# Training Guides



## Dawz84 (Apr 16, 2014)

Been training my 16 week V since we had him now, fetch, down, sit, taking and waiting for food, removing food from him, crated, biting, recall etc hes been quite good. 

I want to take it too the next level now though, anyone know of a good site/guide/book for training a V or any dogs in general like tricks and obedience.

Tricks being a good one for mental stimulation, must be a good site out there for good stuff to teach puppies. Best stuff I've found so far is on youtube but theirs no structure.


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## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

I would say that the next "level" is deepening the commands that he knows, rather than adding new ones. By deepening, I mean improving his ability to perform in more and more demanding situations. For instance, doing "down, stay" for longer and longer times, or while you go out of the room, or out of the room and with a treat in front of him. You get the idea. Taking recall from "quite good" to excellent (acid test: breaks off chasing a squirrel to come back).

You didn't mention "leave it". I consider "leave it" to be an essential command. Not only as a matter of good manners, but for his safety. This is needed not only when he is approaching something that he shouldn't have, but also when he has it and you want him to drop it.

Now, as to your question about books: I like Jean Donaldson's "The Culture Clash". She gives theory of operand conditioning (aka positive reinforcement), and step-by-step for some commands, as examples. The thing is that once you understand the process, you can teach any command.

You have an excellent start - keep it up and have fun.

Bob


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## dextersmom (Oct 29, 2013)

Bob said:


> I would say that the next "level" is deepening the commands that he knows, rather than adding new ones. By deepening, I mean improving his ability to perform in more and more demanding situations.
> 
> You didn't mention "leave it". I consider "leave it" to be an essential command. Not only as a matter of good manners, but for his safety. This is needed not only when he is approaching something that he shouldn't have, but also when he has it and you want him to drop it.


I agree with Bob - that type of training is more practical. However, if you eventually do want to teach some tricks for fun (we did it on rainy days after Dexter had mastered most of the basic commands, etc.) Kyra Sundance's books are great. We have her "101 Dog Tricks" book.


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## Dawz84 (Apr 16, 2014)

sorry when i said leave it, i meant leave the food i put down in front of him. I can see how "leave" would be a good command though, hes always picking up stuff he shouldn't, old bottles etc. I guess I have the framework in place. I'll expand on that, i normally use the phrase "drop", but preempting with "leave" would be better.

I'll get to work on making him do everything better then.

Also thanks for the book advise.


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## Stigeweard (Apr 30, 2014)

The youtube channel "kikopup" has helped me tremendously with Vi - she also uses the positive reinforcement training

Zak George's channel also has similar videos


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