Hi all - I am clicker training my 11-week old puppy, Sasha. She is doing very well ! She learned "sit" and we have moved on to "lay down". We practiced sit for about 5 days, and are on our 2nd day of lay down. She seems to get it VERY quickly. Should I keep going for a couple more days, or is it OK to move onto something else if I think she has got it down? I don't want to end up overloading her with too much, but I also don't want her to get bored if she's got the command.

Thanks !!

sit, lay down, and shake are pretty much the 3 most often taught tricks at the beginning of training. They can all be pretty well achieved by 12 weeks, so you are right on pace. The pups can get somewhat overloaded at an early age if you try to introduce too many tricks. 1-2 new tricks at a time, but always cycle in the old ones too, so your pup remembers the word associations. There was a point when Keeonah and I would rifle through like 7 or 8 tricks in a row before she got her treat. Never underestimate a husky's intelligence lol. You just have to move at their pace and help them understand. There are a lot of "fun tricks" like shake, bang, spin, speak, bow, etc, that are all fun to show to your friends, but a few of the ones i find most valuable and practical are:

Sit
Lay down
come
stay
^Essential

Back up - useful around doors, couches, etc. Keeonah well hop back a foot and a half, and it's reallly helpful sometimes!

Go round/other way - taught her in my room without a leash, but go round means walk a circle around me clockwise/other way is counter-clockwise. So helpful when she gets messed up on the leash.

Load up - pretty self explanatory lol. most dogs love to be invited into the car anyway haha

up and off - good for couches, beds, or picnic tables depending on what you're doing lol

bang - surprisingly enough, play dead (bang), has come in really helpful for grooming, wiping her (she was in heat recently), and of course for belly rubs

I can tell Keeonah loves the mental stimulation from trying to understand what I'm teaching her, so sometimes I teach her silly tricks just to keep her mind working. The bonding is pretty great

Have fun!

I taught Kale to "leave it" by 12 weeks. I would put a treat on his paw and not let him have it until i gave a release command. Another one that I taught Kale was "spin" and "roll over". Both of those were mastered by 6 months. I also use "up up" to stand on hind legs or to get into a vehicle. Never used clicker training tho, just treats. Love to see some videos of one of her training sessions.

It sounds like you are doing really well with Sasha! It's fine to move on to new commands when she seems ready, but like Sean said, keep doing the old commands sometimes too so that she doesn't forget. I find 'back' (back up) and 'other way' really useful too. Also 'turn over' for when I've groomed one side and want to do the other one.

Awesome thread! Simba and I just starting clicker training last week. He's learned sit, down, and up. Off works every once in a while. I was wondering how many tricks and how long should we focus on a particular command for.

Do you guys take classes or go off of books and YouTube videos?

I did my clicker training with Luna through Petsmart classes, that's their preferred teaching method.

Thanks so much everyone !!! that is SO helpful !! She has "sit", "lay down" and "give paw" .. I think Stay is next on the list, from most of my reading most people say that is one of the most important commands to learn as it could keep them from danger.

We haven't done any formal training. Just learning through the forum and from You Tube

We learned clicker training to our courses. Once you know how it works you can teach her anything you want.

She knows :

- Sit
- Down
- Stay
- Down and stay
- Sit, stay and here
- Here
- High five
- Paw

And she puts her front paws against the car so we can put her in