What did your dog learn fast, and what took a while?

Domestika

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2008
Messages
1,163
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
B.C., Canada
#1
Just curious. It seems every dog has things that they pick up with almost no effort, like loose leash walking or certain commands or appropriate behaviours around the house

...and then there are other things that take forEVER to catch on to. For instance, my friend has been teaching her pitbull to drop the ball when he brings it back to her...FOR SEVEN YEARS and he still doesn't do it reliably. But some other dogs just naturally drop it without a moment's thought.

For myself...Nova was a dream in the car from day one. She lays down and goes to sleep right off the bat. We didn't have to do any of the exhaustive "little bits at a time" thing I know a lot of people have to do to have their dogs ride happily in the car.

HOWEVER, she has a huuuuge blind spot for using her mouth. The other puppies in puppy class were gentle will their mouths from like...3 months on, no one had any problems with it at all...not my little land shark though! She just doesn't put it together. Even our private trainer said she's WAY harder with her mouth than most other puppies and that she seems to be extremely orally fixated. So that it's going to be some work for us!

So what did your dog figure out in a heartbeat, and what does she really, really have a mental block for?
 

CharlieDog

Rude and Not Ginger
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
9,419
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Georgia
#2
Ozzy picked up frisbee like he was born knowing how to do it. He will jump for it, occasionally do backflips for it, the works. He just understands what's going on with the frisbee.

On the other hand, he can't seem to grasp the concept that for me to throw the ball he has to drop it somewhere near me. He'll drop it just fine, it just that he's usually ten feet away from me. So I taught him to bring it to me. He understands that, but he still usually drops it too far away first, and then he'll bring it all the way.

I'm sure he does it on purpose, just to drive me to distraction. :p

He also understood the down on recall fairly quickly. The stay when I say stay or sit when I say sit while still walking gives him some trouble.
 
S

Squishy22

Guest
#3
Reggin drops the ball at my feet when I say "DROP IT". He is pretty good with that, but sometimes he getz the zoomies and race around the yard with the ball in his mouth instead of bringing it to me. Then I just wait it out. lol.

Potty training was very quick for him. Some dogs in my past struggled a bit. He was house broken completely by around 11 weeks. Pebbles kept peeing on my bed until 4 months.

Tricks and commands were quick as well. Such as sit, lay down, stay, shake hands, high five, speak, dance, and goober (my secret word for "attack Pebbles"). All in play of course. ;)

What I have struggled with him is pulling on leash. No-pull harness was a failure, prong was a failure, and I refuse to use choke chains. The only thing that worked was a head halter. No more pulling, and its amazing. Teaching him to walk behind us, instead of in front of us also worked to an extent. Getting him used to a head halter was a whole nother deal in itself.

The thing that I need to work on him with is reacting to other dogs. Not aggression, but frantically trying to get over to them as soon as he spots one out. Usually its not a friendly encounter since most dogs do not like him.
 

bubbatd

Moderator
Joined
Nov 28, 2004
Messages
64,812
Likes
1
Points
0
Age
90
#4
Ollie learned within a minute of arriving where the cookie bowl was !!!
 

Romy

Taxiderpy
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Messages
10,233
Likes
1
Points
38
Location
Olympia, WA
#5
Sit and leave it were easy. He could do OOS down/stays with a raw steak laying across his paws by the time he was 3 months old.

Loose leash walking though.....it's a work in progress.
 

ACooper

Moderator
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
27,772
Likes
1
Points
38
Location
IN
#6
Orson learned most of his commands pretty quick, probably within one or two times putting him into position. Potty training was a breeze. sit, stay, leave it, lay down, be dead, shake, back up, all of those were quick and easy.

Now, take ANY of those same commands and add distractions............forget it. It's all out the window. He knows any command 100% but I swear I can't get him to listen to a word I say with distractions, rewards mean nothing to him at that point :mad:

And loose lead walking.........ya, he still won't do that once we leave our own yard (again, a distraction issue) I am really at a loss when it comes to distractions.

Phoebe took a little longer to understand what I wanted..........but she is great with distractions. Once she has something, she knows and listens under any circumstance.
 

