New puppy grade school

okay your dog has learned some general commands, like "NO" and "Stop that Noise" is now housebroken and finding his place in your pack. Let's go ahead and enter him into grade school so he becomes a good citizen when you take him out. So let's start with walking on a leash at heel. When you give your dog the command to heel he should come to your right or left side and stand or sit waiting your command to "Walk or Stay". To get your dog to heel is really easy and I assure you that if you give it just 10 min a day he will have it in three days MAX! Place your choke collar on your lead and place it on your dog, he will more than likely have no issue with this part of the training. If he does, make it a game and place the collar around it's neck and giving the dog much praise when they let's you place it on them. A small piece of a treat will make it very easy for them to accept the collar and lead. Keep in mind you have to make it fun at this point and the treats will help you along in your training. Now stand and with the lead in your hand make it short enough for you to control the dog. I like to hold the lead in the right hand, and placing the left hand close to the snap on the lead attached to the collar. Smack your left leg with your hand and give the command to "HEEL" use a stern voice, and commanding tone pulling the dog in close and reinforcing the command to "HEEL". If your dog sits or lays down that is not a problem at this time. When you get the dog in place give him some praise and play with it for a bit when the dog is out of heel during your play repeat the exercise, pulling it in close and using the command HEEL. In three days your dog will come to your left side (my preference) on the lead, every time you give the command to heel. Believe me this makes the command "WALK" easy to lead into and if you are working your dog at heel walking along side of you almost comes natural. Now this does take 10-15 min a day of training and praise playing, and it helps if you can do it at the same time everyday. Keep at your training and your dog will be through grade school in no time.

New puppy

Whoooo that puppy is growing like a weed and chewing up more than it's share of shoes and such, those old dock siders will keep him busy during all this snow while you are at work. Your wife's favorite bathroom slippers are next in line and he just can't get enough of those old work boots chewing them up and running round the house with them in his teeth. You shout at him and give chase and he runs from you, causing you to break your big toe on the end table. Falling to the floor the pup thinks it is time to play with you thrashing and howling in pain,  jumping on your belly and licking your face. He will out grow it, this phase of chewing everything in sight but if you want to correct it you have to start before he chews up those $200.00 waders. The scene described above is just a little funny no doubt, but very true. If your dog thinks that you are playing the give me the slippers game as you chase it around the house you don't stand a chance. The very first time you catch the dog chewing you must in a very stern voice tell it "NO, BAD DOG" and replace the shoe with something it can chew, like a rawhide bone. Repeat this until your dog catches on that chewing anything other than it's dinner or that toy, you are going to be be asserting yourself as the Alpha dog, with stern voice sounds, like growling to the dog. Tower over your dog and also take a very dominating stance and body language position. Your dog will learn this in three times if you establish yourself as the Alpha and take possession of the footwear, replacing it with something positive, the rawhide bone. Your dog has learned three  things, Not to chew anything but HIS toy,  NO BAD DOG, and that you are the alpha member of this pack, your family, which to him is his pack. So go get him some chew toys so he will lose those puppy teeth, and leave your waders alone.

The Dog House

No I am not talking about Snoop Dogs place I am speaking about your dog's home. By now you have the puppy home and settled into it's cage inside,  we have spoken about "stop that noise", and house breaking. Maybe you have been bringing home goose and duck wings for it to play with, and he might have even brought it back to you while playing. But you are now ready to move your dog to it's outside kennel and let it begin to learn that this is his new home. Now keep in mind I am talking about hunting dogs here, retrievers mostly as that is what I am most experienced with, but these same techniques will work on your Gus dog as well as my Tom Brown. These dogs have thick coats and would rather be outside, so don't be afraid to make that move to the kennel. 
The kennel should be located  where your dog can see the yard and the activities of your family, get some sun in the winter  shade in the summer, and have a suitable dog house for them to live in. A dog house does not have to be huge, but it does have to offer protection from the wind and rain, and a 55 gal. drum is not an acceptable shelter for your dog. A metal barrel will be cold in winter and smoking hot in summer, plus they roll around and have sharp edges causing injuries. A thick plastic barrel on a frame to keep it from rolling and with a lip to hold pine shats is okay, and Tom Brown had one for about 6 weeks. But when he got bigger that became inadequate and I got him a stick built home with matching vinyl siding, shingled roof, on a elevated deck of course. Okay I spoil him just a bit, but he is a hard working dog and a faithful companion. After a day out with me swimming and running in cold water his house is a warm dry place for him.
His kennel is chain link 12' by 12' and 7 feet high, with the fourth side being my shop where my boats and hunting gear are stored, my decoy shed is located next to his kennel but not attached to it. No one will enter the shop or the decoy shed without me knowing it! The floor is dirt and he loves to dig, but he digs a deep hole I fill it with bricks and cover it with dirt, he now has about 2/3 of the perimeter done, by spring he should have the whole thing done for me. The deck allows your dog a place to escape the summer sun, dig a hole to get to cool earth and hang out with out it being your flower bed or under foot. You must clean your dogs kennel everyday, but if you get into the routine of feeding him at the same time everyday, taking him out morning and evening to the same spot he was a "Good Boy" before that chore will be minimal. Now some people like concrete but your dog was not suppose to live on concrete, a thick layer of shats in the winter, cool earth in the summer is what he would sleep on in the wild, and is the way I keep my dog. Well okay the one dog has it's own recliner, lives inside and lives for dinner and treats, but Tom Brown has a normal retriever life, riding in boats, swimming in ice cold water, and pissing on everything up right.

More training your puppy

Okay we talked about house breaking your new puppy and I know some are wondering about putting down papers for your dog. Lets look at it from a dogs view. Your are sitting back with the remote channel surfing Spike and Extreme television,and have the paper strewn all around your recliner. Just as you get ready to pick up the sport section and read about the Redskins latest ass whopping, you discover that your faithful companion has left for you, a steaming token of his appreciation center page. Now also you don't have all those papers to dispose off everyday. So when you take your dog out for his walk make it a habit to take him/her to the same place and tell them to" be a good dog", or if you can let him off the leash to "Hi On" or "Do your Business". This will let you dog know that this is the area he should use and will actually want to do his business in this area everyday. When the wind is blowing a gale and it is cold enough to freeze a brass monkey, this is a good thing for all concerned. Also you won't step in it at night barefoot, which is also a good thing.

Training your new puppy

A new puppy will be full of energy and demanding that you play with it till it just drops in the middle of the floor exhausted. Then after an hour it is wide open again and playing around your feet and legs, then it squats and urinates in the middle of the floor, and then goes back to playing. This is the beginning of your training your pup to be a good member of the family, and a hunting partner you don't mind in the blind.. Now some will get out that newspaper, scream and slap the paper around yelling in loud tones, maybe a little heavy. Your pup will be confused scared of you and might wet again while you are having that seizure! Let's try this, while playing with your pup you notice that he is sniffing around, maybe in an area he has had an accident before, and now you are not the center of his attention. Pick him up and take him outside immediately, keep playing with him and he will soon do his thing, praise him and continue on playing. Later when he comes in he will drink from his bowl, and you will put him in his cage to sleep off the play session. As soon as he awakens and you hear him yelping scoop him up and take him outside right away, he will soon relieve himself for you and you can play with him for a bit. Associate playing outside with relieving him self outside and if he does wet inside scold him and take him out so he begins to associate all this. In a couple of weeks you will have little to no accidents in the home or blind.