Saturday, April 25, 2009
Training Tip - Early Puppy Retrieves
You just brought your new Boykin Spaniel puppy to his new home about a week ago. You have been spending most of your time with him bonding, house breaking, crate training, getting him acclimated to a collar, and perhaps even dragging a leash around by now. So when do you get to start retrieving.
It is my recommendation to wait at least a week before starting this. I really like for pup to be comfortable and confident in his home. Used to the sights and sounds that occur in your home on a daily basis.
To begin with, let’s look at your home. Not all homes are designed alike so you may have to adlib a bit. We tell people to use their hallway, but if you do not have one, or it is too compact, perhaps the kitchen or somewhere else will suffice. In my house my hallway is not traditional, but is about 8 or 9 feet in length. For an 8 to 9 week old puppy this is perfect. We are not worried about distance of the retrieve. You have to realize that at 8 weeks, a pups’ eye sight has not fully developed and they are not able to follow tossed objects great distances. So if you are able to get pup doing a hallway retrieve 4 or 5 feet in distance, then this is perfect. It is the concept of retrieving that we are focusing on here, not distance or style. To go out and to a bird or bumper is natural for a dog, some call it prey drive, a natural skill provided by mother nature. The trained aspect of the retrieve is the returning back to you with it. This is the very habit we want to focus on and to get engrained in a pup to the point of habit.
So to start out, we want to use a knotted up sock. A Boykin Spaniel Puppy has a small mouth and grasping a large tennis ball or retrieving dummy is a bit of a struggle where the sock is soft and pliable. Remember, in all phases of training, always set your pup up for success, not failure. So we get in the hallway and close off all the doors so that the pup does not have an escape route. His only option is to come back to you. We also want to do this without the distraction of kids playing or other dogs. Pups can be easily distracted so choose your time wisely. With your pup sitting between your legs, shake the sock right in front of his face and toss it a few feet in front of him. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT STEADINESS AT THIS TIME. As soon as the sock hits the floor, immediately say the pups name and release him to get the retrieve. If pup does not see it fall, then get the sock, shake it some more, and toss it a little closer this time. When pup gets the sock in his grasp, in a high pitch happy tone of voice, say here repeatedly and clap your hands if needed. Typically, pup will come running right back to you with the sock in tow. Now, I have on occasion run into a pup that when you start saying here or clapping your hands, it spits the sock out and comes running to you. Do not worry about this, but praise the pup for doing as he was told and coming to you. Repeat the retrieve, and but this time do not say here or clap, let the pup come back on his own. Upon his return to you, praise him with “Here, Good Boy” Here”. Once he has done this for a few days, you can start interjecting the recall command but you probably should not do it as much or as excitedly so he will come all the way back to you with the sock without dropping it.
Now when the pup returns to you with the sock, do not snatch the sock out of this mouth. Make sure you give him lots of praise, and if needed, support his lower jaw with your fingers to promote him holding the sock. I will gently take it from him using my release command “Dead”, while still praising him then I will give it back to him. I want him proud of what he brought me. Now I will repeat the same process two more times. Never give a pup more than 3 or 4 retrieves per session or pup will get bored and stop retrieving. We want pup pumped up and excited, leaving him wanting more. I will do these retrieves no more than once per day, and no more than 4 days per week. Too many dogs have stopped retrieving all together once they became bored with it. Do not fear this happening and not give pup retrieves at all. I have seen this happen, and it is just as detrimental as anything. I have two dogs in training now that were raised by their owner till they were 4 ½ months of age, at which time he brought the two pups to me. They were raised outside in a pen, no socialization, no leash training, and absolutely zero retrieves. These two dogs have been a nightmare to work with. They are timid and unsure of everything new, and would rather run off and play with each other than to retrieve.
Now you should continue your hallway training for a couple of weeks. Slowly start lengthening the distance you toss it for pup, and do not increase the number of repetitions. You will continue doing 3 to 4 retrieves no more than 4 times per week for a while yet. There is always an exception to every rule, and that is where learning to read a pup is important. Some pups, even within the same litter and raised in the identical environment, will not progress as fast as others. My brother and I have the same parents, in school he absorbed math like a sponge where I had to put in extra time studying in order to get it down. So do not rush your pup, but at the same time, read him and do not hold him back. However, if you misread the pup and move forward too quickly, do not fret. Just step back and repeat what he had been doing perfectly for a little while longer, then move forward once more.
