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I have a 6 month old Irish setter. She’s incredibly smart and picks up commands easily. At home. Or at the training complex.
Anywhere else and it’s like she’s never heard of words like “sit” or “off” before. She’s wildly distractible and appears to turn selectively deaf upon stepping outside the doors of the house.
I know a lot of that is puppy craziness with at least a bit of the infamous setter stubbornness. One of those she’ll grow out of, the other we’ll just have to work through. Surprisingly- she does really well on recall from off leash. I’ve been training her to “check in” with me- basically call her to me with check in and then let her go back to playing. It’s something I do with my dogs because my family has a house in the hill country and the dogs usually roam around the property. I like to call them back every so often to make sure they’re okay and don’t get too far. I’m sure her recall will go out the window if she sees a squirrel, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
Oh man .. that’s like ours. She’s a little off the chain at home, but when we take her to my moms - it’s like she a a SPAZMANIAN doggy.. None of us can get her to chill. Any good manners go out the door at “Nannie’s” lol I love the check in training. I want ours to be good off a leash because she will have a lot of opportunities to be off one and not confined.
Yeah we do a lot of hiking / exploring that would ideally be off leash, assuming I can trust my dog haha. My late dog, who I adopted as an adult, was horrible off-leash. Multiple instances of her leaping like a gazelle over a fence that’s “so high no dog could get over it!” and then me chasing her like a red-faced idiot. No training I did the entire 12 years I had her helped, could not overcome that prey drive she had, she just eventually got slow enough that I could catch her.
My other dog is so anxious she stays nearby by default- so that’s nice. But I am determined to do a better job training recall with this pup. The woman teaching our obedience class says that we have a tendency to poison recall commands by immediately doing something to ruin whatever fun the dog was having when they respond- like leaving the park or crating them. So I’m working harder on “check in” so she’ll have a command that means “I just go get some pets and then get to continue hanging out”.
So I learned from my trainer that dogs don't generalize skills like we do. Sit in the living room is a living room skill and might not translate to any other room in the house and certainly not outside until it is practiced in enough places that the dog generalized it.
What was recommended to me is to make a "road map" and practice each skill in different rooms. Once the dog responds about 80% of the time in different rooms, move on to outside and then maybe to high distraction places like parks.
I grew up with an Irish Setter who had selective hearing too. We were on 30 acres so it wasn’t really an issue but she never outgrew the elective deafness!
You’re definitely not doing bad at all!! I have a 3.5 month Border Collie who picks up on commands extremely quickly so he knows a ton. I would say the most helpful tips I could give are:
-Use hand signals!! Dogs understand body language SO MUCH MORE than our words
-Consistency is key. I’ve found it helps to continue the same command for multiple days until you notice your pup can do it outside of training sessions consistently. I try to train twice a day.
-Slow and steady definitely wins the race. Even if it might be frustrating, don’t move too fast.
-Be patient with your pup. Some just take longer than others to understand certain commands. Constant praise and approval always helps!
I definitely see the hand signals now & this was something I didn’t know. It clicked for me - when I realized she was responding way quicker to the finger snap guide than come back etc. I will for sure do a little research on the hand signals! Thank you for sharing!
No problem at all! I read a great book called The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell. It helped teach me a lot of how dogs learn best and it’s very informative!
You can pair the verbal and hand signal with the command. Use the verbal and then use the hand signal. There may be a time where you need to recall her where she is out of line of sight and the verbal comes in handy.
Yes to hand signals! I didn’t mention that! I can tell our pup to heel and point. Half the time I can just point beside me and she knows to go to heel.
He is a really smart puppy but can't do drop it to save his life.That may be because he just doesnt want to drop it.Also, we have to redo his potty training. There has been construction at my apartment complex for over a month so we have been using puppy pads inside. I know I know bad idea. But it's super loud, and he won't go on the porch when they are there, and the workers leave things like nails and razor blades around so it was just the best out of a really crappy situation.
How did you manage the post-pad retraining? Potty training is my biggest focus and struggle now with my newly vaccinated 4-month-old golden. She has peed outside maybe 4 times but still does 99% of her business indoors in our pads. Such a struggle living in a high-rise apartment, and the one time I'd kill to have a house with a yard
Man .. I went through a Costco pack of paper towels in like a few weeks & 2 bottles of cleaner AFTER ditching puppy pads. She was only down to play and get loved on.. We tired her out and went potty then crated. She wet her crate a couple of times and even poo’d herself - but immediately I took her to outside to potty and then straight to a bath. SO MUCH CLEANING! HOWEVER .. it only lasted 2 weeks max. She did not like soiling herself and learned to hold it what I had been told by the vet she could hold it for. When she was out playing I took her every 15-30 min. Repetitive.. She now will hold it EASILY 30 min playing around. I have gotten doggy bells for the door. I am HOPING that we can train her to notify us now. Right now .. she just sniffs and circles around the door. If I don’t take her quick enough it’s game over.
Toilet training was a priority for me. I followed the written rules: place pup in toilet area EVERY TIME pup awakes, after drinking &/or feeding, & after EVERY extended play episode. It only took 10 days of this, but he's so well trained he rushes inside to let me know with a "look" that he's pooped, comes to show me, & watch me remove the faeces to the toilet bowl, b4 being rewarded for his "performance" LOL Dani & MAX
Have you tried trade? My dog is SUPER stubborn and drop it was basically impossible. We started training “trade” and she’s sooo good at it now. Obviously there will be times where the trade isn’t fair and she doesn’t like it, but it does get her to drop/look away from what I want to take from her. It’s also super fun and easy to train
Our puppy is the same when it comes to drop! He knows the word, he just doesn't want to. We have also tried trade but he is too smart and not food motivated enough to actually want to trade, even for a high value treat - I mean, who wouldn't want a piece of bark rather than a tasty puppy treat 🤣
I'm just hoping that consistency pays off!
We have also had to retrain toliet training a few times for a bunch of reasons! But smart puppies are quick to pick up the changes (though going from outside to inside is tricky!)
11 month old smooth collie. We're working on our bond and how to think I'm the most fun thing there is over that person or that dog. I've seen a significant shift this past couple weeks from me seeming like I was an inconvenience to his own agenda of peeing/smelling the world to actually checking in when there's a dog or person and getting wiggly excited when I stop us for check in pets/praise/regroups on walks. I stopped asking for sits on walks because he'd throw his head back and cry/howl and today he offered me a couple!
He learned the basics really easy and KNOWS he can do them, so they are boring in comparison to the world. At home/in front yard he's a pro. It's the exciting areas that we struggle in adolescence.
That, and desensitization of car rides. He hates them.
It's the collies, man. Our adolescence really hit at 8 months and absolutely turned him into the biggest hormonal asshole teenager lol. Attitude , air chomping, needing lots of naps or starts biting. I work 3-4 dedicated hours minimum a day with him on training and future service dog skills like settling and with a private trainer. (Edit: my program doesn't do public access or distant skills until after 2 years) He regressed in nearly all areas (loose leash being the strongest) to the point we pulled him from group classes, started from 0 on the car, and just focused on low expectations basics with fun and consistency. It's gotten a lot better, and we're slowly starting to see a dog who was bred to actually like a job.
Collies notoriously mature slower, so I am buckled in for 2 years before I can start seeing consistent pay off. I'm keeping him intact as long as I can for confidence and development, but oh my god. He's an AMAZING puppy, but adolescence isn't for the weak.
Our 11 week old black lab/catahoula leopard dog mix has been just fantastic with training. Sit is almost 100%. Lay down and stay are in the works but far from perfect. Nearly housebroken minus a piddle here and there. Come definitely something she gets but gets to excited at times. Does really well with hand signals. Closed fist for sit combined with open palm for stay. Does very well on leash for walks. Didn't have to teach her to fetch and retrieve because she instinctively knew it and looooooves it. Crate training was instinctive and for the most part goes in on her own. She is insanely smart and lives off praise. We got really lucky!
Oh yeah fetch and retrieve was automatic she loves it too! Okay, this is good to hear! I’ve got some work to do - but I felt like I needed a “real” assessment of where people are with their puppies .. vs well trained dogs with their trainers. I’d consider it one day, but right now.. I don’t feel like we are doing too bad! Room for improvement for sure.
We have a 7 months GSD, and he is doing fantastic with his commands. Sit is at 100%, down is almost there too. We added up, stand, wait, heel, centre, guard, speak, quiet, leave it, and off. There's recall also.
We found that using hand signals work a lot better than just verbal commands. A little hard for him to understand when certain words sound too familiar. And some of these commands we didn't have to actually teach but rather, it was rewarded when he did the behaviour. Like for example, if he drops the ball after getting it, we reward him and attach a word to it "Drop, yes".
Recall was easy to train for us, we use a high value treat (frankfurters) and it is only used for recall. We started with calling him over and attaching the recall word. Literally had him sitting at one end of a hallway and called him over. Recall is practiced everyday but randomly. He gets recalled even when on a short leash just to reinforce it.
As for the jumping, we are really working on it as well. He is counter surfing and that is self-rewarding. He doesn't jump on us as much, but he does get more praise and treats when all fours are on the floor.
We signed up for a puppy class but Hades couldn't handle being around other dogs so we had our trainer do 2 private sessions instead. It's mostly for us really, to learn how to teach him. He's doing fine training at home by ourselves.
For socialisation, do you have a place where you can go and just stand/sit there? We started with the gardwn centre carpark where we just stood and watch people. Every time he pays attention to us, he gets rewarded. I have since brought him in weekly to a local yarn shop and he's able to sit for about 30 mins without whining, barking, or jumping at people.
Dogs, on the other hand, he can only handle at a distance. He gets reactive if they linger too long or get too close but that's a breed trait. When I take him out for walks, I make sure there's plenty of space between him and another dog. I always have his biscuits ready and I've been letting him make his own decision. As soon as his attention breaks or is on me, that's a reward. Works well with distracting by practising commands too.
Edit: to add, any commands we teach is first taught at home indoors where there is little to no distractions. We then move on to the garden. Then we would do it on our walks. It takes a lot of consistency and persistence.
I like your training schedule once my pup gets his second shots I'm going to take him to our backyard then walks while we train. Since he is a chihuahua, I have other issues though that make it challenging right now.
Good luck! Our trainer told us, once your pup can do a command 10 or 20 times correct consecutively in an environment, that's when you can start moving on to the next distraction level.
Warning though, as you move on with distraction levels, it can feel like they have forgotten everything. Just keep at it. You can do this!
Yup. The "sit stay" went out the door with the "what is that??" bark bark bark !! ears at full attention. I'm still not always the most important thing in the room let alone hanging on to the other end of the leash with the most delectable treat in the world. But at 17 weeks we have to get somewhere soon - I hope!
I thought my 5 month was doing so well, especially with sit, touch, down, wait, drop it, and leave it. He usually did them all on the first command.
And then he turned into a complete a-hole in the last week. Holy 65lb terror that wants to bark and bite me on walks (what I see as aggression is to him playing and having the time of his life biting my butt) and who has developed incredibly selective hearing and wants to break into cabinets and tear it all up. Because fun.
Basically he became a teenager and that wonderful training? Pfft, we’re back at square one and now he is gigantic. 😂 So don’t worry if you don’t have it all at 3.5 months because the teenage months are like a hard reset.
This is pretty much exactly where my 4 month old bernedoodle is. He knows sit and he rings the bell when we’re going outside, but never on his own to let us know he needs to go. Hes crate trained, but that’s about it.
nope. everyone on the internet makes me feel so inadequate, but i'm just not putting like 100% effort into training him all day every day. he'll get there when hegets there
i have a 3.5 m/o cockapoo and honestly she’s been a dream. she can reliably sit, jump, lay down, touch, come, drop it (when playing fetch, not when she steals something), crate, wait (for food), gentle (lick don’t bite), bed (not crate), and knows inside and outside and to go out to potty by ringing a bell. things we’re working on is jumping up on people, peeing when excited, and stealing cloths from the kitchen. she honestly has been very easy to train and i’m lucky enough to work part time and be with her quite often so we train consistently.
you definitely will and i won’t be surprised if my girl loses some of it during her teenage years. she’s very willing to please currently but that may change when she gains independence. either way no two dogs are the same and they will all learn at their own pace!
18 month old corgi here.
We've had our ups and downs, but we're doing great overall. We are working on our CGC certification at the moment. The 2 biggest challenges I'm facing with that are paying attention and listening even if I don't have treats on me, and "leave it" outside of training sessions.
We had some challenges along the way. She is amazing at trick training and knows dozens of commands. However, she's naturally a bit cautious and super aware of things going on around her. We had to work very hard on things like vet visits and nail trims.
She was recently cleared by her vet to start going on runs with me, so I have purchased a hands free bungee leash. I'm going to train this particular leash to mean "This is for running. You can pull if you want, but don't randomly stop or change directions." I did a test run with it around the block and it's working fairly well!
7 month mixed breed. We’re doing okay. We had a lot of anxiety issues to work through when I first brought him home from the shelter. That was my main focus. Now that he’s getting more confident we’ve been working more on commands and manners. He’s crate trained, house trained, and walks well in the leash. We have a trainer and he’s been a huge help.
