[duk man]

ok fellas. as most of you know, i found a dog a couple weeks ago and never found the owners. hes now my huntin buddy and is being trained as we speak. heres a lil overview of what were working on and wat he already knows. keep in mind hes only 11 wks old. any input for new commands or anything of the sort will be most graciously accepted as this is my first lab and first time training a gun dog.

ok, so with about a weeks worth of work, he is making complete retrieves of about twenty yards and returns back to my feet. he is starting to go on command, but it needs A LOT of work. we started trying short, simple blind retrieves today using hand signals.

he works very well in the fifteen minute sessions we are working in, it just depends on what kind of mood hes in. im not going to push him too hard as hes still a puppy and he just loses interest quickly. i will be getting a whistle asap seeing as how he responds to that much better than my voice as far as getting his attention when hes distracted by something. i dont plan on buying an e collar because ive seen too many good dogs ruined with them. i realize thats the operators error but i dont want that thing to be there to mess anything up seeing as how im trying to prove my grandfather wrong about the dog being able to hunt in the first place. the only problem i see right now is he has separation anxiety and deals with it by barking. it usually stops within five or ten minutes, but i dont want it to last that long or even occur at all for that matter. any advice on stopping this before its beyond fixing? and any other retrieves you guys think he needs to be working on would help tremendously. thanks :thumbsup:

 

[HNTFSH]

First thing you wanna do is get your mind straight. Since you have accepted this responsibility you're no longer allowed to claim "this is your first time training a hunting dog" BUT "You already know what the best methods are".

Secondly - your 11 week old is not running blinds and taking hand signals.

Get a good training book (program) read, read, read (and ask questions) and learn how to train your dog. Sorry...but the first few months is not about throwing bumpers it's about obedience.

You can easily ruin a pup and make any future training 10 times harder if you don't educate yourself first.

And e-collars don't ruin any more dogs than steel toe boots, improper intro to gunfire, pup burnout, training confusion and impatience.

See goosehunterdog for training aids...he's a good guy with good prices and very knowledgeable.

 

[buckmeister]

Duk Man:

Get the "Ten minuter retreiver" a book by John and Amy Dahl

"Sound Beginings" A DVD for pups like Boomer

That book and CD will get you going with confidence.

Right now dont throw any more than 3 retreives in a short training session. you always want the dog wanting more, dont throw bumpers until he gets bored just 3 bumpers maybe two sessions per day. The idea is to create more desire to retreive by always leaveing them wanting more. And in the future keep your training sessions between 5 and ten minutes long.

Get a Training program and for the next two weeks study it hard. You cant train that pup until you have educated yourself. I have a 5 month old pup right now myself and I read and whatch DVD every week now to make sure I am on track.

Be patient, you have time before the Duck season, remember its not "practice makes perfect its perfect practice makes perfect".

Order a book and CD Tommorow.

When is Boomer doing all this barking your talking about Duk Man?

 

[Goosehunterdog]

I must also recommend a good training program! I would recommend if going with a book The 10 Minute Retriever...If going with a DVD I would start with Sound Beginnings and then Fowldawgs 1....

I would do short simple retrieves and work with Obediance!! Most importantly I would be making it all fun!!

Please feel free to call 641 203-2867 or PM if you need further assistance on training material and price quotes..

 

[buckmeister]

Dukman:

Call Goosehunters number and get fixed up. That what I did. Then you will know that you are doing what the pros do. Nothing but the best for Boomer! Thats the great thing about this site, you can get find all your training materials and still get advice for specific situations.

 

[duk man]

thanks guys. thats gonna help me out a lot. i will be ordering books and dvds from mclabs asap. my birthday is comin up so that gives me a chance to hit the parents up for this stuff :rofl: :yes:

 

[DuckMN]

First thing you wanna do is get your mind straight. Since you have accepted this responsibility you're no longer allowed to claim "this is your first time training a hunting dog" BUT "You already know what the best methods are".

Secondly - your 11 week old is not running blinds and taking hand signals.

Get a good training book (program) read, read, read (and ask questions) and learn how to train your dog. Sorry...but the first few months is not about throwing bumpers it's about obedience.

You can easily ruin a pup and make any future training 10 times harder if you don't educate yourself first.

And e-collars don't ruin any more dogs than steel toe boots, improper intro to gunfire, pup burnout, training confusion and impatience.

See goosehunterdog for training aids...he's a good guy with good prices and very knowledgeable.

