One trick at a time?

When training new tricks, do you stick to training one trick at a time until that trick is learned or do you teach a few at a time for variety??

Lots, that way you a) don't overdo one trick and bore dog and b) keep the dog interested

It kind of depends....what do you call a trick?

Often I will focus on one 'trick' while I am working on consolidating other stuff (h/w positions, stays etc etc) things which are possibly not considered as tricks.

But I also think it depends on how you define learned. For me it is when the dog will preform on a verbal cue in multiple places. (Which tends to take quite a bit of time!)

It also depends on the dog you are working with.

More than one.

At puppy class, and agility actually we were told to only practise something 3 times then move onto something else, (obv go back to it another time!) so ours seem to now get bored after 3 goes!

A few at at a time really---but careful if they get confused. Etta is fine unless I really push the harder stuff but Celt got easily confused so did less at once with him.

Really anything you do is a 'trick' so heelwork, stays etc come under the same banner of stopping and doing something simpler if they get confused.

It also helps to know exactly what you are aiming at---I am a prime offender for not getting the end result straight in my head and mucking up the middle bits! For example I am trying to get her to turn her back on me and walk away and I have the turn but now I am mucking up the walking away and I'll lose the turn if I am not careful. So in a minute I am going to do turns and forget the walk and teach that seperately.

rune

Some things run together don`t they? Like sharp turns for heelwork - I teach left and right turns at the same time or I`d get dizzy.
But for things that are a sequence ( where your dog does a series of moves) I teach one part of it at a time.

I teach two or three new things at a time and I won't introduce a new one until one is learned reasonably well. A training session will usually be a mix of old things for consolidation with the new things thrown in, I also tend to only do it a few times then do something else and come back to it. Cain will do sonethings repeatedly but some things he gets easily bored with (I'm teaching him to pick out certain toys by name and he'll only do it a few times before it gets boring) so I keep those short and sweet then repeat.

I also try not to teach conflicting tricks together to avoid confusing him eg I wouldn't teach Hold/Take with Give/Drop It. I also taught his Spin (left) and Twist (right) a few weeks apart.

Oddly - these are things I try and teach together (probably a breed thing)
Simply because I find (with the BC's) that balancing up is really important, and if you work on one thing to much, they find it really hard to turn it round.

I don't think that is a breed issue, most dogs are right or left handed so it is important (especially if you compete at a high level) that dogs stretch both sides of their bodies the same so they do not end up with short muscles on one side and long on the other.

I have done it with all my dogs and none was (or is ever likely to be) a BC!

[QUOTE=smokeybear;2131606] most dogs are right or left handed QUOTE]

Really? I hadn't considered that.