Hi. We collected our puppy just over a week ago and she will be 9 weeks old tomorrow. She is a spaniel crossbreed (working cocker father / working Springer Mother) and we have named her Ruby. Our last dog was a Springer so we are going in with our eyes wide open. She will be a family pet. Our last dog was brilliant in the house and just about OK outside (my wife would probably say he was a liability outside but that is OTT). In any case we are hoping to do better with Ruby. Eddie was trained traditionally and I never took to the things I was told to do so the methods in Happy Puppy, total recall and the Karen Prior books are a revelation to me. We are already making great progress in only 1 week but we are taking it slowly.
Hi and welcome to the forum. Great to hear that you have the Happy Puppy and Total Recall and are finding them so useful and that you like the approach. Hope your gaining to progress well and we'd love to see photos of your puppy
Hullo and a very warm welcome to the forum! It sounds like you've made a great start already. There are a couple of other books that you might find interesting for clicker training. Kay Laurence's book, Clicker Training: The Perfect Foundation (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clicker-Training-Perfect-Foundation-With/dp/189094839X) comes with a DVD that has all the examples in the book. It covers levels 1 and 2 of the Clicker Trainers' Course. If you're interested in doing gun dog stuff with Ruby, even just for fun, then the next book in the series, which covers level 3, is Clicker Gundog, by Helen Phillips (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clicker-Gun...VNPWCKL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL200_SR160,200_) If you've not done so already, you might also like to check out the Kikopup channel on YouTube, which has loads of examples of clicker training, both for everyday stuff and for fun things to train. If you're new to clicker training, it's good to start with things that don't "matter", so you don't get yourself or your dog confused, and to teach the dog that learning is fun! We love pictures here, so it would be lovely to see some of Ruby
It's not a good idea to ask me for photos. I may not know where to stop! I can't add attachments directly because when I try I get the message "You are not authorized to create or remove attachments." So here is a link to some photos on dropbox. Hope it works. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mwgrkzu09sml20i/AACcSpp74LW5r0mcx2TIfOHxa?dl=0
Oh, she is just gorgeous!!! Naked puppy tummies make my heart melt. That one with the bottle, though ... her eyes! Haha, you're in trouble there It reminds me of this photo of Willow when she was a pup... No-one is allowed to upload images directly (one day, we may get round to having our pet developer remove the code that makes it look like you can) - you have to host them elsewhere and then use a BBCode (which looks something like [ IMG]http://whatever.com/photo.jpg[/IMG]) to get them into your post. I'm not sure if Dropbox allows you to do that now - it used to prevent it. Most people use Flickr or Photobucket. I like to be different and use Imgur. But we're good with links if you can't manage. As long as we get puppy porn, we're happy
Welcome to the forum, the Happy Puppy and Total Recall were also a revelation to me, they are really useful books to have. I am building up a small library of books, mainly ones I have found others have read on the forum. Ruby is a gorgeous puppy. Xx
Thanks for the info snowbunny. Here is another photo to test if I've got this correct. Cheers Mark Untitled by Mark Walton, on Flickr
Oh my, oh my. What a stunning girl! Are her whiskers white? I don't think I've ever seen anything cuter! EARS!
We are not decided about gundog training. I don't shoot (other than clays) but a few friends do. I will concentrate on the basics / steadiness first and then decide.
Ruby is so lovely,great to 'meet' you on the Forum Mark,really pleased you are embracing a positive way to train her. Best Wishes Angela
Sounds like a plan. I don't work my two Labs (no opportunity here in Andorra, and I'm only just learning anyway), but still really enjoy doing gun dog training with them, and they thrive on it. I have to do most of it alone, just with the help of books and the wealth of knowledge on this forum, and the odd session back in the UK when we visit.
Hello to the delightful Ruby and Mark - we are currently working our way through Total Recall with Coco the German Shepherd/Lab x - he is getting on for 17 months old, but we've had him 4 weeks on saturday - he's a untrained, giant puppy.
