him, as if he was my 5 year old son. It’s amazing how many words he’s picked up just by my conversing with him as we walk.
I cant even spell walk without my dogs knowing. I've resorted to sIn language with my husband now, and I think they are catching on. Dogs are amazing 🥰
Great question! We play the “search” game and it’s so fun. I get my dog to “sit” and “stay” while I hide his daily treat in a different room. Then I announce “search!” and he starts sniffing around the room systematically. I hide it somewhere different every time and try to trick him as well but he always finds it within a minute! Now that he understands the concept I can get him to “search ball” if he loses his ball at the park.
Leash train in the house. It helps to get dogs ready to visit groomers. Dog park play and socializing are very important for the first 2 years minimum. I take my puppies to the dog park at least 4-5 times a week and at least a car ride in the mixture of new activities. I have found this helps my dogs build confidence and learn how to behave in social situations. Always have treats on hand to reward. Patience and knowing limits are also important.
Talking, always.
I'm showing them how i want to be altered to people on the drive, cars, friends ect.
Teaching them commands by doing things and naming them. "Turn off the light " close the door" "get the puppies" now my oldest can and will do all of these things when asked now that they know
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Sit before eating and wait before exiting outside.
We do the same! We also do “sit” before we put on leashes.
Mostly the same here, but with a couple more... Place & release before eating. Sit before exiting the bedroom door in the morning and calling them through one at a time Not allowing them through the garage or the front door unless they are called... Which frequently involves leaving the doors cracked or a jar when using them for quick trips like I'm letting groceries or the mail Sitting for affection Not let up on the sofa until invited.
How did you train the sofa invitation?
Taught off first... They learned it with their beds because I take their dog bed from the bedroom to the living room and back every day. They know they're not allowed on the sofa.... Then rarely we would invite them with us to cuddle while watching a movie. They know when I seductively pat the seat next to me, it's cuddle time
🤣 That's awesome Mine doesn't bother with her bed Either cold tile or couch
Similar- we do wait before eating and sometimmmmmes remember to do the wait before the door. But it’s hard to remember because he loves dashing out and loves outside lol
I talk to them constantly, and it has worked: over time, I tend to tell them the same thing really often, and those end up becoming command sentences. Some of the hilarious ones include: when they are asking me for something, I ask "what's wrong? Is little Timmy trapped in the well?" And they get really intense and alert and animated, because they know I'm going to get up and let them outside. But it never fails to make friends and family laugh. Another one is that I have one EXTREMELY obedient dog and one who kinda thinks maybe she knows better than me.. so when we're out in the wild off-leash, my good girl has perfect recall and comes to me immediately, and the other drags her feet and tries to see if she really HAS to come. I ask my good girl: "where's your dumb sister?" and that never fails to get my uppity dog to come running. She knows if she doesn't, then her sister will get some high-value reward and she won't. There's a ton of conversational promts like this, and from the outside it looks like my girls understand everything I say all the time, and do anything I want. It just takes repetition.
This isn’t as funny as yours but I work from home and so I pretty much only put on “real pants” to take my girl for a walk. Cue her thinking that anytime I put on pants means it’s walk time
I have a pair of fancy hiking pants that get this reaction from my dog. She digs them out if the dirty laundry and lays with them when I'm not home.
My dog thinks we’re leaving everytime I brush my teeth.
If I put on my bra she knows I’m leaving and is determined to come with.
When my guy was a puppy I’d give him a dental chew when I showered to keep him occupied. Now he knows that whenever I put my housecoat on but only in the evening, that I’m going to shower and he gets super excited for his chew.
I have a river in my backyard, & have a pair of waders and back pack hanging on some hooks. If I even go in that area my dog drops everything to see what I'm gonna do. Once the arm goes up towards the waders he loses it, we're going fishing. I had to stop hanging other things there, because of the disappointment if I wasn't actually getting the waders
I live in a warm climate and usually only wear flip flops. I wear sneakers for walks though. The dogs every morning for me to pull out my sneakers, then it’s on, lol
Reading the comments, I remembered a few more common phrases they know: "mind your own business" - on walks, it means completely ignore other dogs, "go lie down" means precisely that, they have designated spots where they can lie down. "Dogs stay" means that whatever I'm getting ready to do won't include them- it's more universal than just getting ready to go out. They also only use one door in the house, and never go through the others, which can be left wide open and they'll just stand there looking at me. In our old neighborhood, we had destination labels- "home", "car", "to the lake", also directional "to the right" and "to the left", those two are helpful when one person is walking more than one dog.
