Eek, I am regretting teaching my dog 'turn'

[hotdog2007]

I taught my dog 'turn right' a few weeks ago, and it is now her default trick. As soon as I have take out the treats, there she is turning and turning LOL. I guess b/c it's easy for her. I don't mind and she'll still obey other commands when they are given, but has anyone else seen this?

[Linds]

aahaha! It's so funny when they find a behavior they REALLY like.

Kaylee loves to poke things with her nose-A LOT. I taught her kiss and she loves it and the act of doing it is a reward in of itself. When she gets bored with training all I have to do is ask her for a kiss and she gets all happy.

Then I taught her to close a cabinet door...it was a bad idea. She got it the second time I told her to touch the door and understood it needed to stay just by the third time.

She took it and branched it out into anything and everything. She will walk up and close my laptop if she's not getting attention and one time she was laying on my bed with me and my dad opened my door to ask me something and she decided that was enough and got off the bed and slammed the door in his face. She closes drawers if they're open and anything else that can close.

When she gets over excited and stimulated she just starts poking things with her nose, no matter what they are.

She greets people with a nose to crotch poke. Not to sniff, just to poke because it's the perfect level for her. When she does Front it's always interesting because to get perfectly straight in front of me she needs to poke me in the crotch.

I hope her spinning doesn't turn into what Kaylee and her poking turned into!

[hotdog2007]

Originally Posted by Linds

She took it and branched it out into anything and everything. She will walk up and close my laptop if she's not getting attention and one time she was laying on my bed with me and my dad opened my door to ask me something and she decided that was enough and got off the bed and slammed the door in his face. She closes drawers if they're open and anything else that can close.

That is hilarious! Kaylee sounds really smart!

[AllieMackie]

haha, one of Finn's behaviours is "Bang". Friends look at me funny when treats come out and Finn falls flat to the floor. :P

[lizzybeth727]

You can always find a clicker trainer - they're the ones whose dogs start offering up dozens of behaviors as soon as they see a treat.

Seriously, though, teaching the behavior is the easy part. Teaching the dog to only do the behavior when you cue it is the VERY difficult part. The simplest thing to do is to put it on cue, then just ignore the behavior when you didn't cue it. That way the dog will learn that only when you ask for the behavior does it pay off, so they are less likely to do it without the cue. It's also easy to teach them a "default" behavior. I use stand as a default; I reward the dog for standing still and waiting for the cue, without cueing the stand. That way if they're not sure what they're supposed to do, they will learn to just wait until I ask for a behavior. You can also use the stand when teaching the difference between two cues, for example sit and down. I teach my dogs to sit when I cue sit and down when I cue down, which is a lot harder than it sounds! But it is easier if I reward the stand (don't cue stand, just reward it).

It is really nice, too, when you find a behavior that the dog enjoys doing, because you can use that behavior to reward other, more difficult behaviors. For example, I recently worked with a dog who loved doing hand touches - touching my hand with her nose. So if she did another good behavior, I could reward that with a hand touch. It's just another way of using variable reinforcement and make training sessions more interesting and unpredictable for the dog.

[Saeleofu]

Gavroche likes to wave - I assume because it's the easiest thing next to sitting, and he doesn't get much for just sitting lol

He still brings me all sorts of stuff from around the apartment in hopes of a treat too xD

[mrose_s]

lol Buster recently learnt "rollover"

... currently teaching him "lie down" still means lie down, not fling yourself over. Also "crawl" doesn't mean start crawling... then crawl sideways... then FLING yourself over. lol its funny to watch but it seems to happen pretty often when we've been working hard on one trick for a while.

[Maxy24]

Phoebe's favorite command is "spin" too, she loves to do it. She doesn't throw it too much though, she'll only do it if I give a command and she has forgotten what it was (basically I went too fast), she'll do that and "BAM!". the only commands she throws at me for no reason a lot are touch, target and hold. I don't really care what she throws out there when I give no commands as long as she follows the commands I do give.

[Beanie]

Originally Posted by mrose_s

lol Buster recently learnt "rollover"

... currently teaching him "lie down" still means lie down, not fling yourself over. Also "crawl" doesn't mean start crawling... then crawl sideways... then FLING yourself over. lol its funny to watch but it seems to happen pretty often when we've been working hard on one trick for a while.

This is where I am with Auggie, LOL. It's funny because "down" is a command they have to do on the table in agility. I keep picturing me downing him on the table in agility and he then proceeds to roll over... right off the table... *facepalm*


lizzybeth, can you chime in on how to help break the chain? I'm not sure how to approach it. I'll tell him down, he downs, and before I can say "good boy" and treat he's rolling over. After he rolls over he's in the down and just stares at me expectantly. When he doesn't get a treat for that he gets back up and starts offering other behaviours, but as soon as I cue him to 'down' again he repeats with the 'down' and then automatic 'over.' =P I'm not totally sure what to do. I've taken to downing him somewhere that he physically can't roll over (he won't roll into a wall, for example, so if I down him right next to a wall he's stuck in the down) and marking and treating for that, but it doesn't seem to be helping break the chain.

[release the hounds]

everybody has that problem. It's called stimulus control. Having a dog do things over and over for a treat is the easy part