Hunting Lad 49 Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 Allright folks, I have been doing a bit of retrieving with my cocker pup he is 4 and a half months old. He is doing ok with it all apart from the finish... He will sit and stay until he is told to fetch the dummy and use his nose to find it when it is out of sight which I am very pleased with. Once he has found it I give him a recall and he shoots back with the puppy dummy or tennis ball.... Great! But the problem is once he gets back to me and sits down he wont release.... He has a decent grip I would say a wrong move could easily make him hard mouthed. So i have been treading gently. At the minute I have just been giving him praise on his return whilst telling him to 'leave' and waiting for him to losen his grip before taking the dummy but I aint getting anywhere with him and am worried I could start making him hard mouthed. I read in moxons spaniel training book that pushing his gums against his teeth will make him release the dummy... but wont this make the spaniel hard mouthed or is a good method??? look forward to replys Regards Ben Quote Link to post
sportingspaniles 5 Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 Too much, too soon. Let the dog be a pup. Let the dog run in to the retrieve and let him hold it when he comes back with it. Just play with him . You will kill his drive with all that formal training at that age Quote Link to post
kiwi 4 Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 take the dummy in your hand and with the other hand lift up the bit of flank skin between the back leg and the ribs at the same time saying your release command works every time. at his age i wouldn't put too much pressure on him, have fun with him he's only a pup. Quote Link to post
eddie2 1 Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 take the dummy in your hand and with the other hand lift up the bit of flank skin between the back leg and the ribs at the same time saying your release command works every time. at his age i wouldn't put too much pressure on him, have fun with him he's only a pup. he,s only a pup take it slow, he,s doing a lot more than mine did at that age, and he turned out ok. Quote Link to post
Lloyd90 509 Posted February 11, 2011 Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 Everyone has said it mate, your doing too much too soon, as for the release just squeeze his gums and he will let go. Id be letting him run in and go nuts in honesty at that age thought, hes only a baby let him see the joys of working, otherwise he wont want to do it. Quote Link to post
doddsy1970 9 Posted February 11, 2011 Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 All though you should be training him in a fashion at this age you should be making it fun. What you should not be doing is expecting too much from the pup. Yes get him sitting and staying and coming back to the whistle but you shouldn't be expecting him to hunt at the moment because as he gets older you may find it very difficult to control him because his prey drive will overtake his willingness to listen to you. The trouble with training a pup is that people expect to move on to more exciting parts of the training before the basics are instilled in the dog. This means that although the dog may be sitting and staying when on its own. When it gets with other dogs or people or even a different environment it can behave totally differently. So instead of a rock steady, obedient dog, you have a crazed nightmare that is working 2 drives ahead to which you have no control over. When you take it out the following day you will find that it is perfectly behaved and you are left scratching your head, wondering why. So do not worry about the delivery at the moment although let him carry things about and get him used to having things in his mouth. Quote Link to post
Catcher 1 639 Posted February 11, 2011 Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 Allright folks, I have been doing a bit of retrieving with my cocker pup he is 4 and a half months old. He is doing ok with it all apart from the finish... He will sit and stay until he is told to fetch the dummy and use his nose to find it when it is out of sight which I am very pleased with. Once he has found it I give him a recall and he shoots back with the puppy dummy or tennis ball.... Great! But the problem is once he gets back to me and sits down he wont release.... He has a decent grip I would say a wrong move could easily make him hard mouthed. So i have been treading gently. At the minute I have just been giving him praise on his return whilst telling him to 'leave' and waiting for him to losen his grip before taking the dummy but I aint getting anywhere with him and am worried I could start making him hard mouthed. I read in moxons spaniel training book that pushing his gums against his teeth will make him release the dummy... but wont this make the spaniel hard mouthed or is a good method??? look forward to replys Regards Ben A book should be used as a guideline not law.What work for one dog may not on another. the sprocker starting its training last year. Quote Link to post
Hunting Lad 49 Posted February 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 All though you should be training him in a fashion at this age you should be making it fun. What you should not be doing is expecting too much from the pup. Yes get him sitting and staying and coming back to the whistle but you shouldn't be expecting him to hunt at the moment because as he gets older you may find it very difficult to control him because his prey drive will overtake his willingness to listen to you. The trouble with training a pup is that people expect to move on to more exciting parts of the training before the basics are instilled in the dog. This means that although the dog may be sitting and staying when on its own. When it gets with other dogs or people or even a different environment it can behave totally differently. So instead of a rock steady, obedient dog, you have a crazed nightmare that is working 2 drives ahead to which you have no control over. When you take it out the following day you will find that it is perfectly behaved and you are left scratching your head, wondering why. So do not worry about the delivery at the moment although let him carry things about and get him used to having things in his mouth. Thanks for all the reply lads.... I have spoke to someone today who said just to hold back on the retrieving until the dog is a bit older.. I havnt done any serious training with the dog yet nothing formal. Just bit in the back garden whilst he is playing. His recall is coming along well and all i have been doing is giving him a few 'sit' commands through out the day and a couple of 'sit' and 'stays' and just taking a few steps back then walking back to the dog and praising him. The thing is I wasnt going to start training until he was 6 months but everyone says you have to start getting the basics in before like sit and stay... but for a novice like me its how far do you take the training how much etc... Regards Ben Quote Link to post
SNAP SHOT 194 Posted February 11, 2011 Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 Time spent training too should be kept short, 10 mins max, and keep it fun.... good luck.. Quote Link to post
Hunting Lad 49 Posted February 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 Time spent training too should be kept short, 10 mins max, and keep it fun.... good luck.. So would you say this is suitable.... Taking the pup down the field once a day for 20 minutes and say 5 minutes exercise letting him have a mooch about and calling him up every so often. Then spend 10 minutes just doing a few sits... and a few sits and stays.... Then spend the last 5 minutes just letting him have a little run about and a play.... Is that too much or is that ok?.... I will sometime throw in the odd retrieve now and again not too much though Regards Ben Quote Link to post
markswan20 2 Posted February 12, 2011 Report Share Posted February 12, 2011 Time spent training too should be kept short, 10 mins max, and keep it fun.... good luck.. So would you say this is suitable.... Taking the pup down the field once a day for 20 minutes and say 5 minutes exercise letting him have a mooch about and calling him up every so often. Then spend 10 minutes just doing a few sits... and a few sits and stays.... Then spend the last 5 minutes just letting him have a little run about and a play.... Is that too much or is that ok?.... I will sometime throw in the odd retrieve now and again not too much though Regards Ben i wud say that was ok. after 5 mins of run time and toilet maybe give him a retrieve to get him in the mood. Then follow on with ten to fifteen mins training max. always keep him enthusiastic and keep the attention on u. and remember let him be a puppy, a happy puppy will become a happy gundog Quote Link to post
Alaunt 4 Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Too much, too soon. Let the dog be a pup. Let the dog run in to the retrieve and let him hold it when he comes back with it. Just play with him . You will kill his drive with all that formal training at that age One of the best replies i have read on this forum[kill his drive]i have seen it happen to many times,i have a cocker pup here of the same age that i bred,all i am concentrating on is eye contact. Quote Link to post
Hunting Lad 49 Posted February 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Too much, too soon. Let the dog be a pup. Let the dog run in to the retrieve and let him hold it when he comes back with it. Just play with him . You will kill his drive with all that formal training at that age One of the best replies i have read on this forum[kill his drive]i have seen it happen to many times,i have a cocker pup here of the same age that i bred,all i am concentrating on is eye contact. Quote Link to post
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