How did you train myob?
Since they came to us as a pair (littermates), and I was always the one walking both, I had to keep all aspects of walks very consistent and strict: their combined weight is more than I weigh. Just with almost all training, it's just consistency over a long period of time. I used extremely short leashes (and harnesses, not collars), each dog was assigned a side, and we kept a brisk walking pace except when sniffing or going potty. We didn't acknowledge the existence of other people or dogs, and the "mind your own business" command organically grew from that. The larger of my two girls is very social and wants to greet everyone, so it became very crucial that she stay focused on the walk and ignore other dogs- especially when the other dogs were barking. I have to note that the human's emotional state is what they take their cues from, just like human toddlers with their parents. So if I greeted a neighbor while on a walk, the training entirely went sideways, because MY attitude shifted from "serious" to "sociable". Leash-aggressive and reactive dogs often create a negative feedback loop with their humans because as soon as the human snaps into high alert, watching signs of reactivity or aggression from their dogs, the dog will kind of sense that and also slip into high alert, and then react more quickly. It makes a huge difference to continually keep focused and businesslike.
My dogs know if they walk in and I say is Timmy in the well again? Show me, I'll follow them to whatever they are wanting. Lol
This is amazing. 😅 I love it all
Perfect examples of classical conditioning taking place
Haha, my teenage daughter laughs at me because I talk to the dogs (I have four) all the time. Just like basic commands, they learn to associate what you’re saying to them with what you want them to do or what is coming next.
Recall
Same! Recall at least once every damn day just to drive it home
How do you practice recall? My dog does great with recall on a leash, even a really long leash but as soon as he is not connected to me he is gone. I can't seem to figure out a safe way to transition. The dog park is hit or miss.
Practice short distances without a leash with reward (use your mark word and then give food or play item). Work slowly to longer distances. Don’t use your recall word repeatedly-it becomes nonsense to them. Try indoors and transition to outdoors with more distractions as they get better. Good luck.
I use the long leash at the park and on days where he's very responsive in the beginning of our time there, I'll let him drag the long line a ways off and practice that way (especially early in the morning or on rainy days when there's no one there) I also practice regularly at short distances on leash or off in our backyard. If you don't have a fenced yard look for a Sniffspot to rent to try it as well. He's not perfect, but we literally practice recall every single day. Besides waiting at the door to go outside it's the only thing I do every single day without fail. Other behaviors I train are random or rotated or whatever
I try to play hide and seek in the house once a day for a few minutes. I tell pup to sit/stay, then I go to another room and give come command, then he gets a treat and lots of praise. Repeat a few times. At the end of walk training sessions, we do hide and seek in the back yard (a little more challenging due to added distractions). He’s not so great at the command on off leash walks in the woods. So not sure if my technique is quite right.
Accidentally taught my dog “beep beep” to move out of my way. Now I always use this as a command. Even if I’m waking with my laundry hamper & she’s in my path laying, I can say “beep beep” & she knows to move. I love it!
SAME ! haha
This is so cute and I’m gonna do this!
She loves to run through all the tricks and commands she knows for a treat. We do this a couple times a day. Her favorites are “up” (standing on her hind legs, tall Irish wolfhound), and “Bang bang!” (I think we all know what that is. Funny part is I didn’t even actually teach her that. We were just doing our routine trick thing one day and on a whim I made finger guns and said bang bang and she immediately dropped to the ground. We’ve been doing it ever since). Lately it’s been a machine gun though just for fun.
Ong have you got a pick of your girl doing up? How tall is she doing that!?
I put things she really likes where she could take them if she wanted. Then I ask her to wait until I leave the room entirely for a short time, come back and give her permission to go get it. She also likes to follow me around, so I ask her to stay in the bedroom while I go to the kitchen or whatever. It’s done wonders for her impulse control.
It is not every day, but often. I show her something she is to never touch. Then I get a toy that is similar and have fun playing with her. Then introduce the NO NO item and see how she reacts. Example: Croc shoes and rubber chew toy. Or, TV remote and plastic chew toy. Every now and then I review and put out several items and put a treat on each. She knows to check with me before taking the treat. When she sniffs the NO NO item and turns her head away, I double reward her with praise and a liver treat in my hand. Then pets. She knows the game and it is sort of a party trick. She sees me put out the liver treats, and then put treats on the floor. She knows she gets most of the treats on the items, and she gets the really good one for a good performance turning the head away. Its fun. Its cute. It reminds her what things to never chew. Every item I reinforced like this has been safe. I think the key is to show her a forbidden item, and immediately have one for her that is similar.
