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3 Golden Rules to Start Immediately with Your Puppy

Sometimes the simple things matter the most when raising a gun dog.

3 Golden Rules to Start Immediately with Your Puppy

Important informal training begins the instant you get your puppy home. (Ben Brettingen photo)

You’re pulling out of the kennel with a brand new eight-week old little puppy, and over the course of the next few months, you will have the ability to either create a fine bird dog or an egg-sucking bootlicker. If you did your research and purchased a well-bred dog, the responsibility of this outcome now largely falls on you. Puppies are just like children during this formative period and their brains are like sponges. It’s time to give them something to soak up. Here are three golden rules to follow beginning the instant you first get your puppy home.

Consistency is Key

Every single interaction you have with your puppy is training and begins the day you bring them home. There are two types of training. Formal and informal. Keep in mind, you’re not the only one figuring things out. Dogs have the incredible ability to pick up on the subconscious cues that you’re putting out. This means you have to maintain consistency, which is arguably one of the most difficult aspects of raising a dog. 

I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with Sonny Piekarz of Hay Creek Kennels in Gilman, Wisconsin. Piekarz is currently working on what a lot of people would consider “voodoo magic”. He learned the Huntsmith Method from Rick and Ronnie Smith before taking their system and developing it further. One of the most important aspects of puppy training—really dog training in general—is rather quite basic. It comes down to maintaining absolute consistency. When interacting with dogs, Sonny is unbelievably even keeled, neither excitable nor over-bearing. Admittedly, he wasn’t always that way, and it has taken him a number of years to have a zen-like aura when training. 

Sonny keeps more than 15 dogs, which works to his advantage when being consistent. The dogs are in the kennel, and every day when it’s time to work, he gets into the zone and it’s all business. At the end of the day, they go back to the kennel and he is able to change his demeanor with the dogs being none the wiser.  For many of us this isn’t as easy, as our dogs are also in our house, and subject to our different moods during day-to-day life. However, this doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but it’s about being consistent as much as humanly possible. This means if it’s not okay to jump all over you today, the next day can’t be okay either. By being level-headed and consistent, it will help your dog better prepare for formal training, as they will better understand your expectations and how you operate. 

Command Authority

If there is one thing a puppy is great at, it’s testing you. I’m guilty of it without a doubt. Here’s the situation. You’re running late and the pup is outside running wild. He knows what “here” means, but you don’t have control over him and right now the fresh dirt in the garden is way more enticing than your pleading. It is important to make sure the puppy understands what it’s supposed to do before you can expect them to perform. Once you teach the pup a command and you know he understands it, do not give it unless you are able to enforce it. Yelling the same command over and over without compliance is simply conditioning the dog to flip you the bird. Using training treats in a controlled situation is a great way to help them learn any command. Every time they perform the desired action, they get a reward. As the dog gets older, the reward shifts from a treat to a stroke on the head or back. 

Deutsch Drahthaar puppy with owner on a dock
Praise your young puppy every time they perform a desired action. (Ben Brettingen photo)

Mike Fortner, of Dilmunfast Drahthaars, has the best analogy of this point. “Once the dog learns a command, enforce it. My ex-wife was a counter. She would give the kids a command and start counting. The kids knew that until she got to seven or eight, they didn’t have to move. They knew if I said something once and had to get up and say it again, they were in trouble. Be me. Don’t command the dog, “here” multiple times and nag the dog. He will only ignore you.” 

If you aren’t able to control the puppy and make it comply, don’t give the command. To circle back to the first point, if this happens, don’t get mad. Take a deep breath, grab the puppy, and go about your business.


Develop a Sound Mind

Our first instinct is to be a helicopter parent, protecting the helpless little puppy against a cruel world. Sheltering your pup is actually extremely counterproductive to raising a dog with a calm and confident temperament. Dogs need to learn for themselves, and by removing them from any “learning moment” you are stripping away its ability to develop. If you're out for a walk exposing the pup to its future hunting environment and he gets hung up in a thick patch of brambles, don’t rush in to save the day. Rather, keep calm and let the puppy figure it out. If you freak out, run over, pick up the dog, and start comforting it, you’ve actually accomplished the opposite of fostering problem-solving and independence. There’s no doubt the pup is probably stressed when it’s hung up in an unknown predicament, but when you rush in, you’ve reinforced that it was scary and it can rely on you to help him out. By not making a scene, the dog will get out of the situation on its own, look to you for reassurance, and with no reaction from you, go about his business. 

Young puppy on a check cord
Allowing your dog to figure things out on its own is a sure way to build their confidence and independence. (Ben Brettingen photo)

There are situations where you need to step in because a dog really isn’t going to learn anything from running out into the road and getting run over by a car. Use common sense. Is this something that could kill them or cause bodily harm? If not, let them figure it out.

Don’t be afraid to put them into situations that may make them uncomfortable. By stressing the puppy, you are teaching it how to figure things out for itself, and when it develops into a dog, it will have the “been there, done that” mentality. 

There is a laundry list of things to do with your new puppy, but by following these three golden rules from the get-go, you will end up creating a solid foundation he can stand on for the rest of his life. 


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