Care & Feeding of Pups
PICK UP; Pups will be ready to go home on or after they are 7 weeks (49 days). If you cannot pick up your pup on or before the Sunday following the pups 49th day of age you MUST notify me ahead of time so I may budget time to see to the pup’s well being. Socialization is vital to your pup’s future, I put everything else in my life "on hold" when I have pups to attend to, and must attend to other concerns immediately after a litter leaves.
VETERINARY CARE: I recommend that you have a veterinary exam scheduled for the day you pick the pup up at my home or the airport. Pups will have their initial vaccination and have been wormed. They will need to complete their vaccination sequence and have your vet start their file. If it is impossible to do this on the way home please don’t put it off more than a few days. If you will be taking care of the worming regimen yourself, I recommend that either NEMEX or EVICT be used, make sure to follow the directions on the bottle and keep up with the schedule. Pups that are wormed are less prone to worm infestations later in life.
SOCIALIZATION should continue once the pup is brought home. Your new pup has an outstanding pedigree, the raw material is there to become the champion that you have always dreamed of having, but in order for your pup to reach it’s full potential you must budget time to interact daily with your new pup.
CRATE TRAINING; Experience has proven the value of crate training to me. Pup sleeps in his or her travel kennel. Do not let anybody release the pup from the kennel, if you think that the pup needs to go outside to relieve itself take it out for 2 - 3 minuets and immediately return it to the crate. Do this and you are well on the way to letting the pup know that you and not he or she is the boss. The first night or two are guaranteed to be pure hell for everyone else in the house, but the noise never lasts more than a few nights. Before long the pup will naturally return to it’s kennel when tired and most of mine literally zip inside their kennel at bedtime.
FEEDING; I feed Kirkland (COSTCO) Lamb & Rice dry feed to all my adult dogs and to pups over 49 days old it is an all-age feed and I can recommend it without reservation. I can also recommend Nutra Nuggets as another excellent feed that is an exceptional value. If you prefer Science Diet, Nutro etc. they are all great feeds. Just don’t feed cheap feeds, they are no bargain. Feed your new pup 2 - 3 times a day, put the feed dish down and pick it up as soon as the pup stops eating. Pups from my stock have never been prone to becoming overweight, but pay attention to your pups weight, roly-poly pups are cute, but overweight pups are prone to joint problems as they age. I do not add any feed supplements, if your vet recommends any feed supplements , by all means take his or her advice.
INTRODUCTION TO FEATHERS; If the pup is to be a gun dog, I cannot over-stress the benefits of exposure to birds. Pheasant or duck wings are great, live pigeons are better. Pups exposed to live pigeons from 7 weeks on seldom if ever develop "hard mouths" and their highly evolved hunting instincts are advanced. Do not under any circumstances allow anyone to try out your young pup on a grown pheasant until it is at least 7 months old. Yes, this has happened and yes, the pup was beat up by a hen pheasant and nearly ruined.
HOUSE BREAKING; Pay attention to the pup when it is indoors, when it starts to squat swiftly but quietly walk over and pick the pup up and go outdoors with it until it is finished and then return indoors with it. Notice I said go out doors with the pup then bring it back in when it is finished. This way you won’t end up with a dog that goes where you can’t see it, no pup wants to be put out by it’s self and most are smart enough to figure out that if it goes where you can’t see it they won’t be thrown out by themselves. Most importantly don’t leave any pup unattended in the house until well after it is housebroken.
INTRODUCTION to WATER; Take the pup swimming as often as possible, weather permitting. Wade out into water from a gently sloping shallow beach and entice the pup in, or throw a bumper a foot or two from land and increase the distance from shore as the pup gains confidence. Dry the pup thoroughly after swimming regardless of the weather.
EXPOSURE to GUNFIRE; Pups have been exposed to loud noises since birth, banging of feed pans, pieces of wood slapped together, and fire crackers are used here at home and the pups are taken to places where they will be exposed to shotgun fire at 5 - 6 weeks of age. Continue this by taking the pup to the local trap & skeet club but NOT to the high-powered rifle or pistol range. Do not drag the pup up close to the shooting, stay back at the club house.
CHILDREN; No children allowed at training time!!! At any other time, the more the better, BUT DO NOT LET MORE THAN ONE CHILD CALL THE PUP TO THEM AT ONE TIME. I don’t think that this causes any permanent damage but it can frustrate and confuse the pup, you will have more trouble when it comes time for an obedience training session and your pup’s progress will be much slower. Do make sure that the pup is allowed sufficient time to rest and children are not allowed to disturb the pup when it is resting or sleeping.
INJURIES; Should the pup show any sign of illness or injury take it to the vet immediately.
TRAINING GROUPS; I cannot recommend anything that you can do or buy that will yield such results. Join a local retriever club or informal training group that gets together on weekends to train. Put your pup on a chain gang with other dogs if a spot is available or stake it out so that it can see how the game is played while it waits it’s turn. Use your head, do not let anyone abuse your pup, but please don’t give up the benefits of group training. Simply find another group, there are more of them out there than you can count, if the first one has one or more members that are putting heavy pressure on young pups.
