Thoughts on early training

[This is an email I sent to a correspondent.  Perhaps I could expand it into one or more articles when I have time in the future.]

[Your success in training recall] sounds great, Mark.  I would go ahead and train [recall challenges the dog can't do yet], too, including if your dog is playing with another dog.  You really need an unconditional recall.

By the way, the two cues used for a field recall are: (1) "Here", and (2) two or more tweets.  One tweet is a whistle sit, so that's different.  But tweet-tweet, or tweet-tweet-tweet, or tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet, or more, all mean "Bring the bird".

Meanwhile, I'm sure you'd like to work on other things besides recall, so here are some other suggestions:

(1) What field trainers call "obedience".  It's not formal -- for example, you can say "heel ... heel ... heel", but it does need to be distraction-proofed.  You need a heel (preferably both sides), and you need a sit.  The "sit" should also imply "stay": You should be able to say "sit", then leave your dog at a "start line", walk away, throw a bumper (and ultimately more demanding throws), walk back, and send your dog to pick the bumper up.  If you like, you could also train a whistle sit, that is, one tweet.  If you want a real challenge, train a remote sit: the dog is various distances away from you when you blow the whistle sit.  It's not important that you train a remote sit now, it's just something to work on if you want to.  But "sit" when the dog is close to you is essential immediately.

(2) I would NOT work on deliver to hand.  Even if your dog seems to be delivering to hand, watch carefully, and if she pulls her head away when you attempt to take the article, stop trying to take the article.  I believe that delivery to hand is at least mildly aversive for many dogs.  She is bringing it to show to you, not to give to you.  You can easily train delivery to hand later, as part of the Trained Retrieve.  Now is the time to build the highest possible reinforcement for coming back to you.  She'll eventually lose interest in whatever she's carrying and drop it, especially if you play with her when she arrives.

(3) You can throw happy bumpers, or even birds, on land or water, if you desire, but some cautions: (a) The dog must bring the article back to your vicinity every time.  If not, walk her down and/or use a long line.  (b) If you let the dog release herself as you're throwing instead of sitting and waiting to be sent, you risk having a tough time steadying the dog later.  It's not the end of the world, it can certainly be done, and I let my dogs release themselves on throws quite often.  But it does and did make steadiness training a lot harder. (c) A puppy retrieve session should be a very small number of retrieves, maybe as small as one.  Leave her wanting more, never feeling she's had enough retrieving.

(4) Multiples, water retrieves, obstacles, hills, crosswinds, high cover, and other challenges are great fun.  No reason your dog can't start to run small versions of such challenges.  The only thing is, if you're going to set them up, don't have her rehearse them incorrectly, because that digs a hole that you'll have to train your way out of, and you can't unring the bell in any case.  So, for example, don't run your dog on shoreline retrieves, because she'll run the bank and learn that that's really convenient and fun, and that digs a difficult hole.  You can have her retrieve in open water, or across a channel, or if the bank is far enough away that it doesn't occur to take that route.  Similarly, don't create a set-up where she's likely to run around high cover.  If you're training with other people, and they're setting up retrieves your dog can't do correctly, and you can't find a way to modify them so that your dog will have a good-quality retrieve, skip those retrieves.  Again, the dog must bring back every article.  Under no circumstances let her practice not coming back with the article.

(5) After your dog has finished teething, I'd suggest you begin work on a Trained Retrieve.  Traditional trainers typically call this a Force Fetch, and it's not a positive training method, far from it.  But you must accomplish the same goal: high quality and unconditional performance of Fetch, Hold, and Out (or Give).  If you want to train those skills before your dog has finished teething, that's up to you, but there's really no rush.  That's still a very young dog, and there's plenty to work on (as mentioned above) in the meantime.  When the time comes that you want to begin work on the TR, we can talk some more, because it can certainly be trained in a positive way and without force.  But please don't mistake your dog's natural retrieving for a TR.  Training the TR is a major and time-consuming job, and you must not take shortcuts.  When the time comes, expect it to take several focused, dedicated weeks.

I guess I'll stop now.  Please stay in touch, and let me know any time you'd like to get together, or if you have any questions.

Lindsay, with Lumi & Laddie