I stole this idea from another thread at http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=233101#Post233101

Quirks are cute and funny.

Some of them either affect training or some might even be good to be trained away.

Anyone have any of those?

Threads about training are a tad short in supply at the moment.

I'll bite.

Since True does love to carry things we've just started working on training "Hold" using a piece of PVC. I thought this would be fairly easy. He knows "Take it" and he knows "Out" but "Hold" is proving to be tricky.

I'm having him sit in front and marking him just holding it for a sec. He thinks the PVC is a toy so he's pretty amped up while we're doing this. Also, PVC tends to get slick and slippery and he's being pretty mouthy it.

Cindy uses a plastic bottle with Rush in the "Training with Markers" DVD and I'm tempted to try that.

Have you tried Hold with another item first?

I had to really work with Danke to get her to stop pawing and clawing my shins in the down.

She'd throw her front feet out and claw all the way down.
I marked it once, and she kept it up for months until I got really annoyed and went back to square one.

No, just with PVC...which is a bad choice, I think.

I still haven't managed to find a food that Yote thinks is worth taking while we are out on walks.

I have tried shrimp, bacon, steak, hot dogs, cheese, three flavors of Zukes, and crab cake.

I successfully taught my 18-month-old to back up, using a clicker, food, and what I believe might be shaping. It was pretty much his first successful behaviour that I taught him.

Now whenever I try to teach him ANYTHING else, he backs up. If he doesn't get the treat, he backs up faster and faster until he is knocking things down. Poor guy, he tries so hard. But he is convinced that all I want him to do is back up.

Unfortunately, a recent behaviour I decided to try and teach him was the "front" command (like you would do after a recall). The poor guy would NOT approach me since he was SO SURE that what I really wanted was for him to back up. I guess it would have been pretty funny to an onlooker, my dog practically running backwards and me chasing him and patting myself trying to get him to come closer. He just could not understand why he wasn't getting his darn treat!!!!

The sad thing is I own no fewer than three clicker books plus the marker video. Can you say HANDLER ERROR!!! lol.

Have you tried luring him with a treat before he ever sees the clicker so he doesn't get a chance to back up?

Angela, have you introduced a negative marker?

Yes. But you can see his little brain wheels turning. He will come in to get the treat, but he knows that if i have treats it must be training time, so right after he eats his treat he'll start to back up hopefully, eyes bright, even if I haven't said anything yet. Even if I click while he is approaching, it is as though he thinks "oh no I was supposed to back up!" and backs up.

I've also tried teaching him to touch a target (piece of paper) on the floor, like it shows Rush doing in the marker video. My pup will back up to the paper until his hind legs are on it. "Im touching it mom!"

He's soooo enthusiastic and tries to do the right thing; I however need to be trained better. It seems my boys all learned their first trick too well, and are convinced that that is what they are supposed to do always. I taught one of the others "say woof". He has learned a few other things such as sit, but will woof while sitting for instance.

I wonder if other people have this problem where the dog learns its first thing "too well"... or is it just me LOL.