My Labs off for residential training :(

[Nik_B 3,790]

After a year and a half of making mistakes and then trying to fix them it was getting to the point where I would have probably ended up with a ruined dog. I've taken the decision to sent the lad off to a professional to get him straightened out. I suppose you don't learn if you don't make mistakes and in the last few months I could see some progress but he is way behind where he should have been at 22 months. He's going to learn kennel manners and have his general discipline sorted out first as obviously we can't move forward without that. When he gets home he's going to live in a kennel so that his time with the family is more constructive and so that fun will come from training and not from playing with anything he can get his jaws on.

 

The house is empty with out him and I am sure it sounds daft but its really weird not having him around all the time

 

Good Luck Ollie

[bobafet 30]

Best of luck

 

hope it goes well for you,

[benji benji 60]

how much does that cost

[stroller 341]

just a question but do they train you in how to go on when you get the dog back? because if you are no further experienced the dog will lapse? im no expert but i know that a lot of dogs get issues from owners inexperience.

 

i wish you well mate and i hope the lad does well. its a credit to you that you have persevered a lot of dogs just get passed on

[Nik_B 3,790]

just a question but do they train you in how to go on when you get the dog back? because if you are no further experienced the dog will lapse? im no expert but i know that a lot of dogs get issues from owners inexperience.

 

i wish you well mate and i hope the lad does well. its a credit to you that you have persevered a lot of dogs just get passed on

 

You are completely right. He will become someone else's dog while he is there. After this it will be me that needs training to handle him and I'll be making weekly visits for lessons. I'm under no illusion that my own inexperience is the cause of my problems but I have also learned for the next time where I have gone wrong. I could have bought a fully trained dog instead of a pup but I'd have just ruined it in the end anyway. He's nearly 2 years old and 2 months training isn't going to have turned him into a fully trained gundog but I think he will be disciplined and understand what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and have the basics covered. From there onward we should be able to make progress and I think next season he will be ready.

 

Trying to training a dog has been one of the hardest things I have ever done It has also made me realise how inconsistent I can be even with my kids which is interesting

[Lab 10,979]

Interesting reading this Nik.......we have pups at the same age mate and although i dont know the mistakes you have made i wouldn't get to worry about what direction the dog is going in. My pups will be going picking up at the shoots at the beginning of this season (for me its 8th October), i will not be expecting them too be world beaters this season but i will expect by the end of the season and until next they will be fully trained working gundogs.

Get a few lessons, get the basics under your belt and get the dog back working with you as soon as possible. You'll hear alot of people pointing at dogs at shoots and saying "See that dog over there, such and such had it working great until the owner took it back."......if i was you mate i'd train myself up first so you can train up your own dog.........Good luck.

[Nik_B 3,790]

I set myself a tall order indeed

 

I've never been beating or picking up nor have I even been on a pheasant shoot! I have seen a spaniel work and been on the occasional rough shoot and decoying pigeons so in terms of experience I have very little. Still I wasn't going to let that stop my usual impetuous nature

 

I read as much as I could and I don't think I've done bad for a total novice....oh yeh did I also mention I've never owned a dog before either?

 

He's great around the house and good at retrieving in the garden and delivers to hand, he understands the stop whistle and walks very well to heel but once we go anywhere where there is grass away from the house or where there are other dogs he turns in to a nutter and recall disappears. He did his first water retrieve recently and got so excited he went mental and ran around the beach and I couldn't recall him in!

 

Part of my problem is that I work away so I can be gone for a month....often when I feel like I am making progress I go away for a month only to come home to find a lot of my training has unravelled because the wife hasn't the same interest in training. I don't want to have lessons and then find the same has happened again so I decided to send him for residential training so we can get him up to speed on the basics. When he comes home he will be living in a kennel instead of the house so he won't get his fun from picking shoes up and maybe this will sharpen him up a bit. I might even send him back for a few times when I go away for work just to make sure we're making progress.

 

As you can see my chances for success alone are slim to non! When he comes back I will have plenty of lessons so I am being trained to handle him correctly so it all doesn't unravel....I understand that I need to command his respect and to be strict but kind and to be consistent. If it wasn't for my job I would have just had the lessons.