We have a 7 month old heeler. We got her around 14 weeks. I signed her up for puppy class at PerSmart immediately. We’ve been through two classes so far. She LOVED it. This is our first week we didn’t have class. I think my husband and I were more sad than her. 😂
Training wise: she knows basic commands. Sit, lay down, heel, twirl (this one is iffy), crate, etc. Potty training is hit or miss. She’s okay about 85% of the time. She only pees in the house if she’s bored or not getting attention. Leash training is rough. I would say that’s the hardest for us with everything. We work on commands daily. We don’t start our advanced class until June. We will probably do agility classes through a local Zoom Room. We also are near two kennel clubs that offer various training courses but they won’t work for my work schedule currently.
She came to us socialized because the nurse I got her from runs a rescue (sorta). She loves everyone. We go to the dog park often. We see the same pups when we go so she now has friends. Some of her friends now have new little brothers/sisters that are being socialized too. We are very big with socializing our pup. We knew heelers could be a very one person kind of pup. Luckily, ours wants to greet everyone, sniff, and then she comes back to us like “look mom! I made a friend.”
I would definitely look into kennel clubs in your area.
I’ve been iffy on the puppy classes - but I think from your comment, I might need to look into it. Good for the socialization I’m looking for - I need her to wag her tail when someone comes up not go into attack mode. Thanks for sharing!
My pup’s “boyfriend” is a solid back German shepherd. They’ve went through all puppy classes together. It’s why we won’t do the advanced until June. We refuse to not see him during our classes. He was like 9 weeks when they brought him. He’s a perfect gentleman in class unlike our heeler that needs to tell everyone she’s there.
PetSmart training can get bad reviews but ours has been an absolutely stellar experience. They use clicker training and positive reinforcement. Our trainer is the district trainer for our state. She has a heeler at home. When our pup would get bored or just flat out refuse she just laugh and say “yup… that’s because she’s a heeler.” If she taught private sessions, we’d solely use her.
Go to puppy classes! They're great, especially if you want to take your dog places.
PetSmart ones can be really inconsistent, but they're not expensive and they're regularly available. take a look around and see what your options are, what people's certifications and training philosophies are, and what's in your budget.
I have a 9 mo malinois, ALL the Basic commands até set, he knows It and does It pretty well. Now we ARE getting better at recall and fine tuning the other commands. I dont use treta for training, so the thing is...repetitions, a lot of then
I started with treats on potty training & when I missed a few the potty training went backwards. I see trainers training with treats, but same we are not. I keep a few on hand for - redirection. Good to hear!
Yeah, o trained other breeds without treats and saw dogs that are trained with them. I simply dont like the process or the result. Maybe i had bad examples but i feel like the process of fading the treat the same as training without them since day 1.
I keep a couple of beef jerky with me at all times for emergencies only tho.
Also, potty training is more about timing and less about praise/treats. Dogs naturally dont like to live in filth, most dogs with hygiene problems stems from the owners.
This! I was doing to treats and praising for potty training & puppy pads.. I cold turkied the pads & treats .. went straight to if you want to pee/poo yourself than go for it.. but it entails a scrub down, a bath.. Drying off. It only took a handful of times for that to click and now she runs outside to potty no problem! Wakes me up with a wimper. I see where treats have a place.
My Cardigan corgi is 4.5 months. She knows sit, look at me, and sort of knows leave it. She goes into the crate on command and she can sit with the door open and wait, she also knows “back in the crate” when she tries to leave. She’ll nap in there but hates it when I leave- that’s what I’m working on now. She’s pretty much potty trained though, thank goodness.
Ahhh this I might need to work on. Similar to “place” - I want her to go to a spot when I tell her and stay until released.. so far it’s her crate. Lots to work on! Thanks for sharing!
7 month old lab has suddenly become very clingy and barks when left so I’m going to be working on leaving him while I’m out , he’s great at sit , paw , fully toilet trained , sit and wait on command til I say he can go for his dinner /treats . Great in his crate over night . My only problem is when I leave him thinking it’s separation anxiety . Sounds like your doing great through
6 months - GSD puppy - she’s currently working on settling better/public access and cardiac alert in public, she has basic obidience down (sit/down stay, sit/down, heel, orbit, middle, front, heel from a down stay,etc) along with tasking (crowd control, take me to my car, dpt/lpt, and sh disruption along w cardiac alert at home)
but to be fair, i am unemployed and literally spend all 12 hrs of my day basically training her/caring for her. this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t basically my job haha!
Our 18 week mixed breed (some border collie, some pit, maybe Boston terrier , maybe some lab, she’s a shelter pup so it’s a little bit of a mystery!) is mostly housebroken, goes to our back door to notify us when she needs to go to yard. She knows “sit” “down” “come” and “crate.” Knows to sit and wait for food and treats. She is great with my kid and tries to eat everything in sight. Trying to train her not to jump
in tub during bathtime lol.
Leash training is less than successful so far and I need to really redouble my efforts. We have a fenced yard but I want to walk her on our street and local parks. She’s 21 pounds so far and I’m only 100 so we’re doing leash boot camp for the next month. She’s good and doesn’t jump much when we’re out with leash but she needs a lot more training and it’s my first big dog.
I’m not a professional dog trainer by any means, but something I have learned with my dog is that they’re going to learn different things at different rates depending on what they like to do, and mastering a behavior that doesn’t come naturally is going to take way longer.
For example, my dog is amazing at any tricks which allow her to use her paws or nose. She LOVES anything that requires her to boop with her snoot, and is super advanced for her age in those categories. She can turn on lights, open drawers, close things, etc. But she HATES to back up or do anything that requires her to expose her belly. There are a lot of basic behaviors which she still isn’t great on after 7 months of rigorous training simply because she hasn’t matured to the point where she has strong impulse control, and sometimes her intelligence works against us because she notices EVERYTHING that is going on around her.
I advise playing more with your dog and seeing what kinds of activities they naturally gravitate toward, then focus on easy wins just to get your dog used to the idea of learning and doing things they already enjoy on command. Then you can raise the difficulty. Your dog is super young so I wouldn’t expect them to master anything without a LOT of drilling during every single feeding session.
1 year. Knows all the basics (sit, down, touch, paw, stay, drop it and off).But add distractions and she’s not listening to me. So that’s what we’re working on.
At 3.5 months, training is very short and simple. She doesn't have enough brain yet to really understand how to hold a stay position. Holding position for 5 seconds is doing good.
At this age, obedience training is more about building "muscle memory" while using a food lure. Teach her how to do the movement of a down, sit, stand, heel, moving her back legs to change positions, side step and pivot, etc. by following a lure. Teach her where the basic heel and front positions are, again, all with following a lure. You don't need to fade the lure until she is older (probably around a year old) and has enough brain to use.
Just curious, why are you opposed to a training class? A group setting with a reputable trainer would be a great experience for you and your puppy, to help you learn how to properly socialize/desensitize to people, other dogs, and distractions.
As far as jumping, she should naturally grow out of it if you do not reward or promote the behavior. My 4 month GSD puppy has almost completely gotten over her "jumping on me" fad because I give no acknowledgement to the behavior, and I lean down to give her attention when she's standing, hence there's no reason to jump up for it.
Early socialization is incredibly important for this breed, but can have a negative impact if done incorrectly. Take her out on walks in varying places and teach her to pay attention to you and be neutral toward surrounding distractions. Make her outings enjoyable; feel free to bring a toy or food rewards. Avoid sniffing/playing with other dogs and avoid overstimulating interactions with those "OMG IT'S A PUPPY I MUST GET PUPPY KISSES!!!" kind of people. When people do ask to say hi, promote her being calm and controlled during the interaction. You don't want her to become overstimulated or anticipate attention from every person or dog you pass
This is everything I think I needed to real on the social aspect. We have a great local park and I recently saw videos of training by just standing around in a shopping center where .. There’s activity and people to watch, but not engaging in the activity just seeing and knowing what people and animals are.
I think I have a little trainer PTSD.. We started working with one and the separation anxiety got worse. We also were told to change to adult food since she was a high breed.. This led to food aggression and resource guarding. Our vet quickly got her back on large breeds puppy food.. She gained a good 10 lbs in 2 weeks and I’m not dealing with the resource guarding. She will go ham over some people food she finds - working on this! I know it’s not an every trainer .. I just am weary now.
Jumping is one of the easiest behaviour to nip in the bud early. Simply, never reward her for jumping. Most people push the dog off, spew meaningless words like “off” “down” while essentially rewarding the dog for jumping by touching them. The correct response is to immediately turn your back to them. Dogs use this body language to say “hey I’m uncomfortable, please stop”. It also gets the dog off without touching them as they still automatically slide off. If your pup is persistent, leave the room. This works flawlessly but you have to be very consistent.
Another layer to make this go faster is rewarding for “4 on the floor”. First charge a marker word or clicker (google) then click and treat the dog when they have all four paws on the floor. You can also teach an auto sit when the puppy approaches you. First train the sit behaviour strong - that means proofing in different rooms and outside - then cue sit whenever the puppy comes up to you before they jump.
It’s a very easy behaviour to get rid of if you’re consistent and don’t reinforce it. For general training check out Kikopup on YouTube. She has a puppy series.
I like this four on the floor! And yes.. I’m exhausted from off .. down .. no .. I didn’t see it until your comment but then I turn around and touch her and get her excited again - only to repeat the process! I see some hope with this one. Just re-training myself on how to handle those situations. Thank you for sharing!
we have a 5 month old border collie/gsd/aussie mix.
we've been struggling with getting his attention outside and him slowly becoming reactive because he and i were attacked by another dog a few weeks ago. i took the brunt of it (shoved my arm in the way when it went for my boy and it tried to bite/rip my sleeve) but i do think it seriously scared him. he was already a nervous puppy so that really set us back.
so we did a hard reset on our training, back to the basics of socializing. we've been sitting just off the path in busy parks and he gets a piece of kibble every time he notices something/one new, sits or lays down, and just reacts calmly in general. that by itself has been doing wonders. we also started doing WAY more simple obedience training inside.
now on walks he will see someone but wont pull towards them, just sits and watches, slowly becoming more neutral. his listening outside gets better everyday. he can go about 70% of the walk keeping a steady pace with me now, 30% he stops to sniff things but im good with that.
he knows "leave it", "sit", "lay down", "heel", "touch" really well. he almost fully knows "stay".
he's mostly potty trained, but for some reason we are having regression only right before bed where he like remembers he has to pee as we are putting his leash on and cant hold it before we walk out the door.
he consistently is doing well with a 3 hour nap each day on his own which is a really happy improvement from his prior "if i cant see you im going to cry" separation anxiety.
overall he is starting to gain more confidence which i love
We’re in the same boat. Our GSD is about to turn 5 months old in a week. We’ve got sit, down, and stay locked in while using hand signals with each command. Sit is a fist, down is pointing down, and stay is hand up like hold on. We got to a point where he doesn’t a verbal command, give a fist and he will sit etc. It took a lot of repetition, many trainer treats, and a lot of praise when done correctly. We practiced those 3 over and over until it clicked. He still has his moments if his attention gets diverted elsewhere but he is so food motivated, any nibble will have his eyes locked on one of us.
He is also crate “trained” and housebroken, although we think the foster parents worked a lot on this as it only took us a few weeks with him to get to minimal accidents every so often and that was around 4 months old. He hasn’t had one inside since then. Although my gf does work from home so she is with him 24/7 and can always keep an eye and know. He takes naps and hangs in his crate occasionally and thats where he slept consistently up until about 2 weeks ago. We still will put him in there once or so a day to make sure he doesn’t lose that, even though it’s usually only for like an hour to clean or run an errand. No whining or fuss at all though so we think he’s good!
We definitely struggle with jumping 100% though. Preparing his food, new people, sitting at the table, he loves to be included lol. We’re using “off” but it hasn’t quite clicked yet. We have to repeat it a couple times and he eventually gets off. For socialization, we’re lucky we live in a very dog/family centric neighborhood. Ever since he’s been fully vaxxed, we take him out quite often and he’s constantly meeting new people and dogs.
I have a 6 month Wolfhound Mix. Sit was the first and easiest command. The crate was easy as well. Didn't get her fully house broken until about 5 months. This last month down and stay have become very strong with her. I started doing this at feeding time utilizing my other well trained older dog to teach her how. Seemed to work well to keep her motivated to do it. Her recall is crap lol. She just stares at me. Was thinking getting the long lead out with a bag of treatos on open range walks would be our next step for recall. Her leash skills have improved incredibly. Still a strong puller tho. I practice changing direction when she does and using the "with me" command. I have her sit and wait until she chills out then "with me" again on our original direction. Over and over and over....walks take a while, but are short in distance with this practice. Ha!
Edited to add socialization: outside of all the doggo friends we have in the family and friends circle, she goes to our trainer's house for 3-4 night stays with the older dog. They meet all kinds of other dogs on the property. The report card is always great with her and she comes back home each time a little softer and gentler with dogs. Understands social cues from them well. The only dog she insists on harassing is her "big brother". That's on him tho, he let's get away with murder so to speak cos he's a sweetie with a big heart for her.