So once we have had pup doing the hallway retrieves with the knotted sock for about two weeks, it is time to move outside. Word of caution here; do not go out in the center of your yard or a field to do puppy retrieves. You want to simulate your hallway the best you can. We want to cut off escape routes and if nothing else, at least cut off part of them. What I mean is, if you have a wooden fence, then do the retrieves alongside the fence or along an outside wall of your house. What I did was alongside my fence, I temporarily hammered some metal fence stakes in the ground and
using plastic zip ties, I got a roll of fencing material and fastened it to the stakes making a hallway outside, a retrieving channel that is about 4 feet wide and about 16 to 20 feet in length. This is an inexpensive method and it works great. The pup has no escape route what so ever. As pup progresses, I put a 2 x 4 across the channel at two spots. Pup learns to first cross an obstacle in order to get the bumper and then learns to cross it while carrying the bumper.
Now the first few times, I still like to continue using the knotted up sock, then it is time to change to a puppy bumper. Now my puppy bumper is different than most. Think of it as a first stage puppy bumper. I picked this trick up from Millie Latimer at Rock N Creek Kennels.
Go to your local paint store and get a small pink paint roller. It is small enough that pup can easily fit it in his mouth comfortably and carry it while running or walking. The inner plastic piece on the paint roller will rattle some when you shake it, so it is great for getting a puppies attention. The next stage bumper I get from Lion Country Supply and is their 2”x9” cork filled fire hose dummy. This dummy is also soft and pliable so pup 
can easily grasp and hold it without discomfort. It also floats, so it can be used for water retrieves as well. I tend to stay away from the plastic “Boat Bumper” style 
dummies, for pups and adult dogs. For pups, the hardness of the bumpers can be hard on their mouths and can cause them to start spitting the dummy out and this is not something we want to promote. We want a soft bumper that easily fits in pups mouth. Also, the plastic dummies do not have the same scent holding characteristics as the fire hose dummies. The typical canvas dummies are ok, but they will not hold up over time like the fire hose models do. One in particular that I use for older dogs is called the Real Duck brand of bumpers and can be found at many online gundog supply companies as well as at Real Duck . These have a throw rope built into them so you do not have to go buy a piece of rope and tie it on yourself. I have the same four I bought 5 years ago, and have used them five days a week on 10 to 15 dogs per day since. None of them have any sign of wear. Yes, they cost more but I have been through many canvas and plastic bumpers over the years, and nothing holds up like these do, they pay for themselves.
So by now we have been doing the puppy retrieves with the paint roller and have stepped up to the 2”x9” fire hose dummy. My retrieving channel is between 16 and 20 feet in length and by this stage, pup should easily be doing marks the full length of the channel. Before the mark is thrown, I always make an attention getting sound to get pup to look out when I toss the bumper. By the time I switch from the paint roller to the fire hose bumper, I want to teach pup about looking out for the mark, not coming from my side. So I place someone around the corner of the fence out of sight. They make a noise to get the pup to look out, and they toss the white fire hose dummy into the channel. I call the pups’ name and release him. Once he is marking these 20 ft retrieves consistently, I want to start introducing memory retrieves. These are different than marks and work on both lining (running out and back in a straight line) and also on memory so pup can learn to do double retrieves in time instead of just singles and then on down the road, eventually doing triples. Without proper memory work, it is much slower going teaching pup the double and triples game.
