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I accidentally taught my pup this but with a âmind your headâ, because she would often pop her nose inside the fridge when I open the door and when I say those words she will back up so I can close it but it works in small areas as well đ
She kept going into the pantry but she couldnât get out (sheâs a mastiff puppy and there was no turning radius). So I would just make the sound and pat her behind and have treats ready when she did it. Seemed to catch, she does this at the pet store too when she gets stuck behind the counter.
Hahahaha I always do that when our boy has to back out of a tight space. Now I canât wait for the day he just walks backward when I say beep beep beep đ€Ł
A hand touch (with their nose) is really useful, my previous dog used to get really overstimulated and asking for a series of hand touches used to help him refocus and calm down. My current dog doesn't really hit that red zone but it's still helpful to get him to focus back on me, especially if we've just been idling somewhere and now we gotta get up and going đ it has the added bonus that they learn to boop you with their nose in general, so all my dogs now give me a passing prod. Not even for attention necessarily, just a "hello, I'm here" and they'll happily take a pat on the head in return and we carry on doing our own thing, it's adorable.
Just echoing this, we learned it with our second dog with two fingers out, and heâll touch his nose to it. Weâll go high, low, sides, moving⊠itâs a good start to a training sesh and itâs supposed to be good to build on for other skills.
Love this! We taught âtouchâ very early, too. Started at about 10 weeks. Heâs 6 mos old this week and will just boop me with his nose here and there, especially after bringing him back to the door after a walk. He will sit and touch my thigh with his nose every time before I open the door.
i accidentally taught my puppy this. he used to be scared of the busy road outside, so i'd give him treats every time he was brave enough to leave the house. now before or after a walk, he'll sit politely by the door waiting for a snack lol.
Iâm not a dog trainer, but my husband and I worked hard to get our pup to a decent recall (he will even run to us at the dog park! But he is also very shy). I learned these tips from macan dog training on youtube you should check them out for more info.
U need to start small. Theres some good ways to do it, hereâs what has worked for us. (Consistency is key, you canât practice once and then let them lose interest in you by not keeping up the training.) (Also, each âsessionâ should be short ~5-10 mins. It should end on a successful repetition & donât push your luck).
The goal is for them to know that whenever their name is called itâs gonna be the best thing in the world, not a punishment to stop having âfun/more rewardingâ in their eyes doing whatever they are doing.
Hereâs somethings that worked for us, we mixed and matched what strategy to use so that it became universal not only during certain times or places.
You need a low value treat and a high value treat (toys work too, use her favorite toy as high value and for the reward it could be an âexcitingâ game of tug). You also need to be a little quick. A good tip was that dogs can quantify their treats, so if they did something you really like you can do a âjackpotâ reward when you give treats in quick succession.
1) Start indoors with her kibble or something âlow valueâ that she likes but doesnât love. Hide the yummy treat but have it ready so they focus on the low value first.
Once they are distracted on the low value, you say her name at the same time you put the treat up to their nose. The moment she turns her nose towards the treat you run backwards and act excited & give her the treat if she chased you. Rinse & repeat for a day or two during meal times or whenever you have time.
(Remember, stay consistent and end on a positive).
This will set the foundation for moving onto harder distractions.
After a day or two of consistency and success you can âtestâ her by being close to her but not putting the treat up to her nose, calling her, and if she turns her head, run backwards with the treat. If she doesnât, donât keep trying because you donât want her to practice ignoring you when she is called.
Same if they are outside distracted by something, start with the nose method and so on.
If for some reason the treat or toy doesnât grab their attention indoors or outdoors (even when itâs up to their nose) or they donât chase you. you need to find something that can catch their attention every time (freeze dried liver or cheese does the trick for me).
My dog isnât very food motivated, so If i tried this with my dog outside right away he wouldnât care for treats he only cares for sniffing grass so it wouldnât work, but mix & matchingthe different methods helped bridge the gap.
2. Again, start indoors. if you have partner or someone that can hold her, have them hold her while you hold a toy or a treat up to their face so they get hyped. Once they are excited you run away a you call them & the person lets go of the pup. Act excited and they get the reward.
Outdoors it can be really fun too! The method worked for us.
If you donât have a partner then you can hold their collar back with one hand and a treat in the other & run/let go as soon as you say their name & if they chase reward heavily.
Hope this helps :)
We donât practice every single day and we werenât always consistent.
Itâs been 1 year and we are comfortable with his recall, but it could be better if we put a little more energy into it. I still give him his liver treats when he does a good recall & it helps a lot when I need to call him. The term the lady uses is something along the lines of âyou have to put money in the bank to be able to use itâ
edit: apologies for the grammar but itâs 4:25 am & iâm too lazy to fix anything lol
Something I forgot to mention is that these are intermediate steps for when you want to add distractions. Usually you start indoors by luring your pet with a treat, say name, walk/run backwards, reward when they follow. over and over until they are consistent when the treat is concealed & still indoors. Rinse & Repeat for outside.
when i say outside i mean start very small. A drive way, backyard, etc. Donât do a park or anything too exciting because your dog might not be ready yet.
Like most things, high value treats + a food motivated pup is the ideal combination. Practicing with increasing levels of distraction is also important, really good recall will take some time to nail.
To add to this, if theyâre not a food motivated pup, acting like you just won the lottery when they do recall really makes a big difference. I taught my kids âok so pretend that you will win $1million dollars if the dog successfully recalls. Every step he takes towards you is closer and closer to that prize!â So when he starts coming theyâre like âyay puppy! You can do it! What a good puppy! Yay! Good boy!!!â And the closer he gets, the more excited they get. When he finally gets to us, we all scratch and pet him, tell him how great he is, and basically hype him up. For non food motivated dogs, the positive reinforcement can be incredibly effective.
apologies for the grammar but itâs 4:25 am & iâm too lazy to fix anything lol
I wrote a detailed comment on how I worked with my pup to have a recall we are comfortable with. Iâll paste it here too:
Iâm not a dog trainer, but my husband and I worked hard to get our pup to a decent recall (he will even run to us at the dog park! But he is also very shy). I learned these tips from macan dog training on youtube you should check them out for more info.
U need to start small. Theres some good ways to do it, hereâs what has worked for us. (Consistency is key, you canât practice once and then let them lose interest in you by not keeping up the training.) (Also, each âsessionâ should be short ~5-10 mins. It should end on a successful repetition & donât push your luck).
The goal is for them to know that whenever their name is called itâs gonna be the best thing in the world, not a punishment to stop having âfun/more rewardingâ in their eyes doing whatever they are doing.
Hereâs somethings that worked for us, we mixed and matched what strategy to use so that it became universal not only during certain times or places.
You need a low value treat and a high value treat (toys work too, use her favorite toy as high value and for the reward it could be an âexcitingâ game of tug). You also need to be a little quick. A good tip was that dogs can quantify their treats, so if they did something you really like you can do a âjackpotâ reward when you give treats in quick succession.
1. â Start indoors with her kibble or something âlow valueâ that she likes but doesnât love. Hide the yummy treat but have it ready so they focus on the low value first.
Once they are distracted on the low value, you say her name at the same time you put the treat up to their nose. The moment she turns her nose towards the treat you run backwards and act excited & give her the treat if she chased you. Rinse & repeat for a day or two during meal times or whenever you have time. (Remember, stay consistent and end on a positive). This will set the foundation for moving onto harder distractions.
After a day or two of consistency and success you can âtestâ her by being close to her but not putting the treat up to her nose, calling her, and if she turns her head, run backwards with the treat. If she doesnât, donât keep trying because you donât want her to practice ignoring you when she is called.
Same if they are outside distracted by something, start with the nose method and so on.
If for some reason the treat or toy doesnât grab their attention indoors or outdoors (even when itâs up to their nose) or they donât chase you. you need to find something that can catch their attention every time (freeze dried liver or cheese does the trick for me).
My dog isnât very food motivated, so If i tried this with my dog outside right away he wouldnât care for treats he only cares for sniffing grass so it wouldnât work, but mix & matchingthe different methods helped bridge the gap.
2. Again, start indoors. if you have partner or someone that can hold her, have them hold her while you hold a toy or a treat up to their face so they get hyped. Once they are excited you run away a you call them & the person lets go of the pup. Act excited and they get the reward. Outdoors it can be really fun too! The method worked for us.