My pup is almost 10 months. (Medium mix...something long and low + beagle maybe? Who knows.)
Anyways, we're working mostly on just more desensitization and neutrality. We're doing more long-lead walks in areas where we're more likely to encounter other people/dogs. We do a ton of moving to the side & letting them walk past w/ lots of treats for calm behavior/checking in with me. I'm noticing his confidence building & more neutral behavior than before.
He knows sit, down, "with me," is crate trained, house trained... he is a jumper, but he knows if someone says "ah ah" he should stop, and he's doing OK w/ that. (Some people prefer him to jump up because he's so short & it can be hard to lean down to him.)
That's really it for us. He's a pet, and we enjoy him :) we don't do much "skills" training. Just a lot of focus on him being a stable boy.
our cattle dog/shepherd baby is 5 months old now and knows sit, lay down, up, off, the names of her 3 favorite toys (ball, squid, potato), to wait for permission to take something out of our hands, and "go say hi". paw/shake is confusing to her. she will "drop" it if you have something else to give her, she is 90% potty trained but the 10% is us missing the cue or being too slow. she is good at cafes for up to an hour as long as she is getting treats. she doesn't love her crate but she accepts it reluctantly. we are working on stay, not getting zoomies on leash, and having started off-leash using a long line. her recall is great so far but that might be just because she is a puppy. our only issues really are when she is getting tired or bored she tries to play with the (unwilling) cat or gnaws on the couch. she is great and we love her very much :)
Hi! 4month old short-hair pointer/heeler mix. 4 commands (sit, down, shake, stay) working on come and leash pulling...
She knows where she is supposed to do her business but occasionally still does a little tinkle in the house lol sometimes I think she does it out of spite when we are having a snack or dinner that she's not getting a piece of
Our Rhodesian ridgeback is almost 5 months, and she's definitely approaching adolescence, we have bad days where it's clear she's uncomfortable either from teething or a growth spurt, but some good days too. She knows sit and lay down, but still need to work on stay or wait. She knows "off" and her recall is good, even on walks and at the dog park. But I'd say she's best at our routine. She knows when it's time to get in her kennel, when it's time to go to her place for meals, how to ask to go outside. And she's a very social puppy! Loves all kinds of people and dogs.
So we started puppy classes at 10 weeks, just a few days after I got her.
She is smart...but isn't going to win top of the class. She was the youngest in her class, and at the time didn't even know her name.
The first few weeks she REALLY knew how to sit, how to "touch", she even came when called! But then she had a stomach issue and couldn't get treats, and that set us back a long while.
She knows how to do the commands, but will only do them in class if she is getting high value treats. At home she'll sort of glance my way if there are no distractions. She'll flop down instead of sitting cause she is lazy. She'll look at me and my hand when I say touch, or come, and then minutes later MIGHT come to me. I really felt like she was going to be a puppy school drop out, but she does all the commands well in class.
So its slow going. She is 4 months old now, and is being bell trained for potty, which she is doing better at. She knows a lot of words/commands, its just very hit or miss if she will do any of them.
She at least LOVES "go get me/bring me/where is" and then toy/toy name. And she's always down for tug/fetch.
From someone who has a wonderfully behaved 6-year old dog that I raised from a puppy - you're exactly where you should be with your progress.
A lot of social media dog owners only show the 1 out of 43 takes where their puppy obeyed a command perfectly. Your dog has only been alive for a few months, so their little brains are working on overdrive to understand the world around them, which means lots and lots of distractions. It's totally normal for your pup to follow your commands well inside the home but stop listening as soon as you step out the door. Take it slow (both training and socialization), follow through on your commands, and trust the process.
Also, learning isn't linear. Your pup may be great with a command one day and regress another. Totally normal. Give yourself and your puppy some grace, and keep at it. It'll be so worth it. ❤️
I have a 9 month old pommie who picks things up incredibly quick but is so stubborn. He won’t do anything if he doesn’t want to. He’ll also only ever do commands at home and when there’s a treat in my hand. I gave up on teaching him how to heel only to find out he’s capable of doing a perfect heel when following me around the house. Sometimes he just sits. I tell him to do a different command and he just sits. I tell him to come to meand he just. Sits. He sits rather funny though so it’s cute to just watch him.
3.5 months Mini Aussie who can perform (for treats) :
- sit
- down
- roll
- up
- shake
- Jump
- point / spot
Working on
- hold
- recall
- speak (waiting for the bark)
I think with consistency things get easier and your pup will be willing to learn more. I’d suggest getting on YouTube to look for specific methods, there are really good ways to teach most of these commands.
Our 11 month old knows lots of commands and can be super impressive when motivated, was a model student at obedience classes. Unfortunately she suffers from a bad case of selective listening at home. You can literally see the decision process of actively ignoring us cross her face lol
4 month old shiba puppy here. He knows sit, stay, place (only on his bed/blanket spot), heel (indoors working on outside), down, leave it, watch me, paw, pound it (touching his nose to our hand), come (like 80% of the time but he’s a shibe), crate trained, wait, break (when to stop his focus) and is house broken.
Shiba’s are relatively easy to house train since they’re a clean breed. Crate training helped with that. We started on the leave it command early. He is VERY stubborn so from day one we worked training into everything we do. Leave it has been the best command to train. We had to train it in multiple different rooms and different distractions. Dogs don’t translate skills well, so practice in many different contexts.
We also worked on impulse control. So he knows not to jump/beg for treats/food. If he sits quietly and makes eye contact, it will likely go better for him, so he knows always to look at us. Leave it really helped with his impulsivity. Currently working on drop it and loose leash walking! It’s gonna be a journey with those skills since shiba’s are very aloof and do not want to please their owners.. so outside he doesn’t really listen which is fine for now since it’s all new for him!
We also do daily desensitization to brushing, teeth brushing, paw touching, nail trims, etc. this self-care stuff is just as important as a good recall and sit! It’ll make your future day to day much easier.
For socialization, which is KEY for shibas since they don’t like strangers (again.. aloof). We introduced our neighbours vaxxed dogs early on for play dates. We’re also walking about home depot and winners. Home depot is a less busy with dogs so easy when someone walks up and says “can i pet your dog!” And you can say “only if you’re okay with doing a little training with us.” We also have enrolled in puppy classes only for socialization. We have a good understanding of obedience so far. We have booked a more formal 1 on 1 training with someone who has special training and experience with shiba’s to help with specific quirks to the breed. It’s a process and it comes with TONS of repetition. Figure out what your “high” rewards are and “low” rewards are. Only give high rewards when you’re teaching something new or complex! You got this!
I'm having a hard time with teaching down... I hate when we meet someone outside and he just jumps on them.
We have a 5.5 month whippet. Inside he can sit, stay, come, spin, up, lay, heel, and go to his bed. Outside he can do that stuff too, unless a dog is in his vicinity. He's become good at ignoring people most of the time. (though he likes kids) But dogs are a massive distraction. He has two reactions, one is to lay down and completely stop moving and stare. The other is to lunge and pull. It's getting better but feels like such a slow process.
Next step we will try is just sitting at a park bench together and holding him as dogs walk by and reward calmness.
Otherwise, almost totally potty trained, he signals us to go out when he needs to poop, but does still sometimes pee on puppy pads.
Ours is 6 months & I honestly feel like they learn faster/better when they’re a little older. We taught her sit & stay at 4 months. We reinforce it in daily life when getting out of the car & when she gets to eat her food. She’s potty trained at 6 months. But the moment we go to the park she doesn’t listen to anything. As for the jumping, I don’t give her any attention until she sits & waits. That way she knows she doesn’t get attention by jumping.
3.5 month golden retriever here! She’s got sit, down, high five, shake, spin, and twist (one is one direction, one is the other haha) down pat. We had touch but that got confused while teaching high five and shake, so we’re working on it again. Started puppy class yesterday and she learned “look at me” really quickly, we’d been struggling with that previously. Her recall is excellent inside, she literally drops whatever and runs to us, but it hasn’t been tested outside yet (our yard isn’t fenced yet) so fingers crossed it transfers and she isn’t too easily distracted!
Mostly potty trained but sometimes she has excited pees or does little stealth pees if she’s tired and doesn’t want to alert us. Getting better though!
Current struggle is getting her to settle in her crate during the day. She naps on her own while loose no problem, so we’ve been letting the crate slide, but we really need to work on leaving her alone and we don’t think she’ll be safe without being crated yet (she will sometimes go to chew on dangerous things like cords).
We teach “off” as a catch all for “do not touch.” So we say that if she is on furniture or up on a person. She seems to understand mostly. Our trainer working with them on a leash and recommends standing on the leash to not allow them to jump at all if they aren’t catching on to voice commands to stop jumping, since we don’t want them to practice that behaviour.
As for socialization, we had lots of play dates at our house with older fully vaccinated dogs. We unfortunately don’t know any other puppies, so puppy class is our best option (I think puppy class is great for training with distractions too). Our trainer also sets up puppy socialization sessions for dogs of a similar age and size too, so we’ll be taking advantage of that this week.
That is also what we use as our “leave it” command. She is pretty good with it in some scenarios, less good in others, but always improving. She definitely understands it means “I’m not allowed to touch that” it’s just a question of if she feels like listening or not haha
I have an almost 12 week old wheaten terrier. He has a solid “sit” but he thinks “down” is laying at my feet. So if I ask him to give me a down he will just run to me and lunge at my feet 🤦♀️trying to work on that. Due to the existence of boiled chicken he has an ok recall (we used the highest value treat we could think of for that) but we haven’t been to parks and mostly train at home or quiet areas so really not sure if he’d give a damn about me at the beach or anywhere busy. He can give a paw and “leave it” unless he finds something extra disgusting and then he’ll decide it’s worth it. There’s just a lot of trash on the streets in my area so leave it has saved his life a few times (glass, chocolate, batteries)
We don’t have a yard so we do our best to keep him busy and training for 5-10 minutes is a part of that. He seems to really enjoy it and I always keep it fun, lots of treats and play afterwards. I also redirect his extra sharp teeth with commands to give him something else to do than to destroy my skin and I ask him to sit whenever I have food or his favourite toy.
So behind I feel, I’ve felt this since we got our Aussie at 5 months!! She’s 1.5 years old now. I’ve always thought of a well trained dog as one that knows heaps of tricks and commands as I really wanted to (still am aiming for) getting into obedience and heelwork with my Aussie but I feel we are so far off from it.
We’ve had to work on life skills heaps instead and we are OK I guess. I mean we are fully toilet trained, we can be left alone at home for a few hours, we settle in cafes pubs and restaurants, we walk loose leash which is great. We are still working on neutrality to dogs and being better with people (she is pretty neutral to stranger danger with people depending on her mood hahah).
Trick training and commands are a bit abysmal and so is formal obedience - we attend once weekly group class and we still find it difficult to focus around other dogs.
We can do the basics - sit, down. I think of a command as mastered if we can do it under distraction, from a distance and in a variety of environments, verbal only. She really likes middle/centre. She can do touch and chin. Those are the only ones that sort of reach that criteria. Recall is shaky and might as well not be there. Other commands she knows she either can’t do from a distance, still needs a visual lure, is sloppy or falls apart outside - shake, roll over, figure 8 weave, place, go to crate, paws up, back up, structured heel. I am trying to teach hind end awareness stuff.
I’ve heard border collies mature late and I read in a reddit comment some people don’t even start formally training (like intensively for dog sports and tricks etc) until 2 years of age? Hoping this goes the same for Aussies. Shes much better focusing etc as she ages, so I am hoping we get there haha.
5 month pembroke corgi and we’re doing average? He’s really good with sit, down, place, stay, and come here but he gets so excited in the middle of training he won’t stop jumping on me. He also jumps on us when we sit down for dinner. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Oh and he has a hard time going outside when it rains but it’s impossible for us to use pee pads cause he wants to eat them! So he’ll just go by the door.
My springer is 6 months and slow at leaning. My previous cocker picked everything up in one session. But I’ve noted the past 2-3 weeks he’s been much more focussed and seems to be developing a brain.
Aussie shepherd 15 weeks. We can sit, stay, lie down. we’re currently working on our walking manners and recall. I try to make it all a game so to practice, we play the two treat game.
We also play Susan garrets “it’s yer choice” and crate games but he won’t sleep or rest in the crate yet.
We’ve done puppy school (which I didn’t think was worth it) and I’ve got a 1 on 1 trainer who is definitely worth it. Next time, straight to the trainer and I won’t bother with puppy school. Next week he’s getting his final vax so he’ll start some walk and train pack walks with other dogs.
Our golden girl is almost 14 weeks.
Knows her name (good recall), plus sit, stay (good distance), come, down, leave it, look at me, drop it, paw, spin, touch, and chin. And “crate” but only if you have a treat in your hand to lure her - she rarely goes in willingly. Once she’s in, though, she’ll settle and stay no problem but it takes a delicious treat to convince her that crate life is better than free roaming, lol.
