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new lab, need help


Joshcup11
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Hi everyone. I bought a new lab about a month ago and it is now 13 weeks old. It responds to its name,comes almost every time and sits every time

Working on the stay command at the minute but isn't coming along to productively! What would you guys advise as a "list " of commands for a gun dog. And after reading up for hours I'm drill non the wiser as whether to use a whistle aswl or not to bother.

 

Thanks Josh.

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The most you should be doing at the moment is making it sit for it's bowl food as soon as it sits put the food down and roll a tennis ball and let it chase it and get it to come back but don't take it of it pick it up give it a fussy then eventually take it of it it's all a game at this age and should never be more let it enjoy being a puppy I never started training properly till 6 months just done basics

My dogs have been well over 12 months before hearing gun shot

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There's no right way and no wrong way, to some degree. Everyone has their own ideas on early training, and what works for them. What I would say is, if you are going to act upon advice sought on this forum, take into account you have not seen any of the posters dogs. They might (often will) have a completely different idea to you on what a well trained gundog consists of. Only your decisions will determine the outcome of any training. Take responsibility for your own training, look at people who have succeed in attaining a level of consistency that you yourself would be happy with in your own dog. Follow their advice and look for ways to improve on what they are doing.

 

Above all, make every session as stimulating as you can for the dog. The most important thing with early training is making sure you have a clear plan and being consistent with it. The next most important thing is to have a plan B :)

 

Learning about the things you don't do with them at a young age is far more important than finding out the things you do do with them. There's plenty time for them to learn but never ever enough time to undo the things they should never have learned. Be very careful and wary about listening to anyone that suggests you should let them do what they want and let a pup be a pup for the first six months to a year. Like humans in early childhood, more is learned in the first 3% of their lives than at any other time thereafter.

 

Good luck.

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There's no right way and no wrong way, to some degree. Everyone has their own ideas on early training, and what works for them. What I would say is, if you are going to act upon advice sought on this forum, take into account you have not seen any of the posters dogs. They might (often will) have a completely different idea to you on what a well trained gundog consists of. Only your decisions will determine the outcome of any training. Take responsibility for your own training, look at people who have succeed in attaining a level of consistency that you yourself would be happy with in your own dog. Follow their advice and look for ways to improve on what they are doing.

 

Above all, make every session as stimulating as you can for the dog. The most important thing with early training is making sure you have a clear plan and being consistent with it. The next most important thing is to have a plan B :)

 

Learning about the things you don't do with them at a young age is far more important than finding out the things you do do with them. There's plenty time for them to learn but never ever enough time to undo the things they should never have learned. Be very careful and wary about listening to anyone that suggests you should let them do what they want and let a pup be a pup for the first six months to a year. Like humans in early childhood, more is learned in the first 3% of their lives than at any other time thereafter.

 

Good luck.

You are Still talking rubbish when will you learn that you no nothing.
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There's no reasons you can't lay the foundations for future training whilst they are a pup. As you are doing so with the recall at dinner time.

 

No gunfire yet; there's a membrane within the ear that is not formed just yet and you could damage hearing.

 

With regards to a list, I assume as a lab you want for retrieving. So the main commands need to be for handling at a distance to blind retrieves and to keep the dog in an area where the bird dropped. I'd recommend a whistle you can be more subtle to others and game around you than vocally. Plus at 200 yards I doubt your hi lost command will be as audible to the dog as your pips on a whistle.

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Too young! There is no set age some its six months some more like a year (sometimes the brighter dogs take the longest to mature). The early stuff is conditioning not training, what you don't want to do is allow the puppy to enter adolescence and find out during this challenging time it has an option. The K9 brain re-wires during adolescence and you want to be in control of that process, before this we have "puppy do" The baby brain that has been shaped to comply not understand and remember or know anything of its status other than listen to the adults be they people or other dogs in the household.

Walking nice on a lead, house / kennel trained, recall, play retrieves and banging bowls, clapping hands working towards a cap gun at the very most (all the latter associated with good things like feeding time) no guns under 6mnths there is no point in it and you can risk damage to the dog mentally or physically within the ear, again no rush I had to cut a hardened steel padlock of the kennels a few weeks ago with a 9" grinder and got my eldest daughter to distract the dog inside he couldn't give a monkeys about the noise and sparks and he didn't hear a starter pistol till he was over 8mnths. A gundog is "generally" 18 mnths before its in the field with a gun and 3 yrs before its a real asset so don't fret about what it does when even if you exceed these age guides the important thing is not to miss bits you need in place or have them half or 3/4 sorted..

