Why won't my Puppy listen?

Question

Well I have a Border Collie / Lab Female 4 month old Puppy.

She is extremely clever, at his age I have taught her to:

Sit

Lay Down

Come

Gives Kisses

High 5

Play dead

Rollover

Stand on hind legs

Turn around

Stay

Waits at traffic lights

Currently teaching her to limp

I don't know if this is something all puppies know, but I personally think its unbelievable at 4 months to know all that, but its true.

Anyways, most of the tricks she doesn't listen to. She will concentrate on my hand movements, Whenever I say "turn around" she wont turn, only if I hold the reward up and spin it.

Same with Sit, She only sits when I click my fingers and hold up hand.

She wont come unless I bend down.

She wont stand up on her legs unless the reward or my hand is high above her head.

She isn't deaf. I want to let her off the lead in the park, but Im worried she wont come.

Any help or reasons why she ain't listening?

Answer 1

That's awesome with the number of commands you have taught her. Border Collies are super intelligent. They had this Border Collie on Animal Planet who could pick out 100 different distinct objects. And if you put in an object she has never seen, she can pick that out too through deduction. Its quite amazing.

Dogs respond better to hand gestures, and they also learn quicker from visual cues. You can teach them to respond to both, but the verbal will take longer and more repetitions. Just keep practicing and being consistent with the command and she will learn.

Initially do the verbal cue first then follow it up with the visual cue. After some repetitions, try phasing out the visual. Give her some time to process, and if she still doesn't do the command then prompt her with the visual. Keep doing this and very soon she will respond just to the verbal. Treat and praise her more when she gets it right and just responds to the verbal.

Answer 2

She's 4 months old... give it a rest.  

Answer 3

Puppies are like children. They can only take so much in. Be patient and concentrate on one of the things at a time. Then go on to other tricks. There is no rush, you will have her for at least 12 to 14 years, plenty of time to teach her.

Regarding the lead. Keep her on it. When you have a quiet place with no other dogs or people. Let her off for a while. Call her back. Reward when she does it. Put her on and off the lead regularly. At first she will run to people and other dogs. So put her on the lead when you see other dogs. When she is bigger she will be fine and come when you call her.

Answer 4

She might be death but it is unlikely to be at 4 months Or you have taught your puppy to much tricks and she doesn't want to do anymore x That was a very good question thank you x

Answer 5

nothing strange.

my basset puppy was 3 months and five days when we taped her doing sit, give paw, and bark.she also can lie down, wait, come . (abba learned how to sit before she learned her name). shes is now over 3 and half month old and we are taking a little brake now from studying

your pup is great and very smart



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_NOqbvG0...

i on the other hand didnt use any special hand movement.

and thats where ur mistake lies. every human has a routine movements while saying something, and body movement too. u dont know or noticed it but u do. and puppy would catch up with your natural body signs.dont do all that waveing, pointing things. puppy listens to ur voice and watches for ur body language which shouldnt be too extreme.coz in that case, ur case hapends

Answer 6

It sounds like you just want to brag about your puppy!

Answer 7

She knows what to do, when your commanding her if she doesnt listen once then leave it at that, dont say the command more then once. Teach her for 15 minutes a day and then as soon as she gets older she will have more fun doing tricks

Answer 8

Does the know the words that match the hand signals? Every time you do a hand signal say the word with it. After I while I think this prodigy of a puppy will understand.  

Answer 9

Well, first of all she does an amazing number of tricks.  So good job on that.  And she is a puppy still and she is still trying find her place in life.  Have you taken her to obedience class?  If not, try that and you can learn some new techniques on how to get her to listen.  I'm guessing she doesn't see you as her leader yet and you will need to learn how to gain her respect.  My golden is 8 months and is jumping and biting (not to bleed, but to bruise) and I am being consistent with his discipline and he is slowly learning to view me as his pack leader.  It just takes time and patience.

