Week 21 Of Training
Duration: 4 Weeks
Welcome to week twenty-one of training with your puppy! This is when so many of the previous training goals you have been working on with your puppy come together! As always 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 few weeks you will be working on transitioning to clip lead heeling with the EasyLead and fully collar conditioning the heel behavior.
Developmental Goals: You will continue to work on secondary goals with your puppy which include working on more retrieving drills and continuing nail maintenance and physical handling.
Complimentary Goals: If you have hunting goals for your puppy you will also be working on some duck hunting drills.
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
Heeling
Heeling With The EasyLead - Clip Lead Heeling & Fully Collar Conditioning Heel
Overview: Your puppy should have a good understanding of the heel behavior from slip lead heeling with the EasyLead and overlaying the e-collar for heeling.
Frequency: You should be able to increase the duration of your heeling sessions and continue to practice in controlled environments.
Key Takeaway: As you fully transition to collar conditioning for heeling you will overlay nicks on the e-collar with the clip lead tugs for corrections when your puppy isn’t in the proper heeling position.
Developmental Goals
Nail Maintenance & Physical Handling
Nail Maintenance/Physical Handling
Overview: Continuing to develop a puppy that is comfortable 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 keeping them comfortable being handled and put into a nail trimming position will help them be tolerant of physical handling. You should work this into your weekly routine.
Retrieving
Retrieving With The Dummy Launcher
Overview: Incorporating the dummy launcher into your retrieving sessions adds a lot of variety! The added excitement of gunfire can make this drill extremely fun for your dog and also build drive in a dog that may be lacking in retrieving desire. It can also allow you to increase the distance of the retrieves as well as make the retrieves gradually more difficult by shooting the bumper into thicker cover. You can also begin to increase the expectations you have for your puppy’s steadiness and patience.
Key Takeaway: Keep in mind if your puppy has had any issues with gunfire that you need to approach this drill with caution.
Conditioning Patience
Overview: It is important to work on steadiness and patience with our retriever puppies. A great start to steadiness training on retrieves is the use of a steady tab to help hold our puppies accountable to waiting to be sent for a retrieve.
Key Takeaway: Incorporating steadiness into our training will ultimately set our puppies up to be safer and more enjoyable to hunt with in the blind.
Complimentary Goals
Water Work
Duck Hunting Prep
Overview: It is important to introduce decoys and other duck hunting scenarios into our training sessions so that our puppies get a chance to learn how to navigate through decoys to make retrieves. The decoys definitely add a new level of distraction that our puppies need to learn to ignore to make more direct out and back retrieves.
Key Takeaway: Train for the hunt so you don’t have to train while you hunt!
Supporting Documents
Here are some links that will be helpful for this week’s training goals:
Shopping List: Week 13-28 Of Training
Sample Training Routine: Week 21-24
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!