[Cami.gaunt15]

I have a six month old puppy who has been fairly quick to learn. I've taught him the basics like sit, lay down, come, and stay as well as some more random ones like high five, touch, wave, spin, roll over, etc. He performs almost all of these flawlessly, but for some reason he is now refusing to lay down. My family's two dogs have a different cue than him so I fear I may have confused him by mixing up the cues (I accidentally started using their cues on him), but at first he responded to both cues and now he won't respond to either. Any ideas how to reteach the trick or fix my mistake in accidentally changing his cue?

 

[LeoRose]

After ruling out a physical cause with a vet check, start over from scratch with a brand new cue.

But I hear you on having different cues for different dogs. My German Shepherd will go around something in either direction as long as I use the cues Zig (counterclockwise) or Zag (clockwise) , but she looks at me like I have three heads when I use my pittie's cue of Fly (used for both directions).

 

[Cami.gaunt15]

After ruling out a physical cause with a vet check, start over from scratch with a brand new cue.

But I hear you on having different cues for different dogs. My German Shepherd will go around something in either direction as long as I use the cues Zig (counterclockwise) or Zag (clockwise) , but she looks at me like I have three heads when I use my pittie's cue of Fly (used for both directions).

He has an appointment next week for a general checkup and neuter so hopefully anything physical will be caught then. I'm hoping the neuter will help calm him down a bit too.
I'll try starting over but for some reason leading him into the position isn't working either. I think the treats I use may just not be high value enough anymore - when I lived on my own I used basic training treats, but now that I'm home with my parents during quarantine they've been feeding him bacon treats.
The circle tricks sound amazing! Hopefully once my dog remasters the basics I can teach him stuff like that.

 

[LeoRose]

Neutering may or may not calm him down. A lot of times, it just takes maturity and training. I had a mixed breed bitch who was spayed at nine months, and could still be a terror at seven years (she thought nothing of jumping my 6' high fence), but developed an off switch somewhere along about three years.

Also, there has been research in the past few years that delaying altering a dog until they are mature can have health benefits down the road. Of course, if you think that there is a possibility of an accident breeding, altering them sooner is always the better option.

Go around is pretty basic, but useful. This video was for a parkour title, but it's also useful for teaching directions for obedience, or bringing some energy into heeling.

 

[Cami.gaunt15]

Iv

Neutering may or may not calm him down. A lot of times, it just takes maturity and training. I had a mixed breed bitch who was spayed at nine months, and could still be a terror at seven years (she thought nothing of jumping my 6' high fence), but developed an off switch somewhere along about three years.

Also, there has been research in the past few years that delaying altering a dog until they are mature can have health benefits down the road. Of course, if you think that there is a possibility of an accident breeding, altering them sooner is always the better option.

Go around is pretty basic, but useful. This video was for a parkour title, but it's also useful for teaching directions for obedience, or bringing some energy into heeling.

I've definitely heard mixed things around when to neuter, but my puppy is a small breed dog who my vet believes is probably already at or near his adult weight already (around 15 pounds). I adopted him at three months and she recommended waiting until 6 months. It wasn't so much an issue at my apartment but my parents' neighborhood has quite a few people who let their dogs roam freely and the spaces in the fence are definitely big enough that he could accomplish something, and he's been humping my parents' dogs (more so their male than their female, which I found strange, but both are fixed) so I'm going ahead with it. Of course I hope it doesn't have any negative effects but I also don't want to be responsible for an unexpected litter (not that people should be letting their unfixed dogs roam freely, but that's a different argument).
Thank you for linking the video. I'll check it out!