Training Schedule - How Many Tricks/commands At A Time?

Appy

Member
Firstly - not sure whether this should be in tricks or general but I put it here as it refers to any training cue.

I'm currently working on a few things, and am attending a tricks class each week. This means that I've got a lot of behaviours being trained at the same time, so I was wondering -

How many behaviours do you train concurrently?
and
How many do you focus on per session?
and
Do you split behaviours/tricks between sessions?

I was thinking I might say train 2 in a morning session and a different 2 in the evening or something like that? I have been tending to refresh already learned behaviours in the morning but wonder about how many one should focus on each session......

Thanks everyone :)
 

sara

Moderator
Staff member
I work on several in a session, as Oliver tends to get bored of working on one trick for more than a few minutes. But I'll only shape one new trick per session, as I want him focusing on thinking of the behaviours I want offered. I'll run though a few old tricks before getting the clicker out, then begin working on the new trick, then work on getting him to perfect older new tricks... if you know what I mean. But all dogs are different, you know your dog best, and what he wants/will do more than anyone else. If he seems to get bored, or confused change what you're doing, obviously something isn't working.
 

fickla

Experienced Member
How many behaviours do you train concurrently?
and
How many do you focus on per session?
and
Do you split behaviours/tricks between sessions?
My training sessions last between 2-15min and I usually spend betweeen 30sec to a max of 5 minutes on one thing. I don't focus on if I'm doing 2 things or 5.

I am comfortable shaping completely new tricks in the same session but only if they don't interfere with each other. So I wouldn't do pivoting on a block with front feet on in the same session I did rear foot targeting to that same block. Actually I wouldn't even do them in that same day. Or if I had 2 tricks that used a similiar body movement without anything to help guide the dog which one to do such as a target or object, I wouldn't work on the 2nd on until the first trick was close to being complete.

Have fun learning your new tricks!!!
 
Top