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Hello and wondering about command ideas.


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Hello 

Just wanted to introduce myself and my dog. I have a 7 month old puppy named Quinn who is a smooth coat collie. He is awesome and a joy to be around.  I feel we are over the hard part as he is starting to settle down a bit for the most part and the learning is going smoothly for both of us. 

He gets on average of 4 hours of exercise a day at a leash free dog run. Its a massive road heading towards massive lake and on both sides of road are very large fields that have trails along the lake. My go to park to train as he can expel energy for half hour (playing/running and rough housing with other dogs) training for an hour/walking/long leash training mostly and half hour of reward play time at the end (usually same as first half hour).  He loves dogs and people -we are grateful for that. 

He is great in the house for the most part. The most challenging is getting him to stay asleep at night if he hears a noise. We do not crate train him and would like to maintain that. We do see why other people crate as the cargo area in back of SUV is aptly called. "Quinn cave" - he loves it. My 80 year old retired father is able to take him when I cant so there is not really any need to at this point. Quinn has never been left alone except in car.  

My question is; is there any good resources with examples of commands and tricks and things to train dogs?  Any good websites or instruction videos or ideas that others here have found useful teaching their dog?  He of course has not perfected the ones I have started on however I am finding I am running out of things to teach him.  I'm not really into tricks such as roll over, etc (although he has learned this) but more like "shake" when he gets out of water etc. At this point I am basically putting commands to actions he is already doing so he will do it when asked.  I have watched videos on touch sticks and am thinking a lot about this but unsure of what to teach him. He loves his frisbee and only now just started interest in playing with tennis balls (mostly in house). 

Anyhow, just inquiring and looking for ideas. We aren't going to herd sheep (although I would love to see what he does around them) and we wont be doing fly ball -- possibly eventually agility at some point..not sure...  so far we love to take calm walks together exploring everywhere possible. 

Thank you in advance and I wish you many happy years with your brilliant BC's :) 

Chipsy 

 

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Welcome to the BC Boards.

I suggest you crate train your dog. You may not need to use it a lot at home, but it is important that a dog be crate trained for several reasons. Some places you may want to stay while travelling will only permit a dog if there's a c rate being used. Crate in the back of the car is a lot safer, especially on long car trips. And this: What is your dog needs to spend the night at the Vet, and has never gotten used to being in a crate? It will confuse and frighten him to be put into a crate if he doesn't understand what it is about, and that will make everything harder for him and for the vet staff. Additionally, while you have a person ready to care for him when you need, if that plan fell through you might need to board him and, again, a crate trained dog will be far more relaxed in that circumstance. To crate train him is to give him valuable skills for coping with life circumstances.

As for ideas what to teach him to do...teach him to do anything you want.  Teach him to pick up his toys and put them into the toy basket. To pick up your dropped keys and hand them to you. And so on. The sky's the limit. 

Kikopup has a great website and Youtube channel you might enjoy. Lots of ideas there.

 

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I was just going to post the same thing D'Elle did about crate training.  Even if you never use a crate at home, dogs are much safer being crated in a car than riding loose.  And you really don't want the first time your dog has ever been crated to be when he's like five years old and suddenly has to spend a night at the vet, or worse, has to spend an extended period of time recuperating from an injury in a crate.  Crate training doesn't mean your dog has to spend significant time there on a daily basis.  But he should be sufficiently used to being crated that if you have to confine him in a crate for a few hours it's no big deal.

For training ideas, do a search on youtube for nosework or scentwork and you'll find lots and lots of videos on teaching your dog to find hidden objects by scent.  Dogs love it (sniff around and get treats! what's not to love?!), you can do it for 5 minutes or 30 minutes depending on how much time you want to spend, you can do it outdoors or in your living room if the weather is icky, and even though you may only be doing it to entertain yourself and your dog, you get an appreciation for what goes into training actual bomb/drug/truffle/arson/cadaver/wildlife detection dogs.  And unlike "tricks" that are just cute (not that there's anything wrong with that) but totally artificial, scentwork uses the dog's natural instinctive behavior.

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- Are there any good resources with examples of commands and tricks and things to train dogs? -

I was also looking for something like this for my border collie.  I stumbled on this link after we took a couple freestyle dancing classes.  The list has about 70 moves/tricks.  The list shows -  “Skill - Difficulty - Description - Voice Cue - Body Cue”.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/508410f5e4b02e0cbd1db649/t/53556b5fe4b0240356d2d7bb/1398106975058/Freestyle+Moves.pdf

I loved this list for giving me ideas and for the verbal and body cues.  For the actual training, if I needed help, I looked at kikopup videos (highly recommend her).