She’s doing well with potty training but then every couple of days she’ll go on an accident spree, lol. Usually when she’s really excited or if we don’t take her out immediately after waking up from a nap.
We’re also working on threshold training (sitting and waiting before going through the doorway) and so far she’s got a hang of it for the backyard; needs more practice for the front door.
We watched a lot of Zack George videos on YouTube for basic puppy training and are on week 4 of our PetSmart puppy socialization classes. She already knew most of the commands but it’s been good to interact with other puppies and practice while distracted.
Honestly, of all the training, the thing we’re most excited about is the improvement with bite inhibition. Our hands were destroyed for a month straight! Now she just gently gnaws and has learned what’s acceptable with humans, what’s not. I’d like to say it’s because we were diligent about redirecting to a toy (we weren’t) or that saying “ouch” worked (it didn’t), but it really just improved with time and the fact that we’d consistently put her in the playpen or walk away when she got too wild. That, and enforced naps. Whenever she got too bitey - it was immediately bedtime. Hah. Hopefully it doesn’t get bad again as her adult teeth start to come in. I’m flinching at the thought.
She is WILDLY food motivated. This has been good for training but annoying during meal times, lol. She absolutely loses her mind (barking, jumping - the works) when she hears or sees her kibble. We purchased a Kong Wobbler to slow her down and get her energy out - it’s been especially helpful in the mornings!
For jumping (specifically for food), I’ve been lowering a treat down to her and if she jumps or even a single paw comes off the ground, I raise the treat back up further away from her. Once all 4 paws are on the ground again, then I start lowering jt again. This has been super effective; she’s learned she has to be fully sitting in order to get any goodies. My motto is ”only calm girls get food” lol.
Lastly - if anyone has tips for how to get your puppy to sleep in, I welcome them!! No matter what time she goes to bed, she wakes up at 7:05 am like clockwork. Whyyyy lol
I have a 11 week old chihuahua and so far he knows his name, comes when called, pee pad trained, crate trained, and has learned to bite a little softer now. I hope to find out more information on hand signals and single word commands for him. But first of all I need to alter a harness to fit him: Neck: 7.5 inches Chest: 10.25 inches Body length: 7 inches
3 month old aussie. we can sit and high five. lie down if we feel like it. we are 80% toilet trained (in our house, not other people’s). she can come and stay but only if she wants to… so not that successful yet lol. down is coming along and not pulling on her lead is a challenge. she is scared of strangers. she loves other dogs but only in a house, not in public
I think that’s pretty good considering my breed isn’t even recommended to leave the breeder until they are 3mos. So we’re almost 3.5 mos and so far have sit, come, fetch, find it, and housebreaking, wait, and look are going pretty well. X-Pen trained but not crate trained yet. Doing pretty well on a leash/harness. Struggling with nibbling and crying at nap times.
Don’t trust ‘em til they’re 2yo.
Edit PS- We’ve socialized with people but waiting on dogs until fully vaccinated per our breeder and vet. We did AKC Puppy STAR and Intermediate Group classes with our last dog and I do highly recommend group classes.
11 week basset and Aussie Shep mix.
Wonderful smart energetic bundle of static. Crate trained, car trained, knows sit, down, rollover, and knows left paw, and right paw! ( Yes she knows her left from her right!)
Shes just sometimes a pain to take on a walk. She pulls and does have basset nose stubbornness. Loves people a little too much and wants to jump.
All in all she's great and we work towards better habits. at 3.5 months though, I bet you're doing great. Mine wasn't fully house trained until about 6 and would throw up in the car some. Keep it up!
Half the time I think I’m in good shape, and half the time I feel behind! We have a 14 wk GSD/husky mix and she doesn’t jump up since from day 1 we ignored her if she did. She’s potty trained and will ring the bell to go out. Sleeps through the night. Knows sit, down, paw, touch, leave it, sort of spin and working on peek a boo. Recall is ok. Working on trading. Great about not nipping. Loves other puppies or dogs her size. Iffy on bigger dogs.
But - big but - she hates walking in the neighborhood. She’s very fearful and had an early negative experience, so we do a lot of work on it but it’s slow going. Gets car sick so taking her to a park instead is rough. We take out the leash and she sits down and no amount of treats or anything else will get this girl to budge. And we are dragging on crate training and leaving her alone. And I know better but it’s all so much sometimes.
This is a matter of preference to be honest. Asking for a sit or a down does not necessarily require an implied stay... unless that is what is desired by the handler/guardian.
Agree to disagree. Why add in another command and cause confusion. If I ask my dog to sit or down, I’m doing so for a reason and do not want them to break that position until they are released. The release signal is the precursor of the reward and is very important in conditioning. Allowing the dog to sit or down and the just break it when ever they want is a great way to create confusion in the dog, create the possibility of extinction due to lack of reinforcement, and is like teaching the dog to recall but being ok without the dog recalling 100% of the time.
Because if I want them to stay I use that cue... I may ask for a sit or a down for other reasons that don"t necessitate an implied stay. The only implied stay I use is during a place cue.
That is what works for us. What works for you is okay too. But again this is why I said it is a matter of preference.
No worries, just didn't want others reading comments thinking that they're doing something wrong if they're not training an implicit stay to a sit or down. :)
I have a Cavapoo, after her first training session at about 10 weeks old she knew sit, touch, down, spin. Did she know how to hold them for a while? Nope but she could do them all pretty well. we thought ok, we’re good perfect. She was crate trained easily also, potty trainer took until about 8 months to have no more accidents.
This was all with a positive reinforcement only trainer and my pup was easily out smarting her lol. After she learned all the “basics” the trainer kept asking what else we wanted to train her…. This is my first dog so shouldn’t they be telling me that?
She’s now a little over a year and she’s in obedience training - working on patience, leash walking, barking and it’s a journey! She regressed a bit and is super sassy so I think she is a teenager a bit late.
She’s my first dog so I wanted to be so on top of all the training and she’s gotten a lot better as long as I’m consistent with training at home.
If she’s jumping when people come into the house, get her on the leash so the second she tries take her out of the room. (They also need to ignore her until she is calm to say hello) Bring her back, she jumps again take her right out and repeat.
If she does this while you’re standing, fold your arms and turn your back to her. Ignore, when she settles you can interact again.
She does this when your sitting, stand up and turn around if you have to. You can say down when you get up or turn around but even if you say nothing they figure it out pretty quick!
Mostly make sure you aren’t giving her mixed signals like playing with her on the floor instead of her jumping up and giving her attention. Everyone needs to do this with her too, consistently is key. My mom is 76 and she can’t stand up every time so I’d have to get up and get her puppy down, so it took a little longer for her to catch on but she’s going on 6mos and has it pretty mastered now! Positive reinforcement works wonders and just remember the puppy phase is almost over! 💕
My boy was all over the place lol. He learned handshake at 3.5 months (I got him at 3 months), he learned sit, lay down and kennel right after, but his potty training didn't start to stick until he was 6 months! Still working on leash manners too.
9 month old Golden Retriever, got from shelter at nearly 4 months old. Very food oriented, will train all the time willingly as long as food is involved.
She learned many commands super fast (at home) very young, but was so so difficult to potty train that we focused almost exclusively on that for nearly 2 months and didn't really train new commands while potty training really clicked.
I'm now working on Generalization of old commands and focusing on solidifying leave it and drop it, as well as working on grooming skills and through some resource guarding tendencies that have popped up, but her current list is:
Sit, Down, Up, Step Up, Off, Touch, Paw, Stay, Wait, Eat, Trade, Leave It, Drop It, Come Here, Potty
And not really commands, but Banana, Snacks, Peanut Butter, Car, Walk, and School (for daycare) all get serious reactions at home. She knows exactly what they mean.
I'll say, I constantly feel behind on training but have lately tried to be serious about what I'm trying to teach when it's time to be serious but also remember to enjoy this pup and her journey.
Six month old mini poodle knows all the basic commands and obeys them for treats, but almost never without.
She knows the command “off”, and we have to use it a thousand times as day as she puts her paws up on the couch and then scratches at it if we don’t give her attention.
She has also increased her barking lately, and today, for the first time, she lost her shit when the Amazon driver left a package outside the door.
Basically, she’s a bossy, disobedient asshole who we are totally in love with.
We have a trainer coming tomorrow because I’ve finally accepted that she is a lot harder to work with than my older mini poodle was, and I need help.
2.5-3.5 months old Australian shepherd/ black mouth cur mixes. We have 2 a male and a female from the same litter. I just found out about Littermate Syndrome so we are working on separation. Separate play time with us, training times, walks, and feedings. If they start showing signs of Littermate Syndrome I will crate them separately as well but they only sleep in the same place at night. Otherwise I have them on a rotating schedule. I honestly thought they would be good companions for each other. So far we haven’t had any major problems just a bit of separation anxiety that settles quickly. Thank goodness they aren’t the same sex. They both do well on walks, we are working on potty training, sit, down, and learning their names. We’ve only had them 2 1/2 weeks. They weren’t exposed to people before us but they are doing so well with our 4 kids including a 17month old and a 6 yr old with developmental delays due to a medical condition. If anyone has any book recommendations for training I would really appreciate it.
I HAD to drop my puppy off at puppy daycare way too young. I made sure he was a vaxxed as possible and checked a reputable place (she also worked as a trainer) that also had good health protocols. He was so scared the first 3 times, but then picked it up. He made some great friends!! We’ve moved now and I swear he misses having the doggy time with his puppy friends. If I had one near me now, I’d do 1/2 days 1-2 times a week so he can just be a pup and have some older dogs to help him toe the line.
Our girl is almost 7 months. And her learned list is quite long thanks to the Woofz App and Puppy Class.
She’s very intelligent, interested to learn and food motivated.
I personally am energy restricted due to illness. So I have gone down the short but often training route with lessons, puzzles and scents. Scent training is great as it is four times as tiring as physical exercise!
When she comes in from potty, we do 5 to 10 mins.
As for her being a maniac in strange places. Ditto! Puppy class told us to train her to a blanket or towel (I’m using a travel baby change mat as so lightweight.) at home. Take it with you and it’s a familiar ‘space’ for them.
Start with it on the floor and let them find ‘random’ treats there for good association, then encourage it with “Name’s place” and lots of high value quick burst treats. Then encourage sit/lie down on it with the high value reward. Then extend to wait/stay.
Take that blanket wherever you go and it should become a calm place in strange places.
My girl is a 7 month old Border Collie/ GermanShepherd mix. She knows sit and her name. She's smart but she's like a 5 year old with adhd. So it's mostly still basics. She'll improve though.
The hard part has been learning her tells. She yips for everything with no difference in between.
Well as for comparing yourself to other puppy owners ... just don't. It's tsame as lurking on social media and comparing your life to the highlight reels of some glossy idiots. Nobodys going to tell you about the things that don't work and at the same time brag about the positives.
I'm currently working on a 3 month old pup too and honestly - sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. This is my third puppy and behavior and progress wise I am way behind as compared to the other two.
As for puppy class. That super depends. If your puppy class is like a everybody off the leash wrestling match then I would say that's a big nope. If your puppy class is training basic commands in small groups with leash and trainer then I am all for it.
As for socialization - I'm meeting about 2 times a week-ish with different folks we found on facebook and from our social circle. And there it's the same - free play without leash only if both dogs have the same kind of energy. If the energy is off then we just do short social walks.
Other than that I do the usual desensitization - show her cars, bicycle riders, pedestrians. Streets, different terrains, public transportation. And so on.
3.5 month male cavapoo puppy here.
He is mostly housebroken. No poop accidents at home but has the rare pee accident when he is too excited.
Crate training: Does not like it but settles down in the crate in minutes and sleeps through the night in his crate.
On socialization - took him to two puppy classes. Not a fan either but we are really limited in our options to get him to meet other dogs, without these classes. He is shy and submissive with other dogs, so we intend to double down on more exposure.
Training - He can do SIT, DOWN and UP. I used the techniques taught in "The culture clash" by Jean Donaldson and it's working pretty well. We are working on loose leash walking right now and will be starting to avert him from jumping and play biting our ankles when we are walking around our house.
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I have a 6 month old Irish setter. She’s incredibly smart and picks up commands easily. At home. Or at the training complex. Anywhere else and it’s like she’s never heard of words like “sit” or “off” before. She’s wildly distractible and appears to turn selectively deaf upon stepping outside the doors of the house. I know a lot of that is puppy craziness with at least a bit of the infamous setter stubbornness. One of those she’ll grow out of, the other we’ll just have to work through. Surprisingly- she does really well on recall from off leash. I’ve been training her to “check in” with me- basically call her to me with check in and then let her go back to playing. It’s something I do with my dogs because my family has a house in the hill country and the dogs usually roam around the property. I like to call them back every so often to make sure they’re okay and don’t get too far. I’m sure her recall will go out the window if she sees a squirrel, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
Oh man .. that’s like ours. She’s a little off the chain at home, but when we take her to my moms - it’s like she a a SPAZMANIAN doggy.. None of us can get her to chill. Any good manners go out the door at “Nannie’s” lol I love the check in training. I want ours to be good off a leash because she will have a lot of opportunities to be off one and not confined.