So we begin with what is called a trailing memory, some trainers have other terms for it, but to me, this term best describes it. Now with your pup on the leash you start from point A, we walk pup at heel out about 20 feet to point B and give him a Peep of the whistle to sit. Once he sits, we make an attention getting noise and toss the dummy just out in front of pup, a few feet where he can clearly see it. He must remain at sit. You then give the command “No, Heel” and turn the pup around 180 degrees and walk him back to point A and again, give him the sit whistle. Grasp pup by the collar and remove the leash, then line the pup up, say his name sending him for the dummy. Once your pup can consistently go out each time and do 3 of these back to back, we then want to start teaching pup the “Split 180 degree doubles. It is set up like this:
Point C----------------------------------------------------Point A--------------------------------------------Point B
Starting from Point A, walk pup at heel to point B and peep the whistle for him to sit. Make your noise and toss the dummy right out in front of him. Then command “NO, Heel” and turn with pup 180 degrees and walk back, past point A all the way to point C and give another peep of the whistle and have pup sit. Again, make your noise and toss the dummy right out in front of the pup. Give pup the command “NO, Heel” and turn with pup 180 degrees and walk back to point A. Line the pup up, grasp his collar, remove the leash and send him to point B for the first bumper you tossed out. When he comes running back with it, be prepared to side step if needed to cut him off from going for the second dummy. Quickly take the first dummy from him, turn him and send him out for the second. Do not worry at this stage about steadiness. Steadiness will come in time, for now we want drive out of the pup and too much steadiness as a young pup can squash this. With proper obedience, steadiness is easily built in just a little ways down the road.
Now once pup is nailing this split 180 degree double retrieve, it is time to throw a monkey wrench in the mix and get him doing short blind retrieves. Doing just like before send pup for the point B dummy first. When he returns with it, turn him and send him out for the point C dummy. Just as he takes off, turn and toss the first dummy behind you, back in the direction of point B. When pup returns from Point C, turn him and send him quickly back in the direction of Point B. Now you have a 10 to 12 week old pup doing a double retrieve with a blind mixed in. If the first time you do this, pup does not race right out for the blind, do not fret, coax him out even if you have to walk part of the way out. Remember, at first the split 180 is done where Points B and C are no more that 40 feet apart. Distance is not important, it is the conceptual aspect that we are wanting to obtain.
Marks versus Memories, there are different compelling arguments for each style of retrieve. While some trainers promote marks and nothing but, there are other trainers that promote nothing but memories. I personally see the advantage and disadvantage to both methods and prefer doing a nice blend of each. One day I will focus on marks and the next day I will focus on memories. This alternating method allows me to accomplish certain aspects of each method. A dog that is trained strictly on marks will have greater difficulty with steadiness down the road than a dog that is trained strictly on memories. Where a dog that is trained strictly on memories will not have the sharp marking ability of the dog trained strictly on marks. It is for both these reasons that I feel a mix is best. We will get into greater detail about the differences and advantages of each in an upcoming article on advanced puppy retrieves.
It is my recommendation to wait at least a week before starting this. I really like for pup to be comfortable and confident in his home. Used to the sights and sounds that occur in your home on a daily basis.
To begin with, let’s look at your home. Not all homes are designed alike so you may have to adlib a bit. We tell people to use their hallway, but if you do not have one, or it is too compact, perhaps the kitchen or somewhere else will suffice. In my house my hallway is not traditional, but is about 8 or 9 feet in length. For an 8 to 9 week old puppy this is perfect. We are not worried about distance of the retrieve. You have to realize that at 8 weeks, a pups’ eye sight has not fully developed and they are not able to follow tossed objects great distances. So if you are able to get pup doing a hallway retrieve 4 or 5 feet in distance, then this is perfect. It is the concept of retrieving that we are focusing on here, not distance or style. To go out and to a bird or bumper is natural for a dog, some call it prey drive, a natural skill provided by mother nature. The trained aspect of the retrieve is the returning back to you with it. This is the very habit we want to focus on and to get engrained in a pup to the point of habit.
So to start out, we want to use a knotted up sock. A Boykin Spaniel Puppy has a small mouth and grasping a large tennis ball or retrieving dummy is a bit of a struggle where the sock is soft and pliable. Remember, in all phases of training, always set your pup up for success, not failure. So we get in the hallway and close off all the doors so that the pup does not have an escape route. His only option is to come back to you. We also want to do this without the distraction of kids playing or other dogs. Pups can be easily distracted so choose your time wisely. With your pup sitting between your legs, shake the sock right in front of his face and toss it a few feet in front of him. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT STEADINESS AT THIS TIME. As soon as the sock hits the floor, immediately say the pups name and release him to get the retrieve. If pup does not see it fall, then get the sock, shake it some more, and toss it a little closer this time. When pup gets the sock in his grasp, in a high pitch happy tone of voice, say here repeatedly and clap your hands if needed. Typically, pup will come running right back to you with the sock in tow. Now, I have on occasion run into a pup that when you start saying here or clapping your hands, it spits the sock out and comes running to you. Do not worry about this, but praise the pup for doing as he was told and coming to you. Repeat the retrieve, and but this time do not say here or clap, let the pup come back on his own. Upon his return to you, praise him with “Here, Good Boy” Here”. Once he has done this for a few days, you can start interjecting the recall command but you probably should not do it as much or as excitedly so he will come all the way back to you with the sock without dropping it.