I have a few favorite tricks that I found useful when training with my therapy dog. 
Mush face - dog places head in open, upturned, hand,  keeps the dog still, and allows me to position the dog anywhere I want.  
Peekaboo - dog goes around and pokes head out between legs, children loved this one.  (We volunteered at Children's Hospital).
Who loves you - dog sits and puts paw on your leg.  Has a good “awww!” factor.

Not sure if this is what you had in mind, but I’m sure you will have fun training Quinn.  Runa was my first BC, and she constantly amazes me with her brains and drive.

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I am training my dog to retrieve like a gundog. Before I had my BC I bought this great book about training retrievers, thinking I wanted a hunting breed (silly me :) ). 
My dog loves to retrieve and this makes it more interesting for both of us. 

Some of the things we are working on at the moment are:

- memories: where you drop/place a bumper and walk on, turn around and send the dog back for it. (really fun with multiple bumpers and/or distractions)
- delivering to hand: my dog knows the 'give' command, but we are working on a more calm and stylish one where she sits and holds the bumper
- holding/carrying the bumper around
- steadiness: waiting before retrieving, sometimes denying a retrieve, really good for patience
- marks: where I throw the bumper in very long grass/thick cover, she really has to pay attention where the bumper falls and she has to learn that I line her up and she has to go in a straight line to get the bumper
- retrieving from water
- jumping over logs to get to the bumper
- high bumpers: where the bumper is not on the ground and she has to search higher up in trees (obviously where she can still get at them ;) )

Apparently some trainers use an e-collar to teach their dogs to retrieve, which is so unnecessary. For my dog the retrieve and my praise are enough. She absolutely loves it.  The book I use is called "Sporting dog and retriever training the Wildrose way". 

 

I've also taught my dog to fetch useful things around the house for me, like my slippers, the leash and her bowl. I started teaching this by teaching her to give me the ball when we played fetch. Now she knows to give me anything I point at and we are slowly working on distinguishing certain objects. We are at a point where she knows what "slippers" are as long as they are in their usual place and the leash or her bowl are not nearby. Still a work in progress, but lots of fun and very useful :) 

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Hi. I also have a 7-month-old smooth coat border collie. Mine is female and, like your Quinn, she is just now starting to mellow out. That does not mean she's calm. Nope. Some days she's just a royal pain, a little prima dona who thinks the world revolves around her. I might have to take part of the blame for that since I do tend to cater to her at times. But at least she's not the ultra-hyper, super annoying, constantly nipping puppy that she was two months ago.

I bought a really cool book titled "101 Dog Tricks" by Kyra Sundance. Easy tricks include "shake," "Take & Give," "doggy push-ups" (sit, down, sit, down), "jump over a bar or through a hoop" (not recommended for our young pups),  "crawl" "spin in circle" "bow" "get your leash" and more. It also includes much harder tricks like having the dog pick up their toys, pick a card from a deck, stack rings on a pole, and basic agility skills like go through a tunnel, across a teeter totter or weave between poles and beginning scent skills (find a tea bag on a person in the room). Several of the of the tricks require items that some of us don't have readily available or require the owner to be somewhat athletic (do summersaults, handstands or jump rope with their dog). Unfortunately, my girl has a 59-year-old owner with temporary (fingers crossed) balance issues, so I don't work with her nearly as much as I'd like.

My current goal is to teach her some basic manners. To be honest, it's not going very well. She'll walk fine on a leash in the backyard, but take her out of the house and she pulls like a sled dog. I can get her to wait for treats but she will not wait at the door. She knows "take & give" when working with her toys and "leave it" when dropping a piece of chicken or cheese between her paws. But she's not grasped the idea of leaving my socks alone giving them to me once they are in her mouth. Try as I might, I could not get my girl to roll over. But I was dumbfounded when I got her to step in a box (all four feet) that was barely as wide and not quite as long as she is.

I have no idea how to raise a puppy without a crate. This one is especially nosey, finding things to get into when I'm not looking and can't be trusted outside of a crate or playpen when I'm sleeping, fixing meals or otherwise distracted. We recently introduced her to doggy daycare, so that she will be familiar with the place when we have a weekend getaway this summer. All the dogs get a two-hour, midday break in a crate. And when staying overnight, she'll sleep in a crate.

