How Much Training Is Needed For Field Golden Retrievers
Training a field golden retriever is not a task or project with a timeframe or completion date. Owning an exceptional field golden retriever involves serious commitment and time, and their training and skill practice will be an ongoing education for them. There are a number of steps to ensuring your golden becomes a great sporting dog.
Start EarlyThis is mostly self-explanatory, you will need to get out early and often with your field golden as a puppy. Many experts recommend exposing them to barn pigeons or similar birds initially to build their curiosity and drive. Be sure to introduce them to fowl that will be hunted as well, so that when you are out in the field and are about to down a mallard or a large rooster pheasant your golden wont be uninterested or confused.
Get SocialBy joining a local or regional retriever club you will gain access to a wealth of knowledge about how other hunters, many of them relatively successful, train and exercise their retrievers. In many cases, members of clubs like these will often be training their dog or dogs for hunt tests and field tests, and more.
Difficulty Walking On Leash
Some Goldens either never really got the hang of leash training, werent ever trained, or have regressed due to poor reinforcement. Either way, its important to correct this behavior as soon as possible. While on a walk, if your pup goes wild, stop.
Wait until your pup calms down. Once they do, continue the walk. You will literally repeat this repeatedly. Granted, youll need ample amounts of time to make this successful. Try walking three times a day this way for a few weeks to see if the behavior improves.
How To Train An 18
You will not have to alter your training regimen dramatically if you have trained your Golden Retriever properly from eight weeks onward. If anything, this is the period where you customize his training to your convenience. Up to this point, you have learned patience, altered your routine, and even made friends to accommodate your pets growth and education.
Now is when your dog must learn to be compatible with your life. From the 18-month mark onwards, you must train your dog to be harmonious with modern adult life .
It is sad to see dog owners having to give away their pets because of behavior issues. Such things are avoidable if you train your dog properly and exercise him sufficiently.
It is also possible youve come across this article having adopted an older dog. If you have an 18-month-old Golden Retriever who doesnt seem to have previous training, dont panic!
It would be best if you established authority by having a positive yet commanding presence. Once your dog acknowledges your authority and sees you as a guide, you can merely treat him as a six-month-old, albeit on an accelerated schedule, and train him accordingly.
Read Also: Golden Retriever Puppies Animal Shelter
Golden Retrievers Are Active
Thirdly, Golden Retrievers are energetic and need exercise to keep them in good condition. It is important to take your Golden Retriever for regular brisk walks or runs. Fetch games and swimming are also great exercise options. They also need to exercise their mind and regular training classes is a great way to do this.
Golden Retriever Potty Training
This may seem obvious but potty training problems are one of the main reasons dogs are surrendered at shelters. The most important concept you need to understand is that puppies cant hold their bladders too long, so you will need to be attentive until puppy gets it. This link will take you to a step-by-step guide on potty training and crate training a golden retriever puppy.
Also Check: Can Golden Retrievers Live In Apartments
How To Train A 7
As your Golden progresses to seven months old, a lot of the previous training needs to be kept consistent as you gradually teach him to figure out more commands.
I recommend adding up to two cues to your Golden Retrievers training every month. But if he struggles to grasp a particular technique, continue working at that particular one until he has mastered it.
Teach Your Golden Retriever Target Training
Teach your Golden to ask for treats! Here I use the word treats loosely. Whether it is a cuddle, a pat, attention, or something tasty, you must teach your pup target training, for example, to touch a target with a specific part of his body. Remember that your Retriever may end up biting or clawing to communicate if you do not teach him more acceptable communication methods.
Here, I recommend teaching your Golden Retriever to touch your hand with his nose. While youll actively encourage him by holding out your hand, he will soon learn to softly connect your hand with his nose when youre sitting.
Ultimately, this is an excellent replacement for bites! Hand targeting is fun to teach, helps your pup build trust, and gets him using his brain.
You May Like: What Color Will My Golden Retriever Be
Make Dog Training Sessions Fun
Golden Retrievers learn well through games. Keep things fun to retain your Goldens involvement and intrigue during each training session. Use a happy tone of voice rather than a stern one.
Avoid yelling and exercise patience. If your pet doesnt respond to a cue from you, you can gain his attention by being playful and making the task a little easier to get him re-engaged.
Golden Retriever Obedience Tips
Obedience training is very important, it teaches golden retrievers how to act properly to a number of situations, and provides the means from which you as a owner are able to command your dog to do certain things at any given time, giving you more control over you dog, this is one of the first things taught in obedience training and the first topic approached when giving golden retriever obedience tips to anyone.
