Hello everybody, I am the proud owner of Teasel a 12 week old Italian Spinone bitch. She is lovely, mostly housetrained though she hasn't quite figured out how to ask to be let out yet and has the occasional widdle inside after excitement. This is prehaps 2/3 accidents per week so I assume this is fairly normal and will improve with time, she is completely clean overnight in her crate. I was considering training her to ring a bell to be let out... but need to get a bell first!
Anyway, my main question is how much of a risk is there in confusing her with training. At the moment she sits very well on a verbal command and we're working on generalising this in different locations. She will also lie down inside (not outside atm unless it is dry... she doesn't like to get her belly wet!). She does get mixed up occasionally between lie down and sit so I am going to introduce hand signals to help clarify things. She comes reliably indoors and out without distractions to 4 pips of a whislte, we are bulding distractions carefully. She is also learning "on-your-mat", will happily lie on it now so we are changing locations and increasing the length of time on it.
Is it ok to train for a few very different behavoirs at once, or does this risk confusing her? For example I would like to teach her to sit at doors and when I stop walking, and start shaping a retrieve as she is reluctant to do this. Obviously I would do this in different sessions and continue working on the behavoirs she is already getting the hang of.
Look forwards to your input and future training!
Rachael
p.s. incase anyone is under the illusion that she is a little angel... she pulled the table cloth off the table complete with bottle of wine and glasses, and will quite happily follow anybody who shows her any attention in the park!
Anyway, my main question is how much of a risk is there in confusing her with training. At the moment she sits very well on a verbal command and we're working on generalising this in different locations. She will also lie down inside (not outside atm unless it is dry... she doesn't like to get her belly wet!). She does get mixed up occasionally between lie down and sit so I am going to introduce hand signals to help clarify things. She comes reliably indoors and out without distractions to 4 pips of a whislte, we are bulding distractions carefully. She is also learning "on-your-mat", will happily lie on it now so we are changing locations and increasing the length of time on it.
Is it ok to train for a few very different behavoirs at once, or does this risk confusing her? For example I would like to teach her to sit at doors and when I stop walking, and start shaping a retrieve as she is reluctant to do this. Obviously I would do this in different sessions and continue working on the behavoirs she is already getting the hang of.
Look forwards to your input and future training!
Rachael
p.s. incase anyone is under the illusion that she is a little angel... she pulled the table cloth off the table complete with bottle of wine and glasses, and will quite happily follow anybody who shows her any attention in the park!
Always working on the one that suits my mood, or what Pami offers
And I usually work on 3 in one session. So I guess you can terach more tricks at a time.