[Charis]

I have adopted a mini australian shephard from the shelter. She is smart as a whip, loves to learn and loves treats. I've had her 5 days and only been training her 2 (she has been sick). She is picking up sit, down and c'mon easily. I'm curious as to how many tricks to teach at a time (unmastered tricks, review on learned ones is always good). how many is too many? I'm sure is varies by dog but what's a good rule of thumb?

 

[Chels_girl]

Grats of your Mini, I've got one myself, the love of my life too.
Ahh with Sydney I generally will work one or two, during different sessions, but that depends on how hard. Since I clicker train I can do several things over different sessions.
Like earlier I was working on free heeling, and then we did an indoor session later on on targeting a box.
If you ever need any help with anything, aussie related or not drop me a pm, I love to talk to other people with mini's. ><

 

[Jr. Dog Expert]

You said it, it depends on your dog. Umm but since you are asking for a rule of thumb...I would say have 2-3 tricks on hand so that you can add some variation to your training. For instance, you can be trying sit, lay, and paw (or only two of those) while also adding something she has already mastered. I would think that using only one over and over again would get boring for a pup.

As you progress to more complicated tricks you might want to cut down to only teaching one at a time but reviewing many of the other tricks she knows. Since by the time you are teaching complicated tricks she will already know a good couple tricks, training won't or shouldn't be repetative.

 

[Charis]

that's awesome to hear that someone else has a mini. I have had multiple people tell me since I got her that mini aussies don't exist. I will keep working on tricks with her. She is still working on sit, down and c'mon. I will probably stick wiht those three until she masters one (she just about has sit down if there is a treat involved).