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At what age are you guys teaching your dogs basic comands such as heal,come,stay,sit etc.
I just bought a female lab that I plan to hunt pheasants and grouse with. She's 11 weeks old I keep getting conflicting information on when to start teaching basic obedience.

I have already begun with come and sit but thats it so far. I have had the pup for about a week.
thanks

Yesterday would be soon enough, just keep the lessons short and fun.

The day they come into the house. Go slow don't expect a lot at the begining, stay at and ramp up as learns. Always lots of treats and GOOD GIRL.

at 12 weeks the holiday is over and school begins. As stated short lessons and do it several times a day. In no time the dogs get to looking forward to training as they get loved on as a reward for doing right.

Come, sit, stay, along with slowly teaching them to walking on a leash, all in little bits. If they like to pick things up-and a Lab should-do it only in a controlled environment like a hallway so they naturally have no choice but to come to you. Give hand signal commands at the same time you give a verbal command. I.E. raise your hand for stay and speak it at the same time. Downward hand motion for sit. Shake your hand down low for come along with saying come. Get a dog whistle and slowly introduce it as another way to relay commands. One toot for stop or stay. Multiple toots for come.

Don't yell your commands. Speak them softly.

12 weeks is way to early for any serious school work. Their minds are not ready. We often hear that when we introduce a youngster to shooting that we should make it fun. The challenges should be easy building blocks for the future. Training a dog is little different. Sit, stay and come are the easy building blocks, but they are the foundation upon which future training rests.

Let her enjoy her days of being a puppy. You both will end up happier for it.

Addition: An abundance of birds is not something Connecticut is noted for, but if possible let her smell, chase and fool with as many as possible. Implant their smell in her brain as soon a possible, even if you have to use a recently killed Pheasant to do so.

8 weeks...which is the day they come home. Keep it really short and sweet and make SURE that its fun...but they are capable of learning soooooo much at an early age that circumvents problems at a later age.
I start everything at that age, within physical constraints..

For instance Yellow Lab Service Dog Trainee pushing a Handicap button at 11 weeks ( Had to pick him up so he could reach it... )




If they can do that....and they can...then they can certainly and easily be taught basic obedience,"give', "leave it" etc. Also found it very handy to teach them their right from their left...

How does a slightly dyslexic owner teach a dog their right from their left?

Smoke and mirrors.....

I don't do coke. No lets see, which is my right and which is my left when looking in a mirror? Or is it which is the dogs left and right? This is not going to be easy....

All kidding aside, the biggest mistake in that whole scenario when you give a directional command is to be sure it is the dog's right or left you are talking about...

Think I'll take the easy way out and just throw an arm out to the side. The Dog can figure out the left and right of it. Then again with my luck the Dog will be dyslexic also.

Dat actually works well for gun dogs...for service dogs you often need to direct them verbally as they are busy looking for whatever object you asked for, and are not looking at you...

Ingwe,

I agree Dogs can learn more than we give them credit for at an early age. Like people their brains are little sponges and much of what that learn early sticks and like people stimulates the brain to continue learning in the future.

However, the thing I have seen with a few hunting Dogs is the owner expects them to learn to quickly or moves on to the next challenge before the Dog has the basics down pat. They-the owner-often moves on to a challenge the Dog has not been prepared to accomplish.

My dogs are flushers so the training is relatively easy. Teach them the basics and put them into birds. Your training of service Dogs is more specific and much harder to arrive at the finish. In the majority of birddogs a lot of birds early on is a big key in having a good Dog.

Bird dogs, Service Dogs, K9 whatever...it never ceases to amaze me what they can learn at an early age, and how teaching them right sets it in their little brains, and avoids future 'issues' and having to call a behavioral trainer...
And righto on the basics...all training is incremental and basic obedience has the side effect of getting them to focus on you...so that they can listen to what comes next. There is a reason we call it 'foundation' training...

A guy just has to think ahead about six or eight steps in the training so that each increment is easy to understand for the dog....
I know training a dog to turn the lights on can be a lengthy process of steps, and invariably, if you do it right, the dog succeeds and looks at you for all the world like " Is that all you wanted?? You coulda just said so...."

Thanks for the advice everyone!
Connectictut has a Pheasant stocking program (which I hunt every year) This will be my first time using my own dog though. I also hunt Grouse in Northern Maine in October/November. I will be training her before the season with Pheasant wings and then hopefully some planted birds if possible.
I'm hoping by hunting both Pheasants and grouse this coming fall she will get a good introduction to birds for her first season.


Here are a couple pictures of my pup that I took earlier today

Looks like a little jewel. Treat her well.

Nothin' better than the pitter patter of little feet!

No need to teach "stay". Sit or Down (Lay down) should mean exactly that until told to do something else.

That�s an excellent point to emphasize. My Ranger went to obedience school at age 6 months but every verbal command we taught him was accompanied by the hand and arm signal � sit, stay, come, down, etc. It possibly saved his life since he was practically deaf the last couple of years but I could still get him to come from across a field (if he was looking) and Stay! instead of walking out in front of a car he could no longer hear coming.

Awesome pup.
Get a book titled, the 10 minute retriever, by john and Amy dahl.
Wonderful book, on raising and training a retriever.
It was suggested to me by my breeder/ training of my incoming lab.

Oh, also join www.retrievertraining.net . Lots of great people, and info there.