Sounds all to familiar to me.......

:yes: :yes: :yes:

Agreed on the e collar too. If you have no clue what you are doing you don't need an e collar to ruin a dog.

Hang around here for a while, read stuff, even if it doesn't apply directly to you. I think you will find that if you obsess over dog training for a few months you will find you know more about how a dog thinks than you ever thought possible.

You will want to get the stuff like this: When the pup refuses to come when called, even if they know the command very well, you have to resist the temptation to scold the pup upon return. You need to praise the pup for coming back, because when you scold them, they associate it with the recall, not the act of ignoring to the first command.

Stuff like that really fascinates me. When you start to understand these things, your dogs behavior will make more sense. It's pretty fun to stand there watching your dog go nuts and say to yourself "Hey, I know why he's doing that!"

You are probably going to love training a dog, but you WILL have some hard times. That cute little pup is gonna be a teenager soon, and pups like to test you.

 

[duk man]

you got that right about the fact that they will test you. im still working on gettin everything together that i need to get started as far as books and dvds go. for now, the only other thing i will be ordering in the near future will be a small deadfowl trainer and some canvas dummies.

the more i read, talk to other lab owners and trainers, and the more im with him, the more i realize that he wants to make me happy and be happy himself in the process. he loves goin out and chasin this elongated tennis ball lookin thing ive been usin in place of a bumper. right from the start, he came back to my general area. now hes learning commands such as HERE, LOOSE, and SIT. these are commands he knows pretty well, sit being the best. each week, i make adjustments and depending on how hes doing, i mite add a simple command and work on that but its simple things like HOLD after the bumpers been thrown. he comes when called, and if not the first time by voice, the second time by whistle. ill clap really loudly when hes eatin and although he still looks up, hes quicker about going back to eating. when training, if he does exactly what i thought or want him to do, he gets a treat. but he gets lots and lots of praise when he does anything right. i dont scold him during training since he has done nothing wrong. the only time i scold him is when he starts drinkin out of a puddle or is pickin up shells and chewin on em. for the most part though, hes well behaved and listens MOST of the time. hes only about 11 wks though, so i think hes doin ok.

 

[MacMan]

Well. . . my thoughts: Dude, make it an incredible experience for the dog. . . GET DUCK WINGS. . . make him/her exstatic to chase these things on the end of a fishing rod with about 4 ft of line. Socialize - socialize. . . The more I read about younger folks getting a pup and JUMPING headlong into specifics and requirements. TOO much TOO soon. Have fun man - enjoy the puppy - that's what he is! Little bit of training here and there - BUT, OB is the one of the most important components. Sit - stay - HEAL (one of the biggies). . . Get the books/CD/DVDs at 6 or 7 mos, you can "require" specifics. Maybe at 1 yr, you'll get them. AND if you choose to be Amish about training - understand that it might require 2 or 3x the work.

 

[DuckMN]

If I were you, I would get rid of that "second time by whistle." You don't want the pup to know that they have ever had the option. When you do that, have him on a check cord and reel him in if you have to. You are conditioning him to come only the second time, you will never get that voice command if you just "try again" when he doesn't comply.

Basically what I am getting at is that you need to be consistent as a trainer. Require 100% compliance in the yard or you will get less than 25% in the field. Been there, fixed that.

On that note, you could probably afford to slow down a bit. At the very least don't take any advice you get to mean that you need to work harder with a pup, you are doing fine in that department.

And enjoy it, I'm sure you are.

 

[HNTFSH]

Agreed with MacMan and DuckMN! :thumbsup:

Set the pup up to succeed at everything. This takes some thinking on your part with all teaching.

 

[Speck attack]

CRAWL WALK RUN

For that young of a dog you should be working on the basic obediance sit here heel. Throwing fun bumpers is one thing but hand signals is a whole nother game you gotta build a solid foundation before you start that. Good obediendance is critical for all stages of the game if you dont think so ask some people that just got done at the grand. As far as the ecollar ruining a dog you are absolutily right an ecollar sure will ruin a great dog if the dog is not propperly collar conditioned. You should check out the waterdog website www.waterdogtv.com their is alot of good info on their and you can always pick the brains of some of the top pros and ams that frequent the board.

