mixing up commands...??

[primabella]

okay, mickey used to know wave very properly. then i decided i should start teaching him "lie down" he learned that one very fast, but i don't know what happened, and now everytime i say "wave" he'll lie down. if i say "lie down" he'll lie down, and if i say "sit" sometimes he'll lie down also. it's frustrating me because i know he once knew all his commands perfectly. what can i do to correct him? i've tried saying 'no' once i see him getting ready to lie but he does it anyway. i've even tried changing "wave" to "say hi" as if it were a new trick.

any advice? thanks

[wolf_Q]

If I try to teach Nebo too many different things at once, he gets confused also. Like, I taught him "speak" one day, then taught him "up" (put his paws on my chest) the next....so then every time I asked him to "speak" he'd bark AND jump on me..lol

So what I do now is teach one thing, and wait about a week before I teach another. I'd just keep practicing one command until he has it down again, and then move on.

[lovemyshiba]

I agree, just give him a little more time. He may be getting a little confused!! My mother in law's pom gets so excited when you tell him to sit, he gives paw and speaks all at the same time, because we always go in that order, and then he gets a treat--its pretty comical to watch.

[Dixieland Dancer]

Originally posted by primabella

i've tried saying 'no' once i see him getting ready to lie but he does it anyway. i've even tried changing "wave" to "say hi" as if it were a new trick.

any advice? thanks

Don't change the command. This will really confuse him. You need to back up and reteach the commands and reinforce it for wanted behavior. If you say sit, as soon as his butt hits the ground praise and reward with a piece of kibble. When he can do this 19 times out of 20 with the reward (lure) being eliminated every four or five times then you can say he successfully knows the command. Then you can move onto something else and do the same thing.

I never say NO to my dogs. I just give a little noise such as AHHHH and break out of my position (basically losing eye contact with them). Then it's No reward. If they do it correctly then they get rewarded. The noise is basically to get their attention if they are focused on something else and let them no that I am going to be breaking out and they didn't get rewarded.

I also never repeat a command once I know the dog understands. I will say their name in such a way as to let them know they were told to do something but I never repeat commands. If I have to repeat the command then I break out of position first and start over from scratch. This enforces that the dog must listen the first time, not the second or third or whenever they feel like it if they want to get rewarded.

Just go slow. Most dogs have a brain fart around 6 months of age or so (not sure how old Mickey is now) and you kind of wonder if they ever did know it, but it quickly passes. Good Luck!

[primabella]

thanks everyone

mickey is 5 months now () i tried doing the trick again yesterday and i ask him every so often (without the treats) and he's got it again. he really confuses me sometimes

thanks for your advice. i wanted to teach him a new trick but i think i'll wait a few days like amy suggested.

[Rachel]

It may be helpful to associate a hand signal with your verbal command. You may want to find a book that would include the hand signals used most often by trainers, just in case you want to take him to obedience classes later on. The combination of a visual and verbal cue together is very helpful in training, and eventually your dog will be able to respond to the hand signal alone, which is quite impressive.

Also make sure that all members of the family are using the same word for the same command. If you use *Down* for asking him to lie down, then don't use that word when he is jumping up on you and you want him to stop. Use *Off* or *No Jump*. Also you wouldn't want to use the down word when you want him to get off the bed or the couch. Here *off* would be more appropriate.

Take your time with Mickey, and make sure to keep training a positive experience for him.

[primabella]

thanks

i do use hand signlas with mickey. sometime we do our training "sessions" with just hand commands.

i do make sure that everone uses the same command. if i find out my mom taught him how to do "paw" i need to know if it is "paw" or "give me paw".

thanks again, i do try to make it a positive experience

[kai]

aww mickey is just the most precious thing! That happened with Kai once. I taught him sit. Then the next day I taught him down but he wouldn't go down from a standing position so I got him to sit then down. Since I didn't know any better...we always did that ..sit, down... sit, down...then when I said sit when he was in the stand position, he sat...but just as i was giving him the treat..he plopped onto the ground. *Sigh* it took me a few weeks to correct it...but he's got it...sorta. He still did it at obedience...the trainers thought he was just a lazy pup LOL

[primabella]

omg, kai is so adorable!! i love shelties. is he a tri?

yeah, i know where your comminf from with that. i would always teach "sit, paw, high five, up" and repeat. i had to mix them up and terach him more because he always had his paw ready when i said sit

and i love your avatar!

[kai]

Nope he's a sable. At first I thought he might have been a tri but I hear it's normal for shelties to have the black tips..and more of the sable is showing now. My mom wants to get a blue merle though...I didn't object haha..i'd love to get another one for kai to play with.

[primabella]

oh, that's so cute. i wish mickey had a play friend cause he's so playful and i can't play properly with him. he's so small still. mickey used to be very dark. now he's so light, i can't believe how he's changed! how old is kai?

[kai]

he's about 7.5 months now. He's grown so fast! I wish I took more pics of him when he was younger...shucks!

[primabella]

oh, you mean they really shoot up then? darn! i know, i only took about 5 picks of mickey when he was a real pup. now he's growing so fast, i get mad at myself. when i first realized it was when i saw a pic of two shelties in the grass. they were tiny. i was like "shoot, i missed it!" don't worry. kai is still such a sweetie

[kai]

LOL I've just noticed, alot of the messages on this thread are by us...LOL we should make a thread about mickey and kai haha..

I don't know if they SHOOT up...my friends said he did...I saw some pics of other shelties around kai's age..and he looks NOTHING like them. His fur is different..and kai actually looks alot older...odd...

[primabella]

lol we could PM eachother. that would save space