Puppy Tricks

[sheridan]

I'm new to the forum and am looking for tips on starting trick training with a baby Border Collie. She is 8 weeks old now and so her body and attention span limit our training time and tricks, but I'd like to get some ideas of games to play with her that are age appropriate.

Mesa is our 4th Border Collie. We are in Texas and use our dogs for herding cattle, sheep, and goats. My background is in schutzhund, agility, and flyball but I've only done limited trick training. (carry objects, close the gate/open the gate, bring me a particular named object - nothing fancy)

Sheri & Mesa

 

[running_dog]

Hi Sheri, Welcome to DTA!

A few suggestions of tricks to teach a puppy are paw, paw target, nose target (touch hand), spin (both directions), rollover, go around (an object) and go around (you), take a bow, leg weave, and speak. Of course you can teach (and have probably started teaching) down, sit, stand, baby stay, fun recall, loose leash basics and retrieve basics. For how to train each of them either search on this site or go to kikopup's free video list. If you have any questions about them just let us know.

As for games...
Our border collie lab pup loved playing tug and that meant we were able to teach him a brilliant "drop it" and "get it" very early on but I don't know whether it was very good for him to play tug as enthusiastically as he did .
Recall games can be great with pups. One I really like is to call a pup (or dog) between two people, Sue Ailsby describes this really well in her first training level.

Do you use a clicker? If so it is a good idea to start with free shaping early on - as well as encouraging your dog to actively engage mentally with training it is also a great confidence builder because they are never wrong . If you don't already use a clicker I highly recommend trying one out .

Hopefully this will give you some ideas to think about and I'm sure there'll be some more suggestions if you keep checking back. There are a couple of people with pups (border collie and a border collie/tenterfield terrier) on here at the moment but obviously having pups means they often don't get to check in to DTA every day .

 

[MaryK]

Hi Sheri and Mesa welcome to D.T.A.

I've got a young BC x Terrier Puppy (must update my signature). She's a little older than your girl at 3 months, but very smart, as all BC's are of course

RD has really covered just about all the tricks for a youngster. I would add that in the garden my girl is now learning 'close left' - she does have the advantage of having an older 'sister' to learn from. And we're just starting to do sit pretty, again she's copying her older sister Leaf.

We play the recall game at the beach. Leaf loves it and little Blossom has really great recall especially for such a young puppy.

Tug is a grand game. Also fetch the ball, Blossom loves playing ball. But we only throw the ball low and a short distance. LOL my partner threw it so hard and far, thought he was bowling for England, that poor Blossom just looked a bit bewildered - have to train him and the dog - dogs are easier. Seriously, too high and they will jump which is not good at such a young age.

Also, I have a 'mini' agility course which I set up in the garden. Just made with things around the place. For example, a mini jump just an inch or two off the ground is an old broom handle on a couple of low ice cream cartons , a tire jump made from a bicycle tire. The Tunnel is a kid's one from Ikea and the weave is made from flexible stakes. That keeps Ms. B happy and gets her brain working too.

 

[kassidybc]

I think R_dog and Mary just about covered everything, but another idea to put out there is focus games, and eye contact, and things like that. You want to build that focus for you in early, but remember to keep it short and fun! Welcome to DTA!

 

[running_dog]

I think R_dog and Mary just about covered everything, but another idea to put out there is focus games, and eye contact, and things like that. You want to build that focus for you in early, but remember to keep it short and fun! Welcome to DTA!

Ooooooooh yes, focus and attention.... probably the most important things of all

 

[MaryK]

Oh yes, forgot that! And I've been working hard on focus, look at me, with Blossom too!