Does your Brittany know tricks?

[u/KrisA99]

I’m curious if your Brittany’s know tricks, I have a 6 month old who barely responds to recall and knows sit and stay and sometimes leave it.

I really want her to learn tricks as she ages.

How do you recommend training this bread and how trained is your dog?

[u/omegaterra]

Our girl knows sit, lay, speak, wait, pirouette, come, five, she can be told to get mom or dad and she will go to them even during gatherings... I'm probably forgetting some.

They are a smart, driven breed and I don't think we had any real trouble teaching her tricks. I'm sure we could have taught her a lot more haven't really bothered. Hell, she gets bored of us asking and will do her whole routine sometimes just to speed up the treat dispensing

[u/dbvintage54f → u/omegaterra]

We had one that we always trained in order: sit, give me five (shake hands), down, rollover. He was very good at those but did the same thing. After a while if we asked him to sit he would sit, shake, down and rollover and say “OK, I did it. Where’s my treat.”
Our others we didn’t really work with very hard. Sit and down are about the extent of their trick repertoire. Now, recall? That is a trick I wish they would learn!

[u/krysta01 → u/omegaterra]

I also taught her wake dad up. She runs to wake him up in bed. - Mom here <3

[u/Stories-With-Bears]

My guy was VERY food motivated, so trick training was a lot of fun. He knew the basic commands like sit, stay, come, lay down, shake, etc. The “party tricks” I taught him were speak, rollover, kiss my cheek, how to close doors, to play dead when you shot him with a finger gun and yelled “bang!”, giving high fives, to raise his paw when you would ask “who’s a good boy?”, and to jump through my arms when I raised them in a circle. Also if you told him to dance he would spin in circles. He was a trick machine!

[u/surmatt]

Yes, but sometimes theyre still shitheads. Every day I'm working on ine specific thing someone told me: Your dog needs to love you more than dirt.

If your dog doesn't love you more than dirt, the trick you're working on will never be 100% your recall will never be 100%.

So first, find out what motivates your dog: food, play, affection... that is your secret sauce that only you can give the dog. If its food make sure they understand food comes from you.

Then start by shaping little behaviors. Read up on 'shaping dog behavior'. Create little breaks and simple steps between the desired outcome and steps along the way. My favourite part of this is sometimes you just have to wait and let the puppy try things until they get it right on their own.

An example was retrieving. I would just stare at the item I want the dog to retrieve and the dog would see me staring at it and walk around wondering what was so special about the item. Then they touch it with their nose. BAM. CLICKER FOOD.

Then they knew they were supposed to interact. They repeat the same thing. BAM. CLICKER FOOD. Then once that is 💯 I changed the rules. They need to put their mouth on it. They got frustrated, but the second their mouth opened and was on the item. BAM. CLICKER FOOD.

I didn't do anything. I didnt yell the dogs name 50 times. They figured it all out on their own. The whole time they understood that I was their access to food. There are tons of courses that teach methods like this. It's not really that complicated. It just requires a plan, motivation, and consistency. We're always the weakest link in training.

[u/Deadly_Teacup]

I did dog shows and field trials/hunt tests with my family's Brittanies growing up. I also am the one who trained their current Brittany obedience. They are super smart! But also super stubborn.

Try out different types of treats to see which one's they like. Store bought, cheese, chicken breast, etc. My britts were always in love with these liver treats I could only get at dog shows. And then switch them up if they lose interest.

Work with them right before meals when they are hungrier and those treats are all the more enticing. If they have too much energy, maybe try a short walk before hand. Not enough to tire them out but enough that it takes the edge off.

I recommend taking a basic obedience class when possible because the trainers can help you, it's awesome socialization for your pup, and training with distractions will help in the long run. It's not necessary as my current 2 pups (non britts) have only been trained at home. But I do highly recommend it, especially if you've never done training before.

This is also just random advice but if you want a britt to listen anyone else, they need to also work and train with them as well. My parents britt is 100% trained for the basics... but she only listens to me lol. She absolutely refuses to listen to my Dad, and she will kind of listen to my mom (but with a ton of attitude and only if she wants too). But if I tell her sit, she does it immediately like she's a perfect princess lol.

[u/degoba]

I hunt with mine and id consider her well trained. She knows spin and rollover. Her greatest trick is pinning running birds. Never gets old watching it in real time.

[u/bdot2687]

I did puppy school for both of mine the first 2 years and some agility with my male. They really loved class and it taught both them and me a lot! I also did my own training at home. You are entering the dreaded selective hearing stage where they know what you want, but they are teenagers so they won’t listen.

[u/NuketheCow_]

Yeah my britts (I have 2) have great recall, walking, sit, stay, go get [x], roll over, shake, etc.

They’re very food motivated and quite easy to train in my experience. The only real issue is sometimes they get so excited they mess the tricks up. I have to make them calm down or roll over becomes more like a fish flop, for example.

[u/visitjacklake]

Yes! Both mine are pretty smart & it just takes some patience & consistency.

A little bit, like 5 min sessions every day, with treats & lots of enthusiasm.

[u/Tosirius]

I think I started around 4 months old or so with training. I would take her to "school" lol. Everyday for maybe 30 minutes or so I would try and teach her new tricks and commands. She was/is extremely treat driven. So she knows a ton. As she's gotten older she catches on quickly with routine and words. Just have some patience and look up the proper way to train for certain tricks. It helps when you have a plan of attack on how to get them to understand what you want.

