I wish I’d trained my dog to…..

[PaddingtonsHat]

Tell me what things you wish you had trained your dog to do. Puppy coming after Xmas and besides the obvious sit, lie, stand etc, I’m keen to consider the practically useful.
Im thinking doorbell ringing as a signal for going to their bed, for example.
We will be doing puppy classes but obviously quite restricted until pup can go out.
Thanks

How did you teach them to ask?
And what's the touch command?

Please tell me about the emergency stop

If you live in the country, to stop at a gate or stile, not charge into the next field ahead of you (I don’t let my dogs roam but, even if they’re only a few metres ahead of you, they can potentially be into another field without this). And to stick to the path through a field of crops, so they don’t damage them.

Some really great tips here, thanks everyone. Now to work out how to train them how to do each thing! Pup will be a cocker so should have the brains to work it out but suspect overriding the nose may be more challenging.

Yes any recommendations would be great- so many different trainers on socials, apps you can use etc that it feels like a minefield.

I trained mine to bark at the door, people passing etc.

he doesn’t do it excessively, and it’s a very useful alert. As soon as we acknowledge it he stops.

the most useful thing we did was teach him the way home safely from a normal walking route- on pavements and to go straight home. He got attacked by another dog recently and that kicked in when we couldn’t get to him quick enough- he just went straight home.

To get used to having her paws held… nail trimming is an absolute ordeal!!!

@PaddingtonsHat gundog training is the answer. You have a working breed so need to ensure breed specific training. Cockers are highly trainable but that also means they pick up bad habits as quickly as good.
Get The Pet Gundog book by Lez Graham and book onto a course of gundog training sessions. When I say a course I mean 6 months+, cockers need more than a 6 week basic course.

The two things I'm really glad about:

1. taking the dog for lots of car rides without walks attached. Its helped her be a pro at car travel. She's car neutral now which is the most important thing. She isn't overly excited by the car, and is calm. I'd really recommend just going for drives without destinations

2. being Lead neutral. Because she was super nervous she spent a lot of time on her lead. This means when she's being a complete ass at home we can pop her on her lead and she immediately calms and is comfortable. It's really easy for leads to equal walks so dogs get super hyped with them which can mean your walk starts off being really hyped, but also its harder to use it for loose lead/ settle in the house or to pop them on it to stop them jumping on visitors

To be honest the most important thing imo is teaching dogs calm, and letting them get bored.

Previously my biggest regret is in over stimulating my older dog constantly when they were a puppy When a dog is super bouncy and running round the house it's tempting to try and occupy them and tire them.

We did this in 2 ways (that were bad). Firstly we walked them alot, this later caused joint issues because they were too little for the amount they were doing (do keep to the 5 min per month thing) but also ment that we had a dog that expected a walk at 7 am each day regardless of being sick, or if you were planning a whole day family walk later in the day. We also constantly used things like kongs and stimulation games so he didn't learn to just be or settle.

In general the more you do with your dog the more it becomes routine. It's really easy to accidentally marathon train your dog. Think of how a human builds stamina and fitness. If you walk 5km each day they will expect it, and it won't tire them so you bump it up to 6km and they get used to that. You shouldn't be relying on activity to exhaust your dog because they will just get accustomed and build a tolerance. You need them to be able to settle even if they aren't physically exhaused

Disclaimer to the above: Obviously you need to be meeting your dogs basic needs re stimulation and exercise but beware of when it becomes a bottomless pit

My general example is that it's like a toddler at a wedding, or disco. They get to the point where they look like they are having loads of fun skidding around etc but at one point it becomes really fragile and overwraught. This is when toddlers tend to begin to push into people, hit etc and puppies tend to nip, bark , destroy stuff

It's tempting when a pup (or toddler!) Gets into that manic stage to push on through it, to match their energy and play games and run about with them until they physically crash

Usually what's more effective is to bring the energy down, which might seem ridiculous when your pup is charging about but something like enforced on lead time or time in the crate 90% leads to them crashing and sleeping

Alot of manic behaviour isn't too much energy, it's a dog in need of a nap or that's overwhelmed

Sometimes you have to relish your role as the fun police to keep things calm and orderly

Not to chase cats.

We did Dogs Trust Dog School reactive dog classes with my girl as she's dog reactive which was really helpful. They do lots of regular puppy classes as well as loads of advice online.

