First introductions, as promised I said I was going to change gears, and train a herding dog so everybody meet Raven my German Shepard. I know I promised I would train a hunting dog and I will but I am still waiting on him to be born so we will get there, just be patient. Anyway to get back on track, training starts on day one.
The most important commands to begin with are “no,” “sit,” “stay,” “here,” and also teaching the puppy its name. First and for most don’t ever use your puppies name as a reprimand, you don’t want to turn their name in to “go away”. Only use it as a praise word, and by the way you can’t praise enough. The old family quote is “if you don’t look stupid doing it you ain’t doing it right”.
“No,” “sit,” and “here” must be locked in before you start any other training. “No” and “sit” are easy start them when you feed your pup for the first time. I personally grab them by there back hips and press down telling them to sit. After they hold the pose I sit the food down in front of them. They always go straight for it, so I tell them “no,” pick it back up and repose them in the sit position. I repeat that until they wait for me to release them to eat. When it goes how I want it, I praise like crazy. I do that every time I feed them until they do it without a single command.
The “here” command and their name is a pretty simple process too. Get a handful of treats. Every time you call them and they come to you tail wagging, you give them a tasty treat and praise like crazy. They will have no problem coming every time you call. After they get this locked in, you can advance in your training. As always God bless.