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Quite right but you forget to mention you have the biggest and loudest mouth at the clay shoot ( thought I'd help you out with that one).

If I told you I'd never shot a clay at a clay ground you wouldn't believe me, but there you go.My dogs do visit a clay ground with me from time to time but simply get out of the car for half an hour or so then get back in. I do not know one single person that shoots clays, nor do I know anyone at the clay ground I take the dogs to. So you are taking your frustrations out on the wrong person.

 

By all means get you knickers in a twist for something I've done or said though. Please.

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If I told you I'd never shot a clay at a clay ground you wouldn't believe me, but there you go.My dogs do visit a clay ground with me from time to time but simply get out of the car for half an hour or so then get back in. I do not know one single person that shoots clays, nor do I know anyone at the clay ground I take the dogs to. So you are taking your frustrations out on the wrong person.By all means get you knickers in a twist for something I've done or said though. Please.

Must have been something I said, never did i mention you actually shot at a clay shoot, but there again think what you may.

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People who say don't let them be a pup obviously don't no how to train there dogs so bombard them far to early

Nobody is saying don't let them be pups. There is a difference between letting a pup be a pup and letting a pup do as it pleases for 6 or 12 months. If you let a pup build up certain habits for the first 6 months of it's life, habits you don't want at a later date when it comes to serious training and work, you will struggle to get the learned habits out of it. It's a simple as that. It is a common mistake though that's made. Letting a pup get away with all kinds of behavior only to find when it comes to ' training', the behavior is so ingrained, it's virtually impossible to eradicate. But this is exactly why I mentioned some folk don't realise or are not bothered by certain things, they are not striving to have a good working a dog, they just think that if a dog can go out, pick up a retrieve and return, that's all that's required from a gundog. Most of the time, these folk give the advice...'just let it do what it wants as a pup' things will be ok. Those same folk then come back on here saying things like "how do I stop my dog whinging and whining when it's watching another dog retrieve", or "how do I stop my dog from barking" or " how do I get my dog to hunt for me and not just walk around hunting for itself" or " my dog is happy to pick stuff up but wont come back to me with it" most of these problems (as an example)are likely to be formed/learned in 'puppyhood'

Edited by Bazooka
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Must have been something I said, never did i mention you actually shot at a clay shoot, but there again think what you may.

Apart from the word hello, I've never spoken a word on any occasion, at any time, at a clay ground. Only to the dogs and certainly not loudly. You are twisting the knife for some reason and I can only assume you have a dog that is uncontrollable, something you have failed miserably with, and you cant stand the fact that you in fact are the Manuel of the forum. You are definitely from Barcelona.

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I have never seen the phrase " let the pup do as it wants" ever ! There is a difference in training and conditioning

"Letting the pup be a pup" ...is, and has, on numerous occasions that I'm personally aware of, been misinterpreted by umpteen novice trainers to mean- just let it get on with whatever until it's time to start training at 6 months plus. First time dog trainers have a knack of reading that dog training starts at 6 months plus and what goes before does not matter.

 

Conditioning is exactly that, as I said earlier in a post, what you don't do with them (ingraining bad habits) is far more important than the things you do do with them (training/conditioning)as pups.

 

So, you might never have seen that phrase but you can bet your life that "let a pup be a pup" has been interepereted exactly as that with many a novice gundog trainer and I'm surprised you did not know that, Kent.

Edited by Bazooka
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exactly i said let it be a puppy not let it run riot doing as it pleases theres a big difference

My post under yours was not directed at your comments or advice. If it was I would have quoted you.

 

Nobody said you said let it run riot.Nevertheless, I do know of novice trainers that have let them "run riot" after being given the advice- "let it just be a pup"

Edited by Bazooka
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Labs take time to mature, you can correct your early mistakes quite easily with labs. There is no need to start labs to early, you can do more damage to the skeleton (bones) by to much work at puppy stage. Air on the side of caution and don't be tempted and get carried away with your pup.

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Labs take time to mature, you can correct your early mistakes quite easily with labs. There is no need to start labs to early, you can do more damage to the skeleton (bones) by to much work at puppy stage. Air on the side of caution and don't be tempted and get carried away with your pup.

My advice to Op'er is to do your upmost to avoid ealy mistakes. That way you don't have the headache and heartache of trying to undo them at a later stage.

 

Not letting the dog fail is the one most consistent thing you will hear from good gundog trainers. Minimise the failures and maximise the success's.

 

Good luck.

Edited by Bazooka
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