[Rachel Zugg]

I just wanted some feedback on how some of you go about your basic OB training. We are working on sit and come with Lily. At what age can I expect her to start to retain what she is learning and be able to remember what I am asking of her?

As of now she will sit for a hot dog but only for a second....... She hasn't really grasped what "come" is.

 

[PaulaEdwina]

I just wanted some feedback on how some of you go about your basic OB training. We are working on sit and come with Lily. At what age can I expect her to start to retain what she is learning and be able to remember what I am asking of her?

As of now she will sit for a hot dog but only for a second....... She hasn't really grasped what "come" is.

Amrika is almost a year old and completely untrained. I don't think she has much of an attention span but she's been learning things like "sit" when it's meal time. I hold the bowl over her head and her butt goes down. She learned her release this way as well. When I'm putting the bowl down I give her the release command "okay". So now she knows "Sit" and waits for the "Okay" as long as it's not too long an interval at this stage. Recall is tricky because with her previous human she's obviously learned that 'come' is rewarded with negative things. So now I don't call her except for dinner. Otherwise I go get her or I act like a fool and turn and run when I get her attention and she joins up. As we go along and she relearns that 'come' means tasty treat or head rub, I'll reintroduce the word. So there is always stuff they can learn as long as the sessions aren't boring or long or demanding. For instance in potty training you can teach them to go on comand.

Paula

 

[SexyBlueChapps]

Chapps went to obedience school, he knows Sit, Stay, Paw, Other Paw, Down, Come

Holly knows.....Sit

haha

 

[Diane-n-Ana]

Ana is about 13 weeks now, and she sort of knows sit, lay down, shake, and stay. I say 'sort of' because it's only in certain situations (ie: meal time) and it's only if she decides it's worth it (ie: if she's not busy playing with her sister or digging my flower pots out, lol).

Oh, and 'cookie'. She DEFINATELY understands what cookie means. :wink: :shock:

 

[Thor]

Retention comes from repetition; I don't think it is age specific. I also don't believe you need to go to a class to teach them. Just do 1-2, five minute sessions everyday and Lily will pick it right up. Teach 3-4 things at a time, so you don't bore the dog with the same task over and over. Sit, sit, sit , sit, etc.

Zues is five months and he can:
Sit, come, heel, down, stand, stay (as long as needed until I release him), stand/stay, shake, high-five, bow, Bruce Lee (I make him kick his back leg out), and catch (grab any food thrown in the air).

Sibyl is 18-months, and came to us four weeks ago with a different name and not even knowing sit. She can now:
Come, heel, sit, down, stay, stand, shake. We are working on the rest.

Strategy wise, what worked with Zues has not worked with Sibyl. We have had to teach them differently. I suggest picking a command, then Googling it and picking three different ways of teaching that command and then trying it out with Lily. One method will work faster than the rest, so use that one. OB classes tend to do it "their way" which may or may not be the best for your dog. All dogs are different.

 

[absent]

Like Thor said - you'll certainly want to try several different methods - all dogs (and people) respond to different things. Lola is a great "student". She loves the treats, loves the praise and has a great attention span - and is absolutely devestated by the merest HINT of anything negative, even to the extent that she seems put off if I'm not absolutely BEEMING. All Positive all the time. BusStop likes the treats and likes the praise, but would really rather be looking for her new pal - the puppy next door. Her attention span is MUCH shorter than Lola's - she's also about five years (if not more) younger than Lola.

I got some good ideas out of a magazine "Training Secrets for Bully Breeds" or something like that.

 

[sheila]

Sheila is 5 months old, she just graduated Basic OB. She knows name recognition, sit, down, roll over, paw depending on which hand you hold out she matches, catch, stay, wait, come, loose leash walking and leave it. The only one she still needs work on is the leave it, but it is definetly come along. The course was 8 wks long once a week for one hour. the rest was up to us. She definetly did the best out of all the dogs in the class, but I spent plenty of time working with her. Some meals I fed her kibble by kibble and she had to do on of the commands to get a few kibbles at a time. Alot of liver treats etc... for the rest of training. Now she follows commands I would say 90% of the time with out treats, we are starting to give her the treats sporadically so she does not know when she will get one, but knows it will only come if she follows commands. I can open the front door of the house and tell her to wait, and she will sit or lay down with the door wide open and will not move until the release command is given. I think this is my most important command. She is far from perfect as we still have some nipping problems decreasing by days and jumping on people. She starts intermediate classes next week. I would say depending on your dogs attention span atleast 10-20 min a day training to start, maybe several times a day. Sheila has a good drive and seems to like it so I can go for 30-40min with out loosing her attention.