Starting Training, 8 weeks old

[jdeitelb]

So this website has been very informational so far, I've seen all types of different training methods. I was wondering, what type of treats are best for a brand new puppy. Bella seems incredibly interested in her dog food, is that good enough for training? What type of dog treats do you all recommend? I just got her on Friday and have yet to get any "treats" other than her regular dog food. After reading some of Dr Ian Dunbar's material, it appears the best way to get a puppy to enjoy her crate is to get a kong and load it full of some deliciousness, has this worked for you guys?

I'm hoping that within a week I'll have her knowing the basic commands. I've been having a rough time getting her attention, if I have a treat, she'll try to jump on me and wont offer much eye contact. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[whiskers]

If she likes her kibble, then that's perfect to use for training. A good reward is any reward your dog is willing to work for! Just keep in mind that, the more distracted she is, the less likely she is to respond to kibble, which is when you'll have to bust out some more special treats.
There are a variety of things you can use. You can use human food--hot dogs, cheese, lunch meat, baked liver, leftover grilled chicken, etc. When I buy pre-packaged dog treats for training, I honestly just buy the cheapest stuff I can find--I'm usually more concerned about the nutritional value of what I'm feeding my dogs, but you will go through A LOT of treats when you're training, so I say just try some things out and see what she likes.

I didn't really "properly" crate train Juno... she just got used to it the more she was in there. But I don't think a Kong is THE solution--it might help, but some dogs are so anxious and get themselves so worked up, that they ignore Kongs even if they're oozing with peanut butter. Still a good idea to give her one though, and see how she responds. What you can also do is feed her her meals in the crate. Someone else who's actually done this will probably have better advice for you. :D

Have you looked into marker/clicker training? What you can do is practice "no lookie no cookie." If you have a treat, she's not allowed to have it until she makes eye contact with you. The MOMENT she looks at you, even if it's just a quick glance that she accidentally makes, you say YES! and give her the treat. Don't have high expectations though for such a young puppy. They have horrible attention spans. So don't get discouraged or disappointed if it takes a while before she gives you more than a nano-second worth of attention.

You can do this for many things though--wait for eye contact before you put the food bowl down, before you let her outside, before you throw the ball, etc. When you make eye contact a rewarding thing in your dog's life, you'll end up with a dog that LOVES paying attention to you. The same goes for any command, too.

 

[SnowDove]

I'm hoping that within a week I'll have her knowing the basic commands. I've been having a rough time getting her attention, if I have a treat, she'll try to jump on me and wont offer much eye contact.

Oh, YAY! I'm not the only one with "too high" expectations of my boxer pup Haha!!

I also recently acquired a boxer pup (not my first dog, but my first boxer), and I had grand visions of her knowing several commands right away. Yeah... their attention span is VERY short!

I've had Daisy for about a month now, and she is quite good about "sit" and "down" (although sometimes she only responds to my verbal command for "sit" and not the hand signal alone...) At any rate, the trainer who saw her yesterday was Super surprised that she was so good about doing just those two consistently at her age. So aim high, but don't push her so hard that she gets frustrated!

Congrats and good luck!

 

[jdeitelb]

Whisker's, thank you for your advice. That is very true and goes along with everything I've been reading, any type of positive reward, play, outside, food, treat, etc.., is beneficial when trying to train anything.

So "sit" has been working, but I think that's probably easy for most dogs, and when they know you've got some kibble. However I am having a very difficult time with "down". She will come to me and first sit almost on immediately. I'll say down, put the treat down palm down right infront of her forepaws and she'll knell down a little but not go down completely, and then she'll just start licking my hand. Anyone have any other tricks?

I think I'm going to head out and get the clicker to spice my training up, I think I need something specifically for training, so the dog can understand the difference in the atmosphere if that makes sense. She does not sit on command all of the time without treats or when there are distractions, but I think that has to do with me only starting minimal training two days ago.

Thanks again

 

[LILYLARUE]

So "sit" has been working, but I think that's probably easy for most dogs, and when they know you've got some kibble. However I am having a very difficult time with "down". She will come to me and first sit almost on immediately. I'll say down, put the treat down palm down right infront of her forepaws and she'll knell down a little but not go down completely, and then she'll just start licking my hand. Anyone have any other tricks?

