WHEN TO START

‘SOCIAL’ training should begin at the earliest possible stage. This is not to be confused with formal Obedience training but is getting the puppy used to everyday situations and to make it a member of the family in the truest sense of the word.

HOUSE-BREAKING

A puppy that comes from clean surroundings; i.e. where his mother has been kept free of parasites and well-groomed during and after pregnancy; where the whelping box has been kept spotless, already should have had the opportunity to use newspapers at weaning time when he was about three weeks old.

LEASH-TRAINING

Between two and three months is not too soon. To wait until the puppy is, say about six months, (will make it a trying chore, especially in a large breed.

CHEWING HABIT

This is not really a habit at all, but could become one. Although puppies are mischevious like small children, they rarely start on a determined chewing campaign till about four or five months. During this time the baby teeth generally fall out to make room for the permanent teeth.

FORMAL OBEDIENCE TRAINING

This may begin when the puppy is about six months old. From here on, according to the individual puppy; taking into consideration breed, size, mental and physical capabilities, serious training will benefit the owner as well as the puppy. The result will be a liveable adult dog and companion even if he never wins at an Obedience Trial.

METHOD:

‘SOCIAL’ training

In all phases of training every dog owner should remember the three P’s: PATIENCE — PERSEVERENCE — PRAISE. No amount of punishment will ever replace the value of these. Nor will the results be as rewarding. Think of your puppy as a piece of clay to be molded by YOU. Combine your human intelligence to go hand in hand with the puppy’s natural instincts. Be on the alert always how your puppy reacts to certain things and be very apprehensive of the fact that every puppy is individualistic just as we are.

HOUSE-BREAKING

When you introduce your puppy into your household, be sure there is one place where there are newspapers and the puppy must know that place. Then, when you have a few spare moments, let him come inside the other rooms to play, to be petted etc. Be sure to watch him. A puppy plays as hard as do children. When he is through — half-way through mostly — he has GOTTA GO. Put him outside, wait for him and use some words like: ‘Hurry Up —’ and then give lots of praise. Apply this same method after he wakes up from sleeping. After feeding it will take about ten minutes for a three months old puppy to eliminate. Put him out and wait — praise when he has performed. Be patient and lenient with the ‘mistakes’ your puppy will make.

LEASH-TRAINING

Contrary to most ideas that advocate leash-training a puppy in easy stages, I have found in 20 years of training all breeds that to do this lesson in ‘one go’ is much easier on the puppy — and you. Once you put on that collar and leash (never a harness) be sure that your puppy realizes what you want of him before you take it off. The secret here is to talk to him continuously, to praise him whether he turns somersaults or comes along less protestingly. But be sure the little fellow understands that the leash means a restriction to his liberty. It is not a punishment, but a way of life to be accepted. Therefore much praise, much petting, no matter what his gymnastics, are needed to give your puppy the confidence needed.

CHEWING HABIT

This is too a matter of vigilance on the part of the owner. Keep away all the chewable things you don’t intend to have chewed. Provide your puppy with toys of his own: keep him confined to an area while you are busy but where you can still talk to him. A firm NO every time you puppy latches on to a curtain, a plant and so on, will check him. Immediately give him one of his ‘chewable’ play· things, Impatience — as in all training — will do no more than fray your nerves and confuse the puppy.

FORMAL OBEDIENCE TRAINING

As you start on this phase of education, do not expect perfection all at once. Remember you still have a puppy here and let him feel his way into the more intricate exercises, By this I do not mean to let him get away with fault after fault, but be lenient, YOU must understand that your dog depends upon you alone to make HIM understand what you want of him. Training classes are excellent to acustom your dog to working with other dogs, especially if you intend entering him at Obedience Trials. In your home training, vary locales — noisy and quiet — but be WITH your dog; THINK with him. In all your training — from puppyhood into adulthood, remember that you start with a small creature with only his God-given sense of right and wrong. The rest will be up to you alone.

In the first part of the instruction, make the trails short, in a straight line—no bends. It should be against the wind, that is, upwind; the wind should be blowing over the scent and directly into the face of the dog.

Do not expect your dog to touch the grass or the ground with his nose as he is trailing a fresh trail. While the trail is fairly fresh, some of the scent is still in the air and he can follow it without keeping his nose too close to the ground.

This is important—most everybody thinks that dogs trail loose free from lead. You can start your dog as a novice without a lead, but very shortly put him on a long lead, about a 25 foot lead. Thereafter, keep him on lead all the time.

Here is the first lesson. Take your dog out preferably in the early morning with the dew on the ground because the dew holds the scent. Have no one else around except yourself. Preferably go into a field with grass or foliage not high.

Set your stake at the starting point. Scruff your feet on the ground in order to give plenty of scent at the start, which should be known as the ‘scent spot.’ Then walk with your feet shuffling on the ground or the grass in a straight line against the wind for a short distance, perhaps 50 feet. While the dog is sitting at the starting point watching you, drop the dumbbell; make sure he sees it.

With the dog on heel, start him out and go down along the scent line but, of course, you have returned originally from the dumbbell over the same trail and just a few feet beyond the starting spot.

Be sure the dog smells the ground and give him the command to go and fetch.

Keep this up time after time; reward him very loudly: increase the distance from time to time; change spots and locations. Change items you drop from a dumbbell to wearing article or whatever you wish. Always put plenty of your body odor on them, especially from the palms of your hands.

Make your training sessions short. Adjust your instruction to the dog. Each dog presents a different problem.

Use your own judgment at times.  What is given here are merely suggestions. Do not follow them religiously.