He is Ignoring me

He is Ignoring me

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By Vetsweld - 9/4/2012 7:44:39 PM

Ok I'm new to this and I might be too anxious. I started Duck Hunting last year and realized I needed a dog. I picked one up and he's 11 weeks old. I read every word of Water Dog, several times. He's retrieving like a champ and has picked up on sit pretty good. He hasn't had that moment of recognition though that I read about. Every night I call his name while he's playing looking away. He hasn't responded yet. He know's his name cause he comes to it during normal play. The last few days though he has started ignoring me it seems now. I'm trying to reinforce his name means attention by telling him he's doing good when he responds. I'm worried Im doing something wrong. Does anyone have any suggestions or does he just need more time.... Sorry for the wall of text.

Joe

By ESutter - 9/4/2012 7:53:47 PM

I'm gonna say one thing and then I'm going to let the FAR more advanced training minds step in.

At 11 weeks, don't take it too hard...lots of puppy time left.

By Tim Price - 9/4/2012 8:15:25 PM

Vetsweld (9/4/2012)

OK first off welcome to our addiction. Having a well trained retriever is a necesssity for waterfowlers. 2nd...find a good hypnotist and see if they can get you to forget what you read in Water Dog. LOL. MUCH better training material out there these days. 3rd...Order Jackie Mertens Sound Beginnings. That is what you need to watch and use for a puppy. Take notes and you'll be on your way. Just Google it and there will be multiple places to buy it

By Pit Boss - 9/4/2012 8:33:37 PM

I'll sell you a copy for $25.00 plus $5.00 for shipping.

By Jeff - Mars - 9/9/2012 8:16:37 PM

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one that was mislead to the book of “Waterdog”. Plus stay away from Tony Hartnett unless you like to listen to some one talk more about himself than training. I’m sure like myself if you do force fetching it will be by someone more experienced than yourself. I have done just fine with my 9 month old Chessie with Jackie Mertens “Sound Beginning”. 2 words “back to basics” - catch cord correction. I was caught up in a time line as well when I first started off – don’t be. Jackie’s instruction are great and again don’t try to keep up with her progress as well. My 9 month Chessie is coming along just great with just Jackie’s material. In my option unless you want to go field trials I would hold off on Mike Lardy’s material until you complete your first year. Then make your decision. Wood slappers while they eat, 1x2 on a hing. Then out of the blue when you’re playing around, then starter pistol, to shot gun blanks. Man this discussion brings back memories.

By Jeff - Mars - 9/9/2012 8:25:37 PM

Mr Price thanks again for this. It may look familar.

There have been countless posts about what training materials to buy/use to train your puppies/dogs. Don, Ricky, myself and a few others offer advice here regularly. I enjoy doing it but it gets a little redundant telling people to buy Sound Beginnings over and over. While reading a thread today where this happened AGAIN I thought I would put my opinions down on a separate thread re training materials so I (and others if they agree) can simply refer people to this thread when they ask what to buy.

Here goes:

Puppy training. Jackie Merten's Sound Beginnings video is the best puppy video out there. Forget that I like it, it's recommended my Mike Lardy...enough said. It does not come with a manual. My recommendation is you watch it and take detailed notes stating age of dogs doing the drills, names of drills, etc. This will ensure you do not skip any steps. Jackie's video is easily understood by the first time trainer and trains your puppy from the day you pick it up until about 5-6 months when it's ready for formal obedience

Purchase the video here:

http://www.ybsmedia.com/jackiemertens.html

http://www.dogsafield.com/prodinfo.asp?number=R090-001

Basics thru advanced training

Smartwork by Evan Graham is a great book for a trainer new to advanced type retriever training. He gives excellent descriptions and drills which can be understood by a newbie. It's not expensive and can be found here:

http://www.dogsafield.com/prodinfo.asp?number=R240-001

SmartFetch is another detailed source reviewing force fetch which can be found here: http://www.dogsafield.com/prodinfo.asp?number=R240-003

Mike Lardy's Total Retriever Training is the best video set out there. This video along with Total Retriever Marking will give you information you can use forever to train your dogs. It's expensive but I've yet to hear someone say you didn't get what you pay for.

Videos can be purchased here:

http://www.ybsmedia.com/mikelardy.html

In addition, he has tips http://totalretriever.com/

and a invaluable tool, his flowchart, on his website:

http://www.totalretriever.com/flowchart.htm

My choosing Lardy first is no slam on Evan's product as it's a great resource and is very comprehensive. I simply believe the Lardy videos are the standard in retriever training and have changed the way retrievers are trained. Both programs are Carr-based in theory so will not contradict each other. As a result I actually have used both, i.e. I use the drills in Smartwork that are not included in Lardy's stuff to supplement my training.

Handling your dog

A new video by pro Dave Rorem The Art and Science of Handling Retrievers is a great video that explains many little things that people don't know about handling dogs at field trials and hunt tests. If you want to improve your handling skills, this is a video you need.

Buy it here:

http://www.ybsmedia.com/daverorem.html

Problem Solving

Problems and Solutions by Danny Farmer and Judy Aycock is a nice video on how to train to fix/avoid specific common problems most people run into eventually with retrievers.

Can be purchased here:

http://www.dogsafield.com/prodinfo.asp?number=R044-301

My personal opinion is use Sound Beginnings for puppy work. If money isn't an issue, purchase Total Retriever Training for Basics and beyond. I would also advise getting Smartwork and supplementing Lardy's stuff with drills from Smartwork. If money is an issue, go with Smartwork and follow it exclusively. I'm no expert by any means but these resources have been great for me and countless others. I hope this post helps.