Now, maybe it's too early to train my puppy. He is almost 2 months old. I felt the urge to train him, but I want to make sure I am doing this right. He doesn't like treats, he isn't a huge fan of toys, the only thing that he loves so much he would almost do a back flip for is his food. So they are very small pieces of food.

Here is what I did:
I took 3 of these very very small pieces in my hand, which is about a penny size worth of doggy food. Then while on his leash I came up to near him and said "Israel come here!" then I held out my hand with the food and he came and went crazy over it licking my hand even when it was gone. Then I took off his leash and let him run around the patio for the first time. I waited until he was kinda far then I called out "Israel come here!" with an open hand and he came and ate it. Then I did that again when he was very far away with an open hand, then again with a closed hand far away. Each time he came.

Am I doing it right? I think now he thinks "Come Here" means feeding time. Is that bad? I tried doing it without food in my hand and he still comes running from whatever he is doing. I let him out inside for the first time and immediately called it and he came running to my hand. I then let him lick it a bit and put him back in his cage.

If I am doing it correctly and he isn't too young to train, how do I get him to sit? When I call him over he is so wound up and all in circles wondering which hand the food is gonna be in... is it on the floor... etc. etc. he just smells the food and goes nuts. So how do I get him to focus and sit?

Any advice whatsoever. After he learns to sit that will make feeding him in the morning easier right? So he won't be freaking out in the cage jumping off walls, I can just tell him to sit while I hand him his food.

Tyler

 Quote: tyler buth

Am I doing it right? I think now he thinks "Come Here" means feeding time. Is that bad?

Tyler, this is EXACTLY what you want. Rather than "feeding time", your puppy is associating coming when you call him with being REWARDED. If you've figured out that the most enticing reward for him just happens to be bits of his regular dog food, then it's just fine that you use his food as a reward. Since he isn't getting a full serving of it in his dinner bowl when he comes running, he most likely isn't confusing it with actual dinner time - he's just figuring out that if he does what you want, he'll be handsomely rewarded with his favorite food. Good work!

He's still a young one, so keep your simple training sessions short, but it's perfectly ok to start working on "come" and "sit" right now. To teach the sit, have the dog in front of you and hold your hand (with a piece of food in it) just over his nose - you might want to hold the treat in a fist, so he can smell it, but not take it. From here, slowly move your hand back over his head, the pup's nose should follow your hand naturally back, and if you keep your hand low, he should sit right down. If he tries to back up instead, try to lower your hand, which will lower his body and make sitting more attractive, or you could practice with him in front of a wall, so he physically can't move backward.

Sitting is universally good for a dog to know, and yes, you can absolutely use it before feeding time, before being petted, even after he comes running to you but before he gets a treat - it's a good start to focus and calm attention.

*You can also work on "watch me", which is purely about the pup focusing on your face/eyes. Hold a treat close to your forehead, between your eyes and call the pup's name, then say "watch me" (I use "look, look!"). Your voice will get the pup looking at you, and the treat will get him to look you right in the eyes - then reward. Keep this up until you can remove your hand from your head and the pup still looks you in the eye when you say "watch me" (make sure to reward at first right away when he looks, but as he gets older, you can try to maintain his gaze for longer and longer before treating). Are you using a clicker for any of this? Useful tool in the early stages of all this fun, basic, 100% motivational groundwork...

Nice job - keep up the good work!

~Natalya

To teach sit I use luring too it is a sure fire quick and easy way to teach him to sit, it should only take a couple of short sessions to teach him this.

As soon as his butt hits the floor praise/mark/click and give him the food.

I think you will find that as you start playing these simple games which are teaching him the behaviors you do want you will find less and less of the nipping biting and out of control puppy behaviors.

Thanks! Glad to heard I am doing it right. It worked so well, we were all impressed that no matter what he was doing when he heard "come here" he would literally jump in the air and come racing back towards me so excited that he would trip over himself.

Thanks for the information on sitting. I don't have a clicker, I still don't quite understand how they work either. I am in Thailand and I wouldn't know where to even get one here, I am not exactly loaded with cash.

So "come here" worked well, I guess I should keep doing it and maybe try "sit" today as well.

