Gun Dog Forum

Hi everyone,

I have a 8 week puppy and she is our first gun dog. So far she is doing great, very smart , she eats and sleeps in her crate without problems and already potty trained. But lately she start to not respond to commands when I call her or during our walks in the back yard she will take off and ignore me. I try to put a piece of hope on her ( as other people suggest in another post) and let her drag it around but the only thing she will do is chew on it. My question is ... can I start her on the leash at this age? How to introduce the leash with causing any bad habits? Help a newbie !!

Thanks,
TM

Your expectations of your dog are unreasonable. An 8 week puppy can do no wrong and you should have zero expectations, especially outside for the next few months. Socialize the dog well, take it on puppy walks in all types of different places, expose it to water and birds, let it learn to hunt. That is what makes a good dog. Except for some house manners, save the obedience work for 6 months.

As far as the leash goes, I put mine on a stakeout first. Let them give into the pressure without associating with you first.

TM79 wrote:I try to put a piece of hope on her

Sorry can't resist. I try this with all my pups, sometimes just before a trial I put a large piece of hope on 'em.

Nick Miles wrote:

TM79 wrote:I try to put a piece of hope on her

Sorry can't resist. I try this with all my pups, sometimes just before a trial I put a large piece of hope on 'em.

LOL .... Sorry for my misspelling !!! I HOPE your HOPE works better than my ROPE !!!! lol

At 8 weeks it is exploring it's new freedom. Everything interest it and since it "knows" you already it's going to seek out something more interesting. I've had good luck using just a thin rope on them and gently applying pressure when I call. It has usually gotten to to come most of the time after a couple weeks, unless they are really distracted. It never seemed to affect how my dogs "ranged" when they got bigger. Some guys have them on a check cord and never let them off for the first 6 months. I just picked up a 6 month old pup that had only been on a leash a couple times. She is a bit harder to handle than my pups who were leashed early on.

TM79...

Check this clip from YOUTUBE.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkJOg1_m ... re=related

Saying you put a piece of rope on it, brings a vision to mind, not a good one. The rope maybe to heavy. My pups, that I buy get a check cord as soon as I pick them up. They wear it all the time! It is made from 1/4" cotton clothes line. There is an overhand knot started that another knot in that end will go thru with a tighten overhand knot. Put that end thru the first knot and pull it, it will snug up. Use the first knot to adjust the length of the line around it's neck. Should be short enough to not slide over the pups head but loose enough not to harm the pup. On the other end is no knot of any kind. I whip that end but wrappiong with tape would work just as well. The whole cord at 8 wks in 10' long. It's light weight and doesn't bother the pup at all. I've never had a pup chew on one but if I did, I'd simply put another on it. Here is Bodie at 8 wks with his.



You must check for tightness around the neck every day, it changes what seems awfully fast. That 10' one will be good for only 2 or 3 weeks and then go to a 15' one of the same material. Somewhere around five of six months I get them a collar and a 20' 3/8ths tight woven nylon check cord. They are big enough then to have no trouble pulling it and it come's off when they come in the house or, into their kennel if that's where you house them. With the 1/4" cord, they get complete freedom to do as they wish. I never ask anything of them at that time unless I can get ahold of the cord. Remember, no knot or loop in your end. That could hang up on them at a very bad time.

DonF wrote:Saying you put a piece of rope on it, brings a vision to mind, not a good one. The rope maybe to heavy. My pups, that I buy get a check cord as soon as I pick them up. They wear it all the time! It is made from 1/4" cotton clothes line. There is an overhand knot started that another knot in that end will go thru with a tighten overhand knot. Put that end thru the first knot and pull it, it will snug up. Use the first knot to adjust the length of the line around it's neck. Should be short enough to not slide over the pups head but loose enough not to harm the pup. On the other end is no knot of any kind. I whip that end but wrappiong with tape would work just as well. The whole cord at 8 wks in 10' long. It's light weight and doesn't bother the pup at all. I've never had a pup chew on one but if I did, I'd simply put another on it. Here is Bodie at 8 wks with his.



