BABY DOGS II

This will contain some things I do with my own pups when they are still quite young.  I really wish to encourage all of you who are interested in raising a pup for field trials or hunt tests to invest in a subscription to Retrievers Online Magazine published by Dennis Voigt.  Check out past issues for excellent articles on working with young dogs.  Marilyn Fender has done a series on getting started with a pup which is exceedingly well done, very well written, and it has step by step sequences.  In addition, I again suggest ordering Jackie Mertens video which is an asset in anyone’s library.   Information on these is in the past article.

You probably all think I am a paid shill for the above, but I don’t think any of the persons mentioned have any idea I promote their articles, magazine, or video.  I just have gained so much from them, especially Online, that I hope others will, too.

As soon as a puppy arrives in my home, in addition to those things which were described in the previous article, I start throwing mini-bumpers down my hallway for the pup to retrieve.  I make some out of white socks which I stuff and which are easy for a puppy to pick up.  In addition, small paint rollers are excellent.  Some of the commercial puppy bumpers are a little large and a little hard for small pups.

The advantage of the hallway is that I can close the doors on either side so the pup cannot run off and is encouraged to come back to me.  It is carpeted so the footing is good.  I sit on the floor at one end of the hall with the puppy sitting on my lap with my holding him up by a hand under his front legs.  Now that I am no longer in the first bloom of youth, there often is some speculation as to whether or not I will be able to rise from this position once we have finished.  I keep an extra bumper right behind me or in my back pocket in case I need it to get the pup to return to me.

I get the puppy excited by encouraging it vocally and waving the bumper, and then throw the bumper.  I release the pup on his name---actually start sending him when the bumper is somewhat in the air and just landing.  As soon as the puppy grabs the bumper, I clap, move backwards, and wave my spare bumper if necessary for him to return.  When he returns with the bumper, I let him enjoy it and do not snatch it from him immediately.  Depending on the pup, I will offer a small cookie or treat as a reward.  If the puppy comes back but has dropped the bumper part way, I don’t worry about it. 

I do this when my husband is not at home as he doesn’t particularly think our hallway is the best place to train small puppies.  My feeling is what my husband doesn’t know, won’t hurt him.

I usually will only throw a bumper about three times as I want to quit when the puppy still wants to retrieve.  Later in the day, I will do this again.  This is all fun.

When the puppy seems to have the picture, I will then move outside to my side yard and throw bumpers there.  I always use white to encourage the puppy to start to use its eyes.  Next, I get my husband out to throw.  He will get the pup’s attention by a hey-hey and waving the bumper and then will throw.  This is at a very short distance, and I want the pup to go right to the bumper not to the gun.  I make sure the bumper is very obvious to the pup.  I will release the puppy while the bumper is still in the air.  As the puppy becomes better at retrieving, I then have him sit (I am holding him) until it lands.  Once the pup has the bumper, I will pretend to run backwards, wave the other bumper or whatever is necessary to encourage him to return to me.  I don’t use ropes just because I am not very good using them.  Since the puppy has established a routine of coming back to me in the hallway, generally this carries over into the side yard.

As a habit pattern is established, I start to lengthen the marks out.  Generally at this point I go out to the local University and use their soccer field.  The grass is mowed and there is no terrain with which the puppy has to cope.  I will have my husband throw and as the puppy returns with the bumper, I will have my husband back up and throw towards the mark the puppy just had.  By backing away from the previous mark, I want to encourage the pup to hunt in front of the guns.

I use white bumpers for a long time, and I always try to stop while the puppy wants to continue.  If the puppy runs right at the guns, you have gone too far too soon.  Move back in and shorten up the distance so the puppy can be successful a high percentage of the time.

I then start moving to areas with some cover, shorten the throws, (I want the bumper thrown as far from the gun as possible, but the distance to the throw is shortened) and have the bumper land so that as soon as the puppy clears the cover, he will see the bumper.  Start adding a little terrain and some very low obstacles.  If getting there is difficult, I want to make it very easy for the puppy to find the bumper.  I feel that self-confidence is a huge factor in being a good marker.

When I start on water, I will hand throw a bumper so that it is very close to the shore.  If I can find shallow water so the puppy can easily run through it for the retrieve, I will do this.  One winter, there was an area in the sand dunes with a huge body of sheet water.  It was great for our pups as you could really add distance to water marks, yet they could splash out there and get it and return at speed.  They (had two pups at the time) became very impressed with their ability in the water and it carried over to when they actually had to swim.  One of these became an FC/AFC Golden and the other a MACH/MH Golden.

When I move to swimming water, I throw it close to the shore again, and then gradually lengthen it out until the pup is swimming for it.  I always try to stop while I am ahead rather than push the puppy to a point where he doesn’t want to go or is afraid to go because the distance has become too great too soon.  If I can find small creeks or shallow canals, I will use those with the gun standing on one side, and the puppy and me on the other.

When doing early water marks, I want to make sure there is no way the puppy can get the bumper by cheating the water.  I will use an area where he cannot run around, and will start with throwing it into the water and calling him to me the minute he picks up the bumper. Since I have no tools to stop the puppy from cheating, I want marks where he cannot cheat so that he develops a good habit of going and returning through the water.

I am always careful to try and not give a command I can’t enforce.  By this time I am doing a puppy hold and carry, they have not yet been force fetched.  I try to make it much more inviting to do what I ask than not to do it----i.e., cookie when they come, lots of praise, and by maintaining an upbeat manner throughout.

