# Quick Training Session...



## puddles everywhere (May 13, 2016)

Hey I think you looked great! Good focus and loved the determination to keep searching for the dumbbell. Should do good when you get to articles! Well done!!!

I went to the cleaning section of HomeDepot and purchased a couple of cheap orange cones. Worked great for figure 8's and used to put one at the end of the broad jump to encourage jumping down the middle and not taking the corner. 

If you want a faster recall forget the front (a few times) and put a small plate behind you with a piece of chicken. They can run right through your legs to get the plate. Once the speed is what you want bring the front back into the recall.

You guys did good... I can't wait to get Sipsy to this level! You have encouraged me for sure.


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## padre (Mar 16, 2017)

How long can one expect to devote to train a Golden for basics.
And how long for more advanced obedience and training?


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

padre said:


> How long can one expect to devote to train a Golden for basics.
> And how long for more advanced obedience and training?


It really depends... I'm assuming you are asking how long to train basics before you have a dog who is essentially a trained dog. And you are asking how long do you have to train before competing in obedience. Also don't forget that some things are not so much training related, but more to do with maturity. 

Basics - can be established in a month. If you put the training in every day and do the progress checks in weekly classes. If you are only training once a week and in the weekly class - it will take longer. 

Puppy class is and should be basics. Particularly when you take this class around 4 months. It's walking on a loose lead, giving attention while walking, sitting when the owner stops walking, sitting and lying down on command, coming when called, beginner sits and down stays, and even beginner retrieving. 

These are all things you should be learning to do with your pup in puppy class. 

If you are very new to dog training, you will be moving along to the next level after puppy class. Usually this is a competition basics type class, where heeling is actually taught, beginner fronts, target training, formal retrieving (shaping the formal retrieve), group stays, etc. This competition basics class may be taught in 1-3 different sessions, depending on the trainer.

Way back with my Jacks, I had an instructor who literally took the whole group of us through Novice 1, Novice II, and Novice III. Each of these was a 6 session class. It literally took a whole year to finish the series - which I do think is pretty common. This series taught the entire foundation for obedience training - it went into all the basics you need for the novice level, but it also taught a rock solid foundation for the upper levels (Open and Utility), although the exercises of those upper levels technically were not the focus of the classes. 

My Bertie learned everything much faster because I was doing a lot of the same Nov I through III training stuff at home on my own. Which meant that by the time he was 12 weeks old, I was entering him in fun matches and practicing puppy heeling, puppy wait and come (Bertie had a solid wait at 12 weeks), and quick stand for exams. These are kinds of things you'd expect a pup to know by 4-5 months after you've done puppy class. If you are training the pup every day and doing all the stuff right, that pup will learn very fast.

My next puppy who might be coming home this fall... knock on wood... will primarily be trained through a private instructor. Which means that it probably will learn everything from basics through utility (the top level) in a year. It will still take two years of this pup's life before we could start competing, because male goldens mature slowly. A one year old male golden should not be jumping full height, but also isn't mature enough to handle all the distractions at a trial. But I do expect that we will be training at our own speed as opposed to training at the same level as everyone else in a class.

To sum it up though - dog training takes as long as your dog needs. And don't feel bad if you are new and it's taking a little longer to train some basics. You are learning right along with your dog. It gets easier with the next dog.


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