We have been walking Heidi for the last 6 days to build here confidence on the lead. Heidi is now more fluent on the lead but is still getting use to the pressure of being led.
Please remember whilst watching this video that this is the very first time this puppy has been on a lead.
In this video we are with Heidi our black Labrador bitch puppy I want to show you that she hasn’t had anything done with herself on the lead.
I have so many people say to me that they have watched many gun dog dvd’s and the dog work is fantastic but they never show the dog before the training and how to overcome any issues that may arise.
Dogs are no different to humans in lots of ways, in how they move or react to pressure. If you were walking down a dark alley and someone reached out, grabbed you and tried to pull you towards them your instant reaction would be to pull away. That’s exactly what this little puppy is doing on the lead.
Heidi can feel the pressure pulling her in a direction she doesn’t want to go, so she pulls away or plays dead! This also works in another way, if you a walking a dog on a lead and your lead is tight your dog will continue to pull, if the lead becomes slack with no tension your dog will then walk without pulling.
As time goes on what we want from our puppy is to move away from the pressure the lead is causing, so if you were walking and your dog stops to sniff as you continue to walk the lead will become tight, as the lead become’s tight your dog should want to get away from this pressure so should react by quicken their pace to correct their heel position.
I will continue this for a few days then update you with her progress.
In this video I’m training Willow our black Labrador bitch puppy to begin to sit for a thrown tennis ball and a thrown puppy dummy.
As you will see the sit and eye contact come straight away and this has built up from her expecting to sit as an activation for her food.
There are 2 videos for Willow as we were running out of video space so had to do a second to recap what you should be looking to do and expect from your young puppies.
What i am hoping to do with these videos is to show you how to over come everyday issues when starting out, issues that we never really see in our everyday gundog demo’s and dvd’s.
Things do go wrong and dogs need to be molded in different ways.
My advice to everyone is don’t rush, take your time, these pups are coming up to 15 weeks old and I’m only just starting to throw retrieves for them and start lead training. There’s no point putting lots of pressure on a puppy that’s not old enough to take it!