Week 25 Of Training
Duration: 4 Weeks
Welcome to week twenty-five of training with your puppy! This is where you will start to see a lot of maturity out of your puppy! 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 more heeling drills with your puppy.
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 incorporating honoring another dog’s retrieve into their retrieving training sessions.
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 Drill
Overview: Continue practicing heeling with your puppy in controlled environments. This drill will allow you to make sure your puppy is paying attention to you and heeling with you.
Frequency: You should be able to increase the duration of your heeling sessions and continue to practice in controlled environments.
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 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
Increasing Steadiness
Overview: It is important to work on steadiness and patience with our retriever puppies. But incorporating taking away the chase of the retrieves has to come at the right time, once we have built our puppy’s drive and desire up enough that taking away the retrieves won’t make them quit wanting to retrieve and play the game.
Frequency: We don’t want to start taking away all of their retrieves all of the time because we don’t want our puppy to quit wanting to play the game. We need to balance the number of denials with the number of retrieves we allow our puppy to make.
Key Takeaway: Incorporating steadiness into our training makes for a safer hunting experience with our dogs. Incorporating patience in our training makes for a more enjoyable dog to hunt with.
Hunting Drills
Complimentary Goals
Honoring Another Dog’s Retrieve
Overview: After you have been able to ask more steadiness out of your puppy you can start expecting them to be more patient waiting for another dog to make a retrieve.
Key Takeaway: This drill done properly can really help condition a quite puppy that doesn’t whine in the blind. They learn that being calm, quiet and patient is the way they are going to get the reward of the retrieve.
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 25-28
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!