Training and Development
German Shotrhaired Pointers come genetically programmed to be a great hunting dog, and companions. But even the best of genetics can’t come through without the proper training, and development.
Training is like teaching, it’s when you work on getting the dog to learn a task. Like going into a crate or walking on a leash.
Development is placing the dog in a situation and letting his genetic programming work the situation out. This allows the dog to develop naturally. Like taking the dog to the water and letting him swim.
There’s hundreds of training books, DVD’s, and articles, on training the hunting dog, and if you can’t find the time to search these out and spend time training your dog, then you probably don’t need one. Later I might post some thoughts, and go over the many books I have.
The biggest mistake that the new puppy owner makes is not developing their puppy. In many cases with proper development training will take care of itself.
The first and most important area of development is time with your puppy and later your adult dog. Take them to as many places and put them into as many situations as you can. This will develop their self confidence, and produce a bold confident dog. This is very important. It will also develop their social skill, and help in their hunting skills.
Develop the areas that are important to you. Be it hunting, play, or social skills. If you are planning to use the dog as a therapy dog, then it would be a good idea to get the puppy around as many people, young and old as you can.
If you want the puppy to grow up and be a close working hunting dog, then you need to get the puppy in the field. Let the pup run and explore, and develop the ability to use his nose, handle the terrain, and build confidence in the field with you. The young pup will learn that this is a big part of his life, and will form habits that will carry on into adulthood.
Since a young pup is insecure in the field he will not go far from you. Even if you take him with an older dog. He can’t keep up with the older dog, and it’s you the pack leader he’ll be looking too for support.
If you have picked a puppy with close working genetics the job of developing a close working dog, will be no job at all. What age should you get the puppy into the field? As soon as you get him home. Eight weeks is not to early. If your worried about parvo, then after the 3rd parvo shot. I’d stay away from the dog parks until after the parvo shots.
A puppy can walk in the field for a hour even when very young. Walk slow, take breaks if needed, and don’t let the pup get to tired. Every day will not be to much. A puppy or adult dog that is in the field every day or so, even if only for a hour will feel no need to run off and hunt without you, because he only knows hunting with you, and he will feel happy and content. This will go along way in calming his anxiety, and stress at home.
I’ve yet to see a puppy afraid of gunfire, and I see no reason not to shoot around them. A puppy will take almost anything in stride as long as he’s not hurt, and most often he will even shake off being hurt. Puppies love birds, and love to go after them. I tend to test my young pups with pigeons and quail at 7 weeks. They love to go after them and chase them down, and pen them. Many will pick them up at this early age and carry them around, proud as a peacock.
So lets start shooting birds for our young charge as soon as possible. Here in Az. we are lucky in that we can shoot collard doves year around. So when I’m walking the pups with the older dogs, I shoot collard doves. I then toss them for the pup, and then I pluck the feathers out and let them fall onto the puppy. This teaches the pup to return to the shot, and look for the bird. This tends to develop dogs that are great dead or down bird finders. The pups are never afraid of gun fire, because they always associate it with something they love.
Personally I never discourage a young dog while in the field. I let him chase anything and everything. Butterflies, birds, mice, rabbits, quail, fox, cats, what ever. I never mess with their pointing, backing, or lack of it. I let them develop into the hunting dog that they were genetically programmed to be. Later there will be time for training if you feel the need.
Also while in the field I pet, and talk sweetly to all dogs that come back to me. I never discourage them from coming back to me, or coming from behind me. Often a dog will work back toward me, or even behind me. I find from time to time one of them will come back and walk by my side for a while. Many know that I’ll pull a thorn out for them, which is very common in the desert, but often it’s for no other reason than they want to be close. This is short lived and I don’t discourage this either.
Since retrieving and water work is important to me I develop it as soon as I can. If the puppy likes to retrieve then I give him birds to retrieve. Some of our puppies have retrieve hundreds of wild birds before they were 16 weeks old. They never after that have a problem with retrieving. Not all shorthairs like to retrieve, and you can only
develop what’s in there DNA.
I tend to spend more time in developing the areas that the puppy has a natural talent in, or love of. If the puppy loves the water, I get him into the water, because he will develop into a great water dog. The same with retrieving, or finding down birds.