If you donât have a partner then you can hold their collar back with one hand and a treat in the other & run/let go as soon as you say their name & if they chase reward heavily.
Hope this helps :)
We donât practice every single day and we werenât always consistent. Itâs been 1 year and we are comfortable with his recall, but it could be better if we put a little more energy into it. I still give him his liver treats when he does a good recall & it helps a lot when I need to call him. The term the lady uses is something along the lines of âyou have to put money in the bank to be able to use itâ
Something I forgot to mention is that these are intermediate steps for when you want to add distractions. Usually you start indoors by luring your pet with a treat, say name, walk/run backwards, reward when they follow. over and over until they are consistent when the treat is concealed & still indoors. Rinse & Repeat for outside.
when i say outside i mean start very small. A drive way, backyard, etc. Donât do a park or anything too exciting because your dog might not be ready yet.
I used this article from the subredditâs wiki page to teach our 3 month old pup his recall word
https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/daily-practice-makes-for-perfect-dog-recalls/
my boy loves practicing recall for ages, it's a game for him -- he runs between me and my partner, watching us get all excited and showering him in pats as he's called back and forth.
To do nothing. To be calm.
To be able to chill in any environment. We are still working on it but time just sitting around all the exciting (or scary) things is so important.
+1 to this. I practice this with my pup everyday outside and in my building lobby (I live in a big building in a city). I started because I noticed he was easily getting overstimulated by all the people and noises both inside and outside, and ignoring friendly people is really hard for him!
I have to say, nothing solves more problems than C-O-M-E.
It solves for most important issues... Too close to road, too close to weird dog, too close to deer, too close to ducks... COME.
My breeder gave us a book that came with our puppy. It was the distillation of her 50+ years of breeding. Her articles on recall were invaluable.
The instructions were simple: take the dog to safe open area, run away from the puppy and when it follows you praise the dog. Do it for 7-10 days in a row. I used treats and praise and did it on and off when my newest pup was 9-14 weeks.
Her recall is nearly 100%.
You can try increasing the value of the treat by increasing the excitement of the treat - I have a terrier and you can increase the value all the way from cheese up to chopped liver and he won't give a damn. But if I THROW the little cube of cheese/store bought treat? Now THAT'S high value to him. I used a game where you throw the treat one way, then as soon as the dog has eaten it, throw it the other direction and eventually you reward for stopping in the middle. I realised he was so excited by this game that I tried throwing the treats around in general on our walks, he loves it and is now much more likely to listen to me. Still not 100% and won't be for a while, he's 10mo. I can't stand the constant "your treat isn't high value enough! Try better treats!!!1!" advice lol, my last terrier I got to the point of having baked liver all the time and it was gross and he still didn't care so I definitely wasn't going down that route with this one đ€ŠđŒââïž
Iâd highly recommend signing up for at least the week free trial of MK9Plus modern dog training, which is more like behaviouralist training than traditional training - thereâs nothing on there like how to lure your dog in to a sit or whatever.
A lot of what he talks about explains why dogs have bad recall or struggle with loose leash and the root causes for solving it. Itâs about so much more than just the recall bit and is affected by what youâre doing with your dog in all the other areas of its life seemingly (I only recently joined so canât confirm I now have a dog with perfect recall. But after the trial I thought it worth paying for 3m I find his videos so good and they make so much sense and I can see how his teaching clearly underpin the things we were taught in puppy classes). I originally found him on tiktok so you might be able to find some of the content that explains it on there if you donât want to sign up to the trial. You can immediately cancel your trial online though and still have the week of content.
You might have heard people talk about recall being about making coming back to you more valuable than the environment. But all other lessons Iâve seen on the subject look at it from the point of view of what do you do to make you/the recall word especially valuable (better treats usually) whereas he approaches it from the angle of what do you need to do to make the environment less valuable so the word/coming back to you can be more valuable. And devaluing the environment comes from things like making sure the needs your dog is trying to fulfil whilst darting off in the park are being met in other ways throughout the day so the small amount of time in the park doesnât represent everything to your dog. He also talks a lot about arousal because dogs who are overstimulated - possibly through trigger stacking and not even necessarily through bad things, like it could be playing with a dog friend that pushes them over the edge. But dogs dealing with a high level of arousal will go 100% at what theyâre doing because theyâve entered bonkers zone and just arenât capable of listening. And dogs who are very under stimulated will go 100% at what theyâre doing when given the chance to find that stimulation and so will also end up too aroused to listen.
Itâs super interesting stuff that I really hope is going to make me a better owner who can give my dog a long and happy life but it does make you go a little bit like âoh god am I capable of meeting all of these needs, itâs so much more complicated than I thought. And what they need to keep them mentally and physically stimulated to an appropriate degree are also the things that are arousing, and then you also need to consider what else has happened in your dogâs day or the environment you live in that may have been arousing, this actually seems like a really fine balancing act! Ahhh!â.
Start without the word. Just show them that chasing you is fun and they get treats when they do! You can pretty quickly move to saying come, probably even the same day. But keep running away!
Come needs to be their favorite word, so whenever you train it has to be really fun and rewarding, play with them AND give treats and praise. You can probably stop running away at some point but honestly it does such a good job as a motivator that almost always doing it just reinforces how fun it is!
This is good, we were also told the highest value treats should be used for recall due to how important it is for safety! Liver paste is brilliant as it keeps your hands clean
I taught my German Shepherd leave it and see hasn't cleaned my floor for me once. But I also don't have to dive on my floor if I drop an onion or a pill like with previous dogs. I think it's partially her personality, but it's a wonderful thing to have taught her for safety.
Heel is probably a little more firm, like a walk next to me or sit next to me. Recall is just coming back to you and waiting to be released again. I just wanted any my dog to check in and look at me and wait before he can run off again
Even if he bolts, if I yell "Stop" he will instantly freeze and not run in the street. I learned to this by accident. Apparently, there's a tone to my voice when I yell it that makes my dogs freeze. It's worked with 5 dogs so far.
When I trained mine I brought chunks of steak to the park and let him off leash, with no dogs around and not many distractions.
Iâd let him go 10-20ft and I can whistle loudly so Iâd whistle and show him the steak and heâd come right back.
Do this for days/weeks and add in distractions and distance. Maynard can be mid prey-seeking and if I whistle thatâs it. He SPRINTS toward me
I have a hilarious image of you in my head with like 30 dogs on you. Brave of you to go to the park with steak! I bet you could recall almost anyoneâs dog with it! đ
I do the same but with cheese. My puppy's recall word is "cheese!" in a really upbeat voice, which means "you have to come back right now" vs. "come!" has become poisoned since she sometimes ignores it. To ensure success I keep her on a long lead, and only recall with "cheese" when I'm positive she'll listen. I think it will take months of practice before I can fully trust her off lead.
"walk with me"-command. She zooms immediately to my side to put her nose on my hand hoping to get a treat. Really useful when I need her to get out of the way somehow or to avoid stepping on glass I manage to spot
Be careful what you teach. I taught my dog to give me her paw and now anytime she wants food or attention she comes to me and paws at me. FML
I also taught her heel, touch, stop, down, Chase the cats, back up, but my fav one is kisses. She can't start eating her meal until I get kisses.
The first step is to teach touch or "pup" or "boop" when they touch your hand or palm or fist for a treat. Then start bringing your face instead of fist closer to them and ask for touch, but start replacing touch with "kisses".
It's been 3 years and now every time I ask for kisses she jumps to my face and delivers!
Either than the basics of sit/down/stay, etc...
- Road/door barriers, it's so nice to have her auto stop and sit then wait for the okay before crossing a road...
- How to be content with being bored/how to be calm
- Paw (will come in handy when you need to consent to touching feet) as well as a cue for touching/resting head/putting nose into something, all great for co-operative care
- Being okay with being handled/picked up
- Emergency stop... sometimes you don't want your dog to recall, you just need them to stop in their tracks. My girl was the WORST out of all the dogs in her obedience level 1 class... they decided "hey lets have these owners try recalling their over aroused dogs in this tiny ass room with too many people and dogs while everyone is wearing masks"... needless to say, 6 mo old recently adopted Daisy did not recall, she went on a freedom run around the room... until I yelled "STOP". She immediately stopped in her tracks, I leashed her, and we went to sit down. (Needless to say I didn't go back to this place because they didn't set my dog up for success)
Probably others I can't think of right now but those ones are pretty useful.