[stroller 341]

Nic your honesty in dealing with this problem is commendable. and i wouldnt beat yourself up too much you know where you went wrong and now you have resolved to put it right. My biggest problem is my temper and i know not to even try training when im in a mood, ive made a lot of mistakes in the past when training dogs and it can be a slow process putting things right

[Nik_B 3,790]

The biggest mistake was to let him run round with other dogs when he was young. I knew it was wrong but let myself be persuaded by 'park dog' owners who are just clueless muppets and kept saying thiungs to make me feel guilty about not letting him off the lead. That made him more and more motivated by other dogs and also conditioned him to thinking grass = run around.

 

Some successes I had this year were to make him steady when he sees cats and other animals, I walk him where there are loads of cats and everytime he sees one I blow the stop whistle. He's really good now and also I can walk him to heel without a lead round the block but things go pair shaped when we get on a field or a beach.

 

The guy who's going to train him is a top bloke and I fully trust him. I am looking forward to him training me next.

 

I got told a few times that my first dog is the training dog and the one where I make a lot of my mistakes to learn for the next and I really see how they were right about this. Still as long as I end up with a rock steady dog who can retrieve and recall 100% I would be pretty happy with that.

 

Sroller I know what you mean about getting angry, I also feel a bit self conscious when I have to correct Ollie he's a very power Labrador and a little yank on the lead does absolutely nothing. I get really paranoid that someone is going to think I am brutalising him. I have had some nice comments though from people round here which was encouraging because we live in a town and almost no one shoots or works dogs round here

 

Cheers

[Mooch. 177]

Good luck with it mate. It sounds like you're entering into this with the right attitude and not just throwing money away for a quick fix.

 

I did pretty much the same thing in that I got a dog and tried training it myself without really knowing what I was doing. A year later I joined a Gundog class (The Gundog Club, (overpriced)) and now he's a changed dog.

[Lab 10,979]

Good luck with it mate. It sounds like you're entering into this with the right attitude and not just throwing money away for a quick fix.

 

I did pretty much the same thing in that I got a dog and tried training it myself without really knowing what I was doing. A year later I joined a Gundog class (The Gundog Club, (overpriced)) and now he's a changed dog.

Think thats the difference here......you joined a class where you were shown what to do with your own dog, a mile difference from handing your dog over to someone else to train for you......

[Nik_B 3,790]

Either way I'll have to hand him over to someone when I leave for work. I'd prefer a gundog trainer to my wife. I am looking at this as a team effort and not me being lazy and getting someone else to do all the work which we all know doesn't work out.

 

After some lessons we are making real progress but I leave for Saudi next week and will be away for 3 or 4 weeks and I know for a fact that if I leave him with the wife I will come back and have to start the process all over again.

 

Once I am back it will be boot camp for ME not Ollie

 

We will have lessons once a week and I will do training every day but hopefully some of his worse traits should have been ironed out. Then I need the wife to have a lesson or two just to cover the basics so she doesn't let him fall in to bad habits when she takes him out.

 

I just need to get some confidence back so I can trust him in certain environments i.e. around other dogs and in open spaces.

[Lab 10,979]

Either way I'll have to hand him over to someone when I leave for work. I'd prefer a gundog trainer to my wife. I am looking at this as a team effort and not me being lazy and getting someone else to do all the work which we all know doesn't work out.

 

After some lessons we are making real progress but I leave for Saudi next week and will be away for 3 or 4 weeks and I know for a fact that if I leave him with the wife I will come back and have to start the process all over again.

 

Once I am back it will be boot camp for ME not Ollie

 

We will have lessons once a week and I will do training every day but hopefully some of his worse traits should have been ironed out. Then I need the wife to have a lesson or two just to cover the basics so she doesn't let him fall in to bad habits when she takes him out.

 

I just need to get some confidence back so I can trust him in certain environments i.e. around other dogs and in open spaces.

Sorry mate but i wasn't point the finger at your making out your were anyway lazy. As long as you realise when the dog comes back that you will still need to learn how to keep the dog working. Its going to be difficult as you say since you work away but it will come.

[Nik_B 3,790]

Sorry wasn't saying you were but there are lots of people out there who buy a trained dog or have one trained but expect the dog to be like a robot when it comes home. The dog no doubt soon figures out where it can start to exploit weaknesses and I'll bet 6 months later it ends up crap. It must be annoying for the professional trainer of those dogs when someone says "so and so trained that dog" with an accusing tone.

 

It is going to be very difficult to maintain consistency but I am totally committed to winning this battle and ending up with a dog that I am proud of.

 

AS you say the work will really begin when he comes home and I am going to try and have a couple of months off over the winter to work with him.

 

I do hate my job sometimes