Training expectations for puppy - Page 1

Hello everyone!

I am new to the board but I have been lurking in the shadows for a while now.
I love the variety of opinions on this board, its very refreshing.

Please bare with me, I am a novice at all of this.......

 I have an amazing working line male GSD (amazing meaning, he is already the ultimate companion and I wouldnt trade him for the world). After a few years of research, I purchased my pup in hopes of pursuing ScH with him. I am in it entirely for the sport, I have no desire to breed at all.......EVER
My ultimate goal for him is to make him a good club level ScH dog and an amazing friend.


Anyways, seeing as how he is my first "real" sport dog I am kind of lost as far how much he should know at his age.
He is 3 months old.

The commands he knows are:

Sit
Down
Stay (I can actually go out of his sight and he will still stay)
Come

He sort of knows "Heel" but he is not very good at it yet...

I have 2 different puppy tugs (one is jute and one is French linen) and a synthetic bite rag that he plays with multiple times a day. He is NUTS for the tug, I can nearly pick him off the ground....though I am too afraid of hurting his teeth, to do so.
He really enjoys a good "fight"  and gives it all he has......when he wins you can literally see his ego swell(lol) He is so proud.

As far as tracking goes, I have just been laying "trails" in the house. I have never tracked before but I have researched it ....I would really like to buy some books on the subject, any suggestions?

My basic question is.....what would you all expect a 3 month old working pup to know?
I have heard 2 different things about my puppy from GSD people that have met him in person.
A) I need to focus less on his OB at this age and more on his drives
B) I need to keep going strong with the OB and keep building his drives at the same time.

FYI, I do NOT use forceful methods on him with his OB or give him ANY corrections.....if he doesnt do it the right way I simply "show him how" and reward him when he gets it right.

Thank you all in advance for your valuable insight......
Hopefully my post was not too foolish!

For teaching him to track I suggest the Godfri Dildi method. It is TOTALLY modivation and explains alot about tracking. This is the method that I have used for years and it works very well. You can get the DVD from www.rayallen.com .

Let him grow up, be a puppy, have fun, and do all kinds of fun positive things.

keep doing what you're doing as long as you keep it fun for the puppy.  the most important thing you're doing right is not using corrections.  using corrections on a young pup could crush all you progress.  let him be a puppy first and use what you're trying to teach him remain a game for now. best of luck to you & your best freind.

I repeat what others have posted-keep it fun! This is a baby we are talking about here and he needs to enjoy his youth. Keep things positive as much as possible and keep his spirit intact.

Regards,

Bob-O

You seem to be doing a good job on him...The main thing is to develop this pup so he will do the work later for real...Have fun...have fun....have fun...And if you're having fun then so will your little buddy...Keep it light and happy...Remember puppies only have an attention span of a short time...so they can't do too much for too long or they lose interest...So the thing you're looking to do is to play with them...and try to stop at the height of their excitement...Don't let them play until they can't go any more...You'd always like to leave them wanting more...This way they're always ready for more the next time...You leave a POSITIVE impression on them that will last their entire life time...There is plenty of time for harder work when he matures...When I'm working with puppies or young dogs...I always want to make it fun for them and keep them interested in what I'm doing with them...Sometimes this means doing new little things with them...When working with young puppies they are very impressionable and so I use this to my advantage...I introduce them to new things...such as tennis balls...tennis balls on a string...rubber balls...kongs...pieces of PVC...pieces of garden hose (about 1 1/2' long)...I let them play wih all of these...when I have my puppies out with me I will throw sticks or anything for them to chase...I never leave any of these things with them...or they'll begin to chew on them and get into trouble...so I would always supervise them while playing with anything...Good Luck with your puppy....

~Bob~

I have to agree with Bob, Bob, Bob and Bob.  Don't worry about Obedience at this point.  You have a 12-15 week old puppy that wants to have fun and bond with you.  Work on building drive, focus, grip, and have fun.   There will be a time down the road when you wish that you could forget about the obedience and just play tug, fetch and have fun.  You have plenty of time before you need to really work on obedience.  I slowly work it into the play at 6-8 months.  Nothing pressured.  Go out and buy the Flinks video on building drive.  Buy Ivan's videos after that.  Go to a club and have someone help you.  I am also like one of the previous Bobs.  The only time my puppies/dogs see a toy, is if I am with them.  I never let them take them into the crate, kennel or house.

Build obsessive/compulsive drive for the toys. It will get you through many tough training sessions later when the dog is confused and wants to quit. Toy will keep the dog going through hell or high water. Just follow DC's and Qman and you can't go wrong. Only rule you should have is "Never teach a pup to quit"

Thank you all so much for the advice.
I was thinking that I may have been a little bit too focused on OB with him.....It is sort of hard not to train, he seems to LOVE obeying commands and thrives on learning.

I will definitely look into those DVD's/book.

I am a bit confused by this statement :

Build obsessive/compulsive drive for the toys

Would this create a dog that has unreasonable prey drive? (for lack of better words)
Is there such thing as a dog with too much prey drive for sport work?

I find that my male doesnt really have allot of prey drive. He will chase anything that moves and he is ALWAYS attached to his bite rag when you pick it up, but he is not really interested in retrieving (balls, tugs...etc) and he isnt as "intense" and wild for the toys. When my female GSD was his age, her prey drive was through the roof.....she was almost "nuerotic"......it was very hard to get up and walk around the house because if your foot would move, she would chase it. She was a handful and a half!!

He does not seem as intense as she was at all, however....when actually tugging he is very impressive. He uses allot of force and really puts everything he has into getting the tug, nothing scares him and he is ever-so determind. He is WAY more impressive then she was as far as actual tugging goes.....

Its very odd though......after the "fight" is over and he wins, almost immediately he will spit out the rag and just look at me as if to say "now what mom" is this indication of poor prey drive?

I will see if I can get a video of him doing tug work later on today so I can show you what I mean.

I may have explained it wrong.....it is very hard to describe unless you actually see it,
 

Here is a picture of  my darling little man. This was taken this morning.......not the most flattering of pictures but it gives you an idea of what he looks like!
It is sure hard to take pictures of puppies when they are flying around everywhere at mach 3 speed!!