As for car travel, we used to have my girl ride in the back of the SUV until one day when I had to put my foot on the break really hard. She was standing up against the back seat and flew over it when I braked. Now, I use a backseat doggie hammock and a short leash that hooks her harness to the seatbelt. This combination keeps her secure, close to her people, yet not a distraction for the driver: https://www.amazon.com/Winner-Outfitters-Covers-Cover-Trucks/dp/B01N4OQQSJ?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_12

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On 5/11/2019 at 2:30 AM, HerePupPup said:

My current goal is to teach her some basic manners. To be honest, it's not going very well. She'll walk fine on a leash in the backyard, but take her out of the house and she pulls like a sled dog. I can get her to wait for treats but she will not wait at the door. She knows "take & give" when working with her toys and "leave it" when dropping a piece of chicken or cheese between her paws. But she's not grasped the idea of leaving my socks alone giving them to me once they are in her mouth. Try as I might, I could not get my girl to roll over. But I was dumbfounded when I got her to step in a box (all four feet) that was barely as wide and not quite as long as she is.

Leash walking ---  You need to get this down very thoroughly in the back yard before taking it on the street. And, you don't want ever to let her pull you even a tiny bit when you do take it to the street. Every single time that she pulls you on the leash and gets anywhere with it at all undermines all the work you are trying to do with training her to walk nicely on the leash. Do not let her pull. At all, period. Start out and the second she pulls, turn around without any comment and without jerking her leash and simply walk the other direction.  She will pull again. Stop, turn around, go the other way. This means that at first your walks will simply be going back and forth on the sidewalk or path, and you will get nowhere. But this is the way to stop it.

Take note, and this is important: the second she takes even one or two steps that is not pulling, praise her and go along with her where she wants to go. But the second she pulls again, turn around. Your dog is probably pretty smart. She will learn within a few days that only if she doesn't pull will she get to go anywhere.

The door:  Tell her to wait, or use the cue you are using that means that. Open the door a crack. When she lunges for the door, close it. Repeat endlessly.  Do this without comment of any kind. Act as if it is simply a force of nature: her lunging at the door makes it close! Only when she is waiting does she get to go outside. This will take days or weeks to train fully, but each session will probably only take four or five closings of the door before she waits. Only expect a wait of two or three seconds at first. If the door is open a crack and she waits two or three seconds, then open it the rest of the way while saying your release word. You have to do this each and every single time she goes out the door. Later, as she gets better at waiting you can work very slowly up to having the door open all the way and she is waiting. 

Socks---Do not ever leave them anywhere that she can get to them.

Roll over --Some dogs don't easily roll over, others do. If your dog doesn't want to do it, let it go. 

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On ‎5‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 2:30 AM, HerePupPup said:

My current goal is to teach her some basic manners. To be honest, it's not going very well. She'll walk fine on a leash in the backyard, but take her out of the house and she pulls like a sled dog. I can get her to wait for treats but she will not wait at the door. She knows "take & give" when working with her toys and "leave it" when dropping a piece of chicken or cheese between her paws. But she's not grasped the idea of leaving my socks alone giving them to me once they are in her mouth. Try as I might, I could not get my girl to roll over. But I was dumbfounded when I got her to step in a box (all four feet) that was barely as wide and not quite as long as she is.

 

To add a little to what D'Elle posted ~ dogs don't generalize well. Particularly with leash walking in different 'venues' ~ your yard are very well 'researched' areas. On a  public street, at a park with so many other dogs and people to greet! and exciting new smells, sounds, etc ~ you need to 'remind' the dog by re-training loose leash walking. Sometimes it doesn't take as long, sometimes it takes longer because there are waaaay more distractions in The Bigger World than there are at home.

Socks ~ really, keep them out of her reach entirely. 

And I have never gotten my boy to roll over either. Some dogs just don't like it. Since it's a fun thing, not any sort of safety issue, it's not important enough for me to worry about.

Ruth & Gibbs

 

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I’m just giving a different perspective on crate training. I’m from the UK and now living in Canada. In the UK I didn’t know anyone who used crates and we didn’t for the dog we had then. In Canada virtually everyone does including us for the dog we have now. I find it helps for the dog we have now. It wasn’t necessary for our last dog. So choose what’s right for you. 

As for commands, we taught our guy to do sheep dog commands when just playing ball with him. He is very good at lie down and walk on and stand. We do ‘away’ and ‘come by’ around tree stumps and to weave through tree strums. We have also taught him to ‘find a stick’ and to find specific toys :) 

 

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15 hours ago, ShellyF said:

I’m just giving a different perspective on crate training. I’m from the UK and now living in Canada. In the UK I didn’t know anyone who used crates and we didn’t for the dog we had then. In Canada virtually everyone does including us for the dog we have now. I find it helps for the dog we have now. It wasn’t necessary for our last dog. So choose what’s right for you. 