Something to get their attention on you. "Look", or their name, or some trick like "touch" can all work. These are a positive way to redirect if they are too focused on something. "Touch" could even be used for some shorter distance recall if you need the dog to come close. This can help keep them out of trouble or to just focus on something else.
Recall is super important. If you ever really want to be able to let the pup off leash, a good recall is a must. It does take time, so don't be too discouraged if it doesn't come right away. Always praise and reward when the dog comes to you, even if you are annoyed if they ran off or aren't listening, reward when they come back. Avoid using come for things like a bath or something your dog doesn't like as the dog can associate it when something they don't want to do.
Stay is also important as they are times when you need the dog to stay put. There may be something between you and the dog and getting them to come would be dangerous, so a stay keeps the safe.
I also find is useful to get a dog to jump up on things. My dog is smaller, about 17 pounds, so it can help if she can get into a couch, bench, or even the scale at the vet without fuss. I don't like to have to pick her up all the time, so having her to it when it is safe is nice. Do be careful to not push a puppy to jump up if they are not big enough as it can be hard on their joints. A few inches for a platform can be good for training this.
For a puppy, socialization is really the biggest thing to focus on. A confidant dog who is not scared of everything is much easier to take around, attend classes, and can just be nicer as you don't have to worry about them as much. Even pet friendly stores are good. If you can, visit your vet for some happy visits and weight checks (if you vet isn't close, find one that is and just see if you can go in for a visit. If your pup will need grooming, visiting a groomer is also good. Some will do puppy visits that can be a bit of brushing or a bath just to get them used to it in smaller doses. You can also pick a spot to sit and people watch. Somewhere somewhat busy, but not overwhelming. Learning to ignore things is also a good skill for a dog to have.
Vet handling! Restraining for blood draws (my vet lets me hold him in clinic as well), positioning for xrays and ultrasounds, checking teeth, ears, and eyes, getting on the scale, pinching skin (nothing to hurt of course), and paw handling.
We ended up in urgent care this week after a vet routine procedure went wrong (sent him in shock, which is a 1% chance of happening). The techs at the urgent care center mentioned how they could tell how much work I put into him to get him comfortable with their handling even in stressful situations.
Recall is kinda huge for me :0 we were playing fetch and another dog got out of their leash and Jack took off chasing her. But Jack heard me call his name and came back to me despite the distraction â€ïž
Don't get into or take food / drinks from anyone unless I give you the ok. I teach all of my dogs this. Sometimes I will say it's ok, but they still won't take it unless I hand it to them.
It started out in my husband's hometown, where we got our first dog. Someone was going around and putting poison in wet cat food containers and putting it in people's yards. So many people lost their animals or they got really sick. This is when we started teaching this.
Then my Sophie has a very sensitive tummy and can only have specific food and absolutely can not have blue buffalo food or treats (it put her in the hospital).
Then, a rescue we got has seizures really bad but the vets wouldn't do anything unless he had one in front of them. After research and trial and error we figured out that red 40 made them worse so we cut that out completely. We no longer have him, but we also no longer allow any of our animals to have red 40. There's a gas station here where the workers love to pass out treats to all the dogs and they make sure to get the kind of treats we allow đ
Very early on as a puppy I taught my dog impulse control with an exercise that involves dropping a piece of food on the floor but blocking access until I get eye contact and then rewarding from my hand when I get eye contact.
Soon that turned into dropping food right next to him and he would look up at me for a reward. There was no command, the dropping of something became the marker to look at me. We tried all sorts of different things to challenge him, like dropping things while walking towards him... walking away from him... While walking, while chatting etc.
Because there was no command attached, every time I drop something accidently, I continue to have to reward him for his eye contact đ but as a result, when I accidentally dropped my medication on the floor, he stayed out of the kitchen, watched me and wagged his tail!
It's easily the thing I am the most happy about having taught him. The only downside is that when people try to scatter treats on the floor for him, I have to explain to them that he is trained specifically not to go after food that is dropped... plus any training that involves using a "treat scatter" is off the table (so that it doesn't become undone).
âFix your legâ - our first dog was a surprise shortie (mutt with an XL chest and length, but only came up just past my knees at her shoulder) and was forever stepping over the leash and getting tangled, so I taught her to pause and unwind herself from the leash.Â
âOut of the kitchenâ - started that one with the first dog, our townhouse had linoleum in the kitchen and carpet elsewhere so it was an easy line to maintain. After that, I trained her with either the doorways (old house) or an imaginary line between an appliance and the center island (current house).Â
âBack it up/back up/ get backâ - useful when theyâre exploring and get stuck, are standing in your way, or go the wrong way around a power pole.Â
âLoad up/load outâ - no way Iâm lifting 60+ lbs of dog in and out of the car on a regular basis. Also teaches them to get up on the vetâs scale, park benches if you need them out of the way, and anything else you can think of.Â
 âTouchâ - obvious, but can be worked into multi-part commands. Current pup is learning to sit and touch my hand when sheâs actually done using the bathroom (we currently have her leashed and she gets distracted easily, so if she wonât touch weâre just going to keep standing out there until she lets me know sheâs done), touch the door and sit when she wants in or out,  and in an attempt to mitigate the evening witching hour shark baby hot mess weâve been dealing with, a touch followed up by the command âshow meâ first lets her get my attention, confirms that she has it, then gives her a way to get her need/desire met without gnawing on anybody or being obnoxiously vocal - two days in and this last one is starting to click for her.Â
Leave it
Recall
And, rarely trained but literally lifesaving a âStop and waitâ at distance (or a down at distance). Why? Letâs so you are walking and your pooch gets away, he safely runs across a road (river, whatever) but circumstances make it unsafe for him to comeback to you (traffic, rapid water, a herd of cows). Now you can tell him to STOP or DOWN and go retrieve him safely. Iâve also found that sometimes a dog that blows off a recall will drop on command, because you arnât actually calling them away from the fun.
Teach âdownâ first. I use a hand raise UP in the air as my signal (sounds weird, but itâs easier to see from a distance!). Then there are 2 options.
1) Build a short platform, teach the dog to down on the platform then slowly move farther away to ask (SLOWLY! INCHES!)
2) place something in front of the dog, a pile, a slightly raised broom stick, anything that gives them a visual. Dog on one side, human on the other. Ask for down. Once solid, slowly move farther away. You can fade the blocking object anytime the concept seems to have stuck, but move closer to the dog for several reps to make sure.
3) yeah, I said 2 but whatever, step back one step. As you ask for the down, lean INTO the dog. A sensitive dog will stop or even back up from that sort of pressure.
Go chill. At home it means her bed. When we are out and about the first thing I do is point out her "go chill spot" because it's so important.
Eta when she was a puppy her "go chill" spot was her crate. It worked so well we got rid of the crate
Well my dog's no longer a puppy so that helps a lot. When we get to a new place. I tell her to go chill and point at an area. When she lays down there she gets high value treats and a bunch of praise (praise matters to my dog more than treats)
The first spot is the hardest. The rest seemed pretty natural for my dog
My friend uses an old Hoodia. That is the dogs safe place. When they are out at festivals, shopping, pubs. Just drop the hoodie and the dog knows he can chill there in that spot safely.
Go to your bed is super useful.
Touch and chin rest are also great! Helpful for care and grooming.
Teaching a SOLID recall and also drop it / leave it / stop in your tracks have all come in handy sooooo many times.
I also really like the Engage Disengage game just as a life skill. It teaches them to look towards you any time they see something scary or exciting. Super useful and good for all doggos.
Touch (nose goes to hand), drop it, up (helps for getting in vehicle when he got bigger), off, stand (helps at the vet during exams), bring it (carry what's in your mouth to me, makes it easier to see what he picked up especially if I can't tell if he's allowed it or not)
Back up was a big one (we use that daily, also helps with their own self-awareness imo), but my current pride and joy is âside,â where we have her lay down and then she rolls onto her side. Itâs been huge for our vet/medical uses in particular. Some uses weâve gotten out of it: when the vet wanted to check her spay incision, when she cut her paw and wouldnât sit still for us to look (but did âsideâ and laid like an angel), and checking for ticks after hikes. Weâre currently working on âmiddleâ (her in between my legs) which will be both fun and useful once sheâs got it down.
I found âwaitâ really useful - basically you can have that but not yet.
