Puppy training...

[goosebruce]

Since several folks here have got new puppies, I thought I'd copy this post I made on a dog board to some fellers with puppy questions. Seems to be more dog activity around here all the time, so maybe someone can find it useful...

You start training your dog the first time you see it. Everything the dog expereinces, goes into the dog... it's up to you to manipulate the expereinces to be postive.

Crate training, starts day one. A dog that will go quietly into its crate on command, and stay there as needed is a dog that is a pleasure to travel with, be it to a hunt, hunt test, or road trip. Crate training makes housebreaking a snap... cause pup doesn't mind going in your house, but doesn't want to go in his! So go to crate, get pup, take outside and tell him GO PEE. Make a big deal when he does. Sound elementry? Imagine a 10 hour road trip, and a rainy hotel parking lot, and your dog pees on command, does his business and gets you out of the rain... Training starts day one on the kind of dog you want to carry around for the next 10 years or so.

Quiet... (or for us southerners, HUSH). Teach it the first night if you're smart... HUSH... nothing good ever happens to a dog making noise. If he's noisey, he doesn't get out, or in, or whatever he wants. HUSH, and a kennel rattling... or when a little older, a chin chuk... Make it be the dogs nature to be quiet, and to know noise gets him nowhere. A dig quiet by nature, who knows noise is going to lead to a correction, is a dog that accepts that, and never wants to. Head off problems, instead of looking for a tip or trick to fix them later. Dogs that whine on the line, or in a duck blind, or in a kennel crate at a training day, are doing that because they did it when they are puppies. Never let them.

SIT... take a puppy, and get his attention with a treat or a piece of dog food, when hes watching it, move it over his head. As he watches it he'll raise his head higher and higher until his read end touches the ground... GOOD SIT. He just sat. He sat for a treat, which isn't sit per say, but he did it. After a few times, he'll make the connection of head high and tail on ground and you're happy. Now, make sit part of his nature... feedtime, hes hungry, bounching around, SIT, one time... with no emotion... he wont sit at first, cause hes hungry and you got the bowl... just wait him out, he'll sit. When he does, put the food down. After a few tries, make him SIT, till you release him with OK to go to the food. Dont tourte him making him sit for 5 minutes, but make him sit till released. You're making his nature be to sit to make things happen. Before he's released from his crate, SIT, open door, OK to come out. before you walk thru a door, SIT you walk thru, then relase with OK. Before ANYTHING good happens, its preceded by a sit and a release.

DON'T nag him... SIT, SIT, SIT BOY, SIT, SIT DOWN NOW, STAY... You're teaching him your words mean nothing to him until you get mad. SIT, and make him comply. If you can't make him comply, don't give the command. Never let him know you're powerless and he can disobey you. Soon, its his nature to always obey, the first time, because he's never done anything else.

If you want a dog that doesnt get on the couch, or the bed, or go down the hall to the bedrooms, never let him. If you let him once, you'll have to bust him at some time or another for it. NO, and put him where hes supposed to be. Same for jumping on people, or any other obnoxious habit. NO, and show him what you want. its that simple. As much as he wants to explore his big new world, he will understand it has boundries, as long as you show him, and ALWAYS make the rules the same. Just one times on allowing things is the most unfair thing you can do to a dog.

So bout 3 weeks into this, you got a dog that will SIT, KENNEL, HUSH, GO PEE and knows the house rules. He's had fun, and so have you. He's too young for serious obedience and pressure so what do you do with him for the next 3 months? Plenty.

Big new world. let him see all of it! Birds, boats, guns, water, 4 wheelers, the smells of cut grass, the smells of uncut grass, a hootchie bird flying by, all of it. Take him everywhere, and let him see and smell all he can. Give him time to run a little, and explore, he'll check up and won't wonder too far. let him see people, other dogs, other people with dogs, cats, you name it... Let him see everything.

Retrieves are where the fun is. Don't overdo them. If pup wont come back with bumper, you're making bad habits. Dont do it. If he gets bored after 5, only give him 3. When he comes back to you with bumper, don't snatch and grab.. Let him hold, while you pet him with bumper in mouth and tell him GOOD HOLD. Yeah, you're teaching him, and he doesn't even know. If he wont come back, long lines or another bumper twirled around will usually do it.. never chase, or play tug of war. The retreiveing at this part is fun, nothing is being learned about retreiving, but a bunch of bad habits can be... Dont do it. Make it simple, focusing on the eyes, and if he wont go and come back, don't throw it.

