Arnie is now 17 weeks old. I have been working with him since we got him at 8 weeks. I am curious to know where we should be up to by now in terms of training, typically. I do get to spend a lot of time with him and I try to make almost every interaction and scenario into a mini training session. So with that said, he responds well to my voice and commands. He is reliable with sit, down and stay. He walks on a loose lead and doesn't eat until I give him the OK. Before every meal I make him sit, get his meal ready and tell him to wait. I walk away and call him away from it, make him heel and shake. I then give him the OK to eat. It's iur little routine. He recalls well, as long as the distraction isn't too much. The other day I went to a park with my mum sausage dog. Had mum stand there with the sausage and walked Arnie past a while number of times. Recalled him off lead past them as well. Worked 80percent of the time. He responds to "bed" as a cue to go to his crate and toilet when we go outside to pee. All in all I think he is doing really well, however I would like to know if there is anything else I should be thinking of by this stage? I don't know if I am one of the lucky ones but his bite inhibition is fantastic and he doesn't bark or jump up or acts like the Labrador lunatic I hear so much about. He stopped biting us at about 10 weeks. He doesn't really chew furniture much. Tell me. Where do I go from here?
yep happens every time got to love em though, watch out for the teething stage and the larger lout stage.
Sorry ! had a wee titter at the chewing on the chair leg . Sounds like you have a lovely pup , who's keen to learn and is doing really well.
There is no set timetable or competition with other owners - just move at a pace that is comfortable for you and Arnie. And don't forget that although our dogs love training with us they also love to play now and then Puppyhood is over all too quickly so make sure you both enjoy it. Edit: If that sounds a bit harsh it isn't intended to be. You are both doing very well with the training.
You and Arnie sound as if you are doing well. As far as I know there are no timescale or landmarks as to how much training a puppy should gave done by a certain age, or how many cues they should know. That he has nice manners and is comfortable living in today's society is, for me, far more important. A couple of cues worth considering are Leave, Drop and Give - so useful for all those objects our pups love to pick up at him and on walks
A couple of good books you could look at are Learning Games and The Perfect Foundation both by Kay Lawrence. I think Learning Games is particularly good for puppies because it is all about incorporating learning into games (as the title suggests ) and is also about skills rather than particular behaviours - eg rear end awareness, impulse control etc. Best of luck with your training.
Arnie sounds lovely and you are a lucky owner!! I agree with the others - keep things fun, don't feel under pressure to have everything perfect. You are doing brilliantly!
Thanks all for the nice words. I am really enjoying the little guy. Even though I say I make most interactions into mini training sessions, I do keep it fun too. We did spins today. He can only spin in one direction tho. Try n go the other way and it gets all pear shaped. The only criticism I could have is he isn't all that into retrieving. But we will work on thst
I quickly glanced at your comment......had to go back and re-read as thought it said 'lager lout' as in alcohol!
Go very gently with regard to the retrieving. He's only a baby, and it's easy to overwhelm them at that stage. You want playing with a ball to be FUN, not a chore, or you run the risk of putting him off.
Sounds like Arnie and you are doing great and having a lot of fun times. Leave it and drop it are really handy cues as already mentioned. Goodboy Arnie and we'll forgive your little blip with the chair leg, sorry it made me chuckle as it happens to me too, oh the joys of having a puppy
Sounds to me Somatic that you are doing great. Arnie seems to be well advanced in his training for just 17 weeks. I will be bringing home little Lexi (a black labrador pup) towards the end of June who will then be around 9 to 10 weeks old. So I have it all to come yet, but I'm really looking forward to her early training weeks. I think it will be quite an enjoyable challenge for me. Anyway good luck with the rest of Arnie's training. But most of all 'have fun'.
yep that what one of my old trainer used to call boy dogs of a certain it was the improvers class but also know as the lager lout boys