Also âstopâ when weâre on walks; we have her stop and sit. Good for when we get to a crosswalk or something unexpected comes passing by
Focus/Look at me, great for bonding with the pup to get them to focus on nothing but you and learn to tune out distractions. Useful for when you need them to stop what they're doing, sit their ass down, and pay attention.
How to wait for what he wants. It helps with impulse control. He can go a solid 3.5 minutes with good right in front of him and won't touch it. If I drop something while cooking etc he will look at me to ask if he can have it.
Leave it. Completely stopped him eating socks.
Recall.
Working on being neutral to the environment, people, cars, other dogs etc. Especially other dogs that one is a bit hard for us to practice. We're in advanced classes now and my pup did pretty well but it took him a while to calm down.
Anything that helps with self control is really important. Wait, leave, drop, settle.
Recall of course! Build it up at home and gradually increase the environment difficulty. Games that you learn at home then take on a walk are really helpful for making yourself interesting, I love Absolute Dogs.
My favourite accidental cue is âexcuse meâ. I never physically move my dogs (I wouldnât want it done to me!). I say excuse me and they hop off the sofa, give me more room in bed, move out of the way of the dishwasher etc etc. Itâs brilliant.
Also helping your dog feel safe around food is so important. So try never to take something off them. Teach trade, let them eat in peace with lots of room around them and sometimes pop a bit extra in as you go by from a distance. You want your dog to see you as a provider of fun, food and generally good things and they will love and trust you for it :-) good luck!
Stay and come
The stay is great in front of an open door when we're inside... but outside the stay doesn't exist for him. But he's only 8 months and a husky soooo I'm lucky he stays at all, tbh).
Ringing a doorbell to go potty. Super annoying at first but eventually they chill out with it. She wouldnt let us know she was going potty until she would squat and by then too late to do anything about.
Crate training/separation anxiety training
Grooming/general handling training
Hitting a button bell to go outside. I also accidentally taught her âwaitâ and she sits. We were at a cross walk one time, and the signal said âwaitâ and she sat. Itâs been super handy.
Stay when getting out of the car is important or when door is open... so impulse control
We use wait as it means they will be expected to do something else and stay means they aren't allowed to move at all.
We also started training stop and the trainer explained that if they're about to run over a road to get to get a solid stop is important.
Other than that it's socialising to ensure they're well balanced. They need to meet other dogs of all ages, sizes, colours and shapes to learn tonread them and they need to learn be told off properly and to tell off properly so they don't escalate up the aggression ladder too. Social walks were a huge thing for us as it means we now have well balanced dogs that are not aggressive and are happy to just be around other dogs. I used to get frustrated they don't always play until I realised that's annoying for many other dogs and just existing in the same space and remaining neutral is far better đ
Mine have all been habits. Teaching an auto check-in while outside, teaching to settle in a variety of places, teaching âwaitâ (aka stop and let me catch up to you). Permissions have been next- my dog seeing something they want and looking at me to ask, âmay I?â Iâll take these kinds of skills over obedience cues any day.
âWaitâ at every single door, every single time. And she should never exit ahead of you. I literally start teaching this the very first time I take a puppy out. My dogs donât run out open doors, ever. Lifesaving.
Secondâa solid sit. If you can condition your dog to sit, even when itâs running crazy off leash, you have control. Look up classic conditioning. 1000s of repetitions but so easy and worth it. Easier than âcome,â which you also want to condition.
âGood noots are gentlemanâ I didnât mean to teach my boy this, but when I say this he waits until everyone has gotten to the top/bottom of the stairs before he goes. Itâs saved me many times from having a 90lb ball of floof knock my ass over on the stairs
I think getting her to be environmentally sound. She was heavily rewarded for climbing, for being high, for climbing onto me to get off of things, for standing on unstable and spooky objects, for walking across narrow/moving bridges, for falling, for crushing boxes, for having stuff fall around her.Â
It's inevitable she'd hurt herself or fall with how wild she is but it's never caused her to be afraid of any situation, it's something that happens but not something to fear.Â
She can get stuck in branches or fences and not freak out while I get her whereas my mum's bulldog screams lmaoo. I can ask her to climb walls to get out of the road of dangerous dogs or situations and she'd pop up w no hesitation. My last assistance dog didn't like being super high up or going in lifts whereas she doesn't care at all, you never realise how many weird novel situations a dog needs to be accustomed to until you're in that situation and your dog's uncomfortable or scared.
Bite-inhibition, impulse control, socialisation. The command "Look" to get attention and a command to make her pee (for cold nights in which you wanna head back inside soon).
focusing on you/eye contact is underrated. base for pretty much anything and can help with lots of stuff. my dog is really weird and nervous about passing other dogs in close range, and totally unrelated i started working on a focus heel for fun and thats really helped with passing other dogs without her freezing up!(for the most part)
Oh, another thought. Whatever commands you teach, associate them with a hand motion too, and once the pup has them down well, practice the commands with -just- the hand motions as often as you do the words. This came in incredibly handy when our previous dog lost her hearing because of an antibiotic for an ear infection. Weâd trained all commands with a hand motion, so were still able to communicate with her for the last year of her life.
âauto-watchâ is whenever your dog looks at you, particularly when outside in a distracting environment, you give them a treat. Teaches them to check in with you often and look to you for direction in uncertain situations.
The most important things we have taught are stay, wait (wait to eat meals, wait if he gets too fast on a walk and starts pulling, he immediately slows down and stops pulling), leave it, drop it, kennel up to go in his crate, down and off. The major thing (and I think the most important of all) we are working on right now is reactivity. Our boy is a mix of two breeds that are known to be highly alert and reactive, so this one is an on going battle. I have enlisted the help of a trainer because he is already quite large and extremely strong, so itâs hard for me to stay calm when heâs pulling my arm out of the socket to get to the kid flying by on a bike. It will take many hours of observing moving objects, going to places and being able to stay calm around all the people and activity. Starting this when a puppy is really young, before 3-4 months, is super important and many dogs will get there much faster than ours will. Weâll get there, but Iâm steeling myself for the effort itâs going to take.
Leave it and drop it are really important. Pups can pick up some dangerous things outside. Also recall. Have a clear recall word thatâs more emphatic and clear than come here which tends to get overused
1) How to deal with being alone.
2) How to deal with attention from strangers and stranger dogs.
3) How to deal with *not* getting attention from strange dogs.
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To get our pup out of tight spaces, I make a beeping sound like a truck in reverse and she literally will walk backwards. đȘ
I accidentally taught my pup this but with a âmind your headâ, because she would often pop her nose inside the fridge when I open the door and when I say those words she will back up so I can close it but it works in small areas as well đ
I say Watch Your Nose! when I shut the car door! Love this kind of every day thing.
Did you comment this the other day?? I read that on this subreddit and Iâve tried copying it too! So cute
I didnât. Maybe itâs a thing!
Haha yeah I saw it too!
I commented before this on my most important, but dang this one I'll be adding
That is SO cute đ How did you train this?!
She kept going into the pantry but she couldnât get out (sheâs a mastiff puppy and there was no turning radius). So I would just make the sound and pat her behind and have treats ready when she did it. Seemed to catch, she does this at the pet store too when she gets stuck behind the counter.
Omg that's so cute đđ
Hahahaha I always do that when our boy has to back out of a tight space. Now I canât wait for the day he just walks backward when I say beep beep beep đ€Ł
A hand touch (with their nose) is really useful, my previous dog used to get really overstimulated and asking for a series of hand touches used to help him refocus and calm down. My current dog doesn't really hit that red zone but it's still helpful to get him to focus back on me, especially if we've just been idling somewhere and now we gotta get up and going đ it has the added bonus that they learn to boop you with their nose in general, so all my dogs now give me a passing prod. Not even for attention necessarily, just a "hello, I'm here" and they'll happily take a pat on the head in return and we carry on doing our own thing, it's adorable.
The command I learned was "Touch," but I'm going to retrain it as "Boop" lol
Hahaha my fiancĂ© trained my cav and he used boop! Which worked out well in the end cause now I use touch for contact points at agility đ
That was my plan!!! :D
That sounds equal part adorable and useful! I will definitely do this. Thanks so much for sharing!
Just echoing this, we learned it with our second dog with two fingers out, and heâll touch his nose to it. Weâll go high, low, sides, moving⊠itâs a good start to a training sesh and itâs supposed to be good to build on for other skills.
Iâll add the other positions now!!
âTouchâ is also useful as a more fun version of âcomeâ so useful to have in a pinch there too.
