Off to trainer

[gar-dog]

On Thursday Ginger is headed to the trainer for two months for the first time. She is 17-18 months old right now and I know I will miss having her around. But I am curious to know of your experiences relating to the adjustments dogs go through and what I might expect when she returns.
Thanks,
G

[Karen]

She'll fall back into your routine in no time at all. Blaze acts like he's never left when he comes home. Tessa gets up at 4:30 in the morning (Pete gets up at 4:30), and that takes a couple weeks to work out, but other than that...still housebroken, still knows the routine. She'll be fine.

[Elroy's Bandit]

I agree , they remember the routine. The one thing I notice is that they do like to "test the line" a bit when they first get home, just to make sure the rules haven't eased up while they were gone. They do fall right in their routine, and quickly. My youngest was gone 6 months and the day he returned home ,he was standing at attention at the front door around 7:30p.m, tail waggin up a storm. He remembered the wife walks him at 8:00 ever night, and he was ready to go!!
Bill L.

[Brittguy]

Most dogs adjust to the trainer very quickely and like already mentioned when they get home they fall in the routine right away.Think of it as summer camp and she is having fun

[Kiki's Mom]

She will be just fine! You will probably find that she is more "mature" when she gets home though....which is a good thing:)

[jayhawkj]

Gar-dogs brittany is 17-18 months old, have any of you sent your dogs to a trainer at 7-8 months old? If so how did they do? If not why?

The reason I ask is I have a young brittany that was pointing birds by scent and holding at 13 weeks, it shows great potential and I'm planning on sending him to a trainer for 3 months. And I am planning to follow that up next year with more time with the trainer. Any thoughts?

[Karen]

Blaze went to the trainer when he was 10 1/2 months old. With Chloe, I broke my arm badly when she was 6 months old so she went to the trainer then. He moved her along VERY slowly, let her dictate the pace, and she's done very well. She's a trial dog so she hasn't been home since (she'll be 2 next month), but she'll start running broke stakes this season also.

I don't think I'd expect much of a 7-8 month old though. Pete didn't start steadying Chloe up until she was around 9 months old, and like I said, went very slowly and didn't put a lot of pressure on her.

[sfellc]

I have had a couple dogs that go to training early (7-9 months) and a few that I have waited until they are over 1 year old. The dogs that went earlier, in my eyes needed a job to do earlier than the others did to help keep them out of trouble. I really dont know how to explain it but some just seem like they need a mission to keep them from tearing my house down. They are all English Springers, all trial runners. One thing that I do and expect alot with is there obedience. If your going to send a pup out early, this would be a good place to start. My dogs get bench work and obedience training for approx 2 months without hardly seeing a bird. One thing that I have also learned is to not cut them slack on their obedience when they get home. Be sure to enforce all commands. Since I am new to this game, took me a little time and a couple of thousand dolllars for this to sink in. Not enforcing the commands that they have been taught was the worst thing I can think Ive done for a pup. Otherwise, my dogs haven't had any trouble adjusting to being at home or school.

[gar-dog]

Gar-dogs brittany is 17-18 months old, have any of you sent your dogs to a trainer at 7-8 months old? If so how did they do? If not why?

The reason I ask is I have a young brittany that was pointing birds by scent and holding at 13 weeks, it shows great potential and I'm planning on sending him to a trainer for 3 months. And I am planning to follow that up next year with more time with the trainer. Any thoughts?

I do know that this same trainer Karen and I speak of had one Brittany fully-broke at 9 months - which is unusual. And this Brittany was a recent NGDC.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts. I feel a lot more comfortable with it.

[MillerClemsonHD]

I sent my pup up at 8mos, and she did great. Mainly because she was starting to really get some range and stuborness and I wanted her introduced to the ecollar for her safety, and felt better having a pro do it. She also got obedience work tand we have continued on that training. It was also good since we did it in December it was dark by the time my wife and I would get home from work so she wasn't going to get any bird work and hard to get enough exercise. She is going back again after another field trial this weekend to get a good bit of bird work and more obedience. She will be 11 mos when she goes back. I don't expect her to be anywhere close to broke when she gets back, but will be good for her and give me my spring and summer homework with her. She is also going to run in a field trial while she is there which is good as judges from a different area, plus the pro is handling her so I will get more feedback on her.

[rstbkt69]

My dog was at the trainers for 3 months. And I worried that the dog i brought home would not be the sweetheart we dropped off. And as i went to the trainers to be trained how to handle her she was a totally different dog. But that was because she was working. She even ignored me when the trainer came around. That kinda worried me to. but once again she was about to go to work. when she came home it was a 2 minute smell fest with the other 3 dogs a couple of sniffs around the living room. out the back door to the yard to pick up the game of tug-a-war with the other ones lke she was never gone. Even hoped up and took her spot on the bed that night. I was worried sick she was going to be Larry the trainers dog from now on. How wrong I was. 10 minutes tops and it was as if she was just gone across the street for dinner. She was more mature and bigger but it was her.

It took her a week before the trainer was feeling right to start doing anything with her, and she loved doing something finally. and another week for real training. She dropped weight from not eating right for a couplre of days and the dropped more because she was working her tail off and having fun. She still is within 4 pounds of her fighting weight. but I don't think it sloeed her down on the pheasant hunt this last weekend. but she definately worked a little closer afer being four to the floor for3 hours. she returned home the sane kid with an education ,It will be fine

[mm]

gar dog
I sent my Sophie to pete at 2 years old and she stayed about six months. I was very nervous about it and pete had to baby sit me a little in the begining. But I could not be happier the way things worked out. Pete is a great guy and a great trainer he did a lot of good work with Sophie. Sophie did not miss a beat when she came home it was like she had never left. That made me feel so much better. I would not worry about sending your pup to pete at all. I am sending Sophie and my new pup Rosie there for July and August and if things go well Rosie will stay.
mm

[GSPVIZ]

Hey Gary!

I was thinking of actually sending Margo away for a little to get her some professional training. My wife said no way could she send her away for that length of time. I guess I have to start the sweet talkin!

Let me know how she does when you get updates.

Matt

[Karen]

Hey Gary,

I heard you got to see my baby girl work on Thursday when you dropped Ginger off. She's going to be something else, isn't she.

Karen

[gar-dog]

Hey Gary,

I heard you got to see my baby girl work on Thursday when you dropped Ginger off. She's going to be something else, isn't she.

Karen

Karen, when she was on point she was so intense she glassed up like porcelain, as if you could tap her with an object and she would shatter. I was like, "wow."

[sambuca]

Gary,

Sammy was at Pete's twice for two months each time. He's back there now. Each time he came home he did a thorough survey of the entire house stopping to check out anything that was different (eg. new carved duck above fireplace). Then it was as if he never left. They don't forget anything. You have nothing to worry about except missing your dog terribly.

Karen is right, her little Chloe is going to be awesome.

[Karen]

Yeah, I ran her on Saturday and I swear I lost her in the first 10 seconds she was on the ground....and Pete shortened her up! He thought it was hysterical. She'll be 2 in a couple of weeks. What gets me with her is that it's not only how far to the front she is, but how wide she runs too. Here's hoping AKC reconsiders their ruling on the Garmin!