Week 11 Of Training
Duration: 2 Weeks
Welcome to the eleventh week of training with your puppy! This is typically when you struggle to get your puppy to stay on their dog bed for longer durations of time and that is why an important part of this lesson will be collar conditioning! Remember you will be working on training goals in each of the below sections simultaneously. Though these training goals typically coincide with training a puppy, they can also be adapted to training with any dog, no matter their age!
Obedience Goals: Over the next couple of weeks you will be working on obedience training sessions that include collar conditioning for kennel as well as continuing to shape the heeling behavior via clicker training.
Developmental Goals: You will also be continuing to work on secondary goals with your puppy which include continuing to condition nail maintenance and other physical handling goals as well as continuing to work on retrieving with your puppy.
Complimentary Goals: If you have hunting goals for your puppy you will also be working on introducing flushing over the next couple of weeks.
Be sure to check out our Supporting Documents at the bottom of the page for helpful links to a recommended training items shopping list, sample weekly training schedule, daily training journal and training checklist. As well as a way to schedule a video training consult.
Note: Yes, there are a few videos of GSPs and not retrievers or flushers… however, the same expectations and obedience behaviors can be applied to all breeds!
Obedience Goals
Collar Conditioning
Collar Conditioning Kennel
Overview: Puppies typically struggle to stay on their dog bed at this stage. They are puppies and have a fairly short attention span and they usually aren’t interested in listening to you for a treat anymore. Now it is time to reinforce their place training via collar conditioning.
Frequency: We recommend spending a week working on collar conditioning for kennel in a very controlled environment, then spending a week working on collar conditioning kennel in more generalized environments.
Generalizing - Collar Conditioning Kennel
Overview: It is important to generalize your puppy’s understanding of “kennel”. You should teach them that collar conditioning to go and stay on their dog bed applies to many different platforms and places. Continue working on collar conditioning to kennel in different environments and places around your house as well.
Heeling
Shaping The Heel Behavior
Overview: Continue shaping the heel behavior with positive reinforcement. This will be the foundation of teaching your puppy how to heel.
Frequency: This would be a good exercise to incorporate into your puppy’s meals.
Developmental Goals
Nail Maintenance & Physical Handling
Nail Maintenance/Physical Handling
Overview: Continuing to develop a puppy that is comfortable with being physically handled will help not only with nail trims but vet appointments and tailgate checks as well.
Frequency: Though your puppy will not need their nails trimmed multiple times a week, spending time a few days a week continuing to keep them comfortable being handled and put into a nail trimming position will help them become more tolerant of physical handling. You should work this into your weekly routine.
Retrieving
Platform Retrieves
Overview: Sometimes you need to take a step back and slow down your training to make sure your puppy has a full understanding of the behaviors we are teaching. Sometimes you also need to chain behaviors together like retrieving and place training to help develop a more polished natural retrieve.
Key Takeaway: Combining retrieving and place training is a great option that will be built on further, especially as we develop our retrieving puppies to retrieve from a water stand or duck blind.
Complimentary Goals
Field Work
Flushing Birds
Overview: Flushing is an important skill for your retriever/flushing dog to learn. We start by teaching your puppy to first use its nose to find birds and then encourage them to try to catch the bird, which ultimately pressures the bird into flushing. Some puppies will be a little hesitant to go in and flush to begin with and they seem to be pointing the bird. You just need to help them gain confidence and build excitement around flushing.
A lot of the training goals you have been working on up until this point are going to play a role in your fieldwork from collar conditioning recall, off-leash free runs to learn to hunt and search a field, bird introductions and gunfire introductions. You will also be incorporating some of the skills learned from the retrieving drills you have been doing to help your puppy mark shot birds.
Key Takeaway: Keep your bird course short so your puppy stays actively hunting and doesn’t get bored if they don’t find a bird right away. We want to keep them excited to find the next bird
Be sure when you shoot the flushed bird that your puppy is actively chasing and doesn’t react to the gunfire in order to continue to condition gunfire properly.
Frequency: Typically you will only need to do 1-2 sessions a week with your puppy.
Supporting Documents
Here are some links that will be helpful for this week’s training goals:
Shopping List: Week 5-12 Of Training
Sample Training Routine: Week 11-12
Daily Activity Journal
Weekly Training Checklist
Schedule a Video Consult
We would love to set up a consult with you. Please sign up here to schedule a video consult. This is a great way to connect with us to ask questions about the training goals for this week or to schedule a video check in to show us where your pup is at in their training journey. We look forward to answering your questions and working with you and your pup!