SUPPLIES & TRAINING AIDS; I recommend are as follows; all items can be purchased through Lion Country Supply on-line at www.lcsupply.com
1 Canvas puppy bumper
3 white and 3 orange or red Neuman and Bennetts small rubber bumpers - Yes they cost a bit more, but they are far superior to all others I am familiar with.
1 Plastic Wiffle Ball Bat - when training with a group and the dogs are put out on a chain gang this is what we use to control barking. It is effective, you simply have one of the party act as "designated hitter" and hide in the bushes near the chain gang. When the barking starts he or she goes into action.
1 Healing stick - You do not strike the pup with the healing stick, it simply allows you to retain "touch contact" with the pup without ruining your back. I cannot over emphasize the importance of remaining in touch contact with a pup while training. All puppy buyers that come to our home to pick up a pup have seen me take a healing stick out and rub it all over my all dogs’ head and body without them showing the least bit of concern. They have all been exposed to the healing stick, starting at 7 weeks of age, I never train a dog without a healing stick in my hand. Yes, you can use it to "beat the tar" out of an adult dog, for major offenses such as running out into a street, and it is very effective. All of my adult dogs have had at least one or two experiences of the healing stick being applied with fervor for just that offense, they still show no concern when it is used for everyday training. But, I cannot stress this enough, do not under any circumstances thrash a pup with a healing stick or you will ruin the pup.
1 orange or clear Gonia whistle - not a "mega whistle" at this time, you never know when a puppy might jump up in your face. If you happen to have a mega whistle between your front teeth when this happens you may have a hard time eating corn on the cob for some time.
1 Medium choke chain, get a relatively small one, they have smaller links and slide much more smoothly.
1 Nylon web collar, don’t get it to long or the pup will chew the free end.
1 20 - 50 ft. Check cord, make it yourself out of 3/8 nylon rope.
1 Large - Size 400 Vari-Kennel, don’t buy anything smaller the pup will soon grow out of it, don’t get the larger size, it is to big for even a full grown Labrador to feel cozy in. This one crate will serve as both the pup’s travel crate and his den at home.
WARNING!
ELECTRIC TRAINING COLLARS
ELECTRIC COLLARS ARE FOR PROFESSIONALS AT THIS STAGE!!! USE ANY ELECTRIC TRAINING COLLAR ON A PUP LESS THAN ONE YEAR OF AGE AND YOU HAVE ASSUMED FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DAMAGE YOU WILL CAUSE!!! I WILL NOT REPLACE ANY PUP THAT HAS BEEN RUINED IN THIS MANOR!!!
ELECTRIC BARK COLLARS
I do on occasion use bark limiter type collars on pups. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LETTER!! Get a good one, either Tri-Tronics or Innotec, they will last as long as you need them. If you solve the unwanted noise problem in short order, which has always been my experience, you will have a collar that someone else will want to buy. This is not the case with other products.
OTHER NO BARK SOLUTIONS
Squirt guns work indoors and garden hoses have worked for me in the outdoor runs, you may want to try them first. Electric devices that emit a high pitched squeal are totally useless and a waste of money. Collars that spray citronella may work, but I would be concerned about spraying any chemical in a hunting dog’s face.
GETTING STARTED
I start pups retrieving by selecting a room that all doors but one can be closed. placing the pup in the room and sitting on the floor in the open doorway. I do not put a lead on the pup but have a nylon collar around it’s neck. I will slap the canvas dummy on the floor to get the pups attention, when the pup comes to see what I have, I give it a toss. The pup will run out and grab the dummy, as soon as it has the dummy in it’s mouth I call the pup in gently take the dummy and give it another toss. As soon as the pup looses interest I quit and put the pup away for at least 20 minuets before spending any time playing with it. I do this for up to 15 min. at a time. If the pup picks up the bumper and won’t come in when I call, I will scratch my fingernails on the floor or click two spoons together or do anything that will generate a noise the pup is unfamiliar with, this brings the pup in to investigate and I grab the bumper and give it another toss. You have to use your imagination to keep coming up with new noises, but before you run out of ideas the pup should have discovered how much fun the game of fetch is and you will not need to entice him or her in. As far as sit, stay, come and heal most of the retriever training books cover that quite well, follow their instructions and you should not have any problems. Do a couple of obedience sessions a day and a couple of fetch sessions a day for a month or so and you are ready to move outdoors and put the two together. Start with the white bumpers and throw them where the pup can see them. Then progress by throwing them into progressively heavier cover. The orange bumpers are important for teaching the pup to remember where the throw has fallen as he or she progresses. Dogs are color blind and cannot see an orange bumper laying on green grass until they are almost on top of it. The orange bumper also teaches the pup to develop confidence in using it’s nose. If you throw your orange bumpers into heavy cover before the pup is proficient at using it’s nose you better either have an experienced dog to find it or be prepared to loose them. I have never seen an experienced dog fail to retrieve any bumper thrown into heavy cover, but pups don’t have enough experience to locate a "buried" bumper, even when they can smell it. If the pup is to go to a professional trainer, my recommendation is that the pup be left with the pro the Monday after the weekend following the Fourth of July holiday. Kennels are full of a wide assortment of boarders over the Fourth and I prefer that they be gone before my pup shows up. More importantly from that weekend to the start of hunting season is almost 3 months exactly, you can pick the pup up on a Friday and be in the field the next day reinforcing what he or she has learned!!
