You are doing a marvelous job - I always was training at most 1 or 2 pups at a time. One of the best trainers I ever new, who may have had as many as 10-12 Labs or Chessies at a time, always believed in socializing pups (as early as 7-weeks) by taking them places in vehicles and doing regular non-hunting activities with them. I always emulated that and would even take mine to the barbershop, where they would snooze at my feet while I got my hair cut. When I looked at your 'team', I thought how in the hell, could he take them out and about? I bet any little excursion you took with that crowd would be entertaining to say the least, so I hope you keep your video camera handy. I am really impressed.
BTW, just add a few 4-5-6 year old kids to the mix and it would be something to see:)
I have my 3 almost 4yo with them a lot. Her cousins are over now, 8 and 10yo, they're spending a lot of time with them. I've told them repeatedly to not give affection while they're jumping or barking. They're remembering and the pups are doing awesome! They get excited, but they try very hard to keep it under control so they still get affection. The kids are doing a great job helping establish the right patterns.
Someplace to keep 20 pups while I'm out and about is more of an issue than them actually going! I'd need 5 kids with 4 leashes apiece!
If I have any left over after the big wave of them leaves weekend after next, I'll start conditioning and training ones and pairs and etc. Going to kick it up a notch with them. I'm hoping to specialize in the STARTED PUPPIES idea, and get even better at it, so I want to sell/trade these off. But if I have to go to training maturing pups, I'll do that too.