You must check for tightness around the neck every day, it changes what seems awfully fast. That 10' one will be good for only 2 or 3 weeks and then go to a 15' one of the same material. Somewhere around five of six months I get them a collar and a 20' 3/8ths tight woven nylon check cord. They are big enough then to have no trouble pulling it and it come's off when they come in the house or, into their kennel if that's where you house them. With the 1/4" cord, they get complete freedom to do as they wish. I never ask anything of them at that time unless I can get ahold of the cord. Remember, no knot or loop in your end. That could hang up on them at a very bad time.

Thanks a lot DonF,

I did put the rope like you did, but all she does it's play and chew on it. I guess I just need let her do her thing and hope that she gets over the chewing part. I will give it another try! Again thank you !!

Usually they get bored with it pretty fast. I also like to let the drag a leash through the house and yard most of the time in the beginning. It gets stuck on theing, wraps around the chairs , and causes us some interesting moments. SO BE SURE TO SUPERVISE and always be available to unwind and unstick puppy. Don't toss one a puppy and then leave, or you could have a strangled puppy! That said getting mildly stuck and stopped gets kinda of common place to them and they quite freaking out about. They learn that sometimes they can pull free but usually they should just wait and give to it. And although you sometimes are the one tugging you are also the one setting them free. Kind of sets them up believeing you are in control of stuff.

I do usually saturate the first 1.5 feet or so in bitter spray and then let it dry out before I put it on puppy. They will still chew a little but they won't sit down to meal with it :roll: and chew it in two...

The other thing that I do is I train with treats. EVERY time I feed an often when I know they are a bit bored and looking for attention, I will call "here here here!" and sit down on the ground with food or treats with them. They very very quickly learn that "here here here!" means food. Remember though treats will not win against a squirrel or a grasshopper or some other exciting thing. If they are after something better than me and already "dead" food, then I go get them. Better to NOT teach them that ignoring you is an option. Just zip your mouth and go get them. If they have a shoe or something they shouldn't also zip your mouth, and step on the end of the leash so they can not escape with it, and offer the treat in exchange for the other thing. Don't chase them down for the shoe and teach them to run away. Play fair at first until they mature a little and can make the hard choices for you.

Good luck

Oh also, I expose the whole litter to leashes early on... "getting the boogeries out"
You can see them scratching at them and chewing them and chasing the leash a bit but they learn to be okay with it. This is supervised by as many people as I can round up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5EYyVPm ... r_embedded

mountaindogs wrote:Usually they get bored with it pretty fast. I also like to let the drag a leash through the house and yard most of the time in the beginning. It gets stuck on theing, wraps around the chairs , and causes us some interesting moments. SO BE SURE TO SUPERVISE and always be available to unwind and unstick puppy. Don't toss one a puppy and then leave, or you could have a strangled puppy! That said getting mildly stuck and stopped gets kinda of common place to them and they quite freaking out about. They learn that sometimes they can pull free but usually they should just wait and give to it. And although you sometimes are the one tugging you are also the one setting them free. Kind of sets them up believeing you are in control of stuff.

I do usually saturate the first 1.5 feet or so in bitter spray and then let it dry out before I put it on puppy. They will still chew a little but they won't sit down to meal with it :roll: and chew it in two...

The other thing that I do is I train with treats. EVERY time I feed an often when I know they are a bit bored and looking for attention, I will call "here here here!" and sit down on the ground with food or treats with them. They very very quickly learn that "here here here!" means food. Remember though treats will not win against a squirrel or a grasshopper or some other exciting thing. If they are after something better than me and already "dead" food, then I go get them. Better to NOT teach them that ignoring you is an option. Just zip your mouth and go get them. If they have a shoe or something they shouldn't also zip your mouth, and step on the end of the leash so they can not escape with it, and offer the treat in exchange for the other thing. Don't chase them down for the shoe and teach them to run away. Play fair at first until they mature a little and can make the hard choices for you.

Good luck

Thank you !!! I like the bitter spray idea !! Today I let her with the rope almost all day and she is way better, she is walking around and dragging the rope all over the place. I will use more treats during the walks as well.
Thank you again.