My breeding program is different than most breeders. I want, strive, and long for the natural ability of the German Shorthaired Pointer. It’s important that our dogs are trainable, but if the puppy you get from us is going to have a natural retrieve, love of water, and be close working then the dogs I’m breeding, (the pup’s parents) must have that talent naturally, not trained into them. So each of our dogs have the chance to show us their natural talents.
We develop our puppies in other ways, in fact everything you do with your puppy or older dog develops them in one way or another, good or bad. So keep this in mind when your with them. We spend a lot of time loving on our puppies. Our dogs are not in kennels, they live with us. Puppies are born in the house. Spending much of their time in the house, and yard. Many, of our older dogs sleep with us or a family member. All of the puppies sleep with us. This I feel helps with the bond between us, but mostly it’s because I love puppies and like to have them close for snuggle time.
German Shorthairs do much better when they are treated with love and respect. If your hard handed beware that this could set your training and development back. Sometimes they never fully recover from it. An example: Let say your dog is working and retrieving well from the water. Suddenly something is not to his liking. The water to cold, or something. You get mad, yell, and throw him into the water. He get scared, and when they get scared they short circuit. They kind go haywire. They can’t think so they try and get away form you. At this point your better off to take him home, and the next time your work in the water better be in a different place, and for fun.
One other area that I present for thought. The areas that overlap and tend to cause disagreements and misunderstanding to both the breeder and buyer are genetics, training and development. They often overlap, and it’s often hard to tell if the trait was a cause of DNA, or training. Does the dog retrieve because of training or genetics? The dog does not hunt because of a lack of hunting DNA, or lack of development.
The case may come down like this. The breeder gets a call from the puppy buyer, the buyer says that the puppy won’t hunt, is shy, or what ever. The puppy is 6 months old, or older, and has been in the yard, house, or kennel. Training and develop has been lacking at best. You can see the problem. Genetics go hand in hand with training and development. It’s one more problem the breeder goes through.
So do your part and develop your puppy to adulthood.
German Shotrhaired Pointers come genetically programmed to be a great hunting dog, and companions. But even the best of genetics can’t come through without the proper training, and development.
Training is like teaching, it’s when you work on getting the dog to learn a task. Like going into a crate or walking on a leash.
Development is placing the dog in a situation and letting his genetic programming work the situation out. This allows the dog to develop naturally. Like taking the dog to the water and letting him swim.
There’s hundreds of training books, DVD’s, and articles, on training the hunting dog, and if you can’t find the time to search these out and spend time training your dog, then you probably don’t need one. Later I might post some thoughts, and go over the many books I have.
The biggest mistake that the new puppy owner makes is not developing their puppy. In many cases with proper development training will take care of itself.
The first and most important area of development is time with your puppy and later your adult dog. Take them to as many places and put them into as many situations as you can. This will develop their self confidence, and produce a bold confident dog. This is very important. It will also develop their social skill, and help in their hunting skills.
Develop the areas that are important to you. Be it hunting, play, or social skills. If you are planning to use the dog as a therapy dog, then it would be a good idea to get the puppy around as many people, young and old as you can.
If you want the puppy to grow up and be a close working hunting dog, then you need to get the puppy in the field. Let the pup run and explore, and develop the ability to use his nose, handle the terrain, and build confidence in the field with you. The young pup will learn that this is a big part of his life, and will form habits that will carry on into adulthood.
Since a young pup is insecure in the field he will not go far from you. Even if you take him with an older dog. He can’t keep up with the older dog, and it’s you the pack leader he’ll be looking too for support.
If you have picked a puppy with close working genetics the job of developing a close working dog, will be no job at all. What age should you get the puppy into the field? As soon as you get him home. Eight weeks is not to early. If your worried about parvo, then after the 3rd parvo shot. I’d stay away from the dog parks until after the parvo shots.
A puppy can walk in the field for a hour even when very young. Walk slow, take breaks if needed, and don’t let the pup get to tired. Every day will not be to much. A puppy or adult dog that is in the field every day or so, even if only for a hour will feel no need to run off and hunt without you, because he only knows hunting with you, and he will feel happy and content. This will go along way in calming his anxiety, and stress at home.
