Advise for new schutzhund puppy - Page 1

I have a new puppy and plan on doing schutzhund with him.  He is 12 weeks old right now.  My question is will I exhaust his drive if I play tug with him a couple times a day, and  I am teaching him to sit and watch, how often should I do these lessons, I know that I only want to do them for a min or so each time, but should I do them every day or just a couple times a week?

Thank you for your help!

I wouldn't worry about the sit, etc. Build drive, play and work on the foundation. At that age, if you truly must, I'd do obedience/focus type stuff with food. A seperate fun session from the tug/ball. Don't forget it is a three phase sport. You can start tracking too. Too much obedience at this age isn't a good thing. Drive and enthusiasm goes out the window.

I don't see what a short session a day is going to do if it is fun. That's why you don't want to add in the Ob right now. You'll end up with a flat dog that constantly looks like a slow-motion replay of a highly driven dog.

play and bond.

Recall should be the main thing.  Some tug would be ok.

I have a minature obstacle coarse that I keep in a closet and when I am playing with the puppies I will set it up. Nothing serious, a small tunnel, platform, 6 inch jump and 5 weave bars that are a foot high. I make it a game with the puppies and we just play like that. Its amazing how fast the puppies will learn what the different things are for. Sometimes I will just leave a couple puppies together and watch them play while its set up. The will actually run through the tunnle on their own chaseing each other. I do not push a puppy to learn becuase I want what we are doing to be fun and for the puppy to like what we are doing. I am not a tug of war advocate when they are puppies though. Balls yes and I keep a rope knot in the room with them all the time so they will play with it. Last puppy I had actually picked it up one night while I was watching tv and brought it to me and when I took it she wanted to tug of war on her own. Thats when we began that game not before.

Nothing wrong with asking, but just make sure you don't make tug a boring game by over doing it. IMO if your dog has a good level of drive, doing less is more at this age.