This is useful to have your dog react to a number of orders, either being for walking, sitting, stopping, laying down, playing fetch, and so on. Another useful aspect about commands, is their usefulness to prevent your dog from doing things he shouldnt do, and in the event it already did such things, see him comply with your order to stop with little effort on your part.
You should initiate your dog in obedience training since hes a puppy, this is the golden age of learning, what he learns and experiences in these times, will be remembered through all his life and the experiences will stand out as landmarks that will effect his personality and behavior forever.
What is taught in obedience trainingWhen starting obedience training, the owner is taught to:
Golden Retriever Obedience TipsHere I will list a few simple golden retriever obedience tips you should take advantage of when training your golden retriever in obedience to follow your commands and generally have a more balanced behavior.
Also Check: Golden Retriever Breeders Best
What Does This Have To Do With How I Train My Golden Retriever Puppy
Its a fair question actually. But there is a logic as to why knowing the context might help you train your Golden Retriever better:
PRO TIP: Golden Retrievers can struggle with frustration sometimes, especially during training sessions, and may start to mouth at you when theyre feeling angsty. If your puppys silly switch goes off and they become mouthy or jumpy during a training session, this means its time for a break.
Shift to some play, and revisit training later we want training to be associated with fun, and not something they begin to dread.
Golden Retrievers Are Very Social
Secondly, Golden Retrievers must learn to be well-behaved with people and other animals, including other dogs. Allowing your dog to interact positively with different kinds of dogs will help your Golden Retriever develop good behaviours and build their confidence.
Like all dogs, Golden Retrievers need to socialise with other dogs of different shapes, sizes, and colours. Socialising properly will help their development and shape their temperament.
Read Also: Do Golden Retrievers Need A Coat In Winter
Adolescent Golden Retriever Training
– My Golden Retriever wont respond to my commands anymore!
You have been training your GR puppy for months, he has become the most well behaved puppy in historythen one day, he just wont do what you say! This is classic adolescence behavior and may start happening when your golden is between 8-10 months. Just like humans, dogs also have an adolescence period, and just like humans, they like to test boundaries. During this time it is very important that you continue training basic obedience commands:
| Take your golden retriever dog to an obedience class that uses positive methods only! |
If your dog wont answer to your command, gently but firmly keep asking until he does. NEVER give up, otherwise they learn that if they ignore you long enough you will stop bothering them. Adolescence is also a period of physiological changes in the dog, you may notice that they will start interacting with other dogs differently. It is important to continue with socialization exercises to keep all interactions positive. Bring treats with you everywhere and treat your dog for having friendly encounters with other dogs. It may seem like free treats to you, but it is not. You are building a strong and positive association with other dogs, so your pooch will keep treating them nicely.
Train Your Dog To Fetch
If you have taken your Golden Retriever to public parks and he has seen other dogs play fetch, it will be easier to teach him to retrieve whatever you throw. You can take one of your dogs favorite toys and throw it at a short enough distance. Your Golden Retriever may not bring the toy back to you for a second round, but he will soon get the idea of retrieving it.
You can gradually turn it into a game of fetch over the next few weeks and reward your pup with high-value training treats. Dont forget your Golden Retriever has it in his genetic code to master FETCH! in no time at all!
You May Like: The Best Dog Food For Golden Retrievers
What Age Should You Train Your Golden Retriever
You should train your Golden Retriever at two months old because, by that stage, he has grown enough to take cues and is sufficiently self-reliant not to need his mother to survive. He will have already learned canine behaviors by interacting with his mother and littermates, but now he can continue to learn by association.
Initial training should be kept light. As mentioned in the table, it is simply a period where you establish your authority as the source of commands and rewards. You can even go 2 weeks without giving any proper training to your freshly-released pup without impacting his progression. However, the 8 to 10-week period from release to assimilation is important.
It is trickier when youre thinking about training a puppy that your family dog has given birth to. Dont start teaching the pup the moment you see it walking around.
Although the puppy can seem self-sufficient at 6-weeks old, if youre two weeks early, you may confuse or frighten him by overloading him with stimuli before hes ready to make the correct associations. A traumatic experience can have a negative and counter-productive effect during this period.
Read further if you:
- Have a Golden Retriever older than seven weeks
- Want an approximate schedule for training your pup
- Wish to train a dog using positive reinforcement and ethical training methods
- Want to commit to 1.5 years of casual dog training
Common Golden Retriever Puppy Training Mistakes
The tips above will help you train your puppy, but if you make the mistakes below, youll make it much harder for your puppy to learn.
Being inconsistent
If you dont consistently train your puppy, it will be hard for them to progress because theyll have to relearn it all every time.
