Ring Training For Puppies
By Anne Moore (Romanchi Wires)
Everyone has their own ideas of how to train their puppy for the show
ring. This is the way we train (or try to) our babies.
All our puppies are born in our sitting room. We have chosen to do this
as we feel that the importance of early socialisation is greater than the
slight risk of infection. None of our bitches have been upset by this,
indeed, they love all the extra attention they receive.
The babies are, from the day they are born, in a room where the telly is
on almost constantly, the hoover is on every day (we have children
too!). The 'phone is in there, and there is the daily comings and goings
of a household with three adults (four when our daughter is home from
university) and a noisy teenage boy, plus all the associated friends,
boyfriends, girlfriends etc., who are all encouraged to look at the babies,
and handle them when they are old enough.
Household Noises
When the pups go into the kitchen at about three weeks (easy to clean
floor), normal household noises don't bother them in the slightest, and
they can listen to the latest chart sounds, on full volume, without turning
a whisker!
From about six weeks they are taken on short car journeys and they are
also carried fairly regularly up and down our very busy High street. We
inoculate at eight and twelve weeks, so that when they are ready to go
out on their own feet the world isn't such a scary place.
The pups have a collar on for short supervised times as if we leave
collars on our dogs they invariably get eaten. The collar is put on just
before a meal or a playtime and we have never had any problems with
collars. When the babies are out in the garden, one of our adults
comes too and a lead is attached to the collar and just left dangling, and
when the time comes to pick the lead up, puppy isn't bothered by it.
When we start walking on a lead, the pup is always taken with an adult
and that way puppy isn't bothered by a collar & lead, he is just interested
in going with the big dogs.
You may think that this has nothing to do with ring training but we firmly
believe the more experiences a puppy has a baby and the more
confident the dog, and consequently going to a show is just another
adventure.
Getting Started
To start training the puppy to stand begins at between 5 and 6 weeks
and we train them on the freezer in the kitchen (doesn't everyone!). We
stand the puppy for a few minutes several times a day, especially when
there is a lot going on at the time, e.g. someone has just come home or
a meal is being prepared (human food that is!). We try to avoid using
titbits and use lots of praise when the puppy has done well.
We start by putting the puppy on the freezer and positioning the front
legs first, then hold the head steady while we position the back legs all
the time saying 'stand' in a firm voice. If puppy moves or wriggles they
are told 'no', and put back in the stand. We always finish a training
session with the puppy behaving and he is then given a lot of' praise
and put down with all the other dogs who are usually milling about
waiting for their turn. We always examine mouths very carefully,
especially if puppy is teething and at the same time say "mouth".
Everyone who comes to house is encouraged to 'go over' the puppy
and when we go to the park we always have a practice there.
Due to work commitments we rarely get the chance to attend ringcraft
regularly, but we do like to take a puppy once or twice before its first
show.
We are not too bothered by a puppy being a bit naughty at its first
couple of shows, as we continue training at home and it does eventually
sink in. All puppies have a different temperament, some seem naturals
and behave from the off or some (usually ours) have a bit of fun before
settling into showing. It does help if you have other dogs at home as
they will give puppy confidence, if they themselves are confident, which
of course begs the question should we be breeding with shy or
frightened animals.
If you only have one puppy there is always another dog owner who will
be willing to help, and if you attend ringcraft you should be able to get
help there.
Well that's how we do it here, it seems to work for us. All our dogs are
happy, confident adults that don't let anything bother them.
ANNE MOORE
Many thanks, Anne for a good, practical article. I well remember
struggling to train my first couple of show dogs (I'm still struggling!!)
Ed.
January 1997