First is trust and how we develop this with a new guest.
A typical play day consists of a big warm good morning with hugs and cuddles on the sofas and toast if allowed, followed by some supervised play as we introduce any new guest to the rest of the gang. We continue with building trust with positive interaction, training and puzzles. Mid- morning, we leave for the training field for some basic interaction and safety practice before week go for a nice long energetic country walk.
We always take a cautious approach with a new gusts
Once the trust is built we continue with reinforcement of good walking practice. A Vizsla will all ways remember the fun bits, looking for and sniffing out game, what they do not or can be stubborn with, is walking by your side under control. We practice this most days even my older, dogs have to go back to basics frequently.
Most of the following videos will have Porthos as the training subject, Taking after his Mum he is working towards being a full working dog and has been on several shoot days with some success, However he is high maintenance and needs constant reinforcement of the basics. We did bread him ourselves and out of the 7 puppies we had he was the naughtiest of the lot. in the tests employed to determine which owners are suitable for each of the individual puppies we employed the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test,
To give you some idea of what we had to work with please see below his puppy report
His results are as follows, he was the one of many firsts. First out. Frist to open the eyes. First to walk. First to eat all his food in the fastest time a very confident puppy. He has a a strong retrieving desire he will often chase another pup trying to get an object away from the other pup. (in other words naughty)
He gallops and runs everywhere, doing everything at a fast pace throughout yet he is gentle and will be good with children as with all High energy dogs this needs to be dispersed with plenty of exercise. When we explored new areas for the first time, (Kitchen or Garden) after being dropped initially into that area, the very best working dogs recover very quickly, perking up and moving off with head and tail up, exploring the new place within 3 seconds or so. This response is relatively rare, as most pups sit there over 4 seconds and then go. How they go is then important, Mr. Blue moved off with head and tail up, exploring the new place. He will do well in new environments and is showing bags of confidence he will need a schedule, loads of exercise and lots of training, He is willing and ready to work anytime and anywhere. Kept in good physical shape, she will work 6 hours straight, take a short break and bounce back ready to work another 6 hours.
He will sit to be picked up, he has great intelligence and will capitalise on your inconsistences as he will seek promotion in the family. The kind of dog that makes the perfect pet and the best choice for the active person,
His overall structure is judged as the same as the sire with a deep strong chest strong and straight front and back legs, So you can see we had our work cut out and he has not let us down in that respect.
He is now over two with another year before he is out the puppy stage, I wait to see as i don’t think he ever will b out his puppy phase. Fingers crossed
Training or just reinforcement you need to follow some basic rules and I follow Jean Donaldson an author and professional dog trainer, i have read, researched many training methods and i personally love how Jean instructs us the owners in the principles of motivation for you and your dog, its a must read.
The processes are often boring for us the trainer, which is not surprising as this is based on your investment in time and effort, we are all eager once we complete a tasks or a goal to move on to the next and the next before the dog has cemented the behaviour.
The following is a great way to ensure your dog is ready to move to the next stage rather than your enthusiasm getter the better of you. you will see this in all the videos we show PUSH, DROP, STICK
This means we do five reputations in a row of an exercise and keep track of how many of those your dog does correctly. Based on how the dog preforms on those five reputations (trials) you will do one of the following
Push – go to the next level of difficulty
Drop – back down to the previous level of difficulty
Stick – stay at the current level of difficulty and do more repetitions
How many did he/she do and get it right Do what next? Why?
Push – Five out of five Make it harder He has proven
. himself and proficient at that level
Drop – Zero, One or two -out of five Make it easier He’s about to quit-
. this level is to hard right now
Stick – Three or four out of five Repeat the set at this level Doesn’t need to drop
. but not ready to push either
Walking on a lead