Today, Rich sent me a link to "hunt-wa" and to a thread that he is maintaining about training Chukar...it is so awesome that he has the same fondness for blogging. While mine is light and airy and focuses on what we do and what we drink, his is very structured and documented. He has had a notebook since Day 1 and has been jotting things down since then. I never asked what it was...but now I know.
I love it! I will keep this blog updated with his thread, as well as give you the link so that you can check it out for yourselves.
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,42586.0.html (10key is Rich)
It is neat to see how people respond to him and give encouragement for our sometimes trying dog training!
The Trials and Tribulations of Chukar
« on: Yesterday at 09:22:41 AM »
I am starting this thread to document the training regimen of my Brittany Spaniel, Chukar. This is my first puppy and dog for that matter, I anticipate quite a ride during the training process. The plan is for Chukar to be a good dog, first and foremost and an adequate hunting companion for upland birds. I've picked up several books, a DVD and I have spent countless hours online (of course I started at Hunt-WA) in hopes of gathering as much information as possible.We picked Chukar up from the breeder December 5th, his 49th day. From there, I am going to skip ahead to when I started obedience training....to be continued
December 12th:After a week of Chukar getting used to my wife and I, I decided it was time for Chukar's first day of school. The goal for training today was to expose Chukar to the collar, leash and whistle...If he responded, that would be a bonus.I started with 10 minutes of sit, stay, come on a leash...I used treats intermittently. To start, he didn't like the collar and leash, it was really distracting for him. He was able grasp the sit command the best and he was even able to nail the sit, stay, come trio one time...most likely a fluke as stay and come never seemed to resonate again.For the afternoon session, I tried to reinforce the commands we worked on on the morning. He was more distracted this time, whether it was the collar, leash or the backyard that he was still exploring, I don't know.On a side note, we really are trying to get him to recognize his name, using it as much as possible. Of course, MUTHER CHUKAR is used here and there.
December 13th:Chukar started out his day meeting kids for the first time, he met boy/girl twins that are 5 years old. Overall, he did quite well with them. As can be expected, the kids were pretty rough with him, he played along and didn't get too excited or bite them.After the kids took off and Chukar calmed down a bit, I took him outside for school day number 2. The goal for this session was to continue to reinforce the work we had done the previous day...nothing new was to be added. This session of sit, stay, come was as expected. When I had is undivided attention, sit was no problem, stay was an issue and come worked only after a tug on the lead (I am using the say "come", drop hand and blow whistle one time method). Overall, the session was very short, probably 5 minutes max as I lost him fairly quick. Thinking back, I recall that I was quite frustrated when I came inside. I told my wife about it and she said, "you've got to be patient, how are going to be when we have kids?" She went on to say, "I don't want you bummed when our 2 month old baby can't walk or talk"...I smiled, and said you are probably right...As I thought to myself, don't all 2 month old babies walk and talk?
December 14th:This was a Monday and by the time I get home from work, the sun has long set. I decided I would take this third session to the spare bedroom and see where I could get. Right off the bat, I knew it wasn't the best choice. First of all, Chukar had yet to explore this room adding to his "short" attention span and secondly, I didn't have the proper tools set and ready to go when I saw the window Chukar was giving me. I did my best to recover and salvage something out of the session, he nailed the sit command with the leash and come was ok...I was struggling with the stay command (and still am to this day to be honest).
No comments:
Post a Comment