A Surefire way…
Written by Pam on April 8, 2015
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? This was a question asked of my daughter while taking piano lessons – the answer …practice – practice – practice – Well a surefire way of getting the very best – confident – obedient Labrador or Golden retriever is training – training – training. These breeds are intelligent and powerful – so in order to perfect, engage and perform is to let them know what their human friend desires from them and what is not acceptable.
From a very early age, we start to train the puppies. From their whelping box to their play area, there is always a human entertaining them and there are many interactive toys there to stimulate their senses. We start the training early enough so that when they are 8 weeks old they have already learned many of the commands that will be taught in any puppy socialization class. They might be the youngest but also the smartest :*) classmates that already know the trainer’s commands and will stand out and have a ‘leg-up’ on the other pups in the class. This is our aim at HGT – we want to make sure our puppies not only look the part but perform ‘spot-on’. So with some early training – dedicated training – we seem to hit our mark!
Along with the reinforcement training for good behavior, comes the training to enforce that the bad behavior stays at the door… Many of us think that owning a dog, especially a large breed hunting dog will be quite simple if the dog is trained correctly. But it does not stop there! After all the socialization, foundation, agility, rally classes are completed you have only chipped the top of that “doggie” iceberg for that pup to be HGT Great! You need to set boundaries at your home and in your yard. You need to exercise your lab or golden – and not just a short walk – but possibly two walks a day. And while on that walk – you communicate with the Dog – you tell them to sit at a cross-walk, you have him stop and sit or have him in a down while you stop to talk with some friends. You ask that he heel in a standing position. You give him a job – a constant job and you and the dog will have pleasant walks together – and I promise you, you will have that HGT Great puppy.
I saw this quote the other day and I could not wait to share it with everyone that visits our website…
” A dog is your friend, your partner, your dog.
You are his life, his love and his leader.
He will be yours – faithful and true –
to the last beat of his heart! “