K9 SOCIALIZATION TRAINING

Irishwhistler

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I thought I would take time to examine where JACKSON currently stands relative to his overall training. We are near the juncture of JACKSON hitting the 5 month mark with regard to his age, and nearing the 3 month mark relative to his having begun training under my supervision. Each dog is pretty much on their own schedule developmentally and given my many years of experience, I have an adept sense of where they fall within the spectrum of natural ability. In my opinion, JACKSON is truly a wonderful pup with extremely high potential to excel in both the field sports and as an outstanding companion K9. Given JACKSON'S potential, the aim is to optimize all opportunity ties to foster the qualities sought in forging him into a gun dog of distinction.

As we move forward in JACKSON'S training, it is both necessary and desirable that the pup is well socialized with other K9's and doing so is a critical phase of development in any well rounded gun dog and K9 companion animal.

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HEADS OR TAILS ~ I have been working extensively with JACKSON specific to K9 socialization with incremental and steady progress being achieved. JACKSON was quite fearful of other K9’s just one month ago and the need to address that matter sooner as opposed to later was critical. This photograph taken on 3/14/19 shows JACKSON within mere inches of 1 year old MAC whom was purposely commanded to assume a submissive and non-threatening posture so as to put JACKSON more at ease during socialization exercises. JACKSON has been demonstrating steady progress with each session and I intend to keep this process a primary focus of his immediate training sessions.

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TTF JACKSON LAD O’ CLOONFINISH and HRCH UH TTF CRAIGHORN KIFFIN TRAD SH are seen running side by side, a recent development within the dynamics of our training pack. I believe that JACKSON perceives TRAD as less threatening than he does MAC ( and he is likely spot on). Both TRAD and MAC are great with JACKSON, TRAD being largely indifferent, MAC being more inclined to play and roughhouse which could present as aggression to JACKSON. I have by design placed both TRAD and MAC into submissive / non-threatening postures and allowed JACKSON the opportunity to initiate with them on his own terms. This approach has been very effective in putting JACKSON more at ease whilst optimizing the opportunity for positive interaction.

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ACCEPTANCE ~ JACKSON has readily been accepted by both TRAD and MAC as part of our “training pack”. Here, MAC and JACKSON are seen sniffing the ground in close proximity to one another, neither of them particularly worried with regard to the other’s immediate proximity.


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JACKSON ON RETRIEVE ~ JACKSON now at just under five months old is doing very nice single marked retrieves out to near 60 yards. JACKSON is highly focused, very driven, bird motivated, and is showing an early understanding of the need to remain steady on the platform until being released by name to make the retrieve. In addition to the development of the proper mechanics of the retrieve, we are instilling a love of this work within JACKSON and I utilize the retrieve as a reward for his progress made during K9 socialization work. We are keeping JACKSON motivated both physically and intellectually, and we are cultivating the retrieve as the ultimate high value and self fulfilling reward.

All said, I have made an incredible amount of progress early on with JACKSON and we are in a very advantageous position to make great progress over the next several months. As we move forward, we will at about JACKSON’S 6 to 8 months of age begin focusing on formalizing obedience, e-collar conditioning to follow , hold conditioning, force fetch conditioning, gunfire conditioning (desensitization), introduction to live birds, and introduction to water. Lots of great work to look forward to in the development of this most special wee pup of very high potential .

Cheers,
THE DOG WHISTLER ☘️
 
Interesting read on training.
 
I had a read through on this earlier, and what a great little read it was too plus the images make it even better.
 
I had a read through on this earlier, and what a great little read it was too plus the images make it even better.

Thank ye Dave. Glad ye enjoyed it.

Mike ☘️
 
@Irishwhistler - training advice. Sadie does very well off leash. She's been trained to both voice and hand signals. When we leave the yard the E-collar goes on, though I've never used anything but tone in the field, and it's all business, she responds quickly on commands. In the yard I don't use the collar because it's all play time. However I've noticed of late that her response to commands during this yard play time is getting sluggish. She still responds, just not as quickly. Im trying to maintain a difference between play (reward) and work, but I'm wondering if thats tbe best approach. Your thoughts?
 