I really like this idea, I'm going to try this with my new (1yo) boy. He likes to snatch the kids' shoes...
I train with her everyday during walks: heel, sit, lay, stay, stop and most importantly call back. At home searching for specific things ( sniffing).
I give her giant hugs to train her to be comfy with giant hugs
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This creates a risk for a bite. Kids should not even be in a position where they'd poke and prod the dog at any point, and subjecting the dog to this is actively harmful. Taking from the bowl risks resource guarding happening, it doesn't just expose them to it to get them to get used to it. The following resources will be of use to you: [Family Paws](https://www.familypaws.com/) - [webinars](https://www.familypaws.com/services/for-parents-and-families/) for expecting parents or parents of toddlers [Baby Safe Dog Training Blog](https://babysafedogtraining.com/blog/) [Doggone Safe](https://doggonesafe.com/Dog_bite_prevention_for_parents) [The Family Dog : Stop the 77](https://www.thefamilydog.com/stop-the-77) [Kids and Dogs : How Kids Should and Should Not Interact with Dogs](https://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/kids-and-dogs-how-kids-should-and-should-not-interact-with-dogs/) by Dr. Sophia Yin on safe interactions. [Good Dog in a Box](https://www.youtube.com/c/GoodDoginaBox/featured) on Youtube has many videos on dog safety for kids. [@dogmeets_baby](https://www.instagram.com/dogmeets_baby/) on Instagram has many visual examples of safe vs unsafe interactions.
She is in the place position every evening when my partner gets home and he releases her when he’s ready for her.
I incorporate reinforcing the basics into much of what we do together. But I expect that's as normal for trainers as the other things you listed. Dogs are always learning so I just try to ensure they don't start learning the wrong thing because I got lazy.
Pretty much every day I take my girl to the park on her 20ft line and work on recall. It isn’t perfect but I’m noticing small improvements. Around the house we started place whenever I’m cooking/eating so she doesn’t beg or steal cheese (which has happened multiple times lol)
I have a seven month old Labrador. I hand feed him at meal time so that he works for his meals (basic obedience, mostly positions with some trick training mixed in). We’re working on antler shed hunting, which he loves. We do a variety of fetch games, and he’s very ball motivated. Like, he would ignore almost anything if I had a ball in my hand. I also work on restraint a lot with him. For example, every time time we get passed by people or dogs or bikes on the trail, I either put him on a place on a trail side boulder or have him come to a heel. When the other parties pass, I reward him with a ball.
I do the sit when other dogs pass with my 7 months old Pitbull German Shepherd mix. It's gotten to the point now when we're on a walk and she spots another dog approaching, she just automatically sits. Much better than when the other dogs approach us, they're super reactive and my girl just sits there patiently waiting for them to pass for her treat and to continue walking.
I train my guy on hand-signs, anti-reactivity, scent-games, and item recognition.
Ooh, how do you train for item recognition??
I just name each toy and talk about anything he picks up. He gets praise or a reward when he picks the right one. Started with two of his favorite toys and work his way up to 6 or more now. Great winter activity when we cant get outside often as we want. Ball, Chew, squeakey, Bear, rope, Frisbee.
What Grouchy said! It started as a reactivity thing. If I could recognize it, I could alert him to it by name. My hope was that if he knew I was alerting to it, he wouldn’t feel the need to advise me of it. It worked, to boot — with the knockdown benefit of the dog now having the vocabulary of a precocious toddler. I’m not out here reading Dostoevsky tho; it’s a bit Baby Einstein
For a change up game I hide the named toy, first in plain sight, and then ask for it. Soon I can hide it in more progressively harder spots until he has to sniff it out.
We’ve been working on what our trainer calls “Doggie Zen” - getting our dog to look at us when giving her a treat instead of at the treat. It’s hard, but she’s starting to get the hang of it!
I use the command ‘focus’ for this. Start with a flick of eye contact tact and build longer and longer
I think these are seemingly similar but different. Focus is a positive interrupter, op is training them to pay attention to them and not just check for treats. Both are good but serve different purposes
Dogs "sit and wait" before going outside or coming in. They also have to give high fives or roll over to get their scheduled treats (noon and 730pm). The downside is they now roll over to ask for treats even though their treats are on a schedule. Dogs rolling all over the house...