So your dog sits for treats and his food bowl to released. Sit him in kitchen floor facing you. Piece of dog food behind him 4 foot on floor (let him see you place it). If he moves, pick it up. He needs to sit, till you walk in front of him. SIT (so he'll be looking), tell him OK, his release. Do your hand up like your casting (but slow so you dont scare him). Repete, with OK BACK, then BACK OK. Wow, he's 12 weeks old and takes a back cast. Teach overs one at a time, with the hand signal and chaining commands. Will he cast in the field now? No, but you've got a fun game that he did learn something on, and makes other steps easier. Some dogs really like the back cast, and during formal obedeince lessons (read no fun) a pile of bumpers in the cornor of the yard and a back cast can be as much fun as a hup hup bumper... If you're gonna have a fun game for treats, 3 handed casting to them is more productive than your kids playing tug of war with a stuffed animal or him pissing in your boots.

Now you're 6 weeks or so into it, and you've introduced everything in his life as a hutning dog, and intorduced things (like hold and casting) that are much eaiser for a puppy to understand now than later.... Much like those classes for newborns to learn to swim I suppose.

Around 5 months, the adult teeth start coming in. Mouth gets sore. No fetches for pup... Retreiving is his life, never ask him to do it when its painful for him. Time to formalize formal obedience, with a lead, choke/pinch collar, and stick... Time to start with a dummy collar if your going the ecollar route. You're pup will breeze thru this, as its his nature to SIT, and he already knew what it was.. HERE is no problem, hes on a leash, and he's never been allowed to run off while you yelled HERE cause you never gave commands you couldnt enforce. HEEL is a no brainer, because this dog likes to learn, doesn't fight it. Hes been learning since day one, and never even noticed it.

Training is fun, for you and your dog. If its not fun for either of you, you're doing it wrong. Never correct a dog in anger, never correct a dog for a misteak. Correct dogs for willful disobeience, or not trying. Every time you allow an unwanted behavior be it running the bank, or jumping on someone, or creeping on a hard mark you are being unfair to your dog. Saying, I'll fix it later when its a problem, is saying you don't care enough to not put your dog in that situtation, rather you'd just wait till it blows up, and you'll hammer him for it. Thats wrong. For a dog to always try his hardest for you, you must for him. That means being fair to the dog always. And that starts by making rules stick, and not putting the dog in sitations he's not ready for... if hes not decheated, dont throw cheating marks. if hes not steady don't try to see if he'll break. Testing him instead of teaching is a recipie for failure. travis

[SkippyJ]

Travis as always, good post!!!

[gator]

damn fine my friend, damn fine....if you come down for magnolia rc hunt test, the steak's on me (and dem lil coronies)...gator

[BigLou2]

good post TRavis. I hope you make it to http://www.magnoliarc.com hunt test on Nov 1 & 2. I look forward to meeting you and talking about some dogs. Hey if you now anybody looks for a great bitch puppy right now Charlie Moddy has one left out his MH Dam and FC Bored out Ford(SAm Milton's Dog). He is just about giving this dog away! She is a black pup and real nice. Cahrlie is already running some of the previous litter puppies from this pairing in some Derby and field trail qualifiers. See ya soon Good Luck! Real Nice Post!

[mfalkner]

Mighty fine, Travis. Lotsa good stuff packed into that one.

Mike Falkner

[CaptnT]

Excellent info GB. Good to see you aren't sticking the juice to a pup that young

Seriously, the advise given was first rate, especially about the making it fun. I have friends and family ask me why my dog never runs away, even if the gate is left open. I tell them because he knows its more fun WITH me.

I didn't crate train Beau because when I got him I was a single man. The next lab I have will be crate trained.

One word of advise about the pee-ing on command. The first time you say it the pup won't know what you are saying, so wait until he or she starts and then say it. After awhile they will associate the command with the action. It takes awhile for them to get the idea, but just be consistant.

I opted to use a phrase that isn't normally used in everyday conversation. GO PEE might be confused with GO SEE, so I use BE QUICK. Not much else sounds like that, and other jerks that learn your dog pees on command won't be as likely to give that command for a laugh.

Again GB, good advise and thank you.

