training recommendations
 Anyway this turned into a long post for a simple request for recommendations! THanks for any advice. |
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| Please don't take him out without a leash. at 5 months he is too young to have a reliable recall if something distracts him. Mine are 2 and have been in classes for nearly as long. I only let them walk from the car to the house dragging their leads. Otherwise if thery aren't in a fenced in area they are on leads.
I don't know about pet smart - other members of the forum may have experience with them. But a good puppy kndergarden class is the best way to start. After that I find agility is as good as obedience for building reliable recalls - but it takes work, and patience. Goodluck with your little boy:) |
| I have a 5 month old too...Heart has been to puppy1 class and has just begun puppy2.....I am fortunate to have a few training centers to choose from--after I went online to find what was available in my area. Have you tried to do this? You may not be aware of all the facilities. Many Humane Societies have training class. I would not go to Petmart..(my opinion).
I have had a number of dogs but I personally would not train on my own for a few reasons... 1. Part of puppy training involves socializing your puppy with other dogs, people, different situations. 2. If you do not train correctly, it will not be effective. 3. At this age, YOU are going to traing (more than the pup). The classes show you how to get the results you want. 4. You may have other issues that will come up...ie chewing, barking, jumping--you would be able to get some great advice in class. Again...this is just my opinion. |
| Even if you're a trainer, and you compete in obedience trials and your dog is an obedience champion, please don't ever take your dog off the leash in any place that isn't safe, secure and, preferably, completely enclosed. No dog is 100% reliable and you should always look at every situation that way and take the proper precautions. There are just too, too many things that can happen if your dog is distracted and runs off and chases something. He could get hit by a car, fall into a hole or ditch and get hurt or get attacked by another animal. It just isn't worth it. |
Quote: No dog is 100% reliable
Absolutely... all it takes is one failed recall for a dog to lose its life. A pro-trainer we've used in the past had two pro-trainer friends out East that lost their well trained dogs to cars within weeks of each other. If you love a dog, you'll leash the dog every time he's in a non-secured area. |
| He sounds like he already has some nice foundation work on him.
I do a fair amount of training on my own and at home (doesn't everyone have a high jump and/or weavepoles in their living room?  ), but even so I take my guys to various classes, not just for the input from the instructors, but so I can work my dogs in different environments with different distractions and, above all, other dogs. It's amazing how the things they learn at home fly out the window once you add new challenges like that.
Dogs aren't good at generalizing, unfortunately. If you teach a dog to always sit in front of you, does that mean the dog will know what sit means when he's sitting at your side? Not necessarily. You have to go through this entire teaching process that teaches them that sit means sit no matter where you are and what's going on around you. So training classes are a huge help. Petsmart is probably OK for some basic manners stuff, but if you don't know a bunch of dog people in your area, google obedience and agility training and dog clubs and see what comes up for training clubs in your area. Or ask here. There are people from all over on this forum, so hopefully someone close to you who may know. Another thing to know about the all-important recall ("come") is that puppies go through this stage where they are a little intimidated by their environment and naturally stay somewhat closer to you. Just around Max' age right now, in fact. Then they hit this stage (it can happen overnight) when they've gained some confidence and decide they don't need to pay so close attention to you (consider it teenage rebellion). And even if you thought you had a recall - poof! gone! - and you have to explain to them all over again that come really does mean come. I use a safe area, a trained dog or two (in my case, because I have them, it's not necessary, but it speeds up the process because dogs tend to follow each other), a dragging long line (that I can step on if need be) and a pocket full of treats. I let them run ahead of me and when I call come, they better come flying. Then they get a "cookie" (treat), I release them, and off we go again. That way, they start to learn that coming to me means great things, and not always the end of all things fun. Which is something you want to carefully avoid - i.e. you never only call a dog to end its fun - playing with other dogs or whatever - or he quickly learns that coming is the end of all things good, so why bother. That's why I reward not only with the cookie (helps to have chow hounds), but also by releasing them back to play some more with their buds. "Thanks for checking in, kids!" Even with that, and I would say that Belle is as reliable as they come (she's also almost ten years old and has had this repeated thousands of times...), it's true, there is no such thing as a 100% reliable recall. So please do be very careful. He sounds like a really cool dog. I hope you get bit by the training bug and decide to compete with him some day. Kristine |
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