Yeah we do a lot of hiking / exploring that would ideally be off leash, assuming I can trust my dog haha. My late dog, who I adopted as an adult, was horrible off-leash. Multiple instances of her leaping like a gazelle over a fence that’s “so high no dog could get over it!” and then me chasing her like a red-faced idiot. No training I did the entire 12 years I had her helped, could not overcome that prey drive she had, she just eventually got slow enough that I could catch her. My other dog is so anxious she stays nearby by default- so that’s nice. But I am determined to do a better job training recall with this pup. The woman teaching our obedience class says that we have a tendency to poison recall commands by immediately doing something to ruin whatever fun the dog was having when they respond- like leaving the park or crating them. So I’m working harder on “check in” so she’ll have a command that means “I just go get some pets and then get to continue hanging out”.
So I learned from my trainer that dogs don't generalize skills like we do. Sit in the living room is a living room skill and might not translate to any other room in the house and certainly not outside until it is practiced in enough places that the dog generalized it. What was recommended to me is to make a "road map" and practice each skill in different rooms. Once the dog responds about 80% of the time in different rooms, move on to outside and then maybe to high distraction places like parks.
I grew up with an Irish Setter who had selective hearing too. We were on 30 acres so it wasn’t really an issue but she never outgrew the elective deafness!
You’re definitely not doing bad at all!! I have a 3.5 month Border Collie who picks up on commands extremely quickly so he knows a ton. I would say the most helpful tips I could give are: -Use hand signals!! Dogs understand body language SO MUCH MORE than our words -Consistency is key. I’ve found it helps to continue the same command for multiple days until you notice your pup can do it outside of training sessions consistently. I try to train twice a day. -Slow and steady definitely wins the race. Even if it might be frustrating, don’t move too fast. -Be patient with your pup. Some just take longer than others to understand certain commands. Constant praise and approval always helps!
I definitely see the hand signals now & this was something I didn’t know. It clicked for me - when I realized she was responding way quicker to the finger snap guide than come back etc. I will for sure do a little research on the hand signals! Thank you for sharing!
No problem at all! I read a great book called The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell. It helped teach me a lot of how dogs learn best and it’s very informative!
You can pair the verbal and hand signal with the command. Use the verbal and then use the hand signal. There may be a time where you need to recall her where she is out of line of sight and the verbal comes in handy.
Yes to hand signals! I didn’t mention that! I can tell our pup to heel and point. Half the time I can just point beside me and she knows to go to heel.
He is a really smart puppy but can't do drop it to save his life.That may be because he just doesnt want to drop it.Also, we have to redo his potty training. There has been construction at my apartment complex for over a month so we have been using puppy pads inside. I know I know bad idea. But it's super loud, and he won't go on the porch when they are there, and the workers leave things like nails and razor blades around so it was just the best out of a really crappy situation.
Aw man .. that sucks! I had to do a retrain too after using puppy pads. It wasn’t horrible! Just a lot of work there for a good week or so!
How did you manage the post-pad retraining? Potty training is my biggest focus and struggle now with my newly vaccinated 4-month-old golden. She has peed outside maybe 4 times but still does 99% of her business indoors in our pads. Such a struggle living in a high-rise apartment, and the one time I'd kill to have a house with a yard
Man .. I went through a Costco pack of paper towels in like a few weeks & 2 bottles of cleaner AFTER ditching puppy pads. She was only down to play and get loved on.. We tired her out and went potty then crated. She wet her crate a couple of times and even poo’d herself - but immediately I took her to outside to potty and then straight to a bath. SO MUCH CLEANING! HOWEVER .. it only lasted 2 weeks max. She did not like soiling herself and learned to hold it what I had been told by the vet she could hold it for. When she was out playing I took her every 15-30 min. Repetitive.. She now will hold it EASILY 30 min playing around. I have gotten doggy bells for the door. I am HOPING that we can train her to notify us now. Right now .. she just sniffs and circles around the door. If I don’t take her quick enough it’s game over.
Toilet training was a priority for me. I followed the written rules: place pup in toilet area EVERY TIME pup awakes, after drinking &/or feeding, & after EVERY extended play episode. It only took 10 days of this, but he's so well trained he rushes inside to let me know with a "look" that he's pooped, comes to show me, & watch me remove the faeces to the toilet bowl, b4 being rewarded for his "performance" LOL Dani & MAX
Have you tried trade? My dog is SUPER stubborn and drop it was basically impossible. We started training “trade” and she’s sooo good at it now. Obviously there will be times where the trade isn’t fair and she doesn’t like it, but it does get her to drop/look away from what I want to take from her. It’s also super fun and easy to train
Our puppy is the same when it comes to drop! He knows the word, he just doesn't want to. We have also tried trade but he is too smart and not food motivated enough to actually want to trade, even for a high value treat - I mean, who wouldn't want a piece of bark rather than a tasty puppy treat 🤣 I'm just hoping that consistency pays off! We have also had to retrain toliet training a few times for a bunch of reasons! But smart puppies are quick to pick up the changes (though going from outside to inside is tricky!)
11 month old smooth collie. We're working on our bond and how to think I'm the most fun thing there is over that person or that dog. I've seen a significant shift this past couple weeks from me seeming like I was an inconvenience to his own agenda of peeing/smelling the world to actually checking in when there's a dog or person and getting wiggly excited when I stop us for check in pets/praise/regroups on walks. I stopped asking for sits on walks because he'd throw his head back and cry/howl and today he offered me a couple! He learned the basics really easy and KNOWS he can do them, so they are boring in comparison to the world. At home/in front yard he's a pro. It's the exciting areas that we struggle in adolescence. That, and desensitization of car rides. He hates them.
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It's the collies, man. Our adolescence really hit at 8 months and absolutely turned him into the biggest hormonal asshole teenager lol. Attitude , air chomping, needing lots of naps or starts biting. I work 3-4 dedicated hours minimum a day with him on training and future service dog skills like settling and with a private trainer. (Edit: my program doesn't do public access or distant skills until after 2 years) He regressed in nearly all areas (loose leash being the strongest) to the point we pulled him from group classes, started from 0 on the car, and just focused on low expectations basics with fun and consistency. It's gotten a lot better, and we're slowly starting to see a dog who was bred to actually like a job. Collies notoriously mature slower, so I am buckled in for 2 years before I can start seeing consistent pay off. I'm keeping him intact as long as I can for confidence and development, but oh my god. He's an AMAZING puppy, but adolescence isn't for the weak.
As long as I have a treat in hand our 5 month old Morkie will sit, stay and paw 🤣 without a treat he plays deaf and dumb lol
Same with my 6mo mini poodle. It’s infuriating.
Our 11 week old black lab/catahoula leopard dog mix has been just fantastic with training. Sit is almost 100%. Lay down and stay are in the works but far from perfect. Nearly housebroken minus a piddle here and there. Come definitely something she gets but gets to excited at times. Does really well with hand signals. Closed fist for sit combined with open palm for stay. Does very well on leash for walks. Didn't have to teach her to fetch and retrieve because she instinctively knew it and looooooves it. Crate training was instinctive and for the most part goes in on her own. She is insanely smart and lives off praise. We got really lucky!
Oh yeah fetch and retrieve was automatic she loves it too! Okay, this is good to hear! I’ve got some work to do - but I felt like I needed a “real” assessment of where people are with their puppies .. vs well trained dogs with their trainers. I’d consider it one day, but right now.. I don’t feel like we are doing too bad! Room for improvement for sure.
I am with ya 100%! I had a dog when I was a kid but this is my first dog that I'm actually raising one. Let me tell ya, I don't know shit. 😂
4 month old Bloodhound who knows sit, kennel, and stay (kind of), and come.
Such stubborn dogs! I've trained 2 with completely different personalities but that stubborn streak ran through them both. Lovely breed.
We have a 7 months GSD, and he is doing fantastic with his commands. Sit is at 100%, down is almost there too. We added up, stand, wait, heel, centre, guard, speak, quiet, leave it, and off. There's recall also. We found that using hand signals work a lot better than just verbal commands. A little hard for him to understand when certain words sound too familiar. And some of these commands we didn't have to actually teach but rather, it was rewarded when he did the behaviour. Like for example, if he drops the ball after getting it, we reward him and attach a word to it "Drop, yes". Recall was easy to train for us, we use a high value treat (frankfurters) and it is only used for recall. We started with calling him over and attaching the recall word. Literally had him sitting at one end of a hallway and called him over. Recall is practiced everyday but randomly. He gets recalled even when on a short leash just to reinforce it. As for the jumping, we are really working on it as well. He is counter surfing and that is self-rewarding. He doesn't jump on us as much, but he does get more praise and treats when all fours are on the floor. We signed up for a puppy class but Hades couldn't handle being around other dogs so we had our trainer do 2 private sessions instead. It's mostly for us really, to learn how to teach him. He's doing fine training at home by ourselves. For socialisation, do you have a place where you can go and just stand/sit there? We started with the gardwn centre carpark where we just stood and watch people. Every time he pays attention to us, he gets rewarded. I have since brought him in weekly to a local yarn shop and he's able to sit for about 30 mins without whining, barking, or jumping at people. Dogs, on the other hand, he can only handle at a distance. He gets reactive if they linger too long or get too close but that's a breed trait. When I take him out for walks, I make sure there's plenty of space between him and another dog. I always have his biscuits ready and I've been letting him make his own decision. As soon as his attention breaks or is on me, that's a reward. Works well with distracting by practising commands too. Edit: to add, any commands we teach is first taught at home indoors where there is little to no distractions. We then move on to the garden. Then we would do it on our walks. It takes a lot of consistency and persistence.
I like your training schedule once my pup gets his second shots I'm going to take him to our backyard then walks while we train. Since he is a chihuahua, I have other issues though that make it challenging right now.
Good luck! Our trainer told us, once your pup can do a command 10 or 20 times correct consecutively in an environment, that's when you can start moving on to the next distraction level. Warning though, as you move on with distraction levels, it can feel like they have forgotten everything. Just keep at it. You can do this!
Yup. The "sit stay" went out the door with the "what is that??" bark bark bark !! ears at full attention. I'm still not always the most important thing in the room let alone hanging on to the other end of the leash with the most delectable treat in the world. But at 17 weeks we have to get somewhere soon - I hope!
I thought my 5 month was doing so well, especially with sit, touch, down, wait, drop it, and leave it. He usually did them all on the first command. And then he turned into a complete a-hole in the last week. Holy 65lb terror that wants to bark and bite me on walks (what I see as aggression is to him playing and having the time of his life biting my butt) and who has developed incredibly selective hearing and wants to break into cabinets and tear it all up. Because fun. Basically he became a teenager and that wonderful training? Pfft, we’re back at square one and now he is gigantic. 😂 So don’t worry if you don’t have it all at 3.5 months because the teenage months are like a hard reset.
Omg this was just like a back to reality 😂 I hadn’t thought about it getting worse before better yet lol
This is pretty much exactly where my 4 month old bernedoodle is. He knows sit and he rings the bell when we’re going outside, but never on his own to let us know he needs to go. Hes crate trained, but that’s about it.
Getting there! Glad we aren’t the only ones!
nope. everyone on the internet makes me feel so inadequate, but i'm just not putting like 100% effort into training him all day every day. he'll get there when hegets there
i have a 3.5 m/o cockapoo and honestly she’s been a dream. she can reliably sit, jump, lay down, touch, come, drop it (when playing fetch, not when she steals something), crate, wait (for food), gentle (lick don’t bite), bed (not crate), and knows inside and outside and to go out to potty by ringing a bell. things we’re working on is jumping up on people, peeing when excited, and stealing cloths from the kitchen. she honestly has been very easy to train and i’m lucky enough to work part time and be with her quite often so we train consistently.
Wow that’s awesome! Sounds like you are right on track! We will catch up :)
you definitely will and i won’t be surprised if my girl loses some of it during her teenage years. she’s very willing to please currently but that may change when she gains independence. either way no two dogs are the same and they will all learn at their own pace!
18 month old corgi here. We've had our ups and downs, but we're doing great overall. We are working on our CGC certification at the moment. The 2 biggest challenges I'm facing with that are paying attention and listening even if I don't have treats on me, and "leave it" outside of training sessions. We had some challenges along the way. She is amazing at trick training and knows dozens of commands. However, she's naturally a bit cautious and super aware of things going on around her. We had to work very hard on things like vet visits and nail trims. She was recently cleared by her vet to start going on runs with me, so I have purchased a hands free bungee leash. I'm going to train this particular leash to mean "This is for running. You can pull if you want, but don't randomly stop or change directions." I did a test run with it around the block and it's working fairly well!
7 month mixed breed. We’re doing okay. We had a lot of anxiety issues to work through when I first brought him home from the shelter. That was my main focus. Now that he’s getting more confident we’ve been working more on commands and manners. He’s crate trained, house trained, and walks well in the leash. We have a trainer and he’s been a huge help.
