Ripley is just about five months and she is smart as a whip. I can't believe how quickly this dog picks up training concepts compared to the other breeds I've had.
She knows sit, down, come, follow, (short) stay, "leave it", walks reasonably well on leash, knows "bring" when she's retrieving and can bring me the ball wherever I go, and "drop".
Today we had a training session and other than "roll over" I totally blanked on other things I can teach her now that she's mastered so many things. Where I live it's currently over 110 degrees during the day so going outside for training to do more is not an option. It needs to be something we can work on in the living room. I typically train mid day when my kids are napping.
Ideas for tricks or other obedience we can work on at this age? I think scent stuff is really cool but I have no idea where to begin. However she is the first dog I've ever had where I can see her actively "sniffing" to find a ball in our large yard. So I know she has the nose for it!
Me and my son like to play hide and seek with our dogs inside. Either he can hide and I'll say where's trystan, or he can hide a toy and I'll say where's the rope or whatever . I focus the most on recall with my dogs. We work on that daily. Also attention. When I say attention he immediately runs and sits in front of me looking for directions.
My dog loves "find it". The kids love playing it too. She's so good that we shut her in the bathroom so there is no peeking! We hide a toy of hers somewhere in the house. When I open the door, we say " find it" and she does. She is fast and loves the game. We play soccer of sorts. Essentially she's the goalie and I have to get the ball by her. She always wins.. She loves "monkey in the middle" too. She's quite a competitor! Games like that. These aren't tricks but they do burn some energy in the nice cool air conditioning. Besides the monkey in the middle, I play all of these games on my own with her, too. I work in the obedience commands too and work on duration.
Edited to add that my dog loves, loves, loves playing hide and go seek with my kids inside and outside.
Train position changes at a distance....across the room...no creep. Train a tight backing up heel against a wall in your house to start. Train all kinds of close quarter obedience skills.....moving sideways in the heel position ...whether standing or sitting. Train a simple over an object....I used a golf club and continually raised the height. Train your dog to crawl on the ground. Train your dog to down halfway on its return to you.... There's a lot of training that can be done inside where there is limited space and no distractions..it's a great place to start..then you can take it all outside and go from there....still have to have a good reward...tug works in the house no problem.
You probably dont have room for agility equipment indoors but at that age, my dog loved racing through a tube, doing balance board exercises, and other agility type things. We were in a terrible puppy class but they had cool equipment and he loved that part.
I do have a baby slide indoors that I've tried teaching her to go over, but luring isn't working and I'm not sure where to start for it? I also have a bunch of Play Hut kids tents that she could basically go through or eventually over... Any tips on where to get started?
One of my favorite YouTube videos. This video gave me some ideas on different tricks to do. There other YouTube videos that show you how to do a particular trick. Great to practice when weather is crappy in house. http://youtu.be/OylP3SOmJlI http://youtu.be/Glv84UFZToA
Does she know the name of all her toys? You can teach her to go find a particular one and bring it to you.
Targeting is a great foundation skill that can be used in all sorts of ways. I start with a hand target - nose bump to my palm. I use the "touch" command for this, and start training it as soon as I bring home a new puppy. From there you can train her to target something on the floor (yogurt lids are good for this), or the end of a target stick. You can also train a foot target, although I never personally have.
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