@Irishwhistler - training advice. Sadie does very well off leash. She's been trained to both voice and hand signals. When we leave the yard the E-collar goes on, though I've never used anything but tone in the field, and it's all business, she responds quickly on commands. In the yard I don't use the collar because it's all play time. However I've noticed of late that her response to commands during this yard play time is getting sluggish. She still responds, just not as quickly. Im trying to maintain a difference between play (reward) and work, but I'm wondering if thats tbe best approach. Your thoughts?

Smoke665,
Dogs are very "place" oriented / specific. It sounds as though she may have learned that you do not hold her to the same behavioral standard in the yard as you do elsewhere. Mind you I am not there to observe what the exact dynamics involved might be. For the dogs that I work with, their work is in fact the outlet for their energy and it tests them both physically and mentally (which they find most enjoyable).

As a trainer, I am not one that favors dropping the standard my dogs come to expect to be held to. In fact, I consider obedience to be a way of life for my dogs and it provides them with the structure that dogs do best with. They do have "down time" when relaxing with our family in our home, but that does not extend to relaxing the standard of obedience to which they are held.

All obedience is trained starting early on with basics mainly conducted "on-lead". I use high frequency delivery of edible reward to reinforce desired behaviors those being marked with a clicker initially. As the pup becomes more highly responsive I gradually move toward intermittent reinforcement delivery of edibles, both the edible reward and the clicker as a behavioral marker are gradually phased out with human touch and verbal reinforcement being the replacement. As training continues I eventually shape the dog to accept the retrieve as the ultimate high value reward.

Once all of the basic obedience commands are fully understood and largely entrenched into the dog, I use the e-collar to formalize conditioned behaviors within the dog. Over time the response is so highly conditioned that I rarely need to make a correction for non-compliance with known commands.

My dogs are hunt test athletes and I cannot afford to have them blowing off commands or being responsive only on their own sluggish terms. Key elements to my approach are keeping the dogs highly motivated both mentally and physically, having a well understood command structure between myself as the trainer and the dogs as subordinates with a communication system that they understand fully. I hold them to standards that are well established and understood in being fair to the dogs. Consistency is key across all environments regardless of the activity at hand.

I believe if you do away with fluctuating the expected standard based on varying locations and hold the dog to the same standards regardless of it being in the yard or elsewhere, you will see significant improvements to the response of your dogs to your issued commands.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Mike ☘️
 
Dogs are very "place" oriented / specific. It sounds as though she may have learned that you do not hold her to the same behavioral standard in the yard as you do elsewhere. Mind you I am not there to observe what the exact dynamics involved might be. For the dogs that I work with, their work is in fact the outlet for their energy and it tests them both physically and mentally (which they find most enjoyable).

As a trainer, I am not one that favors dropping the standard my dogs come to expect to be held to. In fact, I consider obedience to be a way of life for my dogs and it provides them with the structure that dogs do best with.

Sadie has a special ball that she is only allowed to play with as a reward. I'll throw it and she retrieves to hand. Sort of a dual training/play exercise. I've always maintained standards as regards obedience, and it's not really that she isn't being obedient. We have a ton of the little lizards around the house. Every dog we've had seems to be fascinated with chasing them. She's been trained to recognize that "leave it" means you stop what you're doing and move away. Last thing I want is a bird dog chasing squirrels, rabbits, snakes, lizards or any other critter. She will obey the command, but I'm picking up a little hesitation when the training collar isn't on.
 
Sounds as though she is "collar-wise" . I would make a habit of putting it on any time you take her outside of the house and be ready timing wise to correct for sluggish response. If she loves her special ball and it is a high value reward, make her earn retrieves with more rapid response to your commands. The combination of correction for sluggish response and reward for positive performance should result in the gains you want made.

Mike ☘️
 
I would make a habit of putting it on any time you take her outside of the house and be ready timing wise to correct for sluggish response

Believe you're right, was already thinking along those lines. We're coming into snake season here, so having instant response to the command is an important safety consideration. Fortunately I haven't encountered many Rattlers, but we seem to have more then our fair share of Copperheads every year.
 

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