[Drake]

Goose,

I have to wholeheartedly agree with you!!! Instead of pee, I use "bathroom". I know it's a little long, but I'm a single man and it doesn't quite offend the ladies so bad - they actually think it's pretty cute most of the time. The bad thing about it is I live in a subdivision and I won't let Drake go in the neighbors yard (for some reason he prefers not dirtying up his own yard), so he has killed half of the shrub on the corner of my house (round-up ain't got nothing on his stuff)

[Dutch Dog]

Travis...you missed it man...Missy got her HR Sunday and I got all wet....dadgum it...Hope you'll be there when she gets her CH.

[Super Black Eagle]

Congrats DD!

Avery is almost ready for some of that professional help you and Goose and Travis are so good at.

SBE

[Dutch Dog]

It tickles me to see her doing good, We would have titled earlier, but had a couple of hickups. We are over those (hopefully) now and are looking forward to bigger and better things. She's a little bitty sh*t..only 39 lbs. I don't see her getting over 45 for her top weight. She's 12 months old now so she's pretty much through growing for the most part. One problem IS her size and she was trained from the get-go to be soft mouthed so she drops ducks sometimes. That, coupled with a small mouth, sometimes she has trouble actually getting a good bite on the duck to begin with. Wish me luck as we are running her first finished test tomorrow.

[chance]

Dutch and Missy!!! Finished tomorrow? Pin Oak or Tenn River? Good luck!!

[Dutch Dog]

Tennessee River. I wanted Jesse and Patsy to get to see her run in her first finished test....Keeping our fingers crossed. The way I look at it is..she hasn't handled on a mark but twice through seasoned (her passes that is) and If I can get her to only pick up 1 more bird then that would get her through a finished test. I know she can get to a finished level blind...she has given me 100% on her casts (no cast refusals) in about 2 weeks. I have been able to throw a mark and then send her to a blind within 20 yards of the mark (poison bird) and she has been honoring since she was 6 mos old...but that is the part that actually has me worried...we have been unable to work on honoring since running hunt tests...hopefully I can find someone willing to do a little honor work in the morning before we run. Missy was 1 year and 1 week old when she got her HR title. Certainly not the youngest dog to do it, but I'm proud of her.....now if we can manage to get by 4 finished level tests and get a CH within the next couple of months THAT would be something...keeping optomistic (SP??), yet with reservations. Heck if she bombs out we'll just keep training until the spring and I know by then she'll be ready.

[goosebruce]

Not my business at all... Crossing fingers and keeping optismistic is a recipie for disater when testing dogs. If you gotta worry about what they throw at you, your weekend would be better spent training. I've never seen a dog at an excpetionally young age that wasn't damaged by running before it should have been. Every swing at a ribbon, will cost you at least 2 in bad habits... soon your training will revolve around trying to fix the latest bad habit, and not actually advanceing and maintaning your dog. Never seen a wonder dog the wheels didn't come off and come to a screaching hault. Like I said, not my business, and certainly don't want to hurt yours or anyone elses feelings... But I just thought you might not have ever seen the downside. A talented young dog doesn't go to waste, they either become talented fully trained dogs, or they become dogs full of holes. Don't think of being able to slide through 4, think of being able to pass 4 in a row, ANY 4 in a row, and you're on the right track. You registered on wd1 today saying you want to take advantage of the knowledge there, and thats the best advice anyone will ever give you.

My dog gave me 2 cast refusals (scalloped back on an over cast in the area of a flyer he had hunted extensively for and the judge had decided he had MADE the bird) sat morning. I picked him up. Nevermind I was still playing. The ribbon wasn't worth the training issue. Being picked up, IS a correction. $55 bucks to yell HERE really loud. So what... today he smacked every mark, sat well on the bucket, and had a total of 6 whistles on 2 tough finished blinds. A hope and a poke yesterday, would have made for a disaster today, and a week of training trying to correct what I let a dog get away with. Instead, I stomped today, and can train this week on what I need to train on, instead of test induced problem. BTW, thats 9 out of 11 in 6 weeks, with only about 5 days training during that time because of my health. Of that, I've handled in the area on one mark (because of a hotblind upwind). The 2 tests I failed, I picked up because my dog was too hot, and I wouldn't let it get out of control. Thats not bragging... thats making a point about consistancy. Consistancy comes from standards, and standards coming from teaching AND enforcing, not from testing. Testing errodes your standards... and if they aren't high and habits, they soon disappear.. you counteract with pressure to fix these problems, and soon your dog knows an ass whooping preludes and follows every hunt test, but no rules apply during those glorius few minutes. A talented black dog is a terrible thing to waste. travis