The rewards you provide need to be his favourite thing, not yours. Make sure the rewards you give your puppy are something he values highly. Intersperse short periods of hunting and exploring nearby you with little training sessions. A marked retrieve here, a little hunt for a tennis ball there. Use rewards to keep your puppy wanting to be near you. Every time your puppy approaches the perimeter of the circle, attract his attention and draw him back towards you. You can do this by creating an imaginary circle with you at its centre. The Zone of controlĪs your spaniel puppy passes the five month mark he will start to become more independent and less reliant on your close presence to feel safe.īy this time, staying near to you needs to become a deeply ingrained habit so that it feels as natural to him as breathing.įocus on creating a zone of control outside of which the puppy may not pass. I know that this is not what most spaniel owners want to hear but it is a change in mindset that transformed my own abilities as a spaniel handler and can do the same for you. In other words until his training is well advanced. I recommend you don’t take a pup intended for gundog work for family walks, until you have established a good zone of control, taught him to quarter, and to walk at heel. Partly because on a typical family walk the puppy falls into this pattern of running out away from you instead of crossing from side to side close in front of you.Īnd partly because if you have family members with you, there’s no way you are going to be sufficiently focused on the puppy. Focus on your puppyįamily walks can be counter productive especially with hunting breed puppies. He quickly falls into the habit of hunting away from you, and back again, pulling further ahead as he becomes more independent. The dog knows where you can be found and has no reason to worry about losing you. If you constantly walk in straight lines you become predictable. The main problem with taking a working spaniel puppy for family walks is that mostly consist of walking in one direction. This is all great habit forming stuff, and with your spaniel, it prepares him for the day when he is quartering neatly in front of you. Just a few steps here or there is all that’s necessary. Obviously you don’t want to scare him, or wear him out. Every time you put him down outdoors, keep moving away from him a little. Get your puppy following you from the moment you bring him home. Good habits are best instilled from the beginning. This advice is a relic from the days of ‘dog breaking’ when dogs were allowed to run wild and then brought back under control with some pretty harsh handling. Sounds simple enough, but many people struggle with this and the reasons are twofoldĭon’t wait until your gundog puppy is seven months old to start training him. But it needn’t be like that Why do people struggle? Keeping them close was just such a battle. I would be trailing along behind them the whole time, wondering why they weren’t particularly interested in me. It seems obvious really but so many people end up doing it the other way around, I know I did with first few dogs. The precedent you need to establish is ‘You lead, and the dog follows’. This is the precious ‘dependent’ phase during which you have a golden opportunity to establish a very useful precedent. They totter along beneath your feet and do their best to trip you up. Tiny eight week old puppies want nothing more that to be close to you. So that you end up with a dog that is working both for you, and with you. And about establishing the foundation of quartering and close range control for spaniel puppies. ‘Follow my leader’ is about establishing good habits for the future. Much more common is the young spaniel that is not under control, not within range, and quite possibly not within earshot. We all want our puppies to be bold and confident outdoors.įortunately with appropriate opportunities to explore outdoors as puppies, most working bred spaniels have both of these attributes in bucketfuls.
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