You’re home and have a new pup on your lap—all of sudden you’re hit with a sobering question, often initiated by your spouse: What were you thinking?

Hopefully you thought it through for a good while, researched the breeds, family groups, and ultimately settled on an outstanding litter to choose from. Now you have a great looking pup with paperwork demonstrating great potential as a top hunting or contest dog. So, what’s next?

Early-Stage Puppy Training Checklist

1. First and foremost, you must schedule a visit with your veterinarian for a physical exam and general health check while you still have options with the breeder. You need to make sure your pup is sound, in good health, and up to date on shots. It’s good to have a veterinarian familiar with your dog when you need advice, one who’ll keep good records and prompt you on health care over time.

2. When it comes to recommending a good dog food to support your pup’s development, I’m going with Purina Pro Plan. If you’re bringing home a pointing breed or Labrador, I recommend their large breed puppy formula for the first six months to a year. Most of our hunting breeds fall into a larger dog category and it’s important to keep an eye on growth rate and body condition. The idea of a little round butterball puppy has long been proven false. In fact, studies have shown feeding for proper body condition can improve general health and decrease orthopedic problems over time which helps our dogs live a more active and longer life.

3. Our next concern is the physical component of body condition. This depends a good deal on proper exercise. We have to be careful with pups and young dogs not to use the wrong kind of exercise or over work them. It’s best to go with milder forms of exercise and stay away from resistance training, like pulling or “roading.” Free running is always good and swimming is great. Just taking the pup for walks and letting them explore off leash in the fields or woods goes a long way to help build and strengthen the body as well as acquainting your pup with the part of the world he’ll be working in.

A huge component of any basic training program involves proper exposure to the environment, bushes, low and high cover, creeks and ditches, people, dogs, places and things where the dog will live, train, and work over time. As your pup develops and becomes more physically and mentally ready, move from the backyard and walks in the park to higher cover like fence rows, brush, or timber. As you progress, find rougher terrain with hills and ditches to cross—all of this will help build and toughen your young dog physically, as well as mentally. Getting the pup accustomed to this real-world environment sets them up to be comfortable, attentive, and focus on you during training rather than spooking or looking over their shoulder at every new object.

4. Socialization or proper introductions to birds, gun fire, and water are essential to do right with a puppy. Our goal is to present these in a way the pup understands all as positive and exciting—birds are what he lives for, and the sound of the gun is a cue associated to that end, rather than a negative, harsh, hurtful, scary noise. Please don’t underestimate the possible impact of overlooking or mishandling these introductions.

5. Obedience training is key to having a well-rounded bird dog down the road. You’ll want to focus your training on a positive, nurturing mode of training where your goal is to elicit a certain response to a voice cue, but more importantly, throughout all phases of training and particularly in the early work, the effort is to develop a positive attitude in our dog. We must keep them looking forward to training, eager to learn, and willing to work with you.

Dogs learn best when tasks or commands are broken down into easily understood steps. On attaining each step, the dog will gain confidence and supports progress to the next training step. When training early obedience commands, you are going to associate a voice cue, or a sound, with a desired behavior. Decide what the behavior expected is and what the sound cue will be used to initiate that behavior, as well as what sound cue will be used to end or release from that behavior.

Let’s use teaching “sit” as an example. Using a short lead with the dog standing beside you, put pressure up on the lead with one hand while your opposite hand pushes down on the pup’s rump. When the dog sits and relaxes, brush his shoulder and say good, then repeat. After several repetitions, you’ll find the dog responds on feeling the collar pressure and sits on its own, that’s when you can begin to introduce the verbal cue sound “sit.”

While training, it is important you get the correct response before introducing the sound/cue. It is equally important to clarify the parameters for an action or response by a clear end or release command. For example: You can use the command “sit” and release the dog with an “OK” verbal cue.

Building Blocks

As I mentioned, in the beginning of formal training, we’re not only attempting to teach the very basics, but our parallel goal is also to nurture a willing, receptive, learning attitude in your pup. That is accomplished by training in small, simple steps with a positive, nurturing attitude.

Let's symbolize our training program with the inherited genetic makeup and resulting physical attributes of your pup representing the foundation. Each learned command in turn will become building blocks, each supporting and enhancing any future steps. Socialization, exercise, nutrition and healthcare, in combination, are the mortar that really strengthens, supports, and bonds this “structure” together.