What did you find easy to train your dog to do?

[ohmagaad]

And how did you do it?

Our pug learnt leave it at 4 months in first session with a trainer but he has never learnt to leave it unless we tell him first, if he sees it and gets to it apparently its fair game. Hes a nightmare for anything he can eat. He was so cute when he learnt leave it though as he did this funny little shuffle back with his shoulders when you said leave it. If we have told him he has to leave something but it's still in his sight (like something that belongs to the other dog) he will stare and bark at it. He is a real drama queen.

I imagine your dog know exactly what to do but chooses not to lol, the clever ones are often like that. I watch mine and can almost see him deciding whether he fancies doing as I have asked.

@mycatsanutter .... she's a mix with welsh sheepdog. She's awesome but a totally different kettle of fish from our old border collie!!! These dogs seem to have such character!

I taught mine to run round the coffee table. I have no idea what I was thinking.

Recall.

We started from an hour after we got her, at 8 weeks.

4 meals a day and every one of them she was called to with the same, consistent recall command...so the very high reward for coming when called was ingrained in her from being tiny, with little effort. In between meals we used high value treats to practice the same recall command. So we trained her a lot but it was very little effort really.

By the time she was let off lead on walks at 12 weeks her recall was perfect and so far it's remained so (8 months now).

Naming or allocating a command to the thing they are doing. So long line recall, whistle and keep whistling as they come back. Anything you repeat they will associate with whatever you are saying....so watch out what you keep repeating as that's what you are training the dog to do

We did puppy classes as soon as our mini poodle x had her 2nd vaccines. We did learn some things there, but I feel we learnt more from books and you tube, as maybe the trainer just wasn't great. Great for socilisation though if nothing else.

We started with a praise word- ours is YES, and helped reinforce good behaviour. Sit was fairly easy by having a treat in your hand, lifting it above the head till she sat.

Ours rings a bell to go out for the toilet and will do anything for a ball. She retrieves it, then rolls it to your foot to pick it up and throw again. The 1 thing we didn't teach was to open the electric car windows with her paw- which she loves doing to stick her head out!

Sunpup is FRL and is picking up everything really quickly but he has really struggled with sit and stay because he's so excited for his treat! He tamps his front feet and sort of jumps backwards on his bottom. He will only do down for about half a second and then boing he's Zebedee again! But really good at heel, recall, and is starting some agility. Complete opposite to my first lab who wasn't quick to learn but would sit and stay and down for as long as I wanted. ( she was a bit lazy liked doing nothing!! ) they're all different

A bit different but I started man trailing with my beagle mix- it's about tracking and finding a missing person on cue, gradually increasing the complexity of the task. It's a great dog sport - the tracking comes naturally to most dogs anyway, especially the more scent driven ones. He's an absolute natural at the task- it's about me learning to read and work with him not about teaching him how to do it. It's a delight working with him to do more complex things, seeing how rewarding he finds it, and it's been great for our bond and me understanding him.

Recall
sit
lie down
rollover
bed
no
drop it
and “Find Sam” or whoever, and she will run and find us. Great fun if we are walking in the woods and hiding in the trees.

All these bloody dogs that learnt paw easily! My BC will not do it.

The one I didn't even teach her was 'step' which means pick your paws up alternately so we can get your running harness on. Using the right reinforcer is what matters every time...

Honestly everything! We have been very lucky that our dog is really easy to train and very clever.

He knows loads of tricks, all the commands, does agility and hoopers.

Its luck as far as I'm concerned 🤷‍♀️ he is just a clever dog and very keen to learn (when there's sausage or cheese about anyway 😉😂)

Sit!

We'd only had cats before, so getting this tiny puppy to sit on command in just a couple of hours was amazing 😂

Our dogs are supposed to be the same breed, but one was much easier to train. He taught himself to fetch and leave it (oddly enough, the easily trained one is not at all food oriented & prefers a toy to a treat. The other loves food except when it involves doing something he doesn't want to do)

Ah yes I forgot about the bell, one of ours rings it to go outside, the other just opens the door to let himself out. We had to change all our door handles to stop him escaping.