# How to train to hunt, jump, and come back ?



## PammyWammy (Jul 8, 2015)

I want my female mini poodle (7months old) to learn to come to me as soon as I call her, she's horrible at not listening and running off, I also want to learn to teach her to do a few agility things and possibly be a bird retriever, I have no money for classes etc. It would have to be things I can do at home. Any help is appreciated !


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## spindledreams (Aug 7, 2012)

Check out Sue Alisby and her training levels. You can find similar methods if you look on you tube under Your choice. This method work well with poodles


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## MiniPoo (Mar 6, 2014)

Even experienced dog people take their dogs to group obedience classes. The structured environment is very helpful, at least at first. Have you checked around for a very inexpensive class, perhaps through a pet store or humane society?

Poodles cost money to be groomed and cared for medically. A few classes are just another expense in owning a dog, especially if you have such high hopes of doing such things like hunting and agility.


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## PammyWammy (Jul 8, 2015)

Lol I didn't mean so she can perform, I meant so we can do it at home only, just something fun to keep her .... whats the word... argh, mentally challenged ? And the only classes I know of here are at petsmart and cost hundreds, I groom Pammy at home. I know it takes money to take care of a dog thank you though. And I know absolutely nothing about hunting or agility, only have seen a few videos of dogs running courses. I will look that up, thank you


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

The right classes are very helpful, but the if they are not possible you first need to teach yourself how to train her. You can have a lot of fun working together without much specialised equipment or spending much money. I would get hold of "How to train your dog like a pro" by Jean Donaldson, which explains in detail the principles of how to reward, and how to train in small, incremental steps. There are lots of good resources online, too - Kikopup youtube videos are excellent. Be very wary of anything that involves force or punishment, though, as it is easy to put a dog off training for life if you make it a miserable experience. Clicker training may work for you, and you can teach almost anything that way. 

At 7 months your pup is hitting the giddy months of adolescence and deciding she is now old enough to do her own thing, I suspect! If you have "poisoned" your recall cue by using it to call her for unpleasant things, or by using it over and over again while she blithely ignores you and then scolding her when she does eventually come (and that is very easy to do!), start again with a new word. Use a high value treat - food or a special toy, whichever she loves most - and start in a small area with no distractions. Call her to you, showing her the treat, have a party when she comes. Once she begins to get the idea, hide the treat until she comes. Make it the most exciting game ever - call her, then run away giggling and flapping, be silly and fun, be the very best, most wonderful, most interesting thing in the world - you are going to have to compete with squirrels and dogs and children on bicycles and chickens and any number of other things when you eventually take this show on the road! Your neighbours will get a bit worried, but never mind...

When she is coming to you happily and every time, increase the distance, still in an area with few distractions. Then start working in a slightly more distracting environment, starting very close. The principle is to work on Distance, Duration and Distraction one at a time, making it as easy as possible for her to get it right.

If she is a natural retriever she will fetch a thrown toy till the cows come home. The trick is to teach her to give it back to you. I think I would wait to teach her jumping - at 7 months her joints are still maturing, and you want to avoid any unnecessary repetitive impact on them.


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## PammyWammy (Jul 8, 2015)

She loves fetching her toys for me as long as ill throw them, and rarely have trouble getting her to give them to me, and I know what you mean about the disciplining if she comes, I have to battle my boyfriend on that, he still tries disciplining her if she comes back and I tell him not to, she probably will do better with treats, she's attentive of everything, even the seagulls in the sky. Good point on the joint thing.. maybe tunnels then ? Ill have to try and make a short one at home, or maybe a ramp, etc.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

There are lots of fun agility exercises you can do that don't involve jumping - think of balancing on a board a few inches off the ground, running over poles (like cavaletti for horses), working on contacts (getting feet to the end of a plank before jumping off), etc, etc. Keep everything low for safety, and concentrate on having fun. Tunnels are great - the ones sold for cats and children tend to be cheaper than the dog ones, in the UK at least. Look online for Puppy pre-agility training, with a caveat to only follow those that focus on safety!

Other good games are Hunt the Treat (excellent for self control if you ask her to wait while you hide them), Hide and Seek (one human hides, the other sends her off to seek), Canine Three Card Trick (hide a treat under one plastic cup of several, or in a bun tin with the holes covered with tennis balls). Swapsies is an excellent game for teaching her to be happy with you taking stuff from her, and preventing resource guarding - offer her something of higher value for whatever she has, and then, whenever possible, give her the original object back. Once she is happy with the idea, progress to having the high value thing out of sight, and eventually in another room. Very useful when she has hold of something dangerous and all the good stuff is in the cupboard in the kitchen!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I also would not jump a puppy. Javelin will get foundation agility training very quickly, but no jumping until he is over 1 year. 

You need to make sure you don't let your pup think there is a choice about recall so use a long line or a flexi and make yourself super interesting to get back to really fast (think excited voice, toy or cookies as rewards but only for immediate enthusiastic returns). This is essential not just for fun and games but can be a lifesaver.

You could try nose work games for a challenging way to play there are plenty of online resources and books about nose work.

I have a friend who breeds German Short-haired Pointers. His dogs are shown in conformation and field trial, but he sends the good field puppies away to be trained for hunting. You can take advantage of a poodle's interest in retrieving just by playing fetch.

You can search for local obedience clubs to try to find an inexpensive place to train. My club (like many) is a not for profit organization. We do community service through a therapy visit group and by participating in various pet fairs. A beginner class of 8 sessions is under $200 and for members a single class is only $12. We allow people to come as drop ins.

I think the reason people are thinking you want to compete is because you posted in the sub-forum that is generally about competitive performance.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Goo point - you may get more responses to puppy training in the general training sub-forum, PammyWammy. This bit tends to be more for serious competitors, and at that level training classes and clubs would be considered absolutely essential.


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## PammyWammy (Jul 8, 2015)

Ill try a different category, and great game ideas, I was trying to get her to walk through a hula hoop today XD when I get more data ill be looking at the things y'all have suggested, im looking forward to finding activities I can do with my sweet girl


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