How Many Tricks Can You Teach At One Time?

[aussielover]

Just wondering if you can teach more than one trick at a time?

My puppy is 8 weeks old, she knows sit and come. she is pretty good at shake hands and "up" (jumping up onto a surface). I would like to work on lie down and beg but obviously the lie down is more important. should i wait till she gets the "drop" command to teach her beg?. when I was teaching shake hands, she seemed to do the "beg" quite naturally, so I think this will be reasonably easy to teach her. Also, is this trick ok for such a young pup?

We are also having issues with drop- she will do it if I lure her without a problem, but I don't think she gets it if I don't. Any tips for this? I am not using a clicker (I don't know if I am allowed to- she is a guide dog puppy, will speak to them next time they come visit). but I am using a verbal marker "yes".

I like teaching her new tricks, it seems to occupy her for a while, she becomes destructive if not sleeping or given something to do. She has not quite mastered sitting quietly yet :D , but i do reward her when on the rare occaison she does do this (usually just before she nods off to sleep!)

[wuffles]

I am always teaching a few things at once or at least refining a few things at once. Just make sure you only do short sessions and if she starts to get confused, move on to something else.

She is only 8 weeks old so you are expecting too much wanting her to drop without a lure. There is nothing wrong with luring while they are still a puppy. My girl learnt to drop without the lure just before 5 months old, and I am the only one in our obedience class who has managed to achieve this so far My big boy, 5 years old, never learned :rolleyes:

[nicolatu]

I got a Border Collie puppy and he is very smart. He usually learns a new trick in 1-2 training session (have to train in many places). You have to fade the lure eventually. If you are using a food lure, 3 times maximum.

For example:

1) If you are teaching "sit", you lure him/her into the "sit" position and say "yes" and reward him/her for that.

2) After 3 instances, PRETEND to have food in your hand and lure him into the "sit" position. Say "yes" when he "sit" and show him/her that you don't have food in that hand. Then reward him with food using the other hand.

3) After that, show him that your hand doesn't hold any food and use the hand signal to make him/her to "sit". Say "yes" when he/she "sit" and reward him. He will learn that the hand signal means to "sit".

4) Always release him after a trick by saying "ok!" or anything you want. Then you will get a reliable "stay" in the future. I found this out after I thought him basic obedience so he doesn't have a reliable "stay" now.

This works well on my puppy and hope this helps you.

[aussielover]

Thanks,

she does everything except drop without the lure.

do you know if its ok to teach beg at her age (8.5 weeks?)

Nicolatu- how many tricks does oreo know?

Borders and Aussies are so smart! But my girl Mindy is quick with learning new tricks too, its helps with labs being so food oriented :rolleyes:

[luvsdogs]

Definitely NO begging, jumping, & very, very little weaving & crawling before at the very least 12 months old. You will say but she does them, that's ok on their own in play. But making them do them is damaging to growing joints & backs before the growth plates close. The same goes for great long walks.

Edited June 6, 2010 by luvsdogs

[nicolatu]

Oreo knows how to:

1) Sit

2) Drop

3) Shake

4) Hand (the other paw for shake)

5) Come

6) Wait

7) In (for going into crate)

8) Let's go (for moving on during walk)

9) Leave (don't touch a particular thing)

10) Spin

11) Turn (other direction)

12) Up (for putting his paws on my thigh when I am on a chair)

13) Off (when I don't want him to put his paws on anyone)

14) Heel (go by my back to my left side) (working on this 1)

15) Go get something... eg ball (which is fetch basically)

16) Take (holding something with his mouth)

17) Give (let go of something he is holding)

18) Go to Mummy (looks for my gf)

19) Uhhhmmmm... (when he does something wrong)

20) Friend (asking him to put his paw on somebody's leg) (we made this up)

Most of these are basic obedience we learn from pre-school. I am going to take him to junior manners class soon. I want him to walk nicely beside me.

ETA: I just realize he knows so much things. :rolleyes:

Edited June 6, 2010 by nicolatu

[W Sibs]

It's all depend on the energy and focus Emmy is in. Emmy is a very fast learner... she only needs to be taught once and she gets it straight away. Training with Emmy is always fun and an adventure, and constantly has me in amazement on how fast she picks things up.

When she is completely focus, we are just doing one trick after.

[corvus]

As many as you like? But I found it became necessary to keep a training diary. The dog knows where we're up to, but I don't. Erik likes variety and gets bored if I don't do several different things with him in the space of 10 minutes. Kivi doesn't get bored and I usually only work on a couple of things at a time with him.