fergie Posted April 9, 2013 Report Share Posted April 9, 2013 (edited) Well I will be getting my first gundog end of July/August if all goes to plan. I have sorced a trainer to help me with the gundog traing. but i have to children aged 11 & 4 what I would like is a list of rules of what not to do with the pup/dog such as tug of war, etc. Edited April 9, 2013 by fergie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Posted April 9, 2013 Report Share Posted April 9, 2013 Tug of war is a big no no mate, Don't let them over do commands,make sure they stick to the same commands as u. don't let them throw endless retrieves in the house or garden. I have a 3 year old and at first he wanted to help and started to do his own commands so I had to train him as well as the dog but he soon lost interest. He comes out with me when I do some training I get him to hide the dummies for me. There is other things to but you will pick these up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fergie Posted April 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2013 Sorry should have worded that better i know tug of war is a no,no but after other things at are also a no.no Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee-kinsman Posted April 9, 2013 Report Share Posted April 9, 2013 Kennel your dog outside and lock it in that way you have full control of it's training and social time. Thats what I do with mine. In my house the wife and child can pet my dogs, they can tell them to kennel, get off the sofa and get outside. The dogs are loved but they are treated like dogs.Thats it. Everything else comes from me, that way the dogs aren't spoilt and if they are theres only me to blame. I couldn't keep a **** dog for 14 years. It's important to me to get it right. ATB, Lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WGD Posted April 9, 2013 Report Share Posted April 9, 2013 (edited) I took Lee's approach when I started out, but I appreciate different folks have different requirements and if your dog is to live in the house it will have to get on in the family. Jody is bang on with the commands thing, let the kids play with the dog but for example don't have them asking the dog to sit if, like I do, sit means sit until told to do otherwise and you don't use stay. The kids will say "good boy" and wander off, the dog will also wander off and hey presto it's confused when you ask it to sit and correct it for moving. Much of the dogs confusion IMO can be ironed out if you are the only person that feeds the dog and takes it out, those are the things that count in the dogs mind. You don't say what kind of dog you are getting? Hunting breeds, again IMO, can't be "walked"... they just self hunt. Retrievers on the other hand can be walked, as long as the heel work is done properly and they know where they should be when you have them out... a "go play" command is good as the dogs get to know this is a "please yourself but still do what you're told" command. On a basic level with a pup, again Jody is on the money but I would say no retrieving (with kids doing it you'll end up with a poor delivery) and no commands - just socialising and play. Edited April 9, 2013 by WGD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclestuffy Posted April 9, 2013 Report Share Posted April 9, 2013 FOr our dog, the children were not allowed to tell the dog off, throw things or use the whistle - the only thing they could do was love, cuddles and affection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent Posted April 11, 2013 Report Share Posted April 11, 2013 On 09/04/2013 at 20:44, WGD said: I took Lee's approach when I started out, but I appreciate different folks have different requirements and if your dog is to live in the house it will have to get on in the family. Jody is bang on with the commands thing, let the kids play with the dog but for example don't have them asking the dog to sit if, like I do, sit means sit until told to do otherwise and you don't use stay. The kids will say "good boy" and wander off, the dog will also wander off and hey presto it's confused when you ask it to sit and correct it for moving. Much of the dogs confusion IMO can be ironed out if you are the only person that feeds the dog and takes it out, those are the things that count in the dogs mind. You don't say what kind of dog you are getting? Hunting breeds, again IMO, can't be "walked"... they just self hunt. Retrievers on the other hand can be walked, as long as the heel work is done properly and they know where they should be when you have them out... a "go play" command is good as the dogs get to know this is a "please yourself but still do what you're told" command. On a basic level with a pup, again Jody is on the money but I would say no retrieving (with kids doing it you'll end up with a poor delivery) and no commands - just socialising and play. Not so much a bad delivery as they just go running off looking for the boss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd90 Posted April 11, 2013 Report Share Posted April 11, 2013 Best thing I ever could of done with mine was stick em in a kennel with a big lock on and not let the family touch em! Totally ruined em for what I got em for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiny tim Posted April 11, 2013 Report Share Posted April 11, 2013 On 09/04/2013 at 20:44, WGD said: I took Lee's approach when I started out, but I appreciate different folks have different requirements and if your dog is to live in the house it will have to get on in the family. Jody is bang on with the commands thing, let the kids play with the dog but for example don't have them asking the dog to sit if, like I do, sit means sit until told to do otherwise and you don't use stay. The kids will say "good boy" and wander off, the dog will also wander off and hey presto it's confused when you ask it to sit and correct it for moving. Much of the dogs confusion IMO can be ironed out if you are the only person that feeds the dog and takes it out, those are the things that count in the dogs mind. You don't say what kind of dog you are getting? Hunting breeds, again IMO, can't be "walked"... they just self hunt. Retrievers on the other hand can be walked, as long as the heel work is done properly and they know where they should be when you have them out... a "go play" command is good as the dogs get to know this is a "please yourself but still do what you're told" command. On a basic level with a pup, again Jody is on the money but I would say no