As for commands, we taught our guy to do sheep dog commands when just playing ball with him. He is very good at lie down and walk on and stand. We do ‘away’ and ‘come by’ around tree stumps and to weave through tree strums. We have also taught him to ‘find a stick’ and to find specific toys :) 

 

While I wouldn't argue with "choose what is right for you", I will reiterate that crate training is for the dog's own benefit, and as such is very important. Even if it is not necessary at home, you need to make sure your dog is comfortable being in a crate. At any moment there could be an accident or illness requiring your dog to be at the vet, and in a crate. If your dog is not comfortable in a crate,  or has never been in one before, it will make being there unimaginably worse for your dog. Crate train as a favor to your dog in case he ever needs to be in one.

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Thanks D'Elle and urge to herd for the training tips.

I agree that rolling over is not a big deal and I sure won't argue that the best way to keep her from tearing up my socks is to keep them out of sight.  It's just such an odd little quirk of hers. And it's not just dirty socks or my socks. Last week, she spotting a lone sock peeking out of the pile of clothes I was folding. Before I had realized what happened, she snatched it and took off running. Twice this has happened. She bypasses tops, pants, panties -- but she has sock radar!

My pup is very bright. Unfortunately, her owner can be a bit dimwitted at times. There are days when I have to stop and remind myself who is supposed to be the trainer and who is supposed to be the trainee.

Chipsy, you'll have to dig through some of the videos, but these posters have some good training videos on YouTube:
Kikopup:  https://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup/videos

Here is a video with 45 different tricks-- but there are no instructions for teaching the tricks. Still, it might be a good place to start. If you see what you want Quinn to learn, then do a search to see if the instructions come up elsewhere.

 

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Hello D'Elle, Hooper2, MyRuna, Flora&Molly, HerePupPup, Ruth and Gibbs and ShellyF

 

Thank-you all for the dialogue and links - it is interesting and very informative. I will definitely learn a lot from them. 

I have also looked online to buy a crate (D'Elle). I will need to have Quinn neutered at some point so it does make sense to prepare him for a period of time in a crate at the vet. My last dog was a collie/retriever cross and she was never crate trained and needed oral surgery after she broke her tooth on a stick - my dog Keona barely made a noise but I remember getting a phone call from the country vets whose house was up the road from the clinic saying, "can you please come get your dag - she is awake and is keeping all the other dogs awake."...lol.. its not really funny because she clearly didnt like the crate and the dogs and vet clearly thought she was disruptive...but it was so out of character for her. When I got there - she was mellow and eager to leave and quiet. That was the only time she was in a crate other than being spade - she didnt have a problem with the crate at 6 months... I think it will be interesting training him to use a crate as he is such an active dog...

I have learned since I posted this that when I take him out twice a day for 2 hours each (its for rigorous running with several dogs playing chase, swimming, etc)  he wakes me up early (approx 5:30 - 6 am raring to go).. Im okay with that most mornings however I would like to sleep in on week-ends. I have noticed that when I skipped the evening run, due to huge rain storm (he would have been okay out in it - me, not so much) he slept until 8 am. I tried this again just to see what would happen and the same thing happened - 7:30/8 am.  

It is a weird thing Herepuppup - my dog also has a sock fascination. She tries to pull them off my feet when I am putting them on. Same thing... a sock radar! 

Thanks ShellyF for the sheep dog command. I have written them down and will try them with him. 

Ruth and Gibbs - I taught Quinn to roll over also and I can tell he doesnt like it and I havent quite figured out the need for him doing it yet so stopped asking him. Thank you for the links - have checked them out (hence why it has taken me so long to reply) 

I agree with you Flora and Molly - an ecollar seems like a gadget to me but I cant really comment as I havent really found a need for one. I saw someone at the park who had a remote control for their dog - it shocks, beeps for it (like a pager - for it to go to his owner and vibrates.) I dont like the shock part and cant imagine having to carry a remote control with me everywhere....what if it gets broken or lost....then what do they fall back on..?  I think technology has gone a little too far sometimes. Thak-you for the suggestion, I wrote them down also. 

Thank-you MyRuna, I downloaded the pdf. It looks really cool... and training Quinn has been so much fun (and admittingly, a little exhausting at times)

Thank-you Hooper, funny I was telling my father about scent training and he suggested I train Quinn to sniff out money at the beach...lol  I have also done a little research about that and it looks really interesting. They have something in my city called "funzone" large dog swimming pool, ball pit and a barn to teach scent training. I found that researching. I prefer a beach with Quinn and hes overwhlelmed with one ball let alone a pit...maybe one day, but I will look into the barn piece. 

Thank-you again everyone. This forum is great and everyone is so helpful and have a lot of great idea.  Border collies sure are awesome 

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