Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:40 am Post subject: Steadiness and puppy
Pasco is now 9 months old. Coming along very well despite his tendency to noise and advice to the contrary I've continued on with his training.
So, I have his recall in place, something I've never really achieved to my satisfaction with Hudson. I have him walking nicely to heel on and off the lead. He will sit and stay for a week and a half, longer if you ask. Now we have started with retrieving.
He has a tendency towards the parading with it in the class environment, but will bring it back with a quick reminder. I'm working on this but I'm concerned I may be setting him up for another problem - one which I haven't managed to fix in Hudson either. Mad Daft Keeness!!!
So steadiness. How do I get it, how steady should I expect him to be. I can effect it on my own and with Hudson present. I can call him off if he runs in, again on my own or with Hudson present. But in the class environment, he is mad mad keen. He will lunge for a retrieve that isn't his, when it is his, he will back up on the lead in an effort to lunge.
So the questions are.
How steady should he be at this age?
What do I train in order to get there? - remember I stuffed it up first time, don't want to do it again!
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I'm training my first pup Fee so I am going to be hopeless at offering any pointers I'm afraid. I'll leave that to the experts here
BUT just wanted to say a couple of things that struck me from your post above. 1) excellent that he is so keen. Don't knock it (which I'm sure you're not ), it's just what you want. and 2) at nine months he is still a real baby. These things can take time. Don't be in a rush to make him super steady as you may lose that keeness that you don't want to quash. It's a fine balance I think.
Thats where I'm at Helen.... how much steadiness should I expect? I don't know.... and if I should be trying to keep him steadier... how!
Know where you're coming from and I'll be interested in the answers myself
I only have Barney here as an example and it's not a good one. I got him when he was about 11 months old. Started training him for gundog work at about 14 months old. He was good and steady on fairly non taxing things, such as a thrown dummy etc by about 16 months old. Steady to gunshot by about 17 months old and then steady in a line up with other dogs taking their turn to retrieve by about 18 months old. Of course by then he was maturing fast. With a younger dog, such as yours I certainly wouldn't be expecting it to be so fast. Made sure the basics were there first before moving it all up a gear
Well I'm probably not going to help you much Fiona but Boots at the same age is NOW super steady.
He is a really fast little dog and needs boundaries. I did leave him a little longer than my other dogs for his steadiness training, but we reached the point where he was sticking his paws up at me once too often.
The work has now been put in and he is much much better. I have sacrificed his speed a little but I am confident I can put that back in. Without steadiness you can get nowhere competition wise.
You can do all the basic steadiness exercises on your own but at the end of the day you have got to get him out doing it in company and he has to learn that you really mean it. I did have one incident where I threw my game bag at him (not hitting him I will add I'm a rubbish shot) and he has really remembered that and tends to sit and wait like a little angel nowadays!
Steadyness, trained correctly should not put a dog off retrieving because remember, you are actually preventing him from doing what he wants to do, so when you release him he is even keener! I allow running in until I stop retrieve training when the teeth start to come through at around 12 weeks. When I resume retrieving, when teething has finished, there is no more running in.
Feebarn, sometimes I think it's not good to directly compare your dog with others. Yes, great to get a benchmark so to speak but there is no rush. It has taken me forever to get where I am with Barney and in the grand scheme of things, that's not very far lol. BUT I enjoy it and have enjoyed the journey so far.
Each dog is different, each handler is different and some with more experience than others, which will have a great effect on a dogs progression.
Don't worry, if you're ever feeling like you're being left behind, you'll catch up in your own time. It's not a competition. I only mention this as that was me . Apologies if you're all cool about this and I have spoken out of turn
Take every day as it comes, be religious about practising (short sessions are iadeal) and be consistant. And if some days it all goes wrong, go inside and have a cuppa!
Make sure your boy fully understands that sit is sit and stay. Can you sit him up and walk away a good distance without him moving and hold him there? Does he really know that he is not to move? Until that basic is covered I wouldn't expect a dog to start being steady around dummys.
I probably ought to say Fiona that Pepper was the arch stealer of other dogs dummies. He just couldn't understand why they they were not all being thrown for his benefit, so there was loads and loads of picking dummies myself if on my own, or in company all the other dogs getting a retrieve and only letting him have one very occasionally.
They do learn that to get a retreive they have to jolly well sit still and they adopt this "look" that says "oh ok then I'll just sit here while you get on with it until its my turn!"
So really now I need to be coming down on him in class if he trys to run in. Thats the hardest part!!! You don't want to appear all mean infront of others!
When you say "work" Gill, what kind of things did you do? I've sat him up and thrown dummies round him to good effect and have started doing that when Huds is around.
If I carry on doing that and perhaps sending Huds for one? My biggest problem is that he is SUPER fast and I stand buckleys chance of catching him! Is it acceptable to shout him back? I can't then chastise him for coming back, but will he know that he shouldn't have gone??
I guess I could throw the dummies behind me though...... block his route... am thinking aloud?!
What sort of length of time do you spend in a session with the steadiness? Should he get a reward retrieve at the end?
Gill, Pasco is soooo fast its just mental. He runs so low to the ground too its the weirdest thing.
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Well Fiona (as I have been told many times ) you have to catch him in the act.
You know he is going to do it - the second he so much as twitches you tell him in no uncertain terms that it is unacceptable. I would actually set it up so you know he is going to do it and you are inbetween him and the dummy and you CAN stop him. If all he does is run in then I wouldn't give him any retrieves.
Now remind me, aren't you the Rugby lady? It should be just up your street .
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