Remeber crawl walk run

 

[duk man]

you guys are right, especially duckmn. hes still a puppy and im gonna enjoy every minute of it. now thats not sayin, his training will come to a halt, but we will keep the hunting aspect of things out of the picture for a while besides throwing fun bumpers. i realized today how much work i have ahead of me. i thought i was doing fine with him and he was learning everything very quickly, but he gets distracted very easily. i dont think it helped that he was in a new place, but i think thatll go away after i start taking him with me when i go to dif family members houses.

a loose dog wandered up and i was interested to see how he handled the situation, and to my surprise, he took it exactly the way i was hoping it would go.

i think i will keep working on simple ob for a while and when he hits about five or six months maybe, ill start with the hunting aspect of things. which, im hoping, will just be a combination of everything weve worked on up until then. i wont push him hard until hes about ten months. when he hits a year, im hopin hell know just about everything, but itll just need a lil more practice.

depending on how he is looking when huntin season comes along, i think ill take him on the early season and get him some practice before the temps plummit. but other than that, im not really looking to hunt him full time until next year.

 

[MacMan]

loose dog wandered up and i was interested to see how he handled the situation, and to my surprise, he took it exactly the way i was hoping it would go.

And what was his response here?

AND - find some bird wings - it's integral to assist his "birdyness" at this age. Some have prey drive right away, others need a little encouragement. Like I said before, duck wings on the end of a string w/ a small fishing poll can be hours of fun for both of you AND hey, if he gets worn out and wants to sleep all night. Cool huh?

 

[duk man]

he was calm and didnt back down, but he didnt offer to bite the ears off the other dog. he didnt bother to go after it when it walked away either. they sniffed and that was about it. he never barked or anything so i was satisfied.

and ill have to get some bird wings. will dove wings work? we just planted grass seed and were having problems with them. were shootin em anyways, but we havent killed any yet. (mostly because its been with an old bb gun) but if theyll work, ill break out my bb gun (the one thatll throw a ton of bbs :yes: ) and shoot to kill and have some dove as an appetizer and train the dog all at the same time :rofl:

 

[HNTFSH]

and ill have to get some bird wings. will dove wings work? we just planted grass seed and were having problems with them. were shootin em anyways, but we havent killed any yet. (mostly because its been with an old bb gun) but if theyll work, ill break out my bb gun (the one thatll throw a ton of bbs :yes: ) and shoot to kill and have some dove as an appetizer and train the dog all at the same time :rofl:

duk man,

You may want to reconsider the out-of-season harvesting of a Migratory Game bird or at a minimum, not post your intentions on the internet.

Any wing will work - I'm sure you can come by some duck or goose wings from hunters or buy a pack of 6 pheasant wings from the sporting goods store.

Keep up the positive reinforcement in training - good to hear you are doing that. Also know dogs don't work or do anything to 'please' YOU, they do things to please themselves. This becomes more apparent as they get older but it is worth keeping in your mind.

 

[MacMan]

I agree w/ HNTFSH. . . What BB gun? :huh: Nevertheless, there's probably someone on the board here that is or will attend a hunt test soon. There's always a bunch of birds around to dispose of. What's a few bucks for the real thing? worth every penny.

That's good about your pup simply ignoring the advance and not cowling down. Good sign of confidence and restraint.

 

[Whitehorse]

If I had to do it all over again (I havn't seen sound beginins, but have heard it's pretty good)

I would have gotten the fowl dawg dvds

hey pup fetch it up is a good book

Come time to forcefetching, you are going to want smartfetch dvd. with Graham.

These are the resource I will keep for life, and also will buy Sound Beginings dvd when I get some cash.

Do not waste time with any methods by walters, wern't really helpful to me at all (dvd's)

There is also a collar conditioning dvd out Mike Lardy's Total Ecollar, and it's worth at least owning if not using!!!!

 

[Whitehorse]

oh, i wish I had introduced birds much earlier on my first pup. It was 6 months when he was on his first live bird, and it was really late if you ask me

 

[MacMan]

oh, i wish I had introduced birds much earlier on my first pup. It was 6 months when he was on his first live bird, and it was really late if you ask me

Forgive me here; DAMN late. birds/socialization/birds/socializationbirds/socializationbirds/socializationbirds/socialization

4 and 5 mos old. . . OB with more birds/socializationbirds/socializationbirds/socializationbirds/socialization

BUT, all this begs to inquire. . . WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM YOUR PUP. Want a Grand - HRCH - MH, or do you want a hunting buddy that will work with you and accomplish all that hunting may require.

BTW - asking myself this. . .