30-day challenge: Teach your dog five new commands (day 30)

Yesterday was the last day of my 30-day challenge to teach my dog five new commands: bang, roll over, crawl, go long and bucket. Let me stress that although my dog is grasping these new commands, he is still learning. The biggest mistake I made with this challenge was to set a deadline. Dogs can’t always learn something new in a short amount of time, and one of the worst things to do is rush them. A better challenge to try would be to train your dog every day for 30 days or to practice five new commands for 30 days. Even so, Ace is close to having the commands down.

Ace has the commands that involve a ball down pretty well. He puts his ball in a bucket now, but I usually have to point to the bucket and stand right by it. The next goal is to get Ace to put a ball in the bucket no matter where I am standing. Because of his ball fixation and obsession with playing fetch, it is going to be nearly impossible to get him to put a ball in a bucket even five feet from me. “Bucket” has been a good challenge for Ace, because when a ball is around, he has a hard time focusing on anything else and ignores even the most basic commands.

I guess Ace is pretty good at “go long.” It would be nice if he could catch the ball more often, but maybe I need to work on my throw! Again, this command is challenging for him because he does not want to leave my side if I am holding a ball.

As for bang and roll over, Ace is just not too thrilled about these commands and he decided to make that very obvious in the video. Just look at this mutt flop around. We need to work on a faster response, and I need to stop repeating commands so he doesn’t think he can wait until I say a word two or three times.

And finally, crawl. We need some more practice on this one. Ace will crawl, but he likes to keep his butt high. In the video, I kept my hand on his back. I will have to go back to the basics and start with Ace crawling only a few inches at a time. The problem is, he always wants to move so fast. Why crawl when you can run?

So there you have it. Although sometimes it seemed like we were getting nowhere, Ace and I have come a long way from day one. Try teaching your dog some new commands. Dogs can learn a lot if we take the time to teach them.

Click here to see my other 30-day challenge posts.