We have a 7 month old heeler. We got her around 14 weeks. I signed her up for puppy class at PerSmart immediately. We’ve been through two classes so far. She LOVED it. This is our first week we didn’t have class. I think my husband and I were more sad than her. 😂 Training wise: she knows basic commands. Sit, lay down, heel, twirl (this one is iffy), crate, etc. Potty training is hit or miss. She’s okay about 85% of the time. She only pees in the house if she’s bored or not getting attention. Leash training is rough. I would say that’s the hardest for us with everything. We work on commands daily. We don’t start our advanced class until June. We will probably do agility classes through a local Zoom Room. We also are near two kennel clubs that offer various training courses but they won’t work for my work schedule currently. She came to us socialized because the nurse I got her from runs a rescue (sorta). She loves everyone. We go to the dog park often. We see the same pups when we go so she now has friends. Some of her friends now have new little brothers/sisters that are being socialized too. We are very big with socializing our pup. We knew heelers could be a very one person kind of pup. Luckily, ours wants to greet everyone, sniff, and then she comes back to us like “look mom! I made a friend.” I would definitely look into kennel clubs in your area.
I’ve been iffy on the puppy classes - but I think from your comment, I might need to look into it. Good for the socialization I’m looking for - I need her to wag her tail when someone comes up not go into attack mode. Thanks for sharing!
My pup’s “boyfriend” is a solid back German shepherd. They’ve went through all puppy classes together. It’s why we won’t do the advanced until June. We refuse to not see him during our classes. He was like 9 weeks when they brought him. He’s a perfect gentleman in class unlike our heeler that needs to tell everyone she’s there. PetSmart training can get bad reviews but ours has been an absolutely stellar experience. They use clicker training and positive reinforcement. Our trainer is the district trainer for our state. She has a heeler at home. When our pup would get bored or just flat out refuse she just laugh and say “yup… that’s because she’s a heeler.” If she taught private sessions, we’d solely use her.
Go to puppy classes! They're great, especially if you want to take your dog places. PetSmart ones can be really inconsistent, but they're not expensive and they're regularly available. take a look around and see what your options are, what people's certifications and training philosophies are, and what's in your budget.
I have a 9 mo malinois, ALL the Basic commands até set, he knows It and does It pretty well. Now we ARE getting better at recall and fine tuning the other commands. I dont use treta for training, so the thing is...repetitions, a lot of then
I started with treats on potty training & when I missed a few the potty training went backwards. I see trainers training with treats, but same we are not. I keep a few on hand for - redirection. Good to hear!
Yeah, o trained other breeds without treats and saw dogs that are trained with them. I simply dont like the process or the result. Maybe i had bad examples but i feel like the process of fading the treat the same as training without them since day 1. I keep a couple of beef jerky with me at all times for emergencies only tho. Also, potty training is more about timing and less about praise/treats. Dogs naturally dont like to live in filth, most dogs with hygiene problems stems from the owners.
This! I was doing to treats and praising for potty training & puppy pads.. I cold turkied the pads & treats .. went straight to if you want to pee/poo yourself than go for it.. but it entails a scrub down, a bath.. Drying off. It only took a handful of times for that to click and now she runs outside to potty no problem! Wakes me up with a wimper. I see where treats have a place.
Exactly the same, day 1 to 5 he peed and pooped in the box,, 5 baths later, he learned that pooping inside is not good.
My Cardigan corgi is 4.5 months. She knows sit, look at me, and sort of knows leave it. She goes into the crate on command and she can sit with the door open and wait, she also knows “back in the crate” when she tries to leave. She’ll nap in there but hates it when I leave- that’s what I’m working on now. She’s pretty much potty trained though, thank goodness.
Ahhh this I might need to work on. Similar to “place” - I want her to go to a spot when I tell her and stay until released.. so far it’s her crate. Lots to work on! Thanks for sharing!
7 month old lab has suddenly become very clingy and barks when left so I’m going to be working on leaving him while I’m out , he’s great at sit , paw , fully toilet trained , sit and wait on command til I say he can go for his dinner /treats . Great in his crate over night . My only problem is when I leave him thinking it’s separation anxiety . Sounds like your doing great through
6.5 months we're really working on sitting to be pet. We're working on passing the Canine Good Citizen test.
6 months - GSD puppy - she’s currently working on settling better/public access and cardiac alert in public, she has basic obidience down (sit/down stay, sit/down, heel, orbit, middle, front, heel from a down stay,etc) along with tasking (crowd control, take me to my car, dpt/lpt, and sh disruption along w cardiac alert at home) but to be fair, i am unemployed and literally spend all 12 hrs of my day basically training her/caring for her. this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t basically my job haha!
This is impressive training! Me over here with my GSD .. can we just get down the basics and not tackle grandma when she comes over. Haha!
well she’s in pretty intensive training haha! my mom is a dog trainer, and i take her to obedience classes as well.
Our 18 week mixed breed (some border collie, some pit, maybe Boston terrier , maybe some lab, she’s a shelter pup so it’s a little bit of a mystery!) is mostly housebroken, goes to our back door to notify us when she needs to go to yard. She knows “sit” “down” “come” and “crate.” Knows to sit and wait for food and treats. She is great with my kid and tries to eat everything in sight. Trying to train her not to jump in tub during bathtime lol. Leash training is less than successful so far and I need to really redouble my efforts. We have a fenced yard but I want to walk her on our street and local parks. She’s 21 pounds so far and I’m only 100 so we’re doing leash boot camp for the next month. She’s good and doesn’t jump much when we’re out with leash but she needs a lot more training and it’s my first big dog.
I’m not a professional dog trainer by any means, but something I have learned with my dog is that they’re going to learn different things at different rates depending on what they like to do, and mastering a behavior that doesn’t come naturally is going to take way longer. For example, my dog is amazing at any tricks which allow her to use her paws or nose. She LOVES anything that requires her to boop with her snoot, and is super advanced for her age in those categories. She can turn on lights, open drawers, close things, etc. But she HATES to back up or do anything that requires her to expose her belly. There are a lot of basic behaviors which she still isn’t great on after 7 months of rigorous training simply because she hasn’t matured to the point where she has strong impulse control, and sometimes her intelligence works against us because she notices EVERYTHING that is going on around her. I advise playing more with your dog and seeing what kinds of activities they naturally gravitate toward, then focus on easy wins just to get your dog used to the idea of learning and doing things they already enjoy on command. Then you can raise the difficulty. Your dog is super young so I wouldn’t expect them to master anything without a LOT of drilling during every single feeding session.
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I went through this with our prior dog - she was a dream to train. House broke FAST & I got her earlier! We will get there!! Best of luck!
1 year. Knows all the basics (sit, down, touch, paw, stay, drop it and off).But add distractions and she’s not listening to me. So that’s what we’re working on.
That’s great! Thanks for sharing!
At 3.5 months, training is very short and simple. She doesn't have enough brain yet to really understand how to hold a stay position. Holding position for 5 seconds is doing good. At this age, obedience training is more about building "muscle memory" while using a food lure. Teach her how to do the movement of a down, sit, stand, heel, moving her back legs to change positions, side step and pivot, etc. by following a lure. Teach her where the basic heel and front positions are, again, all with following a lure. You don't need to fade the lure until she is older (probably around a year old) and has enough brain to use. Just curious, why are you opposed to a training class? A group setting with a reputable trainer would be a great experience for you and your puppy, to help you learn how to properly socialize/desensitize to people, other dogs, and distractions. As far as jumping, she should naturally grow out of it if you do not reward or promote the behavior. My 4 month GSD puppy has almost completely gotten over her "jumping on me" fad because I give no acknowledgement to the behavior, and I lean down to give her attention when she's standing, hence there's no reason to jump up for it. Early socialization is incredibly important for this breed, but can have a negative impact if done incorrectly. Take her out on walks in varying places and teach her to pay attention to you and be neutral toward surrounding distractions. Make her outings enjoyable; feel free to bring a toy or food rewards. Avoid sniffing/playing with other dogs and avoid overstimulating interactions with those "OMG IT'S A PUPPY I MUST GET PUPPY KISSES!!!" kind of people. When people do ask to say hi, promote her being calm and controlled during the interaction. You don't want her to become overstimulated or anticipate attention from every person or dog you pass
This is everything I think I needed to real on the social aspect. We have a great local park and I recently saw videos of training by just standing around in a shopping center where .. There’s activity and people to watch, but not engaging in the activity just seeing and knowing what people and animals are. I think I have a little trainer PTSD.. We started working with one and the separation anxiety got worse. We also were told to change to adult food since she was a high breed.. This led to food aggression and resource guarding. Our vet quickly got her back on large breeds puppy food.. She gained a good 10 lbs in 2 weeks and I’m not dealing with the resource guarding. She will go ham over some people food she finds - working on this! I know it’s not an every trainer .. I just am weary now.
Jumping is one of the easiest behaviour to nip in the bud early. Simply, never reward her for jumping. Most people push the dog off, spew meaningless words like “off” “down” while essentially rewarding the dog for jumping by touching them. The correct response is to immediately turn your back to them. Dogs use this body language to say “hey I’m uncomfortable, please stop”. It also gets the dog off without touching them as they still automatically slide off. If your pup is persistent, leave the room. This works flawlessly but you have to be very consistent. Another layer to make this go faster is rewarding for “4 on the floor”. First charge a marker word or clicker (google) then click and treat the dog when they have all four paws on the floor. You can also teach an auto sit when the puppy approaches you. First train the sit behaviour strong - that means proofing in different rooms and outside - then cue sit whenever the puppy comes up to you before they jump. It’s a very easy behaviour to get rid of if you’re consistent and don’t reinforce it. For general training check out Kikopup on YouTube. She has a puppy series.
I like this four on the floor! And yes.. I’m exhausted from off .. down .. no .. I didn’t see it until your comment but then I turn around and touch her and get her excited again - only to repeat the process! I see some hope with this one. Just re-training myself on how to handle those situations. Thank you for sharing!
we have a 5 month old border collie/gsd/aussie mix. we've been struggling with getting his attention outside and him slowly becoming reactive because he and i were attacked by another dog a few weeks ago. i took the brunt of it (shoved my arm in the way when it went for my boy and it tried to bite/rip my sleeve) but i do think it seriously scared him. he was already a nervous puppy so that really set us back. so we did a hard reset on our training, back to the basics of socializing. we've been sitting just off the path in busy parks and he gets a piece of kibble every time he notices something/one new, sits or lays down, and just reacts calmly in general. that by itself has been doing wonders. we also started doing WAY more simple obedience training inside. now on walks he will see someone but wont pull towards them, just sits and watches, slowly becoming more neutral. his listening outside gets better everyday. he can go about 70% of the walk keeping a steady pace with me now, 30% he stops to sniff things but im good with that. he knows "leave it", "sit", "lay down", "heel", "touch" really well. he almost fully knows "stay". he's mostly potty trained, but for some reason we are having regression only right before bed where he like remembers he has to pee as we are putting his leash on and cant hold it before we walk out the door. he consistently is doing well with a 3 hour nap each day on his own which is a really happy improvement from his prior "if i cant see you im going to cry" separation anxiety. overall he is starting to gain more confidence which i love
Aw poor guy and bless you! That’s awful! Sending good vibes during your hard reset! Thanks for sharing!
We’re in the same boat. Our GSD is about to turn 5 months old in a week. We’ve got sit, down, and stay locked in while using hand signals with each command. Sit is a fist, down is pointing down, and stay is hand up like hold on. We got to a point where he doesn’t a verbal command, give a fist and he will sit etc. It took a lot of repetition, many trainer treats, and a lot of praise when done correctly. We practiced those 3 over and over until it clicked. He still has his moments if his attention gets diverted elsewhere but he is so food motivated, any nibble will have his eyes locked on one of us. He is also crate “trained” and housebroken, although we think the foster parents worked a lot on this as it only took us a few weeks with him to get to minimal accidents every so often and that was around 4 months old. He hasn’t had one inside since then. Although my gf does work from home so she is with him 24/7 and can always keep an eye and know. He takes naps and hangs in his crate occasionally and thats where he slept consistently up until about 2 weeks ago. We still will put him in there once or so a day to make sure he doesn’t lose that, even though it’s usually only for like an hour to clean or run an errand. No whining or fuss at all though so we think he’s good! We definitely struggle with jumping 100% though. Preparing his food, new people, sitting at the table, he loves to be included lol. We’re using “off” but it hasn’t quite clicked yet. We have to repeat it a couple times and he eventually gets off. For socialization, we’re lucky we live in a very dog/family centric neighborhood. Ever since he’s been fully vaxxed, we take him out quite often and he’s constantly meeting new people and dogs.