PWCorgi

Priscilla Winifred Corgi
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
14,854
Likes
0
Points
36
Age
34
Location
Twin Citay!
#7
Frodo learned to weave through my legs in less than 10 minutes. It took him weeks to learn the down command. :rolleyes:

Izzy was born with an amazing recall. She can't learn to fetch for the life of her. :/
 
S

Squishy22

Guest
#8
Orson learned most of his commands pretty quick, probably within one or two times putting him into position. Potty training was a breeze. sit, stay, leave it, lay down, be dead, shake, back up, all of those were quick and easy.

Now, take ANY of those same commands and add distractions............forget it. It's all out the window. He knows any command 100% but I swear I can't get him to listen to a word I say with distractions, rewards mean nothing to him at that point :mad:

And loose lead walking.........ya, he still won't do that once we leave our own yard (again, a distraction issue) I am really at a loss when it comes to distractions.

Phoebe took a little longer to understand what I wanted..........but she is great with distractions. Once she has something, she knows and listens under any circumstance.
Distractions are a huge problem for Reggin as well. He has a one track mind when it comes to that.
 

elegy

overdogged
Joined
Apr 22, 2006
Messages
7,720
Likes
1
Points
0
#9
Ollie learned within a minute of arriving where the cookie bowl was !!!
hahaha!! mushroom too!

what he has taken for freaking ever to learn and still hasn't really mastered is stand. he makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

luce learned the dumbell retrieve very quickly i think, considering she's not a natural fetcher at all. my trainer dropped a dumbbell on the floor one night just to see what luce'd do and she picked it right up. i never had to teach her- she just did it.
 

Maxy24

Active Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2006
Messages
8,070
Likes
2
Points
38
Age
32
Location
Massachusetts
#10
Max learned the word "Out", "Walk" and "Biscuit" VERY fast and never forgot what they meant. Then he learned "O-U-T" and we had a spelling dog!
He learned paw, come (although it was never really tested outside of training sessions (we never brought him anywhere for anything) as I did not learn about training or proper dog ownership until I came her three months before he died) and sit very quickly, actually I don't remember him having trouble learning anything, he was very smart, too bad I didn't find this place sooner, he had great potential, he would have loved to be brought to parks and such but he was too obnoxious at greeting people and dogs and pulled like a maniac, all things I could have probably fixed if I'd come here sooner.

Phoebe learned "Twirl" very fast, it is her favorite, she NEVER messes it up. For some reason "Sit" confuses her beyond all logic, she lays down or plays dead at least half the time I say it, this is one out of two commands her owners taught her (the other one was paw which I don't ask for very much, I do high five and wave more often) so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. She is also having trouble with "stand" we just started though. AND since I want to do rally-o with her I want her to do the commands at heel. Since I taught them all from in front I'm having trouble getting her to do anything but walk at heel. Even if I get her to sit at heel and then tell her to down she quickly scoots to the front and downs, silly girl!
 

adojrts

New Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2006
Messages
4,089
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Ontario, Canada
#11
Ollie learned within a minute of arriving where the cookie bowl was !!!
LMAO!!!!
Petie is a master at knowing where the cookie jar is anywhere!! I had him at a big clinic to have his heart checked and when I was paying the bill, he was sitting on the counter beside me (we had never been there before). He walked over to their cookie jar, sat down and put his paw on the top of it and THEN looked at the receptionist.
lol how he knew that was the cookie jar??? smell I guess but it was on the other end of the very large counter. Vaccum sealed and solid (couldn't see inside it). I also don't have a cookie jar at home, go figure.
Needless to say, he certainly made an impression on the staff and other clients there. And he got LOTS of cookies for that one :D, from them.
One of the other clients whips out a camera and took his pic with him sitting on the counter with his paw on the jar.
I should have given her my email so she could send me a copy but didn't think of it until later.
 

