I have found the Workers as Pets thread a really interesting read, but from my point of view really worrying............Don't all slate me for this but i am very much a greenie, new to springers and new to springer language.

Alfie is now 22 weeks old and from working parents, but bought as a family pet. his first few weeks with us were extremely hard work, but he has since calmed down. I am assuming from your posts that this is likely to be the calm before the storm therefore i need to get my backside into gear.

When you all mention metal stimulation, i assume you mean training stuff that currently for Alfie, is concentrating on sit, stay, recall, heel etc. We also use Kongs, treat balls, hunt the food, treats in cardboard rolls. We have been attending puppy classes and will be promoted shortly to the first training class.

I am very guilty in that i perhaps don't stick with the same method of training. I need a good book that can help me keep on the straight and narrow can anyone recommend one

Loads of thanks

Cathy

Clicker training is great but I don't want to confuse you depending on what methos your trainer already taches, it should definitely be reward based positive training methods.

Firstly don't panic! Secondly remember Alfie is still a pup and there's a fine line between not enough stimulation and too much! Keep things nice and simple, keep his recalling happy and fun, same with his stay or sit, let him enjoy his life as a puppy and then as he ages more towards 8 months ask more from him. His recall and stop is the most important thing he needs to learn, you get that instilled and this will hold you in good stead for the future, he'll never forget it. All breeds go through the 'teens' where they sometimes switch off or choose to ignore you for something they think is better or more interesting, if you find this happening then go back a step and work on the problem area before moving on again.
I can't help with books I'm afraid, too many people with conflicting advice and it would be up to you to decide which one you think would work best for you and your dog. Common sense goes a long way in training a dog, think why, how and when things went wrong if they do, and you'll be able to rectify the problem or seek a trainer you can work with.
If you want to go down the working dog route and follow a good trainer of working dogs then I can highly recommend any books written by Joe Irving which can be found at Amazon for a good price or maybe even eBay! But my advice to you is if you want to use a book, please buy a book by ONE person and not several as they all do things differently and this will just confuse you

Sandy

Rather contradicted myself over the 'not helping with books' there didn't I

We are using Joe Irvings training spaniels for our dog and finding it really good..we are novices in puppy training but have trained our first gun dog conker who was a rescue and had a very high hunting drive so learned a heap from him but Im no expert at all and all I can share are my experiences.

We did recall from day 1 and retrieving from day one, slowly building up the difficulty of the retrieves so he had to hunt for them...this helps the with mental stimulation bit as they have to think and use their noses but doing something that you want them to do rather than their own thing. A good set of DVDs to help with this part are the Simon Tyers ones, easy to follow and done in stages from buying the puppy upwards.

We then did sit stay, again slowly building up the distance and the length of time we asked him to stay.

One thing we learned the hard way with Conker is not to let them ignore your commands.... if you recall them, make sure they come back, even if that means going to get them back and also to make sure that when you are out and about they don't go too far ahead.

As Sandy said, most important is recall and stop so even it takes forever to get this instilled, make sure it is!

Good luck and don't worry too much, you obviously understand the needs of your dog which is half the battle!

You could also check out the Gun Dog Club as they do graded courses and you would be getting professional advice. There aren't any near to me yet or Id be on one like a shot.

Thank you all for your hints and tips, i am relieved to know that i am pretty doing as i should at this stage in his life, and i have found the Joe Irving book on Ebay so I hope that will help enormously

I am on leave this week and having a ball spending time with him, its as rewarding as when the children were young. Shame i have to go back to work next week

Cathy

The Joe Irving books are OK, but I can't say I agree with all of his methods. That said, they are quite old now and I think that they were probably quite progressive and forward thinking in their day! Training Spaniels was recommended to me, and I am working my way through it and picking up bits and bobs along the way (one of my favourites being that one of the absolute best things that you can feed your dog is unwashed green trip - if you can get it and stand the smell!)