Now when the pup returns to you with the sock, do not snatch the sock out of this mouth. Make sure you give him lots of praise, and if needed, support his lower jaw with your fingers to promote him holding the sock. I will gently take it from him using my release command “Dead”, while still praising him then I will give it back to him. I want him proud of what he brought me. Now I will repeat the same process two more times. Never give a pup more than 3 or 4 retrieves per session or pup will get bored and stop retrieving. We want pup pumped up and excited, leaving him wanting more. I will do these retrieves no more than once per day, and no more than 4 days per week. Too many dogs have stopped retrieving all together once they became bored with it. Do not fear this happening and not give pup retrieves at all. I have seen this happen, and it is just as detrimental as anything. I have two dogs in training now that were raised by their owner till they were 4 ½ months of age, at which time he brought the two pups to me. They were raised outside in a pen, no socialization, no leash training, and absolutely zero retrieves. These two dogs have been a nightmare to work with. They are timid and unsure of everything new, and would rather run off and play with each other than to retrieve.
Now you should continue your hallway training for a couple of weeks. Slowly start lengthening the distance you toss it for pup, and do not increase the number of repetitions. You will continue doing 3 to 4 retrieves no more than 4 times per week for a while yet. There is always an exception to every rule, and that is where learning to read a pup is important. Some pups, even within the same litter and raised in the identical environment, will not progress as fast as others. My brother and I have the same parents, in school he absorbed math like a sponge where I had to put in extra time studying in order to get it down. So do not rush your pup, but at the same time, read him and do not hold him back. However, if you misread the pup and move forward too quickly, do not fret. Just step back and repeat what he had been doing perfectly for a little while longer, then move forward once more.
So once we have had pup doing the hallway retrieves with the knotted sock for about two weeks, it is time to move outside. Word of caution here; do not go out in the center of your yard or a field to do puppy retrieves. You want to simulate your hallway the best you can. We want to cut off escape routes and if nothing else, at least cut off part of them. What I mean is, if you have a wooden fence, then do the retrieves alongside the fence or along an outside wall of your house. What I did was alongside my fence, I temporarily hammered some metal fence stakes in the ground and
using plastic zip ties, I got a roll of fencing material and fastened it to the stakes making a hallway outside, a retrieving channel that is about 4 feet wide and about 16 to 20 feet in length. This is an inexpensive method and it works great. The pup has no escape route what so ever. As pup progresses, I put a 2 x 4 across the channel at two spots. Pup learns to first cross an obstacle in order to get the bumper and then learns to cross it while carrying the bumper.Now the first few times, I still like to continue using the knotted up sock, then it is time to change to a puppy bumper. Now my puppy bumper is different than most. Think of it as a first stage puppy bumper. I picked this trick up from Millie Latimer at Rock N Creek Kennels.