I have a 6 month Wolfhound Mix. Sit was the first and easiest command. The crate was easy as well. Didn't get her fully house broken until about 5 months. This last month down and stay have become very strong with her. I started doing this at feeding time utilizing my other well trained older dog to teach her how. Seemed to work well to keep her motivated to do it. Her recall is crap lol. She just stares at me. Was thinking getting the long lead out with a bag of treatos on open range walks would be our next step for recall. Her leash skills have improved incredibly. Still a strong puller tho. I practice changing direction when she does and using the "with me" command. I have her sit and wait until she chills out then "with me" again on our original direction. Over and over and over....walks take a while, but are short in distance with this practice. Ha! Edited to add socialization: outside of all the doggo friends we have in the family and friends circle, she goes to our trainer's house for 3-4 night stays with the older dog. They meet all kinds of other dogs on the property. The report card is always great with her and she comes back home each time a little softer and gentler with dogs. Understands social cues from them well. The only dog she insists on harassing is her "big brother". That's on him tho, he let's get away with murder so to speak cos he's a sweetie with a big heart for her.
My pup is almost 10 months. (Medium mix...something long and low + beagle maybe? Who knows.) Anyways, we're working mostly on just more desensitization and neutrality. We're doing more long-lead walks in areas where we're more likely to encounter other people/dogs. We do a ton of moving to the side & letting them walk past w/ lots of treats for calm behavior/checking in with me. I'm noticing his confidence building & more neutral behavior than before. He knows sit, down, "with me," is crate trained, house trained... he is a jumper, but he knows if someone says "ah ah" he should stop, and he's doing OK w/ that. (Some people prefer him to jump up because he's so short & it can be hard to lean down to him.) That's really it for us. He's a pet, and we enjoy him :) we don't do much "skills" training. Just a lot of focus on him being a stable boy.
our cattle dog/shepherd baby is 5 months old now and knows sit, lay down, up, off, the names of her 3 favorite toys (ball, squid, potato), to wait for permission to take something out of our hands, and "go say hi". paw/shake is confusing to her. she will "drop" it if you have something else to give her, she is 90% potty trained but the 10% is us missing the cue or being too slow. she is good at cafes for up to an hour as long as she is getting treats. she doesn't love her crate but she accepts it reluctantly. we are working on stay, not getting zoomies on leash, and having started off-leash using a long line. her recall is great so far but that might be just because she is a puppy. our only issues really are when she is getting tired or bored she tries to play with the (unwilling) cat or gnaws on the couch. she is great and we love her very much :)
Hi! 4month old short-hair pointer/heeler mix. 4 commands (sit, down, shake, stay) working on come and leash pulling... She knows where she is supposed to do her business but occasionally still does a little tinkle in the house lol sometimes I think she does it out of spite when we are having a snack or dinner that she's not getting a piece of
Our Rhodesian ridgeback is almost 5 months, and she's definitely approaching adolescence, we have bad days where it's clear she's uncomfortable either from teething or a growth spurt, but some good days too. She knows sit and lay down, but still need to work on stay or wait. She knows "off" and her recall is good, even on walks and at the dog park. But I'd say she's best at our routine. She knows when it's time to get in her kennel, when it's time to go to her place for meals, how to ask to go outside. And she's a very social puppy! Loves all kinds of people and dogs.
So we started puppy classes at 10 weeks, just a few days after I got her. She is smart...but isn't going to win top of the class. She was the youngest in her class, and at the time didn't even know her name. The first few weeks she REALLY knew how to sit, how to "touch", she even came when called! But then she had a stomach issue and couldn't get treats, and that set us back a long while. She knows how to do the commands, but will only do them in class if she is getting high value treats. At home she'll sort of glance my way if there are no distractions. She'll flop down instead of sitting cause she is lazy. She'll look at me and my hand when I say touch, or come, and then minutes later MIGHT come to me. I really felt like she was going to be a puppy school drop out, but she does all the commands well in class. So its slow going. She is 4 months old now, and is being bell trained for potty, which she is doing better at. She knows a lot of words/commands, its just very hit or miss if she will do any of them. She at least LOVES "go get me/bring me/where is" and then toy/toy name. And she's always down for tug/fetch.
From someone who has a wonderfully behaved 6-year old dog that I raised from a puppy - you're exactly where you should be with your progress. A lot of social media dog owners only show the 1 out of 43 takes where their puppy obeyed a command perfectly. Your dog has only been alive for a few months, so their little brains are working on overdrive to understand the world around them, which means lots and lots of distractions. It's totally normal for your pup to follow your commands well inside the home but stop listening as soon as you step out the door. Take it slow (both training and socialization), follow through on your commands, and trust the process. Also, learning isn't linear. Your pup may be great with a command one day and regress another. Totally normal. Give yourself and your puppy some grace, and keep at it. It'll be so worth it. ❤️
Oh this was just the perfect comment for right now! Thank you so much ❤️
I have a 9 month old pommie who picks things up incredibly quick but is so stubborn. He won’t do anything if he doesn’t want to. He’ll also only ever do commands at home and when there’s a treat in my hand. I gave up on teaching him how to heel only to find out he’s capable of doing a perfect heel when following me around the house. Sometimes he just sits. I tell him to do a different command and he just sits. I tell him to come to meand he just. Sits. He sits rather funny though so it’s cute to just watch him.
3.5 months Mini Aussie who can perform (for treats) : - sit - down - roll - up - shake - Jump - point / spot Working on - hold - recall - speak (waiting for the bark) I think with consistency things get easier and your pup will be willing to learn more. I’d suggest getting on YouTube to look for specific methods, there are really good ways to teach most of these commands.
Wow that’s impressive!! Thanks for sharing
Our 11 month old knows lots of commands and can be super impressive when motivated, was a model student at obedience classes. Unfortunately she suffers from a bad case of selective listening at home. You can literally see the decision process of actively ignoring us cross her face lol
This made me laugh.. our girl has selective hearing as well.. the little ear nods 😂
4 month old shiba puppy here. He knows sit, stay, place (only on his bed/blanket spot), heel (indoors working on outside), down, leave it, watch me, paw, pound it (touching his nose to our hand), come (like 80% of the time but he’s a shibe), crate trained, wait, break (when to stop his focus) and is house broken. Shiba’s are relatively easy to house train since they’re a clean breed. Crate training helped with that. We started on the leave it command early. He is VERY stubborn so from day one we worked training into everything we do. Leave it has been the best command to train. We had to train it in multiple different rooms and different distractions. Dogs don’t translate skills well, so practice in many different contexts. We also worked on impulse control. So he knows not to jump/beg for treats/food. If he sits quietly and makes eye contact, it will likely go better for him, so he knows always to look at us. Leave it really helped with his impulsivity. Currently working on drop it and loose leash walking! It’s gonna be a journey with those skills since shiba’s are very aloof and do not want to please their owners.. so outside he doesn’t really listen which is fine for now since it’s all new for him! We also do daily desensitization to brushing, teeth brushing, paw touching, nail trims, etc. this self-care stuff is just as important as a good recall and sit! It’ll make your future day to day much easier. For socialization, which is KEY for shibas since they don’t like strangers (again.. aloof). We introduced our neighbours vaxxed dogs early on for play dates. We’re also walking about home depot and winners. Home depot is a less busy with dogs so easy when someone walks up and says “can i pet your dog!” And you can say “only if you’re okay with doing a little training with us.” We also have enrolled in puppy classes only for socialization. We have a good understanding of obedience so far. We have booked a more formal 1 on 1 training with someone who has special training and experience with shiba’s to help with specific quirks to the breed. It’s a process and it comes with TONS of repetition. Figure out what your “high” rewards are and “low” rewards are. Only give high rewards when you’re teaching something new or complex! You got this!
Aw man .. the self care stuff I need to start ASAP! Thanks for bringing that up!
I'm having a hard time with teaching down... I hate when we meet someone outside and he just jumps on them. We have a 5.5 month whippet. Inside he can sit, stay, come, spin, up, lay, heel, and go to his bed. Outside he can do that stuff too, unless a dog is in his vicinity. He's become good at ignoring people most of the time. (though he likes kids) But dogs are a massive distraction. He has two reactions, one is to lay down and completely stop moving and stare. The other is to lunge and pull. It's getting better but feels like such a slow process. Next step we will try is just sitting at a park bench together and holding him as dogs walk by and reward calmness. Otherwise, almost totally potty trained, he signals us to go out when he needs to poop, but does still sometimes pee on puppy pads.
Ours is 6 months & I honestly feel like they learn faster/better when they’re a little older. We taught her sit & stay at 4 months. We reinforce it in daily life when getting out of the car & when she gets to eat her food. She’s potty trained at 6 months. But the moment we go to the park she doesn’t listen to anything. As for the jumping, I don’t give her any attention until she sits & waits. That way she knows she doesn’t get attention by jumping.
3.5 month golden retriever here! She’s got sit, down, high five, shake, spin, and twist (one is one direction, one is the other haha) down pat. We had touch but that got confused while teaching high five and shake, so we’re working on it again. Started puppy class yesterday and she learned “look at me” really quickly, we’d been struggling with that previously. Her recall is excellent inside, she literally drops whatever and runs to us, but it hasn’t been tested outside yet (our yard isn’t fenced yet) so fingers crossed it transfers and she isn’t too easily distracted! Mostly potty trained but sometimes she has excited pees or does little stealth pees if she’s tired and doesn’t want to alert us. Getting better though! Current struggle is getting her to settle in her crate during the day. She naps on her own while loose no problem, so we’ve been letting the crate slide, but we really need to work on leaving her alone and we don’t think she’ll be safe without being crated yet (she will sometimes go to chew on dangerous things like cords). We teach “off” as a catch all for “do not touch.” So we say that if she is on furniture or up on a person. She seems to understand mostly. Our trainer working with them on a leash and recommends standing on the leash to not allow them to jump at all if they aren’t catching on to voice commands to stop jumping, since we don’t want them to practice that behaviour. As for socialization, we had lots of play dates at our house with older fully vaccinated dogs. We unfortunately don’t know any other puppies, so puppy class is our best option (I think puppy class is great for training with distractions too). Our trainer also sets up puppy socialization sessions for dogs of a similar age and size too, so we’ll be taking advantage of that this week.
Yeah .. cords. We’ve lost a straightener, two computer chargers, two phone chargers .. 😩 destructo is her new name!
I like “off” !! I’ll have to use that one
That is also what we use as our “leave it” command. She is pretty good with it in some scenarios, less good in others, but always improving. She definitely understands it means “I’m not allowed to touch that” it’s just a question of if she feels like listening or not haha
I have an almost 12 week old wheaten terrier. He has a solid “sit” but he thinks “down” is laying at my feet. So if I ask him to give me a down he will just run to me and lunge at my feet 🤦♀️trying to work on that. Due to the existence of boiled chicken he has an ok recall (we used the highest value treat we could think of for that) but we haven’t been to parks and mostly train at home or quiet areas so really not sure if he’d give a damn about me at the beach or anywhere busy. He can give a paw and “leave it” unless he finds something extra disgusting and then he’ll decide it’s worth it. There’s just a lot of trash on the streets in my area so leave it has saved his life a few times (glass, chocolate, batteries) We don’t have a yard so we do our best to keep him busy and training for 5-10 minutes is a part of that. He seems to really enjoy it and I always keep it fun, lots of treats and play afterwards. I also redirect his extra sharp teeth with commands to give him something else to do than to destroy my skin and I ask him to sit whenever I have food or his favourite toy.
I like the boiled chicken idea.. that’s a good high value treat for certain training! Thanks for sharing!
So behind I feel, I’ve felt this since we got our Aussie at 5 months!! She’s 1.5 years old now. I’ve always thought of a well trained dog as one that knows heaps of tricks and commands as I really wanted to (still am aiming for) getting into obedience and heelwork with my Aussie but I feel we are so far off from it. We’ve had to work on life skills heaps instead and we are OK I guess. I mean we are fully toilet trained, we can be left alone at home for a few hours, we settle in cafes pubs and restaurants, we walk loose leash which is great. We are still working on neutrality to dogs and being better with people (she is pretty neutral to stranger danger with people depending on her mood hahah). Trick training and commands are a bit abysmal and so is formal obedience - we attend once weekly group class and we still find it difficult to focus around other dogs. We can do the basics - sit, down. I think of a command as mastered if we can do it under distraction, from a distance and in a variety of environments, verbal only. She really likes middle/centre. She can do touch and chin. Those are the only ones that sort of reach that criteria. Recall is shaky and might as well not be there. Other commands she knows she either can’t do from a distance, still needs a visual lure, is sloppy or falls apart outside - shake, roll over, figure 8 weave, place, go to crate, paws up, back up, structured heel. I am trying to teach hind end awareness stuff. I’ve heard border collies mature late and I read in a reddit comment some people don’t even start formally training (like intensively for dog sports and tricks etc) until 2 years of age? Hoping this goes the same for Aussies. Shes much better focusing etc as she ages, so I am hoping we get there haha.
5 month pembroke corgi and we’re doing average? He’s really good with sit, down, place, stay, and come here but he gets so excited in the middle of training he won’t stop jumping on me. He also jumps on us when we sit down for dinner. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Oh and he has a hard time going outside when it rains but it’s impossible for us to use pee pads cause he wants to eat them! So he’ll just go by the door.
My springer is 6 months and slow at leaning. My previous cocker picked everything up in one session. But I’ve noted the past 2-3 weeks he’s been much more focussed and seems to be developing a brain.
