Hi all, I'm new here with Teddy a 15 week old male Labrador with a smidge of Border Collie in him. I'll get a picture up when I figure out how to. I've had Teddy for 4 weeks now, we just got out second vacicne today so we'll be able to go out and explore the world next week. As he's my first puppy I'm curious to know how quickly he should be picking up training and what to expect from him. I realise all dogs learn at different paces and we were slow on starting training as I didn't get him until 11 weeks. I was lucky that I spent Christmas at my parents house and all the relatives dogs were there so he had plenty of vaccinated dogs to socialise with as he hasn't been able to go out yet. He will do sit and flat with treats to guide him. But we have gotten nowhere with stay and his recall is fairly useless, I'm yet to find a treat that is more exciting than the outside world (I'm lucky where I live at a boarding school he has plenty of sports fields to run around on that don't have other dogs on them so he hasn't been cooped up too much). Sorry for the long post, but I was just wondering at what ages your dogs were starting to understand the training and to do things on command.
Re: What to expect from a 15 week old. Here's a pic.....hopefully. https://www.dropbox.com/s/dsqxnlfvk9lvjjx/Ted.jpg?dl=0
Re: What to expect from a 15 week old. So cute! He looks lovely. Does he like his rope toy a lot? You might want to experiment with using play as a reward if he doesn't like to listen outside for a treat… my girl won't ignore another dog for a treat (sometimes if I stick it RIGHT in front of her nose, she might look at me quickly and eat it) but she will actually ignore them for a game of tug with me. I also think trying to call him back while he's outside might not be a good thing to try until he's really good at recalling to you in the house? How is he without distractions on the recall? I've worked with a trainer with my 14 week old pup, and she knows sit, down, wait, drop it, leave it, let's go, touch… but she's not perfect! With distractions, she doesn't always pay attention and we still give out a lot of treats for tricks. I'd say he should start picking stuff up soon, but if you're having trouble, a trainer might be helpful or some lessons? I couldn't get Maisie to lie down for the life of me but the trainer did it in 2 seconds… of course after I'd told her that she refused to lie down… haha!
Re: What to expect from a 15 week old. He does love his chew toy, so I might try that as a reward and see if it's good enough for him, every other Labrador my family has owned would do backflips for food but not mine of course haha. He's an outside dog, so is only allowed inside when he's calm and wants to lay on his mat so I'm trying to avoid the excited running in the house. But when we're in my yard he's fine cause I'm the most exciting thing there, just when he gets an open space all he wants to do is run with his overabundance of energy. Hopefully when I get him out more the world won't be so new and exciting to him, he's getting better at ignoring the distractions while on his lead though. We really need to work on leave it though, he can't walk without carrying something in his mouth and he tried presenting me with a dead mouse the other day. Now that he's got his vaccinations we can start going to the dog training club meetings which will give me some help with his training and give him a good dose of socialising.
Re: What to expect from a 15 week old. I can't recommend the book "The Happy Puppy Handbook" enough. It walks you through the basics of training so things like "stay" are broken up into parts. I don't train a specific "stay" command; when I ask for a sit, I expect the dog to stay until I release it. So, once he's in a sit, move one foot forwards. If he stays put, "mark" with a clicker or a word (read up on thelabradorsite.com about event marking) and then treat. If you can't move your foot without him moving, just try shifting your weight slowly. Eventually, build up to one whole step away from him, with both feet. Then two, then three etc. Always mix it up, so even if he can stay in a sit when you're three paces away, sometimes throw in an "easy" one pace. Make sure you mark and treat every time he gets it right. The book and website do a far better job of explaining it than I do, though! I bought the book on Kindle before I got my first puppy and have read it several times. Training techniques have moved on a lot since I had my last dog, and it really helped me focus on what I wanted to achieve and how. Good luck, and welcome to the forum!
Re: What to expect from a 15 week old. What a sweetie you have there! I second Snowbunny - get the Happy Puppy Handbook, it will really help you, and it is written in a very engaging manner that is easy to understand. Lovely photos too! Does he like to retrieve? If you can get him hooked on retrieving, it is a great way to exercise a dog with a lot of energy. And it has an added benefit that the ball (or whatever you use for retrieving) becomes very important to the dog, so can be used as a reward for recall.
Re: What to expect from a 15 week old. Adorable Teddy...and pretty much ditto what the others have said.
Re: What to expect from a 15 week old. Thanks for the advice everyone, looks like I'll have to get my hands on that book, I do love to read and just hadn't found a decent book on training yet. And yes Karen, he absolutely loves to retrieve. His favourite thing to fetch at the moment is a frisbee, which is really funny to watch him bring it back cause it's really a bit big for him still and he's always gets his legs tangled in it when he tries to pick it up.
Re: What to expect from a 15 week old. What a lovely boy! the Happy puppy Handbook came out a bit late for us, but Pippa's other book Total Recall is fab for training this. You need to start indoor with huge juicy treats and build up from there. There is info here on the main site about it too - http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-training/labrador-recall-training/ Good luck - you will get there
