Retriever Training

1 year old Golden Retriever training questions....?

My golden is still very distractable and still spazzy (as she is still a puppy)
She knows sit, Lie down, crawl and hush

I am teaching her "BANG! youre dead" .... what other tricks do you think i could teach her...
any tips on helping her focus
oh and if you know how to explain how to teach the tricks step by step that would be great

BTW I spend about 45min to and hour a day on training but i am consistant throughout the day!

She sounds ADORABLE! I am a firm believer in correction training - but that's ONLY for stopping bad behaviors. For training, I prefer treat training. I use cheese slices - and cut/tear them into small pieces and put them in a ziploc in your pocket (you might already be doing this, so my apologies if I'm going over stuf you already do!!)

My favorite tricks that my dogs do is 'be cute' and 'place'. For be cute, they need to know sit and down, and then 'head down'.

Once your pup is in the 'down' or 'lie down' position - use a piece of cheese in your closed hand to bring their head down to the ground, then reward with the cheese while saying 'head down' (always in a high pitched, positive voice).

Once she has 'head down' you can move on to step 2. If your dog knows 'paw' or 'shake' this might be a tad harder, but still doable.

The point is to make her put her paw over her snout, looking shy and VERY cute. The easiest way to do this is to get very close to her face while she's in the 'head down' position and blow gently on her snout/whiskers. She will instinctually put her paw over her snout to 'wipe off' the air. When she does this, say 'be cute' (again, positive and high pitched) and give her a piece of cheese. Timing is VERY important - but since you'll be right there in her face you should be fine!!

For place, it's a modified 'stay' command. Start by putting an old towel on the floor - and bringing her to sit on top of it. Say 'stay' (high pitched, positive, yadda yadda!) and walk backwards (still facing her) for 4 or 5 steps. If you're using hand signals a flat palm facing her (like 'stop' with your hand) is the appropriate signal. Only say stay ONE TIME. if she gets up, simply say 'no' (don't yell or be angry, still positive) and bring her back to the original position on the towel). After practice, you should be able to walk away and leave her in a stay position.

For 'place' you simply start moving the towel around (in the same room - she has to be able to see/smell it) and say 'place'. At first she won't know what she's supposed to do, so you take her to the towel and give the 'place' command, instead of the stay command. It sounds kind of dumb, and I wasn't sure of the use of this command - but now i can open all the doors to bring in groceries, or if the kids are running in and out, and our GSD will go to her 'towel' (ours is a dog bed!!) and stay until she's released with a happy 'OK' release command. I don't have to worry about her going where she shouldn't be, or getting hurt.

hope this helps - and with 45 mins or an hour a day your dog will be happy, healthy and smart as a whip! Good for you!

cj

Retriever training, teaching steadyness, Group Taking Turns


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