Doubles are harder for me to do because there are not persons around locally with whom I can train.  I will start with hand thrown doubles using the corner of the house as a barrier, or possibly a hedge, etc., so the puppy cannot easily switch.  The next step is to  have my husband throw one and I will throw one off line.  Even though these are poor man’s doubles, I have not had any difficulty with a puppy being able to do doubles once they are older and into a more formal training program.

I believe in lots of teaching and simplifying for puppies.  The obedience I do is all through inducement, and I do start a preliminary to force fetch with the hold and carry work. 

It is hard for me to obtain birds where I live, so my pups often do not get exposed to many until they are into more formal training.  The transition to birds has not proven to be difficult.  If I can, I will get duck or pigeon wings and wrap them around a bumper.  Occasionally, I can get some pigeons and I make sure they are in good shape before throwing them for a pup.  I have not had a pup refuse one.  In fact, the first time I introduced a pup to birds was with Luke (AFC Glenhaven Devil’s Advocate UDT MH OS FDHF), and he raced out, snatched up the pigeon, and ran into the neighbor’s yard.  I never saw the pigeon again---I did see Luke again!  I am unsure if he buried it so his sister couldn’t get it or if he had an early lunch.  At that point, I realized I had to rethink my training methods.

Now, if I do have a bird, I will introduce a pup to it under more controlled conditions such as an enclosed yard or on a long line.  With a pup that is mouthy with a bird, I will not use any more birds until that pup has had a formal force fetch.  With pups that are respectful of a bird, I try to beg, borrow, or almost steal some to use at home.  To show you how naïve I was when starting field work, I looked through the local phonebook for a place to purchase a dead duck to use for training.  When I finally found the advertised place, it was located in the bowels of a part of town I did not frequent, and the duck was all dressed and ready to go in the oven.

If I join a group, I will ask them to throw for the pup in exchange for throwing for any pups they may have.  Usually this can be hit or miss for if no one has a pup, you have to find someone with a kindly soul who will be willing to throw for yours in exchange for your promise to repay in kind at a later date.  If you feel you can trust your puppy with birds, this is a good time to have someone start throwing some training birds for him. 

Before giving the pup a bird, I want to have enough retrieving under its belt so that it understands what drop means as I do not wish to play tug of war with a puppy that is hanging onto a pigeon for dear life.  Cookies in the pocket are a backup if you have to use an exchange-a-plan to get the bird.  If this happens, often I will, again, put off using birds until the puppy has been through a formal force fetch program.

If I am ever in a situation where I have a clipped wing pigeon available, I think there can be nothing more exciting for a pup.   Trev was chosen as my stud fee pup as when he was given a clipped wing pigeon in a large enclosed area, he chased it all over until he caught it.   He never gave up. 

For puppy blinds, I have gone on a walk with the pup, and dropped a white bumper behind me that is readily seen.  The puppy has not seen me drop this.  I will call the pup to me, turn, hold him up, and when he sees the bumper, will get him very excited about it, and then I release him saying “back”.  At this stage, “back” has no meaning to him but with continued association, it will.  When he picks up the bumper, I will turn and run backwards, turning this into a game.  I will repeat this farther along on the walk.

Another method I have used is to put a few small bumpers in a group (again white bumpers) take the pup and hold him while I toss a bumper into the group.  I then send him on “back”, run backwards a bit until he reaches me, give him a lot of praise and/or a cookie for doing this.  At that point, I am probably ten yards farther from the pile of bumpers, and I will turn around, get him excited, and then send him back to the pile.  I will probably do this one more time, having by then moved twenty plus yards farther from my original send.  As the puppy starts to understand, I can lengthen this out.

As the puppy gets better about this, I will take him with me when I plant blinds for my big dog, leave an extra one for him, back up to a reasonable length dependent upon his age and experience, and send him to the blind.  He knows it is there, and originally, I may be so close that he can see the bumpers.

I now am starting to use a whistle.  I will blow my whistle and then say “sit” while doing obedience.  He is used to the come-in whistle from my using it with all the dogs when he is running loose with them. 

For starting casting, you can toss a bumper to one side or the other and say “over” as you do so---using an arm gesture.  The puppy then gets a treat when he does this.  If he has a problem, I make it closer to him and simplify.

If I had built my house and known I was going to be training dogs in the yard, I would have moved the house to a different position to give me more lawn space for training.  As it is, I am sure guests must wonder at some of the strange paths running through our yard.  In the front, I will establish a pile to one side of an oak tree.  I can keep backing up and lengthen a dog out there.  Realistically, not a very big lengthening out, but fine for a puppy.  Once this pile is established, I can sit the pup facing me (I am then standing so the pile is either on my left or on my right), and I can give an over cast either to the right or the left.  He knows where the pile is, and I start so he can see the pile, and he is running the same line.  In addition, I can do my straight up backs using this same pile.  This is done with no pressure as the puppy has not yet been collar conditioned.  Pups have sharp little minds, and it is amazing how quickly they can catch onto something new particularly if they have a strong self-interest in being successful---praise and/or a treat.

Again, the above is basically what I do when I have a new puppy.  There are many other methods that work very well.  I would like to stress that I hate to see puppies put under a lot of pressure at an early age for the sake of the owner’s ego.  You can never go wrong if you teach, simplify, give the puppy a lot of success, and work in a very positive manner. 

There is an excellent book by Mark Rashid about training horses called “Life Lessons from a Ranch Horse.  The six rules he gives work as well for dogs as they do for horses and they are:  1.  Carry a  non-confrontational attitude.  2.  Plan ahead.  3.  Be patient.  4.  Be persistent.  5.  Be consistent.  6.  Fix a setback and move on.

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