New things to teach?

Rubylove

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#1
Ruby is a very bright little pup and absolutely absorbs so quickly everything we teach her.

We'd like to keep stimulating her as she LOVES her training sessions - anyone have any ideas as to some new stuff she can learn?

At the moment she just has the basics - sit, down, drop, give etc...

She hasn't quite mastered `stay' - any advice on that one would be welcomed!

Thank you!
 

Mordy

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#2
if you are looking for obedience commands, how about

- stand (stand quietly in place)
- commands from a distance (e.g. sit and down not just right next to you, but also from further away)
- stand, sit and down in random sequences

stay just takes patience and slowly increasing distance between you and the dog. start with taking one step back from your dog in a sit or down and tell her staaaaaaaaaaaaay, drawing the word out long, quietly count to three (or higher if you feel comfortable already), then go back, release her from the stay and praise.
 

Rubylove

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#3
Lately she's started doing this weird thing before she sits.

She definitely knows the command - it was the first thing she learnt - but lately before she sits she kind of moves sideways in a half-circle (butt-first!!) and dances a bit on her front legs and then she will sit. I am trying very hard not to repeat the command because she knows it, and will sit eventually, but I want her sitting straight away, every time, without the little dance first (even though it's hopelessly cute!!)

What do I do?
 

Mordy

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#4
i think this is a case of "superstitious learning" - when a dog thinks that certain "add ons" are required to an exercise to be correct. it's quite funny when that happens but can be a pain to extinguish.

i don't know how sensitive ruby is, but if she is all happy-go-lucky, i would simply only reward correct sits until she has it down and then start working on a fsster response time.

if she is the type of dog who tends to lose interest quickly or sulk if they don't get praised for an exercise that was ok but not quite correct or precise enough, give her a short "good girl" if she did it ok but not quite precise or not fast enough, and give more enthusiastic praise or higher value treats for better performances.
 

Rubylove

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#5
The site I looked up for Labradoodles before we bought her described them as `Extremely clever, sociable and joyful' - which is Ruby all over. Especially the `joyful' part - she is just a delight.

She genuinely loves doing the right thing and getting praised for it. So, yes, she is a happy-go-lucky girl who definitely responds to praise but certainly doesn't sulk when she doesn't do it quite right and doesn't get praise.

The little dance mainly happens when I'm asking for a sit before I throw her the ball or something like that. I guess a lot of it is just puppy excitement so she's like, `Awwww I want to chase the ball - sitting is too boring!!'.

But often she'll just completely ignore the sit command - particularly if she's being a bit willful - until you tap her on the butt and get her attention. We might need to revisit training her to just basically get her attention when she's distracted. It wouldn't hurt her to have a refresher course in that...lol!
 

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