She sounds perfect! Have you given her a chance to burn off a little bit of the energy before working with her? You mentioned she gets so excited when she sees you are ready to work, she may be reacting to cues that a session is coming and by the time you begin she is already in the happy, happy, puppy frenzy.

That makes sense. Do I say no or nope when she is going through her shenanigans, or just watch. Yes, you have to laugh - it is so funny. She's doing everything she knows and then some. Now if I could just teach her all of that on command. :-)

Yes, I do a potty trip and let her run a few minutes before we start. This is going to be a high energy girl.

The Eskie that I have that is 15 years old was high energy until about a year ago. It breaks my heart her age is catching up with her now and she barely plays anymore. I have read on the net life expectancy for Eskies is 14-15 years. I am so blessed to have had her this long.

 Quote: Gina Gibson

Do I say no or nope when she is going through her shenanigans, or just watch. Yes, you have to laugh - it is so funny. She's doing everything she knows and then some. :-)

Oh no. No, she gets rewarded when you ask for them, or for behaviors you want to capture if you start free-shaping, but definitely not corrected for doing them on her own, when she is on "free time."

PS
I have one who has been marker-trained for about 5 years now but still runs through his repertoire now and then on his own. After 5 years, still checking every now and then to see if the rules might have changed and he didn't get the memo.

PS

"Nope" is for if you asked for one thing and she is giving another ..... or an incorrect one .....

But you don't mean that, right? Just "yay! training!" excitement.

You can see that we all love to hear that. You have made training a wonderful part of her day.

Yes, sometimes she goes through everything when I tell her "sit". She'll sit and instantly lay down, then roll over and maybe roll over again and then bounce like a basketball, then sit, lay down, roll over, bark, bark, bark, roll over and it goes like lightening.

Connie: please delete. double post.

 Quote: Gina Gibson

Yes, sometimes she goes through everything when I tell her "sit". She'll sit and instantly lay down, then roll over and maybe roll over again and then bounce like a basketball, then sit, lay down, roll over, bark, bark, bark, roll over and it goes like lightening.

So, you are asking her for something, the sit, right?
and instead of just sitting she's sitting then moves quickly into something else?

Have you seen where other posters are saying that right now you should just be shaping and not giving formal commands?

 Quote: Connie said

About the verbal commands:

Here's a thought that I follow: I don't name it until I love it.

That means that there is no verbal command linked to the behavior until the behavior is what I want.
if she sits your timing has to be at that exact second to click, before she moves onto something else.

Have you loaded your marker with her yet? Meaning...does she know what the mark means? Are you marker training. I don't see you saying specifically that you are.
There are quite a few steps to do before even moving onto naming the command.
You say You taught her the commands, how? With marker training?
I am just trying to understand because people are talking about marker training and i want to make sure you've followed the steps to let the dog know what a mark means.

No, I have not done a marker. I just saw that on the Basic Obedience DVD I started watching this afternoon. I also have the Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 months DVD, but I have the older version and have watched it several times. I do no remember seeing training with markers on that.

I taught her using hand signals in conjunction with verbal commands. For example - in teaching her to sit, I told her verbally sit, used a sit hand signal, and held the food tidbit right over her nose and she automatically backed into a sitting position. I did this several times a day and 3-4 times each day. Once she learned to sit, I had her sit for her food, sit for her toys, and sit before going through the door and down the steps.

Next, I taught her down by verbally saying down, lowering my hand to the floor with fingers extended and the tidbit held in the palm with my thumb. She automatically lowered her front end, and as soon as her butt touched the floor, I told her good down and released the food.

Once she learned down, I would give her the down command. She would lay down and I verbally gave the roll over command, used my index finger to make a small circular motion from her nose over her head and around to the other side while I palmed the tidbit. She learned to roll-over by following my hand.

It looks like I have put the cart in front of the horse. At first she was waiting for the commands and watching me. Now she just automatically goes through everything if I am trying to work with her without me saying anything.

However, she just sits and lays down and waits to go out the door. Occasionally when I tell her to sit before going through the door, she will sit and lay down and bark at me.

I'm sorry I'm so confusing to everyone. Thank you for all your help.

I'm bumping this so we don't forget to address your questions with the knowledge that you are not marker training. And to see if you want to.

Weekends are often training days ...... so *bump.*