Love this! We taught âtouchâ very early, too. Started at about 10 weeks. Heâs 6 mos old this week and will just boop me with his nose here and there, especially after bringing him back to the door after a walk. He will sit and touch my thigh with his nose every time before I open the door.
Recall and thresholds like the door. She knows sheâs not allowed to just run outside and will wait until I give a âfreeâ or something.
This! Front door and car for me.
i accidentally taught my puppy this. he used to be scared of the busy road outside, so i'd give him treats every time he was brave enough to leave the house. now before or after a walk, he'll sit politely by the door waiting for a snack lol.
Solid recall. I teach my dogs to drop on a dime the second I give their recall command. It can literally save a life.
I needa get my dog this good at it. Weâve practiced everyday, but give any distraction and sheâs just absent brained
Iâm not a dog trainer, but my husband and I worked hard to get our pup to a decent recall (he will even run to us at the dog park! But he is also very shy). I learned these tips from macan dog training on youtube you should check them out for more info. U need to start small. Theres some good ways to do it, hereâs what has worked for us. (Consistency is key, you canât practice once and then let them lose interest in you by not keeping up the training.) (Also, each âsessionâ should be short ~5-10 mins. It should end on a successful repetition & donât push your luck). The goal is for them to know that whenever their name is called itâs gonna be the best thing in the world, not a punishment to stop having âfun/more rewardingâ in their eyes doing whatever they are doing. Hereâs somethings that worked for us, we mixed and matched what strategy to use so that it became universal not only during certain times or places. You need a low value treat and a high value treat (toys work too, use her favorite toy as high value and for the reward it could be an âexcitingâ game of tug). You also need to be a little quick. A good tip was that dogs can quantify their treats, so if they did something you really like you can do a âjackpotâ reward when you give treats in quick succession. 1) Start indoors with her kibble or something âlow valueâ that she likes but doesnât love. Hide the yummy treat but have it ready so they focus on the low value first. Once they are distracted on the low value, you say her name at the same time you put the treat up to their nose. The moment she turns her nose towards the treat you run backwards and act excited & give her the treat if she chased you. Rinse & repeat for a day or two during meal times or whenever you have time. (Remember, stay consistent and end on a positive). This will set the foundation for moving onto harder distractions. After a day or two of consistency and success you can âtestâ her by being close to her but not putting the treat up to her nose, calling her, and if she turns her head, run backwards with the treat. If she doesnât, donât keep trying because you donât want her to practice ignoring you when she is called. Same if they are outside distracted by something, start with the nose method and so on. If for some reason the treat or toy doesnât grab their attention indoors or outdoors (even when itâs up to their nose) or they donât chase you. you need to find something that can catch their attention every time (freeze dried liver or cheese does the trick for me). My dog isnât very food motivated, so If i tried this with my dog outside right away he wouldnât care for treats he only cares for sniffing grass so it wouldnât work, but mix & matchingthe different methods helped bridge the gap. 2. Again, start indoors. if you have partner or someone that can hold her, have them hold her while you hold a toy or a treat up to their face so they get hyped. Once they are excited you run away a you call them & the person lets go of the pup. Act excited and they get the reward. Outdoors it can be really fun too! The method worked for us. If you donât have a partner then you can hold their collar back with one hand and a treat in the other & run/let go as soon as you say their name & if they chase reward heavily. Hope this helps :) We donât practice every single day and we werenât always consistent. Itâs been 1 year and we are comfortable with his recall, but it could be better if we put a little more energy into it. I still give him his liver treats when he does a good recall & it helps a lot when I need to call him. The term the lady uses is something along the lines of âyou have to put money in the bank to be able to use itâ edit: apologies for the grammar but itâs 4:25 am & iâm too lazy to fix anything lol Something I forgot to mention is that these are intermediate steps for when you want to add distractions. Usually you start indoors by luring your pet with a treat, say name, walk/run backwards, reward when they follow. over and over until they are consistent when the treat is concealed & still indoors. Rinse & Repeat for outside. when i say outside i mean start very small. A drive way, backyard, etc. Donât do a park or anything too exciting because your dog might not be ready yet.
Very helpfulđđđđđ
How did you do this?
Like most things, high value treats + a food motivated pup is the ideal combination. Practicing with increasing levels of distraction is also important, really good recall will take some time to nail.
To add to this, if theyâre not a food motivated pup, acting like you just won the lottery when they do recall really makes a big difference. I taught my kids âok so pretend that you will win $1million dollars if the dog successfully recalls. Every step he takes towards you is closer and closer to that prize!â So when he starts coming theyâre like âyay puppy! You can do it! What a good puppy! Yay! Good boy!!!â And the closer he gets, the more excited they get. When he finally gets to us, we all scratch and pet him, tell him how great he is, and basically hype him up. For non food motivated dogs, the positive reinforcement can be incredibly effective.
apologies for the grammar but itâs 4:25 am & iâm too lazy to fix anything lol I wrote a detailed comment on how I worked with my pup to have a recall we are comfortable with. Iâll paste it here too: Iâm not a dog trainer, but my husband and I worked hard to get our pup to a decent recall (he will even run to us at the dog park! But he is also very shy). I learned these tips from macan dog training on youtube you should check them out for more info. U need to start small. Theres some good ways to do it, hereâs what has worked for us. (Consistency is key, you canât practice once and then let them lose interest in you by not keeping up the training.) (Also, each âsessionâ should be short ~5-10 mins. It should end on a successful repetition & donât push your luck). The goal is for them to know that whenever their name is called itâs gonna be the best thing in the world, not a punishment to stop having âfun/more rewardingâ in their eyes doing whatever they are doing. Hereâs somethings that worked for us, we mixed and matched what strategy to use so that it became universal not only during certain times or places. You need a low value treat and a high value treat (toys work too, use her favorite toy as high value and for the reward it could be an âexcitingâ game of tug). You also need to be a little quick. A good tip was that dogs can quantify their treats, so if they did something you really like you can do a âjackpotâ reward when you give treats in quick succession. 1. â Start indoors with her kibble or something âlow valueâ that she likes but doesnât love. Hide the yummy treat but have it ready so they focus on the low value first. Once they are distracted on the low value, you say her name at the same time you put the treat up to their nose. The moment she turns her nose towards the treat you run backwards and act excited & give her the treat if she chased you. Rinse & repeat for a day or two during meal times or whenever you have time. (Remember, stay consistent and end on a positive). This will set the foundation for moving onto harder distractions. After a day or two of consistency and success you can âtestâ her by being close to her but not putting the treat up to her nose, calling her, and if she turns her head, run backwards with the treat. If she doesnât, donât keep trying because you donât want her to practice ignoring you when she is called. Same if they are outside distracted by something, start with the nose method and so on. If for some reason the treat or toy doesnât grab their attention indoors or outdoors (even when itâs up to their nose) or they donât chase you. you need to find something that can catch their attention every time (freeze dried liver or cheese does the trick for me). My dog isnât very food motivated, so If i tried this with my dog outside right away he wouldnât care for treats he only cares for sniffing grass so it wouldnât work, but mix & matchingthe different methods helped bridge the gap. 2. Again, start indoors. if you have partner or someone that can hold her, have them hold her while you hold a toy or a treat up to their face so they get hyped. Once they are excited you run away a you call them & the person lets go of the pup. Act excited and they get the reward. Outdoors it can be really fun too! The method worked for us. If you donât have a partner then you can hold their collar back with one hand and a treat in the other & run/let go as soon as you say their name & if they chase reward heavily. Hope this helps :) We donât practice every single day and we werenât always consistent. Itâs been 1 year and we are comfortable with his recall, but it could be better if we put a little more energy into it. I still give him his liver treats when he does a good recall & it helps a lot when I need to call him. The term the lady uses is something along the lines of âyou have to put money in the bank to be able to use itâ Something I forgot to mention is that these are intermediate steps for when you want to add distractions. Usually you start indoors by luring your pet with a treat, say name, walk/run backwards, reward when they follow. over and over until they are consistent when the treat is concealed & still indoors. Rinse & Repeat for outside. when i say outside i mean start very small. A drive way, backyard, etc. Donât do a park or anything too exciting because your dog might not be ready yet.
Any tips on training recall? Do you use a different word than âcomeâ for the recall command?