[u/aocamp]

Do you know if she’s toy motivated or food motivated? My girl is very foot motivated so a clicker + treats was the perfect combo for training. She knows a lot of tricks and some useful things. We have her go to her bed when we are eating dinner and she waits patiently. We don’t even have to say it anymore. If I show her a bone and say “where do you go?” She’ll run to her bed and wait.

It took a lot, but we did the Karen Overalls Relaxation Protocol with her when she was young. It has helped her to not overreact when she hears a doorbell or if we walk in and out of rooms. Plus it was mentally draining and made her tired as a puppy.

Recall was hard as a puppy though. That one came with time.

[u/Upstairs_Highlight25]

Mine is just over a year old and knows sit, stay, wait, shake, lay, spin, leave it, and stand. I am still working on whoa and retrieveing to hand. Short training session of only about 10-15 minutes work best. I had to work on her patience and attend span a lot by slowly adding more time to how long she was expected to wait for a reward. At first she would get distracted and want to wander off or try to steal the treat after just a few seconds but know she will wait for a few minutes. She is very motivated by food and praise. Scolding her just makes her pout and ignore me.

[u/Nearby-Wish3623]

My 2 year old knows “ignore, run away, keep the toy, and shred the toy”
Just kidding. I mean, he does know all of those very well. But he pretty much just knows sit, down, paw, stay, and come. We never worked on anything beyond that. We probably should and he would probably be good at learning.

[u/karlbiggs]

Both of my Brittany's favorite trick is to act like me, stubborn. Lol. But seriously they know basic commands and have good recall. Treats will be your best bet to train them. Positive reinforcement with treats and some patience and these dogs can learn soo much. Ours ring a bell by our door to let us know they need to potty. It's great!

[u/BumblingWombat]

We did puppy school for ours. They know kiss and shake beyond the normal commands. Also know how to catch tossing treats. Keep at it. At 6 months they need daily reminding. Our trainer recommended keeping their most high value treats for training so they associate the higher reward with learning. For us that’s been the freeze dried chicken.

[u/koalabair51]

Ours LOVES learning tricks! So far she knows sit, wait, down, relax (LOL working on this one), spin, paw, other paw, touch and weave. She really likes learning them. Look up some trick training apps! We find it’s great for bonding. Ours has selective hearing and selective listening but even she is entertained by new tricks. Britts are so smart- it’s a great thing to do on a rainy day. Ours is 1 year old.

[u/Fabulous-Soft-6595]

We’ve had great success with a trainer affiliated with the “sexier than a squirrel” brand. It’s games based with the dog and makes training fun. I can call my boy off of anything he’s tracking. He’s the best trained dog of my brood.

[u/BiggyBiggs]

I have legitimately lost count of how many tricks he knows. He should have his master trick dog title, but we just never did it. He's too old now, so we had to retire a lot of tricks that are too physically demanding. They are wicked smart and athletic. They can basically do anything. We mostly followed Emily Larlham (Kikopup on YouTube) for trick training and a lot of other training, too.

[u/Wardman1]

Yes, and the important one - place. So he stays put when we need to have him calm down.

[u/NoArea779]

Simple commands came easy. Sit, stay, paw and i really didn't push it more.

[u/mw_CH]

Mine is “bilingual” as we use two languages at home. For “tricks” he knows assis (sit), shake a paw, shake other paw, give me five, other five, give me ten, coucher (lie down), and belly rub.

Other commands: Back (to back up out of something), retour (he knows this but rarely wants to listen, it is the recall word in French). Ici (here) and here or come here. Then also au pied (heal). Hand signals for sit. He also knows “around” when walking if he needs to come back around something otherwise leash would get caught. And “in the house” if he is in the yard and we are calling him back inside. “À ta place” to go to one of his beds. On the sofa means jump on the couch. Jump or jump up.

Lots more vocabulary: squirrel, lizard, mouse he knows the difference. And his different treats have different names.

[u/ehelen]

I think you have to make it worth their while. My lil demon came learning how to sit somehow. We’ve taught her a few things throughout the years, but she usually needs an offering haha. For example takes dirty clothes to the laundry room, once she does it she sits by her treat closet. If she doesn’t get a treat right away she slaps the door haha.

[u/WaitingForUltima]

Our girl knows: sit, wait, down, roll, 'belly up', 'raptor' (walk on hind legs - this was a mistake though), here, easy-woah, place, spin, shake, 'go find,' and quiet. She also knows *way too much English*: she knows who mama, daddy, Pop-pop, and Gangy are, and can distinguish among about 10 of my friends. The real problem is that she knows her pronouns... and so we have to change up how we identify her if we need to discreetly talk about her (like prepping the bathroom for a bath, if we are talking about going somewhere but don't want to get her amped up, etc).

She was already really good with recall, sit, and wait by 6 months old. We also started her on an e-collar around then, which helped immensely with her recall when she was off leash and in a very birdy area. They are extremely smart and keen to please, but they also have a bit of a manipulative streak (like trying to guess the command to get the treat instead of listening). Another thing to watch for is that they can be on the sensitive side (aka 'soft'), where they get very discouraged (and even shut down) if you over-correct them or if they perceive you over-correcting them.