Go to your local paint store and get a small pink paint roller. It is small enough that pup can easily fit it in his mouth comfortably and carry it while running or walking. The inner plastic piece on the paint roller will rattle some when you shake it, so it is great for getting a puppies attention. The next stage bumper I get from Lion Country Supply and is their 2”x9” cork filled fire hose dummy. This dummy is also soft and pliable so pup can easily grasp and hold it without discomfort. It also floats, so it can be used for water retrieves as well. I tend to stay away from the plastic “Boat Bumper” style dummies, for pups and adult dogs. For pups, the hardness of the bumpers can be hard on their mouths and can cause them to start spitting the dummy out and this is not something we want to promote. We want a soft bumper that easily fits in pups mouth. Also, the plastic dummies do not have the same scent holding characteristics as the fire hose dummies. The typical canvas dummies are ok, but they will not hold up over time like the fire hose models do. One in particular that I use for older dogs is called the Real Duck brand of bumpers and can be found at many online gundog supply companies as well as at Real Duck . These have a throw rope built into them so you do not have to go buy a piece of rope and tie it on yourself. I have the same four I bought 5 years ago, and have used them five days a week on 10 to 15 dogs per day since. None of them have any sign of wear. Yes, they cost more but I have been through many canvas and plastic bumpers over the years, and nothing holds up like these do, they pay for themselves.So by now we have been doing the puppy retrieves with the paint roller and have stepped up to the 2”x9” fire hose dummy. My retrieving channel is between 16 and 20 feet in length and by this stage, pup should easily be doing marks the full length of the channel. Before the mark is thrown, I always make an attention getting sound to get pup to look out when I toss the bumper. By the time I switch from the paint roller to the fire hose bumper, I want to teach pup about looking out for the mark, not coming from my side. So I place someone around the corner of the fence out of sight. They make a noise to get the pup to look out, and they toss the white fire hose dummy into the channel. I call the pups’ name and release him. Once he is marking these 20 ft retrieves consistently, I want to start introducing memory retrieves. These are different than marks and work on both lining (running out and back in a straight line) and also on memory so pup can learn to do double retrieves in time instead of just singles and then on down the road, eventually doing triples. Without proper memory work, it is much slower going teaching pup the double and triples game.
So we begin with what is called a trailing memory, some trainers have other terms for it, but to me, this term best describes it. Now with your pup on the leash you start from point A, we walk pup at heel out about 20 feet to point B and give him a Peep of the whistle to sit. Once he sits, we make an attention getting noise and toss the dummy just out in front of pup, a few feet where he can clearly see it. He must remain at sit. You then give the command “No, Heel” and turn the pup around 180 degrees and walk him back to point A and again, give him the sit whistle. Grasp pup by the collar and remove the leash, then line the pup up, say his name sending him for the dummy. Once your pup can consistently go out each time and do 3 of these back to back, we then want to start teaching pup the “Split 180 degree doubles. It is set up like this:
Point C----------------------------------------------------Point A--------------------------------------------Point B
Starting from Point A, walk pup at heel to point B and peep the whistle for him to sit. Make your noise and toss the dummy right out in front of him. Then command “NO, Heel” and turn with pup 180 degrees and walk back, past point A all the way to point C and give another peep of the whistle and have pup sit. Again, make your noise and toss the dummy right out in front of the pup. Give pup the command “NO, Heel” and turn with pup 180 degrees and walk back to point A. Line the pup up, grasp his collar, remove the leash and send him to point B for the first bumper you tossed out. When he comes running back with it, be prepared to side step if needed to cut him off from going for the second dummy. Quickly take the first dummy from him, turn him and send him out for the second. Do not worry at this stage about steadiness. Steadiness will come in time, for now we want drive out of the pup and too much steadiness as a young pup can squash this. With proper obedience, steadiness is easily built in just a little ways down the road.
Now once pup is nailing this split 180 degree double retrieve, it is time to throw a monkey wrench in the mix and get him doing short blind retrieves. Doing just like before send pup for the point B dummy first. When he returns with it, turn him and send him out for the point C dummy. Just as he takes off, turn and toss the first dummy behind you, back in the direction of point B. When pup returns from Point C, turn him and send him quickly back in the direction of Point B. Now you have a 10 to 12 week old pup doing a double retrieve with a blind mixed in. If the first time you do this, pup does not race right out for the blind, do not fret, coax him out even if you have to walk part of the way out. Remember, at first the split 180 is done where Points B and C are no more that 40 feet apart. Distance is not important, it is the conceptual aspect that we are wanting to obtain.
Marks versus Memories, there are different compelling arguments for each style of retrieve. While some trainers promote marks and nothing but, there are other trainers that promote nothing but memories. I personally see the advantage and disadvantage to both methods and prefer doing a nice blend of each. One day I will focus on marks and the next day I will focus on memories. This alternating method allows me to accomplish certain aspects of each method. A dog that is trained strictly on marks will have greater difficulty with steadiness down the road than a dog that is trained strictly on memories. Where a dog that is trained strictly on memories will not have the sharp marking ability of the dog trained strictly on marks. It is for both these reasons that I feel a mix is best. We will get into greater detail about the differences and advantages of each in an upcoming article on advanced puppy retrieves.
# posted by Clay Black @ 4:45 AM 
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