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Thanks for the clarification. I believe with my Shih Tzu, training is always an ongoing task! They may quickly learn what they're "supposed" to do, but doing it is completely relavent to "if they're in the mood", or What's in it for ME? Gotta love 'em! Vicki

I understand the trainer's point that if Riley always gets super yummy stuff then he won't be as motivated by treats, but I think for most dogs there is usually something that they absolutely love that is a great reward for them, whether it is liver treats (my dog's favourite) or pieces of cheese, or praise, or a particular toy. My dog gets table scraps (healthy ones) regularly, but he still goes nuts for liver treats, cheese and eggs especially. I wouldn't change his feeding schedule, but just find what his favourite rewards are that motivate him the most. I've read before about using a

I think that applies to all commands. The first dog I seriously trained I made a whopper of a mistake by making "okay" his release word. I didn't put much thought into it, and w/o much thought it seemed as reasonable as any other word I could have chosen. Later into the training process I realized choosing it was a really bad idea. Having a dog in a down stay while you're cooking dinner and talking with your kids or when you've got a room full of company and having to very consciously avoid using the word "okay" is no fun at all.

Hehe , I've already noticed that with mine I find that quality quite adorable, just as well really!!! Lol

LOL: I can see the big mistake there! That's why you have to say a word you don't use much, racking my brain to think of a good word that I don't mind yelling out loud babybluegirl 3:05pm

Thanks for your message Riley, husband and I went to dog training on Sunday and learnt some more things (see my original Hello From UK, New Dog Owner With 16 week old Shih Tzu, here) for that. I talked to the instructor after the class about the Premack Recall sheet I got two weeks ago, and ironed out any questions I had as I wasn't 100% sure on certain things and didn't want to start doing this with Riley in case we were doing it all wrong and made things worse between training class. Anyway, we now know what we're doing and so we're going to start the sheet soon... famous last words

How is the training going? It's been a week! Hope you've mastered it! Vicki

That's two of us. As the economy fails to improve (and the shelters get more crowded) we have more and more people (4 last week alone) walk into the school and tell us, "I can't keep my dog, he pees all over-humps everything in sight-bites-doesn't like our kids"-etc. etc. ad nauseum. The majority of these dogs are under a year old and for the most part are terrified of everything, unkempt-to-filthy, often matted, were "adopted" at age 6 weeks OR LESS, and have never seen a vet. I have often thought that people should have to pass a test to reproduce. FOR SURE people should have to pass