Tyler

Well yeah I do agree with you. It's good that you're thinking of traing your pup at this early age. I used luring in my puppies to train them to "come" and other stuffs like sit and stay even before they went to puppy pre-school. But I just make them short and positive. I also don't train my pups when they are too excited or stressed. I wait til they calm down. My presence usually is enough to calm them down. One good thing to start with is leash training. Starting with a loose lead. When you develop this at an early age, then you'll have no difficulty in walking them in the future. Walks in my opinion is one of the best way to "connect" with your dog in the future.
There is a good article in this very website about establishing pack structure when bringing home a puppy. You'd be surprise from what you'll learn from there. Goodluck and all the best.

Tyler, great job on thinking about training early on. You don't need a clicker for marker training just your voice making a constant sound 'yes' or 'click' or 'mark' in an upbeat tone.

Check out this article.
http://leerburg.com/markers.htm

Even if you don't go down the path using markers, you will learn a LOT about the way your dogs brain works. Using marker training I've taught my dog to do things I wrote off as 'oh he doesn't like to be mouthy he'll never pick things up for me'. Now he picks up my laundry and puts it away

Bravo! See that's what I mean by diverting a dog's energy to something useful.

Tyler: You will enjoy these videos and get a lot out of them. I have them and really like them. It shows you exactly how to get results with your dog (without confusing him or you!)

Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months: http://leerburg.com/120.htm
Training Dogs with Markers: http://leerburg.com/219.htm
Basic Dog Obedience: http://leerburg.com/302.htm

Have fun with your puppy.

nah, I can't afford the shipping, or the dvds themselves. I work in Thailand so I get paid Thai wages.

As for the training, my puppy sits now! yay! He knows it so well he won't get up from sitting while I am going to grab more food/treat, he will just sit there and wait because he knows what I will ask. So then I have to get him to stand up, then I tell him "sit" again and he sits.

I just can't do it when he wants to play more than he wants to eat... because then he doesn't care what I'm holding.

I also tried it standing up so he couldn't see my face, and from far away while he was on a leash, both times he sat, it's working great.

I can't get him to lay down. Someone on a website told me I should get him to sit then move my hand lower so he is kinda forced to lay down, but he is sooo low to the ground already that he doesn't need to lay down at all, so he just bends his head down. Oh well, I will try again tomorrow and instead of the food being in my palm I will try to hold it in my fingers, so I can get it lower to the ground. I am under the impression as soon as his stomach hits the ground I say "good boy" and give him the food. Then I do that over and over until he realizes whenever he lays down he gets some grub.

I am surprised how well this is working, it seems so easy... I don't understand why my friends never trained their dogs... in 2 days he comes when I call him (most of the time) and he sits when I tell him to sit (if he isn't busy).

I tried "look" once... but he was already staring at my eyes waiting for me to pull out the food, so I don't think he would have understood, and his eyes move so quickly I can't even tell what he is looking at sometimes... I thought maybe that one is too tricky. Now maybe I will just go for "lie down" and length of the other commands. Should I say "lie down", "lay down", "down" or what?

Also, he is a beagle, and I like that stance the beagles have, like the show dogs, can I train him to do that yet? maybe I can use "stand" as the command? I was told for that I just hold his head up and his tail up, then say "good boy" and give him the treat.

The stance:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Beagle_600.jpg/250px-Beagle_600.jpg

Anyone with a beagle know if I have to always hold his tail up like that, or can he do it on his own?

The "stance" is called stacking. The dog standing like that is "stacked".

Here are some free articles you can use in place of the videos
How to motivate your dog http://leerburg.com/motivational.htm (You would only use step 1 for a puppy and not use steps 2 or 3 until he is about 8 months old at least).

Using treats (you have already found a good treat for your dog but these are suggestions to maybe find more) http://leerburg.com/usingtreats.htm

Theory of Motivation http://leerburg.com/theoryofmotivation.htm
Theory of Correction http://leerburg.com/corrections.htm (you are not ready to use corrections for training mistakes on a puppy!)

And here are some free streaming videos that can give you a few training ideas (mostly when your pup is older)
http://leerburg.com/videolist.php

Sounds like you are having fun trainnig your pup and that is the number one thing!