Training ideas for a bright Collie

[babyheave]

I have a lovely 14 week old collie pup. Bright as a button. We've already nailed sit, stay, lie down, fetch and drop. We are s l o w l y getting there with the nipping and getting her to behave when we're at the table, but I need some more ideas for training I can do with her.

Does anyone have any ideas for next steps, or any recommendations for books etc.

Brain training for puppies is fantastic and will give you lots of ideas plus look on YouTube for kikopup

Hide an object for her to sniff out. My collie really enjoyed this.

Touch (useful for recall when out in the fields): Hold your hand out to your side at hip level, palm forward, with a tiny piece of ham between your fingers. Allow her to touch her nose on your hand before releasing the ham. To use as a recall hold your hand out rather than shouting.

Have you considered agility classes?

Thanks for these ideas. That book looks very interesting.

I'll be doing agility classes in the spring when the weather isn't quite so dreadful! The local trainer doesn't do. Outdoor classes over winter sadly.

Definitely hand targeting as said above - can be used for 100s of tricks, shutting doors turning on switches, pressing lift buttons etc

Front leg targeting
Rear leg targeting
Walking backwards
Walking backwards up onto a step
Turn to the left
turn to the right
Send around objects eg trees, chairs
Roll over
Lie flat (on side with head on the floor)
Tugging - then can use to teach to open doors cupboard pull off socks etc (not annoying tricks at all !)
Weaving though legs
Moving around your legs to sit in the middle of your legs
Walking with dogs feet on your feet
Distance commands so sit down stay flat roll over at a distance from you.

Digging - put this on command and you can get your dog to dry his own feet by digging on a towel -useful in this awful weather

Tidying up toys into a toybox if you already have a fetch and give - this is soooo easy to teach. Get the dog to fetch an item to you and have a box by you just put the treat into the box - the dog releases the item into the box and picks up the treat. Build up to teaching a name for each item then you can send the dog to get a specific item (really easy for collies to do)

Fetch their own lead
Teach them to crawl
To bow/prayer
Jump through a low hoop (young puppies should not jump so put the hoop end on the floor so more of a step through until they are older)

That should keep most collies going until next weekend

Ohh if you are going to do agility then do:-

Nose touch to a pringles lid. Put a treat onto the pringles lid and click when the dog puts its nose down to eat the treat. Eventually the dog will charge to the target ready to get the treat. This will help will contact training.

Also do the walking backwards and the dog putting two back legs on a step and two front legs on the floor - again useful for contact training

Walking backwards on to a different texture eg a door mat - click and reward when the two back legs are on the mat - good for 2 on 2 off contacts and also running contacts if you decide you want to do them.

Teach left and right spins - great for directional training you will need in agility

Teach to go around a tree - again great for wing wraps in agility

Teach to walk along any surface or narrow path - good for getting confidence for dog walk and a frame.

have you got anything that may wobble as they stand on it eg gym ball or wobble board - brilliant for getting the dog to work on balance core strength and also the movement of the see saw.

Wait - teach a good wait. Wait to be released to a ball or toy, wait to eat food or playing a game. Yo do need to have a good start line wait at agility.

Also teach to run to you. Get someone to restrain the puppy and you run away with a toy you want the dog to be used to driving to you. Make sure you are running away and not standing still looking at the puppy - let them grab the toy and have a great game of tuggy.

Enjoy

No agility classes would take our collie until she was at least 12 months old.

Until ours turned old enough for agility classes we did lots and lots of work like Cheerful has posted above, those are all useful things to be able to do in agility.

We also taught her "Stop!" when out on a walk as she was an utter cow for high tailing it after deer.

We taught her "Forward", "Reverse", how to high 5. DD has taught her "cuddle" and she is now learning "piggyback" (DD crouches down and the dog hooks her front paws over DD's shoulders, then lifts her back legs as DD stands up)

These are some fabulous ideas, but I think I need training as well as the dog before I can get started