I have a pap who just turned 1 yr old. I adopted him at 9 months. He is very sweet,loving and smart. My question is do you find your paps stubborn when it comes to learning tricks?? Mine is quite smart but when teaching him simple commands like sit and stay he barks and barks (kinda like he's saying don't tell me what to do mom). It's quite funny, but also frustrating. He will eventually give in and do what I say but he's so stubborn. Anyone else have this problem and what do you do?
Consistency is the key Deb With sit, you can put a treat near their nose and move it backwards, this can make them sit and when they do praise and treat. Here's an intro to training: http://www.dogsey.com/dog-training.htm And here's how to teach sit:
I train the puppies at The Rescue Home & we do get lots of strong minded puppies in, what I do is only give the sit command once the puppies are already sitting & either give tit bit or toy to them, you be surprised at how quick the puppies catch on that they are doing what I want before I ask them, same with stand & wait, like the other day one of the puppies was fascinated with one of the spinning balls, so I just gave the wait command & rewarded straight away. Remember dogs can go deaf when they are bored & have had enough training, that is until they hear a treat packet open then by some miracle they can hear perfectly well again.
They are not tricks though, they are basic commands. I do not remember how I taught any of my pups them but they were rewarded with effusive praise as I never used treats. I am actually very surprised at the number of commands Pereg understands, and follows, both verbally and with just my version of sign language. And to her "good girl" is all she needs.
He knows basic commands like sit, stay, and lay down. But it hasn't been without him barking at me. Have you ever experienced that? I've owned many dogs but none that do that. He is a very sweet loving puppy, I don't think he's being sassy I think he's too smart for his own good
Do you clicker train? You could be pushing him on too fast. I would take a step back and make each lesson very short. Try to get the click and reward in very quickly - before he starts to bark. I would then work on trying to gradually lengthen the duration - if necessary using a 'wait' command before the click, and then an instant reward. The only time I have had any barking during training has been when the dog shows resistance because he hasn't fully understood the exercise I am teaching. I have come across dogs who have learned to bark in the show ring, (when they know you can't do anything to stop them). Once this habit becomes ingrained, I believe the only way is to give the behaviour a name, 'speak', and reward at first for starting to speak, and then for stopping on the command 'enough', (or whatever word you use). This is how I would tackle the problem - others could have equally valid methods.
I know this post is a few months old and I hope you got this sorted out. Seems to me that your pap just needs to blow off some steam before training. I have four papillons and none of them or stubborn when it comes to learning anything. They love it. But I never train specifically unless I have run them a bit first so they are not over exited. I would love to see pictures of your pap
