I suppose training starts the minute your pup is born or the moment you get your pup. It is all about conditioning that young impressionable mind that is your dog. You may ask, “well how important is that?” Let me tell you about a couple of instances that I came across.
I once went to view a litter of Springer Spaniels that were advertised, many years ago. The pups were 7 weeks old. I was taken down this woman's garden and a small outhouse door was opened. Inside in a space of about 1 metre x 1.5 metre was a frantic litter of pups. Food was thrown in on them, and mayhem erupted. She told me this was the one meal they would receive, and it became obvious they did not see much light of day either.What were these pups conditioned to do? ….Or should I say, what were they conditioned not to do? Certainly not to be social, not to be clean, not to be mannerly...., and so the list could go on. One really would not know what issues would have appeared with these pups until you tried to assimilate them into your lifestyle. Needless to say I walked away from these pups. A few months later, I went to see a litter of 6 month old spaniels. There were 5 litter mates in a very spacious well maintained clean kennel. They were very busy, and looked to be a very nice well bred litter. The breeder opened up the kennel door, I moved over to one side to let them run out. The owner said, “oh, don't worry about them, they won't run out, they have never been out.” What were these dogs conditioned to do? Certainly not to breathe in the sights and smells of life, not to experience..... again I could go on. I bought one of these dogs. He was the most neurotic and least likely dogs to hunt I had ever seen. He was eventually given away as a pet. I am sure we all have similar stories to tell. The majority of these pups we don't go near. Some however we do, and we can tell the story. The conditioning starts immediately, and that is all that training is. We should be trying to give our pups every opportunity to gain the experiences they need, which will be so vital for them.
There is a great American writer, ......who can really talk dogs. In his book, he talks about lead training to newly born pups. Can you imagine? He puts a small length of string loosely tied around each pups neck, like a lead. As the pups develop, and their eyes open, they see a piece of string moving along the floor. They grab it, and pull at it. There is a little resistance to begin with, but the pup on the lead has no reason to fear it and gives in. This pup soon learns to give in to the pull of the 'lead'. As the pups become more mobile, you will see pups walking others around by the 'lead'. All the pups are being lead conditioned by all their litter mates. There certainly would be no issue later introducing the lead to these pups. No longer would you have to experience the frantic dog trying desperately to get away from the lead the first time it is introduced later on. Let us all be as imaginative as we can be in raising our pups, so they develop fearlessly, with as few hang ups as possible. What can we do that will aid this process? What do you the readers do to help your pups develop? Please share your experiences!