Ways to teach my dog some cool tricks?
My dog is 18 months old and very playful but has a pretty short attention span. She’s treat-motivated, but not interested too much in other kinds of rewards. I know that she isn’t "stupid" but she does have a difficult time understanding what I want from her, where other dogs I’ve had in the past (an Australian shepherd and a Sheltie) were very quick to catch on to what I wanted them to do. She’s a Border Collie/Chow mix.
I don’t know if it’s because of her personality, or the fact that she’s still young, or possibly the way I train her, but she has a hard time catching on to more complex commands.
Right now she sits, stays, shakes, lays, comes, goes, and speaks on command. She also picks up toys/sticks and jumps into water on command. However, I just can’t seem to get her to roll over. She flops to one side but doesn’t grasp the concept of completing the roll.
How can I teach her to follow through with rolling over?
What are some other cool tricks or commands I can teach her, and how do I go about doing that? Is there anything I can do to improve her focus?
I know it sound like she’s done enough to prove she can focus, but she really does have a difficult time understanding me. Most things she’s just done accidentally and then I praise her for it and eventually she connects the cues with the action, but rolling over is not something she’s likely to do on her own so I can’t take the same approach.
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I have a 5 month german shepherd puppy and she’s the same way. Quite the short attention span. She just graduated from puppy class at Petsmart and rolling over was one of the things we learned. Have her lay down and take a treat and have her notice it. Take the treat in your hand and lead the dogs nose back to their shoulder. She should instinctively start to roll onto her side. As she does continue to bring the treat around until she is completely rolled over. Do not say the command "roll over" until she is at least on her back. Then praise her lavishly once she has completed it.
Some larger dogs though simply don’t like being on their backs because it’s uncomfortable for them. I’m not sure how big a Collie/Chow mix could be, but this could be why she doesn’t want to do it. Petsmart training could be up your ally. The trainers are really good at finding ways to get your dogs to focus, and have a lot of different methods.
And some more commands if you want to try: drop it, leave it, spin, bow, crawl, take it… all that can be trained easily with treats and praise