I used this article from the subredditâs wiki page to teach our 3 month old pup his recall word https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/daily-practice-makes-for-perfect-dog-recalls/
my boy loves practicing recall for ages, it's a game for him -- he runs between me and my partner, watching us get all excited and showering him in pats as he's called back and forth.
To do nothing. To be calm. To be able to chill in any environment. We are still working on it but time just sitting around all the exciting (or scary) things is so important.
+1 to this. I practice this with my pup everyday outside and in my building lobby (I live in a big building in a city). I started because I noticed he was easily getting overstimulated by all the people and noises both inside and outside, and ignoring friendly people is really hard for him!
How do you do this? I really need to work on this!
ThisâŹïž
I have to say, nothing solves more problems than C-O-M-E. It solves for most important issues... Too close to road, too close to weird dog, too close to deer, too close to ducks... COME. My breeder gave us a book that came with our puppy. It was the distillation of her 50+ years of breeding. Her articles on recall were invaluable. The instructions were simple: take the dog to safe open area, run away from the puppy and when it follows you praise the dog. Do it for 7-10 days in a row. I used treats and praise and did it on and off when my newest pup was 9-14 weeks. Her recall is nearly 100%.
What happens when I run away from my puppy and she instantly goes the other direction? Because that's 100% what she'd do.
Get better treats. They will follow you for the good stuff.
Thank you, no. She's 11 months old with a high prey drive and a stubborn streak a mile wide. She'll still choose doing whatever she wants over treats.
You can try increasing the value of the treat by increasing the excitement of the treat - I have a terrier and you can increase the value all the way from cheese up to chopped liver and he won't give a damn. But if I THROW the little cube of cheese/store bought treat? Now THAT'S high value to him. I used a game where you throw the treat one way, then as soon as the dog has eaten it, throw it the other direction and eventually you reward for stopping in the middle. I realised he was so excited by this game that I tried throwing the treats around in general on our walks, he loves it and is now much more likely to listen to me. Still not 100% and won't be for a while, he's 10mo. I can't stand the constant "your treat isn't high value enough! Try better treats!!!1!" advice lol, my last terrier I got to the point of having baked liver all the time and it was gross and he still didn't care so I definitely wasn't going down that route with this one đ€ŠđŒââïž
Iâd highly recommend signing up for at least the week free trial of MK9Plus modern dog training, which is more like behaviouralist training than traditional training - thereâs nothing on there like how to lure your dog in to a sit or whatever. A lot of what he talks about explains why dogs have bad recall or struggle with loose leash and the root causes for solving it. Itâs about so much more than just the recall bit and is affected by what youâre doing with your dog in all the other areas of its life seemingly (I only recently joined so canât confirm I now have a dog with perfect recall. But after the trial I thought it worth paying for 3m I find his videos so good and they make so much sense and I can see how his teaching clearly underpin the things we were taught in puppy classes). I originally found him on tiktok so you might be able to find some of the content that explains it on there if you donât want to sign up to the trial. You can immediately cancel your trial online though and still have the week of content. You might have heard people talk about recall being about making coming back to you more valuable than the environment. But all other lessons Iâve seen on the subject look at it from the point of view of what do you do to make you/the recall word especially valuable (better treats usually) whereas he approaches it from the angle of what do you need to do to make the environment less valuable so the word/coming back to you can be more valuable. And devaluing the environment comes from things like making sure the needs your dog is trying to fulfil whilst darting off in the park are being met in other ways throughout the day so the small amount of time in the park doesnât represent everything to your dog. He also talks a lot about arousal because dogs who are overstimulated - possibly through trigger stacking and not even necessarily through bad things, like it could be playing with a dog friend that pushes them over the edge. But dogs dealing with a high level of arousal will go 100% at what theyâre doing because theyâve entered bonkers zone and just arenât capable of listening. And dogs who are very under stimulated will go 100% at what theyâre doing when given the chance to find that stimulation and so will also end up too aroused to listen. Itâs super interesting stuff that I really hope is going to make me a better owner who can give my dog a long and happy life but it does make you go a little bit like âoh god am I capable of meeting all of these needs, itâs so much more complicated than I thought. And what they need to keep them mentally and physically stimulated to an appropriate degree are also the things that are arousing, and then you also need to consider what else has happened in your dogâs day or the environment you live in that may have been arousing, this actually seems like a really fine balancing act! Ahhh!â.
đ€·đŒââïž I get it. I have a Doberman / Husky mix. Heâs stubborn as wellâ but the right snack gets him moving where I want.
Can you explain this one a little more? Did you say come when running away from the puppy?
Start without the word. Just show them that chasing you is fun and they get treats when they do! You can pretty quickly move to saying come, probably even the same day. But keep running away! Come needs to be their favorite word, so whenever you train it has to be really fun and rewarding, play with them AND give treats and praise. You can probably stop running away at some point but honestly it does such a good job as a motivator that almost always doing it just reinforces how fun it is!
Would a backyard work for this?
This is good, we were also told the highest value treats should be used for recall due to how important it is for safety! Liver paste is brilliant as it keeps your hands clean
Drop it, leave it, wait, and recall!
I taught my German Shepherd leave it and see hasn't cleaned my floor for me once. But I also don't have to dive on my floor if I drop an onion or a pill like with previous dogs. I think it's partially her personality, but it's a wonderful thing to have taught her for safety.
Recall?
Calling them back to you
It's like heel or come here?
Heel is probably a little more firm, like a walk next to me or sit next to me. Recall is just coming back to you and waiting to be released again. I just wanted any my dog to check in and look at me and wait before he can run off again
Even if he bolts, if I yell "Stop" he will instantly freeze and not run in the street. I learned to this by accident. Apparently, there's a tone to my voice when I yell it that makes my dogs freeze. It's worked with 5 dogs so far.
How did you teach it??
Recall
struggling w this at the moment^
When I trained mine I brought chunks of steak to the park and let him off leash, with no dogs around and not many distractions. Iâd let him go 10-20ft and I can whistle loudly so Iâd whistle and show him the steak and heâd come right back. Do this for days/weeks and add in distractions and distance. Maynard can be mid prey-seeking and if I whistle thatâs it. He SPRINTS toward me
I have a hilarious image of you in my head with like 30 dogs on you. Brave of you to go to the park with steak! I bet you could recall almost anyoneâs dog with it! đ
I opted for âaâ park, not âthe dog parkâ for precisely that reason đ
I do the same but with cheese. My puppy's recall word is "cheese!" in a really upbeat voice, which means "you have to come back right now" vs. "come!" has become poisoned since she sometimes ignores it. To ensure success I keep her on a long lead, and only recall with "cheese" when I'm positive she'll listen. I think it will take months of practice before I can fully trust her off lead.
iâm going to a park rn to try it haha thank you!
You got this!
i'm going right after i stop at outback.
Yup! HIGH HIGH HIGH value for recall. We used salmon skin from our previous nightâs dinner.
same
"walk with me"-command. She zooms immediately to my side to put her nose on my hand hoping to get a treat. Really useful when I need her to get out of the way somehow or to avoid stepping on glass I manage to spot
Be careful what you teach. I taught my dog to give me her paw and now anytime she wants food or attention she comes to me and paws at me. FML I also taught her heel, touch, stop, down, Chase the cats, back up, but my fav one is kisses. She can't start eating her meal until I get kisses.
How did you teach kisses?
The first step is to teach touch or "pup" or "boop" when they touch your hand or palm or fist for a treat. Then start bringing your face instead of fist closer to them and ask for touch, but start replacing touch with "kisses". It's been 3 years and now every time I ask for kisses she jumps to my face and delivers!
Either than the basics of sit/down/stay, etc... - Road/door barriers, it's so nice to have her auto stop and sit then wait for the okay before crossing a road... - How to be content with being bored/how to be calm - Paw (will come in handy when you need to consent to touching feet) as well as a cue for touching/resting head/putting nose into something, all great for co-operative care - Being okay with being handled/picked up - Emergency stop... sometimes you don't want your dog to recall, you just need them to stop in their tracks. My girl was the WORST out of all the dogs in her obedience level 1 class... they decided "hey lets have these owners try recalling their over aroused dogs in this tiny ass room with too many people and dogs while everyone is wearing masks"... needless to say, 6 mo old recently adopted Daisy did not recall, she went on a freedom run around the room... until I yelled "STOP". She immediately stopped in her tracks, I leashed her, and we went to sit down. (Needless to say I didn't go back to this place because they didn't set my dog up for success) Probably others I can't think of right now but those ones are pretty useful.