DaVinci

New Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Messages
412
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Northern Minnesota
#12
DaVinci had his name down in less than a day was fetching in a day too. He has perfect recall at home and a way. He walks beautifully off leash but put a leash on him and he walks like crap. It is very frustrating.
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
1,299
Likes
0
Points
0
#13
My heart-dog Cheyenne the Golden learned everything incredibly quickly. She was so very in-tune with people, the kind of dog people say "does everything but talk". Can't think of anything she didn't learn completely within an hour or less, just incredibly well-behaved her entire life. Honestly, I had not one complaint or concern about her ... she was truly exceptional and this wasn't only my own opinion. :) The only troubling thing was that she couldn't stay forever ... she hung around for just a bit over 15 years. Certainly won't be Golden-less forever, but we will likely wait a while because she is a very tough act to follow.

Didn't have Cheyenne's buddy Spike the wolf-hybrid from a puppy (my guy did) but I taught Spike new things. Like many wolfdogs Spike was shy and nervous, so it took him quite a while to learn anything new. But once he learned something he never forgot. The worst problem with Spike was separation anxiety, pretty common with wolfdogs. It could not be solved and had to be worked around, but got much better once he met Cheyenne and she became his buddy. :) She was calm and confident so he followed her. Spike hated a leash so loose-leash walking was out of the question even when he saw Cheyenne doing it. But he did a perfect heel off-leash and never wandered without permission. When he wanted to run he'd stop, sit and look up at us ... waiting to hear "Go on!". :)

One of many family dogs when with my parents was Duke, a GSD. He learned very quickly as a puppy, then seemingly forgot everything in his doggy adolescence!! That lasted quite a while, but he ended up a very good dog. But loose-leash walking? Fergitabboudit! He knew what it meant, but refused to do it until he was over 5 yrs. old.

Our current long-term foster, Aussie/Rottie mix Marley, knew nothing when we got him. He was housebroken but that was all. He took a quite a while to learn anything, but also forgets nothing once learned. He's a special case though, was abused and neglected in his first home so it took a while just to teach him to trust! I taught him all basic obedience commands and he's now solid, but it took a long time. He doesn't heel but does well with loose-leash walking and has excellent recall off-leash. He's very good with trust now and loves his cuddles. He's only a foster because he's not good with other animals indoors, turned out his "rescue" group already knew that and refused to take him back. Otherwise we'd keep him for sure, still working on it but it's been a year and a half now so it doesn't look like he's ever gonna be good with other animals indoors.

The Westie puppy my guy and I have now learns very quickly. Housebreaking took a bit longer because he's a small breed ... tiny bladder! But he got there, it just took more patience and many, many, many trips outside! He's only a little over 15 weeks so I haven't gone beyond basic obedience and a few tricks yet, but he's already at the point where he anticipates commands. He hasn't learned heel yet, but hopefully he'll get there. He's low to the ground and still busy chasing every leaf that blows. :)
 
Joined
Dec 25, 2006
Messages
1,539
Likes
0
Points
36
Location
Outside
#14
Pit learned all his "simple" tricks really quickly (ones that require one action. ie. down, spin, bang, shutting doors...) and generally picks new ones up in a session or two unless there are multiple tasks involved.

For the life of his little peanut brain, he can't learn to stay out of the kitchen! We've had this rule from day one and after countless training sessions of getting him to realize what I want, he still puts two feet in the kitchen when I'm in there and just stares at me like "What?". It's only when I have treats and a clicker that he understands that no feet are to be in the kitchen :rolleyes:
 

ihartgonzo

and Fozzie B!
Joined
May 14, 2006
Messages
5,903
Likes
0
Points
0
Age
35
Location
Northern California
#15
Fozzie had the best bite inhibition, as a puppy. It kind of catches me off guard when I'm playing with a puppy and I come away with teeth marks... I'm pretty sure Gonzo was a very important part of Fozzie's soft mouth. : ) Fozzie was always quick to learn pretty much anything if treats were involved. Well, except his "come". That will probably always be selective. However, he STILL cannot grasp the concept of "fetch".

Gonzo came to me knowing nothing, but he never had an accident, or chewed anything/anyone, and he learns commands almost instantly. He is happiest when he's obeying me and making me happy.
 

Members online

No members online now.
Top