Also, you need to be consistent with your house rules.
Dont let your puppy chew on your shoes sometimes because its cute, then take it away from him other times.
Punishing your dog
Punishing your dog can hurt their confidence, making them not want to try to do something because they know theyll get punished if they get it wrong.
It can also make them not want to listen to you because theyre scared of you or dont like you.
Training too long
You want your puppy to enjoy training, and you want them to be successful when you try to teach them something.
Because puppies have such short attention spans, training for longer than five or ten minutes can lead to them getting bored and/or getting things wrong.
If they get bored, they may start to not like training with you, and if they continue to get things wrong, theyll be very slow to get them right.
Expecting too much
Would you expect your toddler to master every challenge you give them right away?
Of course not, so treat your puppy the same.
Make training fun and challenging for them, praise and reward them for making short progressions, and forgive them when they get it wrong.
Waiting to train your puppy until behavioral problems occur
Recommended Reading: Best Hip And Joint Supplements For Golden Retrievers
Is A Field Golden Retriever A Match For You
Field golden retrievers are unique and awesome dogs that are bred for relatively specific purposes, and those purposes often include using their boundless energy, ambition, and intelligence for either hunting or field trials. They are made for it, and they excel at it.
If you have an active lifestyle and are looking for a companion dog to share in your adventures and tackle any location by your side, you will probably be a great match for a field golden retriever. They will be an incredibly loyal sidekick whether youre hitting the river for a swim or some fishing, hunting pheasant, quail, duck, or other fowl, or being active in trials and competitions.
If you prefer a more laid-back lifestyle, however, a field golden retriever will likely not be an ideal match. When you prefer to press play and binge a new series, they will want to go play fetch and challenge themselves in the great outdoors. You will find that when you try to chill, they want to hop up in your lap and get you to come to engage with them. If this is your lifestyle, or if you will have difficulty keeping them active enough in your yard, adding a field golden retriever to your family is probably not the best idea.
Teach The Sit And Stay
Teaching your Golden Retriever to sit and stay is a valuable command for him to learn. Hes already learned to sit for a reward, but you can now progress this by training him to stay, ensuring he keeps his eyes focused on you at all times.
However, dont expect too much too soon, as this can be difficult for your pup to grasp at first. Start by getting him to hold his SIT for a few seconds and gradually increase.
Don’t Miss: How Much Are Golden Retriever Puppies From Breeders
What Age Can I Start To Train My Golden Retriever Puppy
They start training Guide Dog puppies from 7 weeks old, so there is no reason you cant start training your Golden Retriever Puppy as soon as you get them home from the breeder. In fact, if your breeder is following programmes such as Avidog or Puppy Culture in puppy raising, then theyll be doing some of the training before they make it home. Sounds like a good deal!
To make your smile even bigger, youll be happy to hear that Golden Retrievers puppies are very clever so training is likely to not be as bad as you think. We can only hope.
How To Train A 2
When a Golden Retriever is 8 weeks old, he is ready to be separated from his mother. At this point, you have to train your puppy to see you as an authority figure. Dont assume authority and start commanding him. Instead, get him to follow you around and notice that youre his sole provider.
Moreover, the puppy can only form the most obvious associations between command, response, and consequence, so it is crucial to adapt your training strategy accordingly.
Recommended Reading: Golden Retriever Puppy For Sale New Jersey
Make Training A Regular Part Of The Day
None of us master skills without regular practice, and the same goes for your canine companion. Speed up the process by including dog training during daily activities.
Is it time for dinner? Then practice sit before you put the bowl in front of your dog. Are you about to take a walk? Call your dogs name just before you pick up the leash . Practice down and stay after your dogs walk, when he is more likely to respond to your cue. There are many opportunities to practice commands in everyday situations, so use that to your advantage!
Try The Golden Retriever Obedience Training Class
If you think that you cannot train your dog properly and anyone in the family can train the dog in basic obedience, you can enroll him to a good obedience class as well. The experts there will ensure that your golden retriever obedience training goes well and that your dog learns to behave in the best manner.
Instructors who are experienced can be also contacted for advanced Golden Retriever obedience training. You must also see that the instructor that you have appointed does not use punishment and intimidation to train your dog. You must emphasize that while your dog is being trained in obedience only positive reinforcement are used. You must also ensure that your Golden Retrievers obedience training is regular and consistent. The Golden Retriever training sessions should be short and engaging. The hallmarks of Golden Retrievers are their biddable, intelligent, and obedient nature and these characteristics are equally valuable and fundamental to a Goldens role as a companion, family pet, or working dog.
Don’t Miss: Ear Infections In Golden Retrievers