Need to move beyond basics

[myandromeda]

Admittedly, I haven't been training our dogs consistently for the past four years (since our daughter was born.) However, for the past two weeks I've trained them everyday and I have to say that they are responding wonderfully to it! (Duh, right?! )

Anyway, they obviously need to move beyond the basics: Sit, down, come, and heel. Where do I go from here? How long should I train them? As of now, I train each of them for approx 5-10 minutes. I know I should probably up that time, but with just the basics, they start to get bored, and so do I! That is how I knew that we needed to move on.

I am willing to answer any questions as long as they will be productive to my dogs.

BTW: The boys will be 7 years old this month.

TIA!

[Nishasmom]

I would focus on stay and come; try to practice under all different distraction levels.

Other things to teach:
*You can teach them to "wait" ~kinda like stay, but they can move. Use it if you want them to stay inside while the door is open
*"leave it" ~if you drop something (food) on the floor
*"take it" and "drop it"

Seeing that your dogs are 7, you could probably stretch the sessions out a little longer. Also, do like 5 'sessions' a day.

Are you training them together, or do you train them one at a time?

[myandromeda]

They know leave it, and we do work on that, especially when they are being fed. They also know drop it, which we work on when we are playing with their ball. As for take it, we just use our release work, "okay."

I usually train one for about 5-10 minutes, and then switch to the other dog. I then do both for about 5 minutes together. I really want them to get to the point where I can say, "D'Argo Down," and he'll go down but Crichton won't since I didn't say his name. More importantly, if I release Crichton from his down I want D'Argo to stay down until I release him. Is that possible?

I definitely want to stretch out our sessions a bit, but we need some new and more challenging ideas for them.

[AngelBunny]

Why not look into rally classes and put rally titles on your dogs?

[brunie's mom]

Start doing their training individually .....and take each dog out for walks and make them do their commands with distractions around. The dogs should be able to listen to all your commands, with other dogs, around and people around too.
You can teach the "stand" command...and do a "stand-stay" also.
Do a moving "down"...meaning they are coming towards you and they go into a "down".
Also healing...teach them a formal heal...so the dog has to stay right by your knee even if you turn, or slow down your pace.

If you dogs are well trained you can also get their CGC on them. Do a google search for what the test consists of and find out when the next tests will be done in your area. Nice to have some sort of training goals without getting bored.

Gina

[myandromeda]

Thanks so much for your replies. I'm really excited to start pushing them a bit more. And I know that they will enjoy the extra challenge!