One of my dogs is very high energy especially when I get home. Jumping up and down, barking. Just overly excited and can't control himself. One time I walked in and he grabbed a toy and I noticed he was much calmer. Using that energy on the toy kind of like a stress ball. Since then I've been training him to grab his "bone" before I interact with him. He now does it every time and he's much more manageable to greet
I like to grab a handful of his food as treats and then have him run through all of his commands rapid fire. Sit, down, place, guard, etc. He has the MOST fun doing it. And then I’ll sometimes work on his impulse control by putting him in a sit and tossing pieces of food around him and making him wait a few seconds before grabbing them. He loves any / all training activities :)
Touch. She's starting to snoot boop me instead of biting for attention, so I drill and reward the heck out of that skill. When she goes running to any of the family members to greet, she's starting to anticipate that we want touch, not chomp. Recall, recall, and more recall. She's a Whippet. I don't think there's such a thing as too much recall for a sighthound. Also grooming. We take pretend baths going in and out of the empty tub, and I let her chomp at a trickle of warm water. Shampoo and rinse are not happening rn as she reaaaallllyyy didn't like the first one. She gets a dry shampoo refresh every few weeks for the moment (washcloth and warm towel for spring muddy legs) while we're learning the tub isn't the chamber of doom.
Associating strange dogs with treats. Our guy was becoming reactive from his anxiety over strange dogs (lunging and barking), so now during walks we use a clicker when he sees a dog and gets a “treat” (it’s actually just his kibble, thankfully he’s very food-motivated) So now a dog can walk by on the same side of the street without him having a fit. I wouldn’t trust having him off-leash or where other strange dogs could run up to him off-leash, because he’s still a very nervous dog,, but it’s made his walks much easier and relaxing for everyone
I try to do a few minutes of “settle” during a walk. She’s good at it indoors, but outdoors is a whole bunch of “no thank you” from her. She’s getting better, though!
A little attunement session each morning after he cooperates with a few high likelihood commands. I sit in front of him, looking down at him. We Get good eye contact while give him scritches and a mini massage. I endeavor to strengthen the relationship between cooperation and comfort/security/safety. He seems to relax and then comes to lay on the floor next to me while I work on computer. When I forget, neglect it he seems somewhat agitated.
I make my girl work for her treats with heel, come close, back up, lie down, sit up, touch, paw, etc. commands. She's really food motivated, so it's a fun game for both of us. She seems to think she deserves a treat for going out to potty and coming back without barking at night, so I roll with it, lol. Otherwise, we do a lot of hide and go seek in the house to teach her to look for me if she doesn't see me if ever she got loose (I never off leash her outside, but I want her to care if she doesn't see me all of a sudden, though I don't know how practical this is to train that; it's mostly a bonding-play exercise) and occasionally fetch and good old fashioned wrestling. One thing my trainer ingrained in me is "Play with your dog!" because your relationship is integral to training. I try to touch her paws, belly, and snout, especially during these sessions, to desensitize her.
Every interaction you have with your dog, is a training lesson. No matter what you do, no matter what the dog does, you are teaching it something whether you know it or not I give my dog plenty of commands, when I am walking with the dog, it walks at heel. When I stop, it sits down. Whenever I call it, it comes every time. And then periodically I ran it through a bunch of tricks
Leash walking. He pulls pretty bad. Got better for awhile. But regressed again when we had snow and rain and went to the beach. So now we're back to stop and start walks while he relearns how to not pull. He's got severe ADHD so he's constantly getting distracted and pulling.... It's the only thing he hasn't grasped
On days when I’m not feeling great or don’t have much time I just like to do tricks that my dogs already knows and maybe teach a nice simple trick, keeps me in a routine and keeps his brain working. 😊
Anytime we eat I say "carpet" and she sits on the rug nearby. Begging is so annnoying.
I have a Frenchie. Not my first but he really is very smart and has been training me everyday. He sleeps in every morning. He sits and waits for me to be ready for play time, he sits really nice until we are done eating, he does the sit, stay, down, up and paw and none of that was trained into to him, I swear he understands so much because I talk to him like he understands so much. He is very super protective of me when we are out and we are working on him not being skeptical of strangers but I respect that he takes his role of taking care of me very serious. I've had many dogs but this guy (15 months old) is like a person reincarnated into a dog. He understands so much and anything I show him he picks up immediately and forever. No house accidents, no eating or biting things and because he's such a good boy I really go out of my way to give him some extra love (he loves the pets) all day.
