Hi guys! I have a 3 month old lab puppy and a 10 year old boy. I'm looking to train him using the five steps for recall trained response (get, pair, teach, proof, maintain). I was wondering if people would recommend that I exclusively do the full five steps and then hand over the whistle to my son when the puppy is trained? Or should we share the training together? Thanks in advance! Paul
Hi @pobbo I wouldn't attempt to teach a puppy of 3 months a complex task like retrieve. The puppy needs to mature. And be taught many basic exercises like sit, recall, down, heeling, loose lead walking, sit and down stays. i would teach one element that will be useful for retrieve as well as many other exercises. Teach her to play with a tug toy. Let her carry it around. An excellent book that covers teaching play with a tug toy is written by Elsa Blomster and Lena Gunnarsson Retrieving for All Occasions. I would involve your son in the training. Do it together with the puppy. Make it fun for you, your son and especially the puppy.
In the beginning I think keeping it simple helps as you feel out your dog and build a relationship. I would make sure to make every time the pup comes on cue, you reward and celebrate like the greatest thing in the world. If the dog associates recall with the greatest things she's ever known, it's less inclined to ignore you.
Whistle recalls translate quite well to other handlers, because it is easier for someone to whistle in almost the same way as you, than it is for someone's voice to sound exactly the same as yours. So, if you have more time or desire to train, it would probably work best for you to do the whistle recall training and then hand the fully trained thing over to your son.
