Basic Obedience. How much?

[HuntEastAdventures]

Hi all,
Currently still building the foundation with my 6 month old vizsla and getting her basic obedience down.
My question for everyone is how much do you guys train at once? Do you master one command before you move to the next or do you work on them all for a short time instead of working one for a longer period?
My pup is doing very well with recall as well as starting to whoa. I am just wondering if I should just be working her on one command at a time or if i should go ahead and start her on heel as well. I have always been worried about "overloading" a young dog but I am very much a beginner only having trained one other bird dog in the past.

Thanks,
Mike

[RayGubernat]

Mike -

Here is what I do with mine:

I make the pup stand at the kennel door from a very early age. They learn to wait until I release them.

I do heel/whoa drills in the yard, basically from the time the pup is 4 months old or so. The drills are very short in duration...three to five minutes. I use a waxed cotton lead, similar to a Smith wonder lead, and do the drills after the manner of Paul Long.

Then play.

I will call the dog to me and pet and praise it when it comes in.

Then play.

Finally, I will send the dog to the kennel. At first, I may need to bring the dog to the kennel and help them to go in on command, but eventually the dog learns to run in to the kennel becsue itgets petted and praised at the door.

[Meller]

What Ray said!
One question I think we need to know ,is how old is your pup?

[Steve007]

Is your dog going to be a house dog or a kennel dog? A full time house dog needs a very solid base of genuine obedience to be part of the family and to be well-mannered in public, though not at six months. Those who keep kennel dogs have an entirely different view of what constitutes "obedience".

[HuntEastAdventures]

She is 6 months old and she will be a house dog. My dogs in the past have lacked some in the obedience department and I don't want to make that mistake with this one.

[Timewise65]

I work with retrievers, so the commands are maybe different, but the method should be the same...

During these early days 4-6mo. I will train all basic obedience; Sit, heal, down, Here (recall), Leave it, Drop it, Fetch, Kennel...........6 days a week. Each session will cover all commands but I will keep it short, 30-40 minutes. I always finish with some 'fun bumpers' and play! Frequently, I will do these sessions twice, one in the am one in the pm. Following the dog completion of force fetch training, which is between 6 - 12 months depending on the maturity of the pup, I will then go right into field training drills. But, even then and throughout the dogs life they will get a day or two of the old basic obedience, this is a life long training program.

[Steve007]

She is 6 months old and she will be a house dog. My dogs in the past have lacked some in the obedience department and I don't want to make that mistake with this one.

The important thing with a young dog is short sessions, lots of praise (food is good! Toys, too. Depends on the dog.) and every day. Twice a day is better. Ten minute session,tops. Timewise has a list of commands (add stand or whoa), but break it into two sessions every day. Every day.

Don't forget you need an uncommon "release word" . NOT "OK". I use "free'".

Attitude is more important than technique. Keep it cheerful. Short sessions. Every day. It's a lot of fun.

[Sharon]

Hi all,
Currently still building the foundation with my 6 month old vizsla and getting her basic obedience down.
My question for everyone is how much do you guys train at once? Do you master one command before you move to the next or do you work on them all for a short time instead of working one for a longer period?
My pup is doing very well with recall as well as starting to whoa. I am just wondering if I should just be working her on one command at a time or if i should go ahead and start her on heel as well. I have always been worried about "overloading" a young dog but I am very much a beginner only having trained one other bird dog in the past.

Thanks,
Mike

Working on more than one obedience command at a time is fine. Field training with birds is another story... progressive.

[setterpoint]

i let the pup run and play first for me it lets them get some of the play out of them first then i work on ob you can do two or three ob just keep them short dont bore the dog with two much and end on a good note even if you have to go back to something the dog knows the let the pup free to run some more befor you put him up ...not the only way to do things just seems to work better for me ...play then work on ob.play some more then start puting them together

[HuntEastAdventures]

Appreciate all the responses. I have been keeping sessions short and fun and let her get out and "hunt" in between commands. She is doing very well with recall and whoafor her age. I am going to start her on heel as well. I have also been carrying a tennis ball on me and getting her excited with it and toss it a short distance 2 or 3 times at the end of the training session. She will retrieve it each time if i keep it to 2 or 3 tosses for fun. I am trying to be very careful with keeping sessions short and fun and letting her have lots of "free" time as well.

Mikr

[Trekmoor]

Sounds good to me what you are doing. The only thing I would be a bit wary of is of doing "strict obedience" especially with a vizsla pup. The vizslas here in Britain tend to be softies and are best left until later before any pressure is applied to achieve obedience.

Bill T.