I think I'm going to head out and get the clicker to spice my training up, I think I need something specifically for training, so the dog can understand the difference in the atmosphere if that makes sense. She does not sit on command all of the time without treats or when there are distractions, but I think that has to do with me only starting minimal training two days ago.

If she doesn't go down......patience is key! It could take a few minutes for her to get it. Lily would give paw, sit, stand, sit again, bark......but she would finally down and get the treat.

If you see them frustrated, take a few moments and try again. They will eventually get it and it sometimes takes lots of repetition for them to have that "ah-ha" moment. Keep it up!

Clickers are great to mark.....its a millisecond of praise where a verbal praise takes a little under a second. So you can mark much quicker to the behavior.

 

[SnowDove]

When first teaching my girl, I actually would gently take Daisy's paws and pull them forward so that she slid into a "down"... The second her belly hit the ground, I clicked and gave her a big treat (warmed up hot dog or her favorite toy). I also found that the first hand signal I gave her was confusing for her for some reason, so I switched over to the ASL sign for "lie down". She grasped that one very well and now will respond to either cue.

Another piece of advice - if you are putting the treat down in front of her paws straight away, that often confuses them. Try holding it up to her nose and then *Very Slowly* lowering it down toward the ground in front of her. If she continues to simply edge toward it, try practicing this with her backed up in a corner - (I have a friend who swears by this!)

Daisy was definitely stubborn and did NOT want to "down" even after she knew it... On recommendation of someone on the board, I tried a different reward for that particular behavior. Instead of treat or toy, I punched my fist in the air and started yelling/dancing around like she was the most amazing creature on the planet! Since I did that a few times, "down" has become her favorite cue!

 

[johann]

Another way to teach down is to free shape it. Be armed with your clicker and treats.

Whenever you see her lay down (on her own, no command or influence from you), click and treat. Do this enough times and she'll make the connection that the act of laying down gets her a treat....so she'll start offering the behavior. Once she is offering it to you (and trust me, she will :p ), then introduce the hand signal/command "Down". Continue doing this for a while until she seems to understand what the word means (they learn quickly with shaping). Then start asking her to down on cue.

I wish I had done more shaping and less luring to train Johann. The things he's learned from shaping (paw, bow, stretch)....he is much quicker to do than what we did via luring (heel, down, sit).

 

[whiskers]

This is how I taught my dogs:
Make a bridge with your leg. Dog is on one side of your leg, hand with treat is on the other side. You basically set them up so that the only way they can get the treat is by going under the "bridge," and in order to get under the bridge, they have to lay down. The moment they're all the way down, you mark/click and give the treat. With enough repetitions they'll start quickly dropping down, and you can get rid of the "bridge" and add a hand/verbal signal.

You can also continue the way you've been doing it. If she makes ANY movement related to laying down, you mark and reward. So this could be something as simple as her legs sliding forward, or her head or shoulders dropping a smidge, etc. So if she scoots down a little when you try luring her, that's perfect, you can start there. Keep rewarding that until you start thinking it looks like she understands what you "want." When she's proficient at doing half of a down )), next time wait her out a bit and see if she'll drop lower. Often times, if you reward the same thing over and over, and then all of a sudden you stop, the dog thinks "what the heck? Why didn't that work this time?" So then they'll offer you a variation of the behavior, or they'll exaggerate it as if to say, "HELLO, didn't you see me do it the first time!?" Which is why eventually you'll see her go further into the down.

Johann's idea works too. Go somewhere boring like the bathroom, so that you can pretty much guarantee that she's going to lie down.

It might take you a little more work to get the final behavior, but IMO it results in a stronger behavior. Dog has to actually think and figure out what they have to do to get the reward, so they're more aware of what their body is actually doing, instead of just blindly following a treat into the correct position.

 

[SnowDove]

Another way to teach down is to free shape it. Be armed with your clicker and treats.

Thanks for the tip! Daisy now knows how to "High Five!" The only problem now is that she keeps trying to smack my hands - hahahahaha! ....*If I smack Mommy's hands, she gives me the treats - sweet!*

 

[johann]

Thanks for the tip! Daisy now knows how to "High Five!" The only problem now is that she keeps trying to smack my hands - hahahahaha! ....*If I smack Mommy's hands, she gives me the treats - sweet!*

Yeah....DH was cursing me for teaching Johann that trick.