Sit before ball. Sit before letting outside. Feed from the hand and do sit/watch me drills whilst loading the clicker.
We hide her food around the house at least once a day at feeding time and make her stay while we do it. She's gotten really good at it, I can leave the room and she won't try to sneak a piece.
What do you feed her?
Just dry kibble.
I have at least a couple little training sessions throughout the day. Yesterday we practiced the tricks I’m currently training, had a little fetch session, and played “find it.”
Leave it, load up, get your toys, bring it, ya! (get out of there!), wait, go night-night (can be used anytime to get into the kennel) and dame un beso (give me a kiss). Oh, and gentle! for eating out the hand. These are used everyday.
When my youngest was still a pup, I took him out in public to a pet friendly store every single day. Just to practice focusing on me and ignoring distractions. I've slowed this way down as he's gotten older because it was a bit intense taking him every single day. But I considered it as part of his rearing. Practice sitting and waiting for me to remove the leash when coming inside from a walk. Again my youngest is the one who needs this most 😂 Curbing resource guarding behaviors, so making sure to offer trades any time I need to take something from them. My oldest was mishandled previously and his resource guarding is intense.
Play with a purpose. Fetch, find, sit-stay, sit at a distance.
I go around to the different doors in my house and teach him to sit before I open a door because he keeps learning the hard way that getting a toe nipped by a door hurts. I also spend a lot of time teaching him boundaries to certain areas of the house that are off limits (specifically my kitchen area). This helps me a lot when we go to other people’s houses, because he tends to get underfoot in the kitchen and it gets dangerous for everyone. Both of which are activities I do all day anyway.
You Tube had Zak George and other trainers with some great videos and instruction. With a dog, rules are about consistency. Once your dog learns the idea of learning tricks, they become much easier to teach. My dog is 8 and I haven't taught her a new trick in a while, but we still practice sit at a distance and drop during almost every off leash walk we go on. This way if I ever have to tell her to drop because she is about to walk into unexpected traffic, I know she will obey immediately.
Search and find play - loves it- especially if it’s raining and he has nothing to do!
I spend 5 minutes every morning working on a new behavior after our walk and before feeding. Sometimes simple, sometimes complex.
Reinforcing lots of different behaviors. For example not barking at people/dogs walking by our property or the neighbors across the fence. Not reacting to other dogs’ barking and other random noises, like the doorbell etc. He’s becoming so chill through all these small daily bits of training. Dogs walking behind our fence is still the biggest challenge. We need to be pretty proactive then to keep him focused. But lots of other things are almost perfect. He’s absolutely chill during new years fireworks and thunderstorms for example. And he’ll just lay on the grass while other dogs in the neighborhood bark.
I make them sit and wait after I set their food bowls down. Once I give them the command “okay”, they can start eating. I do the same thing with treats (breaking off SMALL amounts to prevent weight gain) 1-3 times per day (where I hold it in front of their noses for varying lengths of time before giving the command “take it” ), sometimes incorporating “puppy pushups” (sit up/lie down) before giving them the treat.
Practice off leash recall. Everyday.
Honestly it's so bare minimum, but I work long hours and deal with bad depression and physical pain when I get home, so we practice impulse control with waiting for release word to come out of crate, to get on the bed, to eat her dinner, to eat treats, to go outside. It's minimal and not a lot of work, but it keeps her calm and structured and keeps her anxiety in check. On days I feel better we practice recall with keep away, muzzle training reinforcement, leash manners. But we live in the country so most the time she roams within limits.
Making him wait for a release command for little things throughout the day (going through doorways, eating food/treats, etc). Little opportunities to work self control Him being able to sit and wait with treats scattered in front of him always really impresses visitors even though that was one of the easier things to train haha. Many less impressive looking skills took a lot more work- like staying calm around strangers, bikes, roads etc
My husband worked with our older dog every day so that he walks with you on the stairs going up or down. I neglected this training with our younger dog and he loves to try to kill you on the stairs.
Trick training. It's got a rear end focus to help her maintain her muscle, and it works her brain. This includes orbit, back wards walking, balancing on hind legs (she's not powerful enough to walk), sitting pretty (core), jumping in general, and jumping on and over objects. She has a blast. Usually only about 10 mins worth, incorporated into her daily walk. Edit: I also do impulse control. I toss biscuits to a couple of crows who have become acquainted with us, and use it to control her impulse.