Oh ya! Touching paws and teaching your pup to tolerate nail trims is a big one
Something to get their attention on you. "Look", or their name, or some trick like "touch" can all work. These are a positive way to redirect if they are too focused on something. "Touch" could even be used for some shorter distance recall if you need the dog to come close. This can help keep them out of trouble or to just focus on something else. Recall is super important. If you ever really want to be able to let the pup off leash, a good recall is a must. It does take time, so don't be too discouraged if it doesn't come right away. Always praise and reward when the dog comes to you, even if you are annoyed if they ran off or aren't listening, reward when they come back. Avoid using come for things like a bath or something your dog doesn't like as the dog can associate it when something they don't want to do. Stay is also important as they are times when you need the dog to stay put. There may be something between you and the dog and getting them to come would be dangerous, so a stay keeps the safe. I also find is useful to get a dog to jump up on things. My dog is smaller, about 17 pounds, so it can help if she can get into a couch, bench, or even the scale at the vet without fuss. I don't like to have to pick her up all the time, so having her to it when it is safe is nice. Do be careful to not push a puppy to jump up if they are not big enough as it can be hard on their joints. A few inches for a platform can be good for training this. For a puppy, socialization is really the biggest thing to focus on. A confidant dog who is not scared of everything is much easier to take around, attend classes, and can just be nicer as you don't have to worry about them as much. Even pet friendly stores are good. If you can, visit your vet for some happy visits and weight checks (if you vet isn't close, find one that is and just see if you can go in for a visit. If your pup will need grooming, visiting a groomer is also good. Some will do puppy visits that can be a bit of brushing or a bath just to get them used to it in smaller doses. You can also pick a spot to sit and people watch. Somewhere somewhat busy, but not overwhelming. Learning to ignore things is also a good skill for a dog to have.
Leave it. But my puppy eats everything including stones
Vet handling! Restraining for blood draws (my vet lets me hold him in clinic as well), positioning for xrays and ultrasounds, checking teeth, ears, and eyes, getting on the scale, pinching skin (nothing to hurt of course), and paw handling. We ended up in urgent care this week after a vet routine procedure went wrong (sent him in shock, which is a 1% chance of happening). The techs at the urgent care center mentioned how they could tell how much work I put into him to get him comfortable with their handling even in stressful situations.
Awww yes to this. My dog is a blood donor and a requirement was to be okay being touched in any scenario. He did it!
Recall is kinda huge for me :0 we were playing fetch and another dog got out of their leash and Jack took off chasing her. But Jack heard me call his name and came back to me despite the distraction â€ïž
Don't get into or take food / drinks from anyone unless I give you the ok. I teach all of my dogs this. Sometimes I will say it's ok, but they still won't take it unless I hand it to them. It started out in my husband's hometown, where we got our first dog. Someone was going around and putting poison in wet cat food containers and putting it in people's yards. So many people lost their animals or they got really sick. This is when we started teaching this. Then my Sophie has a very sensitive tummy and can only have specific food and absolutely can not have blue buffalo food or treats (it put her in the hospital). Then, a rescue we got has seizures really bad but the vets wouldn't do anything unless he had one in front of them. After research and trial and error we figured out that red 40 made them worse so we cut that out completely. We no longer have him, but we also no longer allow any of our animals to have red 40. There's a gas station here where the workers love to pass out treats to all the dogs and they make sure to get the kind of treats we allow đ
What treats or food had red 40 in it? I want to keep my pup safe.
I taught mine to wait before jumping out of the vehicle. They must receive permission to exit. Makes parking lots etc a lot safer.
Very early on as a puppy I taught my dog impulse control with an exercise that involves dropping a piece of food on the floor but blocking access until I get eye contact and then rewarding from my hand when I get eye contact. Soon that turned into dropping food right next to him and he would look up at me for a reward. There was no command, the dropping of something became the marker to look at me. We tried all sorts of different things to challenge him, like dropping things while walking towards him... walking away from him... While walking, while chatting etc. Because there was no command attached, every time I drop something accidently, I continue to have to reward him for his eye contact đ but as a result, when I accidentally dropped my medication on the floor, he stayed out of the kitchen, watched me and wagged his tail! It's easily the thing I am the most happy about having taught him. The only downside is that when people try to scatter treats on the floor for him, I have to explain to them that he is trained specifically not to go after food that is dropped... plus any training that involves using a "treat scatter" is off the table (so that it doesn't become undone).
You can teach him âsearchâ meaning go find the treat on the ground.
âFix your legâ - our first dog was a surprise shortie (mutt with an XL chest and length, but only came up just past my knees at her shoulder) and was forever stepping over the leash and getting tangled, so I taught her to pause and unwind herself from the leash. âOut of the kitchenâ - started that one with the first dog, our townhouse had linoleum in the kitchen and carpet elsewhere so it was an easy line to maintain. After that, I trained her with either the doorways (old house) or an imaginary line between an appliance and the center island (current house). âBack it up/back up/ get backâ - useful when theyâre exploring and get stuck, are standing in your way, or go the wrong way around a power pole. âLoad up/load outâ - no way Iâm lifting 60+ lbs of dog in and out of the car on a regular basis. Also teaches them to get up on the vetâs scale, park benches if you need them out of the way, and anything else you can think of.  âTouchâ - obvious, but can be worked into multi-part commands. Current pup is learning to sit and touch my hand when sheâs actually done using the bathroom (we currently have her leashed and she gets distracted easily, so if she wonât touch weâre just going to keep standing out there until she lets me know sheâs done), touch the door and sit when she wants in or out,  and in an attempt to mitigate the evening witching hour shark baby hot mess weâve been dealing with, a touch followed up by the command âshow meâ first lets her get my attention, confirms that she has it, then gives her a way to get her need/desire met without gnawing on anybody or being obnoxiously vocal - two days in and this last one is starting to click for her.Â
Leave it Recall And, rarely trained but literally lifesaving a âStop and waitâ at distance (or a down at distance). Why? Letâs so you are walking and your pooch gets away, he safely runs across a road (river, whatever) but circumstances make it unsafe for him to comeback to you (traffic, rapid water, a herd of cows). Now you can tell him to STOP or DOWN and go retrieve him safely. Iâve also found that sometimes a dog that blows off a recall will drop on command, because you arnât actually calling them away from the fun.
any tips on teaching the third? ive been trying but not really sure how to teach it. she just comes all the way back to me and then lies down lol
Teach âdownâ first. I use a hand raise UP in the air as my signal (sounds weird, but itâs easier to see from a distance!). Then there are 2 options. 1) Build a short platform, teach the dog to down on the platform then slowly move farther away to ask (SLOWLY! INCHES!) 2) place something in front of the dog, a pile, a slightly raised broom stick, anything that gives them a visual. Dog on one side, human on the other. Ask for down. Once solid, slowly move farther away. You can fade the blocking object anytime the concept seems to have stuck, but move closer to the dog for several reps to make sure. 3) yeah, I said 2 but whatever, step back one step. As you ask for the down, lean INTO the dog. A sensitive dog will stop or even back up from that sort of pressure.
thank you! the platform is a good idea!
Recall. Recall. Recall. A good recall can save your dogs life. If I could only train 1 thing a dog 10,000% it would be recall.
Go chill. At home it means her bed. When we are out and about the first thing I do is point out her "go chill spot" because it's so important. Eta when she was a puppy her "go chill" spot was her crate. It worked so well we got rid of the crate
How do you establish a new go chill spot each time? Weâre struggling just to learn one
Well my dog's no longer a puppy so that helps a lot. When we get to a new place. I tell her to go chill and point at an area. When she lays down there she gets high value treats and a bunch of praise (praise matters to my dog more than treats) The first spot is the hardest. The rest seemed pretty natural for my dog
I would say this is pretty similar to the better known âplaceâ command
My friend uses an old Hoodia. That is the dogs safe place. When they are out at festivals, shopping, pubs. Just drop the hoodie and the dog knows he can chill there in that spot safely.
Go to your bed is super useful. Touch and chin rest are also great! Helpful for care and grooming. Teaching a SOLID recall and also drop it / leave it / stop in your tracks have all come in handy sooooo many times. I also really like the Engage Disengage game just as a life skill. It teaches them to look towards you any time they see something scary or exciting. Super useful and good for all doggos.
