springer pup problem

[secretagentmole 1,701]

J Daviers, my cocker is 6 months, he carries things around with him, got a permanent something in the gob addiction Bertie has! Superbly eager to please so we are gently training him up, I just wish is tail would stay still, he wags his tail from the front shoulders back!

[Philluk 181]

i got 4 cocker spainels and she is to young to train all mine start at a year old i may be wrong but they all turned out ok

 

I've often heard this said, you should start training at 12 months but says who??? Some children do better than others, there is no written law. Foxhounds start hunting at 6 months but may take a year to turn out good, some never do it.

 

I believe in let a puppy be a puppy enjoy the play but there is nothing wrong to make play fun and turn it into training, my dog is now 2 days over 8 months, and in august I was in Poole and the dog comes every where with me so a large amount of walking on lead shopping and use the heal word is easy. I waited outside a shop whilst wife went inside whilst I sit there I do things, strip the puppy coat off, make him sit, stay etc. Then she called me in, I dropped the lead said stay and walked in the shop for 3 mins and kept going to the window to check but he sat as good as gold. Playing with a dummy he learnt to sit stay fetch and even back, even the whistle was used and now he can be sent to retrieve and I can stop him on the whistle. He will sit whilst I rifle shoot a rabbit and he will bring it back, pheasants he will flush and as yet he has to retrieve one but a pigeon was not an issue.

 

One of the reasons he is steady and so good is time, pure time, no shouting, no hitting and he hasn't got into any bad habits. If you take your dog for a walk let it off the lead the first thing it does is get to take off speed as he stretches his legs, as a puppy up to 6 months you shouldnt take him on long walks, so i used that to walk in small circles in a field, so we didnt cover much ground but it made him stay close to me so even now i let him off he runs in a circle around me, go shooting he works in a circle around me, coincidence could be but it works.

 

Yes we have off days, if i confess to one habit I got into when I saw a squirrel as we walk to the park was to send him after it, my fault i know, so he walks now looking for them, as I have stopped it. But one of the things I've learnt is that if training is not going right walk away from it, when he retrieves he brings sits and waits for the command before I take it, but he does sometimes drop and start hunting, so we just sit in the park and play, there is always tomorrow.

[Casso 1,261]

the reasoning behind leaving training till older is because drive and sexuality are intertwined, drive is what makes a dog attracted to its prey and that real attraction doesn't happen till a pup reaches that stage, a pup will work for treats but he wont have the ability to harmonise with you unless drive is involved,

 

Your right there is no written law but foxhounds obey commands reinforced through the whip, prey instinct can become the overriding force in a pups make up meaning if encouraged to chase too early it lays down concept for a pups approach to work(completely stimulated by instinct or movement) and a habit which can become annoyingly hard to adjust like in the squirrel problem you talk honestly about,

best of luck,

[Philluk 181]

I see what your saying, I've never used treats as any form of training it's all been him wanting to please me, and fun, games we played,

 

he surprised me out shooting on wed someone dropped a hen and I marked where it landed, when I got there I searched and he didn't find it so I got someone with a experienced dog to search the area, he didn't find it either. I walked along the path and 50m he picked up scent went into the waters edge where a lump of branches had his interest and he went in, hen came out jumped in the water closely followed by my dog who caught it and brought it to me. Pround dad or what.

 

I try to make training fun and really encourage him