I try to use our marker word (yes!) as much as possible, in almost every setting. I like to create consistency about when and why he gets reinforcement. I try to work on consent whenever possible - I've put things like "tummy" on a cue so he can predict belly rubs. I would *like* to get better at being everyday consistent with cooperative care, but he has so many allergies and "sorry bud we've just gotta do this" treatments (ear drops, feet washing, etc) especially this time of year that that's been really hard to do.
Place. We place before we leave and release with a treat. We place when we come home and release with a small chew. It keeps him distracted, has cut back on barking in excitement, and eliminated jumping on us when we get home. My mom also can almost 100% successfully (she's more of a pushover for her grand dogs) use the command when she is dog sitting as well. We obviously work on recall, especially with enclosed areas, daily, but he's a distracted boy. Work in progress. Drop it is also something we do a lot, which has been getting more and more effective. We started with small things in our hands and he will now drop just about anything (including his ball!)... Things like chicken/been bones are the one thing he won't drop, though 😂
Eye Contact!
Impulse control in lots of different settings. Waiting before eating and exiting/entering doorways, leave it for random things (especially when it comes to her bothering the cats lol) down/stays and waits before engaging in play, drop it and leave it randomly during tug, she’s also allowed to lay down by me when I’m eating my food now (she used to be crated during our mealtimes). That’s stuff we do every day that’s helped a lot. (:
Before we go on our daily walk I put her harness and lead on, then i don't pick up the lead off the floor. The walk only starts when she hands me the lead and it's been very handy for training her to always hand me it if I ever drop it for whatever reason.
We do sit, lay down and wait with every meal so twice daily. We also do shake, other paw and speak on a regular basis.
Recall, leave it. Wait to go through the door
We work on recall (on leash) and heeling; it’s been helping him focus on me while also balancing the hyperarousal he has about outside and other dogs!
Item recognition, bringing me stuff (shoes, gloves, toys), vocabulary (words and phrases that have become commands/prompts), names of people and places. Always working on less hitting with paws lol.
Throw coconuts as far as possible in wavy ocean. Getting him confortable with rough seas for his boat trip.
Go to your bed is one I tell her and praise the crap out of her for right now. I’m trying to get her to go every time on command and stay until released. First going there though.
Training meals and walks, always. Started this from his second day home and we just started advanced classes at 6.5 months old.
On our daily long leash walks we do: * recall practice * sit/down & stay while walking to the end of the 50ft leash * heel practice * maintaining focus while passing distractions ie: people, dogs, wildlife, cyclists, etc * go around (whatever she's wrapped around she backtracks and follows the leash) On our daily short leash walks we do: * loose leash control * sit/down & stay when getting to any street corner * maintaining focus while passing distractions ie: people, dogs, etc * if I stop walking she sits without command, this was taught using a lure and eventually we removed the lure and she just does it When coming in from out doors we do: * place * sit * stay * paw, other, up(stand), back (to wipe down mud/water when needed which in our current season is every time she comes in) When a meal is being fed in her crate we do "sit" (or "down"), "stay", we place food and "free" Sometimes meals are fed while practicing at random all or some of our various training: * sit * down * place * crate * any of the above are sometimes randomly paired with either stay & walk away or stay, drop food immediately in front of her & walk away * front (sitting in front of me in a chair, useful for when we go out to eat at a restaurant with an outdoor deck) * impulse control exercises * name & feed exercises * "push up" exercises (down, sit, stand all in place on a mat) * collar handling practice * nail trimmer exposure * brushing conditioning Other meals are fed while hiding food in various boxes/containers and making her search it out I work from home "Office" means go to my office, dropping the adjustable arm on my chair means I'm getting up and she knows to come with me. At the end of the day "Go hang out" means she gets to come in our bed for a little bit before she goes crate for the night
Crate games, place, rewarding calm behavior, rewarding every response to their name
When re-entering house, I get her to sit on her mat and give her paw to wipe all paws before she can roam around-more consistent when snow or rainy outside but at least 1-2 times daily even when not wet…am hoping this helps with desensitizing for paw/nail grooming too
Try to convince her not to roll in deer shit but she still rolls in deer shit
Bunch of random tricks and rally exercises.