I’ve yet to see a puppy afraid of gunfire, and I see no reason not to shoot around them. A puppy will take almost anything in stride as long as he’s not hurt, and most often he will even shake off being hurt. Puppies love birds, and love to go after them. I tend to test my young pups with pigeons and quail at 7 weeks. They love to go after them and chase them down, and pen them. Many will pick them up at this early age and carry them around, proud as a peacock.
So lets start shooting birds for our young charge as soon as possible. Here in Az. we are lucky in that we can shoot collard doves year around. So when I’m walking the pups with the older dogs, I shoot collard doves. I then toss them for the pup, and then I pluck the feathers out and let them fall onto the puppy. This teaches the pup to return to the shot, and look for the bird. This tends to develop dogs that are great dead or down bird finders. The pups are never afraid of gun fire, because they always associate it with something they love.
Personally I never discourage a young dog while in the field. I let him chase anything and everything. Butterflies, birds, mice, rabbits, quail, fox, cats, what ever. I never mess with their pointing, backing, or lack of it. I let them develop into the hunting dog that they were genetically programmed to be. Later there will be time for training if you feel the need.
Also while in the field I pet, and talk sweetly to all dogs that come back to me. I never discourage them from coming back to me, or coming from behind me. Often a dog will work back toward me, or even behind me. I find from time to time one of them will come back and walk by my side for a while. Many know that I’ll pull a thorn out for them, which is very common in the desert, but often it’s for no other reason than they want to be close. This is short lived and I don’t discourage this either.
Since retrieving and water work is important to me I develop it as soon as I can. If the puppy likes to retrieve then I give him birds to retrieve. Some of our puppies have retrieve hundreds of wild birds before they were 16 weeks old. They never after that have a problem with retrieving. Not all shorthairs like to retrieve, and you can only
develop what’s in there DNA.
I tend to spend more time in developing the areas that the puppy has a natural talent in, or love of. If the puppy loves the water, I get him into the water, because he will develop into a great water dog. The same with retrieving, or finding down birds.
My breeding program is different than most breeders. I want, strive, and long for the natural ability of the German Shorthaired Pointer. It’s important that our dogs are trainable, but if the puppy you get from us is going to have a natural retrieve, love of water, and be close working then the dogs I’m breeding, (the pup’s parents) must have that talent naturally, not trained into them. So each of our dogs have the chance to show us their natural talents.
We develop our puppies in other ways, in fact everything you do with your puppy or older dog develops them in one way or another, good or bad. So keep this in mind when your with them. We spend a lot of time loving on our puppies. Our dogs are not in kennels, they live with us. Puppies are born in the house. Spending much of their time in the house, and yard. Many, of our older dogs sleep with us or a family member. All of the puppies sleep with us. This I feel helps with the bond between us, but mostly it’s because I love puppies and like to have them close for snuggle time.
German Shorthairs do much better when they are treated with love and respect. If your hard handed beware that this could set your training and development back. Sometimes they never fully recover from it. An example: Let say your dog is working and retrieving well from the water. Suddenly something is not to his liking. The water to cold, or something. You get mad, yell, and throw him into the water. He get scared, and when they get scared they short circuit. They kind go haywire. They can’t think so they try and get away form you. At this point your better off to take him home, and the next time your work in the water better be in a different place, and for fun.
One other area that I present for thought. The areas that overlap and tend to cause disagreements and misunderstanding to both the breeder and buyer are genetics, training and development. They often overlap, and it’s often hard to tell if the trait was a cause of DNA, or training. Does the dog retrieve because of training or genetics? The dog does not hunt because of a lack of hunting DNA, or lack of development.
The case may come down like this. The breeder gets a call from the puppy buyer, the buyer says that the puppy won’t hunt, is shy, or what ever. The puppy is 6 months old, or older, and has been in the yard, house, or kennel. Training and develop has been lacking at best. You can see the problem. Genetics go hand in hand with training and development. It’s one more problem the breeder goes through.
So do your part and develop your puppy to adulthood.