retrieving (with kids doing it you'll end up with a poor delivery) and no commands - just socialising and play. all of the above is true and a good post...the sentence I have highlighted is probably the most important piece of advice you can get for spanials...good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted April 11, 2013 Report Share Posted April 11, 2013 go and get yourself the gundog book by P.R.A. Moxon....he was a rough shooter before the war and ran spanells and labs...really good basic stuff and covers important topics as how the relationship between family and owner must be...like getting everybody to use the same commands.......there are hundreds of gundog books out there and most of them specialist books , i do find they contradict one another...alot of them are written by trialers....which is a completly different discipline. if you are using a trainer, then get it trained, and if you have a problem with a certain aspect then come onto PW, as you will get more help that way, as most of the members have been there seen done it, who have dogs. PS if you have a spaner train it to hand signals at the same time, as they have a habit of becoming deaf...(do not confuse with spaniel deafness).... good luck PS..its not only about training a dog, its also about training yourself !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WGD Posted April 11, 2013 Report Share Posted April 11, 2013 On 11/04/2013 at 16:28, ditchman said: PS..its not only about training a dog, its also about training yourself !! Is 100% correct.... knowing what you want the dog to do is half the battle. If you're not sure the dogs got no chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brooksieledgend Posted April 12, 2013 Report Share Posted April 12, 2013 Try not to put you dog in a situation were it can do wrong always try and do positive training Exercises Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goodlittlebitch Posted April 12, 2013 Report Share Posted April 12, 2013 I slipped up with a lakeyxpatt pup.. brought it into the house for a week till I sorted out extending the kennels at the weekend. Was a well bred little bitch whos parents only know work.. week in the house with are lass falling in love with it its ended still in the house a year later. Its killed a few rats but apart from that its a pot licker. Well and truly spoiled a good dog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffd Posted April 15, 2013 Report Share Posted April 15, 2013 Its not always so easy to have a kennelled un spoiled dog and for many of us our gundogs are also pets. Over the last 40 years all of my working dogs have lived in the house and were with the kids all day, my latest pup now plays with the grandson’s. My rules were never let the pup play with anything you use for training I only use conventional dummies so these banned from the house, no throwing toys for retrieving practice but I am sure this was ignored. No chasing the pup to get back things most likely ignored when I was not there. No using the whistle and the only place the family could take pups was to the playing field. I know my kids played tuggy with the pups even though this was a no no but this did no more harm than when the pups played tuggy with the other dogs I have never had a hard mouthed dog or one that would not retrieve to hand and I have used tuggy to encourage a reluctant pup that did not want to pick up anything. Dogs soon pick up that you expect different behaviour to the rest of the family. I am not saying my dogs would not have been better gundogs if kennelled but over the years I have had some good some brilliant and one ESS that would hunt Perthshire whilst I was shooting in Aberdeenshire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreadedFlapper Posted April 15, 2013 Report Share Posted April 15, 2013 On 15/04/2013 at 13:20, jeffd said: Its not always so easy to have a kennelled un spoiled dog and for many of us our gundogs are also pets. Over the last 40 years all of my working dogs have lived in the house and were with the kids all day, my latest pup now plays with the grandsons. My rules were never let the pup play with anything you use for training I only use conventional dummies so these banned from the house, no throwing toys for retrieving practice but I am sure this was ignored. No chasing the pup to get back things most likely ignored when I was not there. No using the whistle and the only place the family could take pups was to the playing field. I know my kids played tuggy with the pups even though this was a no no but this did no more harm than when the pups played tuggy with the other dogs I have never had a hard mouthed dog or one that would not retrieve to hand and I have used tuggy to encourage a reluctant pup that did not want to pick up anything. Dogs soon pick up that you expect different behaviour to the rest of the family. I am not saying my dogs would not have been better gundogs if kennelled but over the years I have had some good some brilliant and one ESS that would hunt Perthshire whilst I was shooting in Aberdeenshire. This is the same scenario for me! But I do ask myself if I had of kennelled him would he be much further forward? I have no previous experience in training dogs so wouldn't know! Do you think having them in a family environment with young kids slows the pace? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffd Posted April 16, 2013 Report Share Posted April 16, 2013 On 15/04/2013 at 14:57, DreadedFlapper said: This is the same scenario for me! But I do ask myself if I had of kennelled him would he be much further forward? I have no previous experience in training dogs so wouldn't know! Do you think having them in a family environment with young kids slows the pace? Yes I really think that it makes it harder and if I was looking to run a dog in trials it would be kennelled and it would only interact with me, but my dogs have always been rough shooting dogs expected to sit in hides pigeon shooting, go wildfowling, flush rabbits on the hill as well as the pheasant days and no dog expected to multi role like this would ever be entered to trial. The best way to ruin a good dog is to take it shooting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsonicnat Posted April 16, 2013 Report Share Posted April 16, 2013 Never PLAY Tug Of War, worst thing you can do, try to get your first Pheasant back after doing that: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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