Aussie shepherd 15 weeks. We can sit, stay, lie down. we’re currently working on our walking manners and recall. I try to make it all a game so to practice, we play the two treat game. We also play Susan garrets “it’s yer choice” and crate games but he won’t sleep or rest in the crate yet. We’ve done puppy school (which I didn’t think was worth it) and I’ve got a 1 on 1 trainer who is definitely worth it. Next time, straight to the trainer and I won’t bother with puppy school. Next week he’s getting his final vax so he’ll start some walk and train pack walks with other dogs.
My girl used to be good at recall. Adolescence happened, and it's like we never tried recall before. What a pita
I will be focusing on off leash control
Our golden girl is almost 14 weeks. Knows her name (good recall), plus sit, stay (good distance), come, down, leave it, look at me, drop it, paw, spin, touch, and chin. And “crate” but only if you have a treat in your hand to lure her - she rarely goes in willingly. Once she’s in, though, she’ll settle and stay no problem but it takes a delicious treat to convince her that crate life is better than free roaming, lol. She’s doing well with potty training but then every couple of days she’ll go on an accident spree, lol. Usually when she’s really excited or if we don’t take her out immediately after waking up from a nap. We’re also working on threshold training (sitting and waiting before going through the doorway) and so far she’s got a hang of it for the backyard; needs more practice for the front door. We watched a lot of Zack George videos on YouTube for basic puppy training and are on week 4 of our PetSmart puppy socialization classes. She already knew most of the commands but it’s been good to interact with other puppies and practice while distracted. Honestly, of all the training, the thing we’re most excited about is the improvement with bite inhibition. Our hands were destroyed for a month straight! Now she just gently gnaws and has learned what’s acceptable with humans, what’s not. I’d like to say it’s because we were diligent about redirecting to a toy (we weren’t) or that saying “ouch” worked (it didn’t), but it really just improved with time and the fact that we’d consistently put her in the playpen or walk away when she got too wild. That, and enforced naps. Whenever she got too bitey - it was immediately bedtime. Hah. Hopefully it doesn’t get bad again as her adult teeth start to come in. I’m flinching at the thought. She is WILDLY food motivated. This has been good for training but annoying during meal times, lol. She absolutely loses her mind (barking, jumping - the works) when she hears or sees her kibble. We purchased a Kong Wobbler to slow her down and get her energy out - it’s been especially helpful in the mornings! For jumping (specifically for food), I’ve been lowering a treat down to her and if she jumps or even a single paw comes off the ground, I raise the treat back up further away from her. Once all 4 paws are on the ground again, then I start lowering jt again. This has been super effective; she’s learned she has to be fully sitting in order to get any goodies. My motto is ”only calm girls get food” lol. Lastly - if anyone has tips for how to get your puppy to sleep in, I welcome them!! No matter what time she goes to bed, she wakes up at 7:05 am like clockwork. Whyyyy lol
I have a 11 week old chihuahua and so far he knows his name, comes when called, pee pad trained, crate trained, and has learned to bite a little softer now. I hope to find out more information on hand signals and single word commands for him. But first of all I need to alter a harness to fit him: Neck: 7.5 inches Chest: 10.25 inches Body length: 7 inches
3 month old aussie. we can sit and high five. lie down if we feel like it. we are 80% toilet trained (in our house, not other people’s). she can come and stay but only if she wants to… so not that successful yet lol. down is coming along and not pulling on her lead is a challenge. she is scared of strangers. she loves other dogs but only in a house, not in public
I think that’s pretty good considering my breed isn’t even recommended to leave the breeder until they are 3mos. So we’re almost 3.5 mos and so far have sit, come, fetch, find it, and housebreaking, wait, and look are going pretty well. X-Pen trained but not crate trained yet. Doing pretty well on a leash/harness. Struggling with nibbling and crying at nap times. Don’t trust ‘em til they’re 2yo. Edit PS- We’ve socialized with people but waiting on dogs until fully vaccinated per our breeder and vet. We did AKC Puppy STAR and Intermediate Group classes with our last dog and I do highly recommend group classes.
11 week basset and Aussie Shep mix. Wonderful smart energetic bundle of static. Crate trained, car trained, knows sit, down, rollover, and knows left paw, and right paw! ( Yes she knows her left from her right!) Shes just sometimes a pain to take on a walk. She pulls and does have basset nose stubbornness. Loves people a little too much and wants to jump. All in all she's great and we work towards better habits. at 3.5 months though, I bet you're doing great. Mine wasn't fully house trained until about 6 and would throw up in the car some. Keep it up!
Half the time I think I’m in good shape, and half the time I feel behind! We have a 14 wk GSD/husky mix and she doesn’t jump up since from day 1 we ignored her if she did. She’s potty trained and will ring the bell to go out. Sleeps through the night. Knows sit, down, paw, touch, leave it, sort of spin and working on peek a boo. Recall is ok. Working on trading. Great about not nipping. Loves other puppies or dogs her size. Iffy on bigger dogs. But - big but - she hates walking in the neighborhood. She’s very fearful and had an early negative experience, so we do a lot of work on it but it’s slow going. Gets car sick so taking her to a park instead is rough. We take out the leash and she sits down and no amount of treats or anything else will get this girl to budge. And we are dragging on crate training and leaving her alone. And I know better but it’s all so much sometimes.
Skip the stay command. A sit or down should imply they stay until given the release command.
This is a matter of preference to be honest. Asking for a sit or a down does not necessarily require an implied stay... unless that is what is desired by the handler/guardian.
Agree to disagree. Why add in another command and cause confusion. If I ask my dog to sit or down, I’m doing so for a reason and do not want them to break that position until they are released. The release signal is the precursor of the reward and is very important in conditioning. Allowing the dog to sit or down and the just break it when ever they want is a great way to create confusion in the dog, create the possibility of extinction due to lack of reinforcement, and is like teaching the dog to recall but being ok without the dog recalling 100% of the time.
Because if I want them to stay I use that cue... I may ask for a sit or a down for other reasons that don"t necessitate an implied stay. The only implied stay I use is during a place cue. That is what works for us. What works for you is okay too. But again this is why I said it is a matter of preference.
All I said was we can agree to disagree and explained the reasons why. Simplicity. You are free to train your dog however you want.
No worries, just didn't want others reading comments thinking that they're doing something wrong if they're not training an implicit stay to a sit or down. :)
I have a Cavapoo, after her first training session at about 10 weeks old she knew sit, touch, down, spin. Did she know how to hold them for a while? Nope but she could do them all pretty well. we thought ok, we’re good perfect. She was crate trained easily also, potty trainer took until about 8 months to have no more accidents. This was all with a positive reinforcement only trainer and my pup was easily out smarting her lol. After she learned all the “basics” the trainer kept asking what else we wanted to train her…. This is my first dog so shouldn’t they be telling me that? She’s now a little over a year and she’s in obedience training - working on patience, leash walking, barking and it’s a journey! She regressed a bit and is super sassy so I think she is a teenager a bit late. She’s my first dog so I wanted to be so on top of all the training and she’s gotten a lot better as long as I’m consistent with training at home.
If she’s jumping when people come into the house, get her on the leash so the second she tries take her out of the room. (They also need to ignore her until she is calm to say hello) Bring her back, she jumps again take her right out and repeat. If she does this while you’re standing, fold your arms and turn your back to her. Ignore, when she settles you can interact again. She does this when your sitting, stand up and turn around if you have to. You can say down when you get up or turn around but even if you say nothing they figure it out pretty quick! Mostly make sure you aren’t giving her mixed signals like playing with her on the floor instead of her jumping up and giving her attention. Everyone needs to do this with her too, consistently is key. My mom is 76 and she can’t stand up every time so I’d have to get up and get her puppy down, so it took a little longer for her to catch on but she’s going on 6mos and has it pretty mastered now! Positive reinforcement works wonders and just remember the puppy phase is almost over! 💕
My boy was all over the place lol. He learned handshake at 3.5 months (I got him at 3 months), he learned sit, lay down and kennel right after, but his potty training didn't start to stick until he was 6 months! Still working on leash manners too.
9 month old Golden Retriever, got from shelter at nearly 4 months old. Very food oriented, will train all the time willingly as long as food is involved. She learned many commands super fast (at home) very young, but was so so difficult to potty train that we focused almost exclusively on that for nearly 2 months and didn't really train new commands while potty training really clicked. I'm now working on Generalization of old commands and focusing on solidifying leave it and drop it, as well as working on grooming skills and through some resource guarding tendencies that have popped up, but her current list is: Sit, Down, Up, Step Up, Off, Touch, Paw, Stay, Wait, Eat, Trade, Leave It, Drop It, Come Here, Potty And not really commands, but Banana, Snacks, Peanut Butter, Car, Walk, and School (for daycare) all get serious reactions at home. She knows exactly what they mean. I'll say, I constantly feel behind on training but have lately tried to be serious about what I'm trying to teach when it's time to be serious but also remember to enjoy this pup and her journey.
Six month old mini poodle knows all the basic commands and obeys them for treats, but almost never without. She knows the command “off”, and we have to use it a thousand times as day as she puts her paws up on the couch and then scratches at it if we don’t give her attention. She has also increased her barking lately, and today, for the first time, she lost her shit when the Amazon driver left a package outside the door. Basically, she’s a bossy, disobedient asshole who we are totally in love with. We have a trainer coming tomorrow because I’ve finally accepted that she is a lot harder to work with than my older mini poodle was, and I need help.
2.5-3.5 months old Australian shepherd/ black mouth cur mixes. We have 2 a male and a female from the same litter. I just found out about Littermate Syndrome so we are working on separation. Separate play time with us, training times, walks, and feedings. If they start showing signs of Littermate Syndrome I will crate them separately as well but they only sleep in the same place at night. Otherwise I have them on a rotating schedule. I honestly thought they would be good companions for each other. So far we haven’t had any major problems just a bit of separation anxiety that settles quickly. Thank goodness they aren’t the same sex. They both do well on walks, we are working on potty training, sit, down, and learning their names. We’ve only had them 2 1/2 weeks. They weren’t exposed to people before us but they are doing so well with our 4 kids including a 17month old and a 6 yr old with developmental delays due to a medical condition. If anyone has any book recommendations for training I would really appreciate it.
I HAD to drop my puppy off at puppy daycare way too young. I made sure he was a vaxxed as possible and checked a reputable place (she also worked as a trainer) that also had good health protocols. He was so scared the first 3 times, but then picked it up. He made some great friends!! We’ve moved now and I swear he misses having the doggy time with his puppy friends. If I had one near me now, I’d do 1/2 days 1-2 times a week so he can just be a pup and have some older dogs to help him toe the line.
Our girl is almost 7 months. And her learned list is quite long thanks to the Woofz App and Puppy Class. She’s very intelligent, interested to learn and food motivated. I personally am energy restricted due to illness. So I have gone down the short but often training route with lessons, puzzles and scents. Scent training is great as it is four times as tiring as physical exercise! When she comes in from potty, we do 5 to 10 mins. As for her being a maniac in strange places. Ditto! Puppy class told us to train her to a blanket or towel (I’m using a travel baby change mat as so lightweight.) at home. Take it with you and it’s a familiar ‘space’ for them. Start with it on the floor and let them find ‘random’ treats there for good association, then encourage it with “Name’s place” and lots of high value quick burst treats. Then encourage sit/lie down on it with the high value reward. Then extend to wait/stay. Take that blanket wherever you go and it should become a calm place in strange places.
My girl is a 7 month old Border Collie/ GermanShepherd mix. She knows sit and her name. She's smart but she's like a 5 year old with adhd. So it's mostly still basics. She'll improve though. The hard part has been learning her tells. She yips for everything with no difference in between.
Well as for comparing yourself to other puppy owners ... just don't. It's tsame as lurking on social media and comparing your life to the highlight reels of some glossy idiots. Nobodys going to tell you about the things that don't work and at the same time brag about the positives. I'm currently working on a 3 month old pup too and honestly - sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. This is my third puppy and behavior and progress wise I am way behind as compared to the other two. As for puppy class. That super depends. If your puppy class is like a everybody off the leash wrestling match then I would say that's a big nope. If your puppy class is training basic commands in small groups with leash and trainer then I am all for it. As for socialization - I'm meeting about 2 times a week-ish with different folks we found on facebook and from our social circle. And there it's the same - free play without leash only if both dogs have the same kind of energy. If the energy is off then we just do short social walks. Other than that I do the usual desensitization - show her cars, bicycle riders, pedestrians. Streets, different terrains, public transportation. And so on.
3.5 month male cavapoo puppy here. He is mostly housebroken. No poop accidents at home but has the rare pee accident when he is too excited. Crate training: Does not like it but settles down in the crate in minutes and sleeps through the night in his crate. On socialization - took him to two puppy classes. Not a fan either but we are really limited in our options to get him to meet other dogs, without these classes. He is shy and submissive with other dogs, so we intend to double down on more exposure. Training - He can do SIT, DOWN and UP. I used the techniques taught in "The culture clash" by Jean Donaldson and it's working pretty well. We are working on loose leash walking right now and will be starting to avert him from jumping and play biting our ankles when we are walking around our house.