# Trying to figure out whats next



## BetterThanYourBentley (Oct 16, 2010)

So Bentley is 14 weeks old now and is sitting coming and laying down well enough and work on it everyday when we play and get food and go outside. Also working on a little bit of heel when we are outside and walking around. I have not worked with birds for a couple weeks because i left them at school in the freezer and dont have any here at home, But playing fetch with toys and water bottles is still great. Starting to wonder what i should work on next? Should i just focus on heel and get that down to perfection. Should i move to retrieving drills. Which im not sure about since i dont have much room where i live unless i go to the park and with snow or mud likely till spring im not sure about how i feel about daily baths. Any advice is welcome i have a general idea of my training plan and i have it all at school but forgot to bring that home too. so thats why i have just been working on the basic obediance inside and outside in the yard.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

I didn't see it mentioned, but I would work on "stay", too. Steadiness is pretty important in the hunt games!


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

At 14 to 16 weeks I'm usually working on teaching sit, here and heel as well as introducing the whistle for those commands. When "Sit" gets established, you can begin to introduce casting in the yard. 

Marks should be singles in areas without a lot of distraction. Use a check cord to ensure compliance with obedience commands. Don't demand complete steadiness from the pup at this point. You want to build the pups' desire to make the retrieve. If the pups butt stays on the ground long enough to see the fall it's steady enough at this point. (We'll demand absolute steadiness after OB is formalized.)

It's getting time to seek a helper (or pick up a remote launcher/winger) to throw marks for the pup so you can extend the distance as the pup progresses.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Lots of things you can do--it is mostly socialization and positive association building at this point anyhow. We are having a miserable rainy day here so Bonnie will be learning inside today!

See if there is a paint roller in the utility room/workshop at your folks, or else visit the hardware store tomorrow. They are cheap, excellent retrieval items for youngsters and encourage good mouth habits. Pups generally like them and pick them up by the middle. You can do hand thrown marks in a hallway with these.

Go for walks and let him experience a variety of natural elements so he gets confident with them--leaves, sticks, logs, rocks, ditches....

Do short, reward-based obedience sessions working on skills like here, sit, down, heel, kennel-up and wait. Remember keep it short and fun.

An excellent inside game for yucky days is food-bowl casting. Sit the pup in front of you (facing you like a whistle sit position), and have a helper set down a little bowl with a couple of kibbles in it. They can rattle it so that the pup knows there is something in it, or have the pup watch as they put the treat in. Then give pup an over cast to the bowl. Don't know how well it transfers over to handling eventually, but pups enjoy it and quite a few of my friends now do it with their pups. Bonnie has a pretty good sit now, so I make her wait and watch while I set it out and then return in front of her to cast. 

Little games can really stick with them in skills development. My obedience trainer teaches a scent discrimination game in her puppy classes with pups as young as 10 weeks old. I do not personally go far with obedience (there is only so much time!) but some of my friends for whom it is the primary activity swear their dogs pick up the articles exercise for utility sooo much faster because of it.


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