Answer 10

Well what you can do is keep teaching her with a hand signal! Most people miss this in training and jump from the treat to the word. And well if that doesnt work give her a rest she might not remember it. ALWAYS teach WITH TREATS!!!!!!!! its like if i told u to sit and i would give u 5 dollars. and then i told u to sit but i didnt give u the money. And then u would stop doing it. Same thing with ur dog if ur not giving her treats for everything that she does good or behaves.

~valeria~

Answer 11

Pups don't know better so they think they have the invanage to do anything they want because they don't understand what you say well they can here and all but they don't know what it means so they probually think that your giving them a complement like good boy or girl, go on and all that kind of nice stuff.So they just keep doing what they were doing. that is why I think pups don't listen. P.S. I have 2 pups and one of them is huge.

Answer 12

yeah, she sounds very clever but she is only 4 months old, she will do what you want her to do later im sure, im currently training a 2 month pup and he is picking things up well, but i know from past experience they cant learn everything at once.. bless um eh !

Answer 13

Well at 4-months-old she has done a great job of listening to you so far.  Don't over do it though, you need to make time to play too.  I taught my dog, Charlie Pumpkin, to come by using the word come in sign language.  That helped when he was old and could no longer hear me.  Keep working on it, she is listening.  

Answer 14

Not you and your puppy again Darkness ;DDD

Well, she sounds very talented and all that, we might expect to see you 2 on X-Factor, like the dancing dog in the last series perhaps?

Meantime, she is very young, and clearly quite smart, don't let her burnout  - ok, only kidding. But she is young, perhaps she's getting confused with so many oral commands.

Having said that, my dog also responds to a combination of oral and hand commands, we have the same command as you for 'sit', and sometimes I can say it a few times but until I click my fingers he acts like he's never heard the word before! Other times this is a huge advantage when he runs off down the field, I can get his attention with a dog whistle and if I wave my arm slowly he'll come back :)

Getting her to come to you is probably more important than those other tricks for now, with my dog it was a simple process of having a reward ready. We still do refresher training together, he knows exactly what's going on when I take a few dog treats and put them in a bag before we leave for our walk, so he knows I have stuff for him in my pocket ;)

Have lots of fun :)

Answer 15

Because she is still a puppy and still needs more consistent training! Only train 5 minutes at a time, or it becomes "work" for the puppy instead of "play." My puppy is only about 3 months old, and knows a lot of basic commands, but she still needs work as she grows!

Answer 16

For one you have a very intelligent puppy there, both breeds that are in her are well known for their intelligence. If she has learned all this at 4 months old then you are doing great with her keep doing the lessons with the treats and in time she will listen whether you have a treat or not. She is still very young at 4 months and is more interested in other things right now. Think of it as trying to teach a 1-2 year old child things. I wouldn't be letting her off the leash at 4 months old though.    

Answer 17

She is only 4 months old and I would say she has done extremely well in learning.  Give her a break and at 4 months she should not be off lead unless that park is fenced in. Actually if it is not fenced in then no dogs should be allowed off lead while there.  One little distraction and she could be gone.

Answer 18

This is either a "send up" or you have a puppy who is fantastic. Most of the time the answerer's are telling clueless people to go to training classes. You have done exceptionally well with your puppy and if you go to classes both you and your dog could achieve accolades. Its great that she works to hand signals, however I think that you are expecting too much from your baby. Don't let her off the lead until you have trained her on the recall either in your garden or in a field with a fence. If this is your first dog, she may be the most intelligent dog that you will ever have, learn from her. Do dog sports and extend her abilities. Look up "clicker training" on the Internet and enjoy training your dog. I am jealous.

Edit. It would appear that the other puppy ownners are jealous too. OK I agree that too much training will bore your puppy, however several small sessions a day will stimulate her mind. Bored puppies, chew and make a mess in the house. Your puppy respects you and obeys your commands. Don't expect too much from your puppy and please keep up  the good work.