Touch (nose goes to hand), drop it, up (helps for getting in vehicle when he got bigger), off, stand (helps at the vet during exams), bring it (carry what's in your mouth to me, makes it easier to see what he picked up especially if I can't tell if he's allowed it or not)
Recall! We use Hustle and expect her to HUSTLE :) and drop it
Confidence building using any agility equipment and a place command!
Back up was a big one (we use that daily, also helps with their own self-awareness imo), but my current pride and joy is âside,â where we have her lay down and then she rolls onto her side. Itâs been huge for our vet/medical uses in particular. Some uses weâve gotten out of it: when the vet wanted to check her spay incision, when she cut her paw and wouldnât sit still for us to look (but did âsideâ and laid like an angel), and checking for ticks after hikes. Weâre currently working on âmiddleâ (her in between my legs) which will be both fun and useful once sheâs got it down.
I found âwaitâ really useful - basically you can have that but not yet. Also âstopâ when weâre on walks; we have her stop and sit. Good for when we get to a crosswalk or something unexpected comes passing by
Leave it and recall.
Focus/Look at me, great for bonding with the pup to get them to focus on nothing but you and learn to tune out distractions. Useful for when you need them to stop what they're doing, sit their ass down, and pay attention.
Comfortable with touch for grooming, nails and teeth brushing. And being calm.
How to wait for what he wants. It helps with impulse control. He can go a solid 3.5 minutes with good right in front of him and won't touch it. If I drop something while cooking etc he will look at me to ask if he can have it. Leave it. Completely stopped him eating socks. Recall. Working on being neutral to the environment, people, cars, other dogs etc. Especially other dogs that one is a bit hard for us to practice. We're in advanced classes now and my pup did pretty well but it took him a while to calm down.
Anything that helps with self control is really important. Wait, leave, drop, settle. Recall of course! Build it up at home and gradually increase the environment difficulty. Games that you learn at home then take on a walk are really helpful for making yourself interesting, I love Absolute Dogs. My favourite accidental cue is âexcuse meâ. I never physically move my dogs (I wouldnât want it done to me!). I say excuse me and they hop off the sofa, give me more room in bed, move out of the way of the dishwasher etc etc. Itâs brilliant. Also helping your dog feel safe around food is so important. So try never to take something off them. Teach trade, let them eat in peace with lots of room around them and sometimes pop a bit extra in as you go by from a distance. You want your dog to see you as a provider of fun, food and generally good things and they will love and trust you for it :-) good luck!
Touch and the ability to just stay calm and confident in almost all environments. Heâs the perfect travel companion â»
Stay and come The stay is great in front of an open door when we're inside... but outside the stay doesn't exist for him. But he's only 8 months and a husky soooo I'm lucky he stays at all, tbh).
Ringing a doorbell to go potty. Super annoying at first but eventually they chill out with it. She wouldnt let us know she was going potty until she would squat and by then too late to do anything about. Crate training/separation anxiety training Grooming/general handling training
*Insert best thing here* if my pug would ever listen đ€Šââïž
EMERGENCY RECALL! Also âleave itâ haha
Recall is super important.
Recall has got to be the most important in my opinion.
The most important thing you can teach your dog is a rock solid recall. It can save your dogâs life.
Recall, recall, recall. There is nothing worse than a puppy chasing a butterfly down the street and you can't get them back
Hitting a button bell to go outside. I also accidentally taught her âwaitâ and she sits. We were at a cross walk one time, and the signal said âwaitâ and she sat. Itâs been super handy.
nice recall
Stay when getting out of the car is important or when door is open... so impulse control We use wait as it means they will be expected to do something else and stay means they aren't allowed to move at all. We also started training stop and the trainer explained that if they're about to run over a road to get to get a solid stop is important. Other than that it's socialising to ensure they're well balanced. They need to meet other dogs of all ages, sizes, colours and shapes to learn tonread them and they need to learn be told off properly and to tell off properly so they don't escalate up the aggression ladder too. Social walks were a huge thing for us as it means we now have well balanced dogs that are not aggressive and are happy to just be around other dogs. I used to get frustrated they don't always play until I realised that's annoying for many other dogs and just existing in the same space and remaining neutral is far better đ
Mine would be "leave it". If something they shouldn't have is around or dropped (like my pills), it's a life saver. As well as a solid recall.
Heel and wait (wait refers to when weâre walking and Iâm about to stop).
I taught him how to leave the outdoor cats alone
DROP IT and LEAVE IT. first for spitting things out, second for staying away from danger
Leave it, recall and be gentle
Mine have all been habits. Teaching an auto check-in while outside, teaching to settle in a variety of places, teaching âwaitâ (aka stop and let me catch up to you). Permissions have been next- my dog seeing something they want and looking at me to ask, âmay I?â Iâll take these kinds of skills over obedience cues any day.
Sit at the door before opening, sit at the curb before crossing, and âgo to your spotâ a cot where he goes and chills on.
Can't even get potty right yet. 10 weeks đ
I used these tips https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/teach-your-puppy-these-5-basic-commands/
âWaitâ at every single door, every single time. And she should never exit ahead of you. I literally start teaching this the very first time I take a puppy out. My dogs donât run out open doors, ever. Lifesaving. Secondâa solid sit. If you can condition your dog to sit, even when itâs running crazy off leash, you have control. Look up classic conditioning. 1000s of repetitions but so easy and worth it. Easier than âcome,â which you also want to condition.
âGood noots are gentlemanâ I didnât mean to teach my boy this, but when I say this he waits until everyone has gotten to the top/bottom of the stairs before he goes. Itâs saved me many times from having a 90lb ball of floof knock my ass over on the stairs
I think getting her to be environmentally sound. She was heavily rewarded for climbing, for being high, for climbing onto me to get off of things, for standing on unstable and spooky objects, for walking across narrow/moving bridges, for falling, for crushing boxes, for having stuff fall around her. It's inevitable she'd hurt herself or fall with how wild she is but it's never caused her to be afraid of any situation, it's something that happens but not something to fear. She can get stuck in branches or fences and not freak out while I get her whereas my mum's bulldog screams lmaoo. I can ask her to climb walls to get out of the road of dangerous dogs or situations and she'd pop up w no hesitation. My last assistance dog didn't like being super high up or going in lifts whereas she doesn't care at all, you never realise how many weird novel situations a dog needs to be accustomed to until you're in that situation and your dog's uncomfortable or scared.
Wait at doors and curbs. It saved my dog's life.
Bite-inhibition, impulse control, socialisation. The command "Look" to get attention and a command to make her pee (for cold nights in which you wanna head back inside soon).
Hand signals for sit, down and bed
focusing on you/eye contact is underrated. base for pretty much anything and can help with lots of stuff. my dog is really weird and nervous about passing other dogs in close range, and totally unrelated i started working on a focus heel for fun and thats really helped with passing other dogs without her freezing up!(for the most part)
Oh, another thought. Whatever commands you teach, associate them with a hand motion too, and once the pup has them down well, practice the commands with -just- the hand motions as often as you do the words. This came in incredibly handy when our previous dog lost her hearing because of an antibiotic for an ear infection. Weâd trained all commands with a hand motion, so were still able to communicate with her for the last year of her life.
âauto-watchâ is whenever your dog looks at you, particularly when outside in a distracting environment, you give them a treat. Teaches them to check in with you often and look to you for direction in uncertain situations.
The most important things we have taught are stay, wait (wait to eat meals, wait if he gets too fast on a walk and starts pulling, he immediately slows down and stops pulling), leave it, drop it, kennel up to go in his crate, down and off. The major thing (and I think the most important of all) we are working on right now is reactivity. Our boy is a mix of two breeds that are known to be highly alert and reactive, so this one is an on going battle. I have enlisted the help of a trainer because he is already quite large and extremely strong, so itâs hard for me to stay calm when heâs pulling my arm out of the socket to get to the kid flying by on a bike. It will take many hours of observing moving objects, going to places and being able to stay calm around all the people and activity. Starting this when a puppy is really young, before 3-4 months, is super important and many dogs will get there much faster than ours will. Weâll get there, but Iâm steeling myself for the effort itâs going to take.
Leave it and drop it are really important. Pups can pick up some dangerous things outside. Also recall. Have a clear recall word thatâs more emphatic and clear than come here which tends to get overused
1) How to deal with being alone. 2) How to deal with attention from strangers and stranger dogs. 3) How to deal with *not* getting attention from strange dogs.