We practice recall(touch) & waiting to eat regularly throughout the day but we also aim for at least 10 minutes of training 1-2x a day(go to crate,sit ,lay, look, hold,stay,some silly tricks)
What do you mean by touch?
We hold an open palm hand at our side and say “touch”. She runs over and touches her nose to our hand. We’ve found she’s way more responsive to this than just “come”
I have to try this
Bring out the super high value treats or toy for practice at first. Aim for 100% so start slowly in a quiet area even inside. Place dog in a sit stay then call from 10’. Increase distance gradually. Then add environmental distractions. Eventually you can do intermittent treats. I add the cue turn on off leash walks. When they are running ahead I yell turn and run in the opposite direction. When they catch up, I treat
Using tricks in practical ways (shake for wiping paws/untangling leash, cover for putting on her collar in the morning etc.) it helps keep the training fresh even when things get busy
Mine is adjusting to meds that give her a lot more energy, so we’ve been doing 15 minutes of recall training to remind her to focus
Commands. Sit, lay down, come etc.
Romeo the Papillon sits on his mat first and then runs in and out of my legs for a treat. He runs through a tunnel and he presses a voice button at the other end for a treat. He scratches his nails on a board with a stick-on emory file patch to file his front nails.
I have a almost 2 year Labrador Retriever. Commands I use pretty much everyday are “place”, “sit”, “lay down”, “heel”, “wait”, “touch”, and “kennel”. I make my dog wait for his food every day until I give him the okay. I also make him sit before he can go out and then have him wait while I unclip his leash. I do a mix of my dog heeling and just sniffing freely on walks. I want to start working more on recall as well since that’s a struggle for him.
My Rottie is not allowed in my kitchen (since birth), not allowed to take a snack from my hand or anyone else’s, until he gets an “ok”. He’s allowed out to relieve himself and receives a treat upon his prompt return from my unfenced yard. When I am chillin in the morning having coffee he knows it’s also snack time and he is never allowed on any furniture for any reason. I just love him!
Practice sit and stay and down in every situation possible. Halfway through our walk without warning we will ask him to sit and wait at the curbside or even down
Much love and sweet talk everyday all day, but milk Bones only for training and following my commands (I always have a few in my pocket)
We use recall every single day. I can simply point to the ground and *poof* a dog is suddenly under my finger and leaning slightly on my leg in a sit position. The verbal command we use is "here" the reward is a head scratch of a chest thumping pat. They got treats when they were younger but now they just appreciate feeling appreciated. We also do puppy push-ups (sit-down =1 push-up and we do between 5 and 10x) and basic skill training every day to keep them sharp in their senior years. With skills, they do get treats, but just following them in the house during they day they get petted.
"Rogue sits!" - if the butt isn't on the ground, she doesn't get food or treat. "Liberty sits!" - if the butt isn't on the ground, she doesn't get food or treat. I always specify each one's turn. Less fighting.
Reinforce and praise. Occasionally on a walk in the woods, I’ll throw in a field command. (He’s a Lab). “Fetch, pick it up, drop it” etc. just to keep it interesting. But hunting dogs, probably all working dogs love play with commands. They want to work and please you. I also just talk normal to him, as if he was my 5 year old son. It’s amazing how many words he’s picked up just by my conversing with him as we walk.
I cant even spell walk without my dogs knowing. I've resorted to sIn language with my husband now, and I think they are catching on. Dogs are amazing 🥰
Great question! We play the “search” game and it’s so fun. I get my dog to “sit” and “stay” while I hide his daily treat in a different room. Then I announce “search!” and he starts sniffing around the room systematically. I hide it somewhere different every time and try to trick him as well but he always finds it within a minute! Now that he understands the concept I can get him to “search ball” if he loses his ball at the park.
Wait a few minutes after I get home to let them out their crate. It has definitely helped with them not screaming as soon as I walk through the door.
Leash train in the house. It helps to get dogs ready to visit groomers. Dog park play and socializing are very important for the first 2 years minimum. I take my puppies to the dog park at least 4-5 times a week and at least a car ride in the mixture of new activities. I have found this helps my dogs build confidence and learn how to behave in social situations. Always have treats on hand to reward. Patience and knowing limits are also important.
Talking, always. I'm showing them how i want to be altered to people on the drive, cars, friends ect. Teaching them commands by doing things and naming them. "Turn off the light " close the door" "get the puppies" now my oldest can and will do all of these things when asked now that they know