Always check any other trainers are certified, a lot aren't (including certain high profile ones with their own TV shows, ahem). There's advice on how to find a good behaviourist or dog trainer here:
https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/dog-advice/understanding-your-dog/finding-behaviour-and-training-support

Any tips for a puppy that likes to eat their own poo? She's like a ninja. I have to have the poo bag ready to go, or she gets there first.

Things we did well:
Recall
Relaxing in public spaces - he is an amazing pub/restaurant/camping dog
Neutral with other dogs, he will greet if he wishes too but won't run up to random dogs

What I wished we had done better
He is scared of small running, screeching children so we should have maybe exposed him to that a bit more. Our kids were 9 and 11 when we got him but can never take him to a football game or as he will bark his head off.

Also very much yes to go in the same space in the garden, wow why didn't we even consider that

Not jumping up to to steal food.
Not jumping on furniture without permission.
Not jumping at guests.

Can you sense the theme?

Once they discover the reward, it's harder to undo.

To understand touch, so a light touch is an actual command. I had a dog that went deaf but he was so incredibly in tune with me that I could literally touch him with one finger to get him to do what I wanted.

Getting them to ask is super easy. If they jump up just push them off and ask them to sit. Once they are sitting nicely let them up with the 'up' command. Or tell them no if you feel mean!

I'm not 100% on the touch, worth a Google, but it's basically kind of recall but also about focusing their attention onto you. They touch your hand with their nose to show they are listening.

Choose the words you use for training carefully. I stood many a time at a motorway service station or similar instructing the family Labrador to have a whiz and a dump (thank you DB for that bit of training)
Make them wait until you say ok. For then to eat their food when you put the bowl down. Then in theory it won’t it’s grab food it shouldn’t.
Dont let them on sofas or beds. Buy them a nice dog bed or if they don’t chew a duvet in a cover. Current family lab is very grumpy about the current lack of duvet. He will get one for winter.
The person I know whose dogs have the best recall and walk well on a lead are free roaming until at least a year old. They choose to walk with you as they’ve had plenty of freedom and it’s not a novelty.

We have a working cocker. Some of the most useful things we've trained her on are:

• Stay - absolute godsend to make her stay put whenever needed (very occasionally she ignores it but mostly does it well). We also use it when crossing roads or going through gates. We never just walk out/through. She has to wait and then go when released.
• If letting off lead - do a Sit first, remove lead and then ask her to 'watch' , which means to look you in the eyes, before releasing her. It just puts you in a bit more control of the situation and reminds her you are there before she runs off!
• Leave - e.g. put a treat out and say "Leave". She won't eat it until we say okay. Or if we are walking down the road and see something I know she'll really want, I can get in early with a strong Leave and 9/10 times she will leave it. Doesn't work on really gross smelly food scraps on the pavement 😂
• Drop - to get her to drop anything she has in her mouth. She's less responsive to this than Leave, so it's preferable if we can stop her picking it up in the first place. But it works 7/10 times and 9/10 if its not a food item.
• She rings a doggy doorbell to let us know she needs to go in the garden.

As a PP said, hand gestures are also helpful. I can do stay just with my hand if she is looking at me. She does lots of tricks just with hand gestures too but they are not essentials, just for fun.

I'm not a dog whisperer or anything. We learned all of that at a puppy training class.

We also spent time getting her used to as much noise as possible as we live on a main road so I didn't want her to be scared of loud noises. We took her in the garden on her first fireworks night and she wasn't bothered by it at all. We got her used to the bath early on as well. But I do regret not getting her used to having a fur trim from an early age. By the time we needed to give her a trim to remove ear matts at 16 months she was having none of it and I had to book her in with a professional.

Acclimatisation to fireworks would be top for me

Cooperative care is so important but often forgotten about - the bucket game by Chirag Patel is amazing for this. Getting groomed or going to the vets can be unnecessarily unfairly stressful otherwise. Have a look at trickspaniel on Instagram - she does cooperative care brilliantly.

We clicker trained putting balls/socks in a washing up bowl. We love a game of tidy up (cocker spaniel thief here). He loves it and it means we can get contraband surrendered without any need to take stuff, which is super handy if you have / or have visiting kids. Also means he chooses to give the item up and knows we won’t take, so doesn’t feel the need to guard. He takes his job as chief loo roll recycler very seriously.

Anything involving sniffing and hunting!

Have a listen to Susan Garretts Shaped by dog podcast too.

We went to a great puppy class that taught these it's just contant practise 😃

We are still trying to get our pup to chill when people come in /visit this is really important.