I would be interested to hear some of what you all do the teach manners, in a routine day in and day out basis,  as well and putting in an ON/OFF switch. 

Some of the things I've done to teach manners.

The dog must sit and wait, until released by my verbal command, before coming out of the kennel.

                                            (the kennel the dog lives in and the travel kennel box)

The dog enters the kennels on command as well.

At feeding time, the dog sits to verbal, whistle, and/or hand signal and must wait to eat until released.

( I carry this forward to do directional work lefts, rights, and back).

The dog must sit and wait before entering or exiting the door of my home.     

The dog must sit and wait until released to run about or work.

The running/hunting is not a continous event, meaning the dog works for a bit then is brought into heel as we walk to another interesting spot of cover and the routine is repeated.

I will just sit with the dog for a bit, usually after a training session.

mike  

Ollie learn't "no" quite early on, at puppy class.

He only gets in and out of the car on command, only eats his food with permission, must sit and wait by the back door before coming in, wait before running/working and apart from that gets away with murder:D

He's actually well mannered on the whole, certainly a lot better than other dogs we've met.  It's not hard and can begin very early on, puppy schools are great for training manners and are a lot of fun as well.

mike at February 2, 2011 at 11:34 AM

I would be interested to hear some of what you all do the teach manners, in a routine day in and day out basis,  as well and putting in an ON/OFF switch. 

 

Some of the things I've done to teach manners.

 

The dog must sit and wait, until released by my verbal command, before coming out of the kennel.

                                            (the kennel the dog lives in and the travel kennel box)

 

 

The dog enters the kennels on command as well.

 

At feeding time, the dog sits to verbal, whistle, and/or hand signal and must wait to eat until released.

( I carry this forward to do directional work lefts, rights, and back).

 

The dog must sit and wait before entering or exiting the door of my home.     

 

The dog must sit and wait until released to run about or work.

 

The running/hunting is not a continous event, meaning the dog works for a bit then is brought into heel as we walk to another interesting spot of cover and the routine is repeated.

 

I will just sit with the dog for a bit, usually after a training session.

  

mike  

 

 

I do not think you can put in an On/Off switch", dogs tend to either have them or not and there is little you can do if they do not naturally relax.  Training helps a little but the really good ones have it naturally.

 Why bother putting unecessary discipline into a dog for unimportant things like feeding times?  Save the training and discipline for things that really matter like hunting and steadiness and total control whilst they are working.  For day to day routine I feel you are better letting the dogs relax and have some freedom.   Free hunting is a classic example, cockers will soon learn the difference between free hunting and the time they are being trained or worked. 

 Let a pup be a pup.  We feel training is more channeling natural abiltiy than "square bashing routine".

Fiona       

I have the same view as Fiona.

 When I take the dogs out in the back field in the morning they go crazy and run like wild things because they know this is their free time.

But they also know the difference if I am training or at a shoot and then the learnt discipline comes into play.

I see no point in making a dog wait to eat etc, I can use this time for more constructive training.

As Ollie lives in the house he needed to adapt to family life.  We taught the word no fairly early on by repetition.  The word stay again was repeated when we went out of the room and when we feed him - the waiting to be fed was a training aid rather than wanting him to saty in reality.  Once mastered the above commands he will wait to enter and exit the car, go through doors, wait when crossing the road. Most of what he has learnt has been just day to day things repeated as part of daily life.  I now take him out and do a bit more formal training, only for 20 minutes or so or until he gets bored.  Also reinforce commands when out walking - all fun as he is only 6 months and still very puppyish.  As Fiona says let them be pups, which I have also read on website.  I have plenty of time and it must be fun for Ollie. 

Im pretty relaxed with my dogs in a day to day basis, they all know how to behave in most aspects and after a while it tends to be just the norm. I dont required them to sit for their meals but will teach puppies to do this as its a quick way to get them to sit/stay. Once the basics are taught through their early months they tend to know how to behave and what is and is not acceptable behaviour

Interesting question - particularly for we novices who are only slowly getting used to the amazing drive of the wcs... Abs lives in the house and so she has some basic manners - not jumping up on people, not barging through doors - those particularly, she has to sit and wait until they are opened and I've gone through and sometimes I call her to me and sometimes let her blast on out - tho' never out of the front: we live on a tiny rural dead end lane but just once in a while some ****-wit drives a car at high speed along it, and she could dash under the wheels.  Similarly, for basic ease, she gets into and out of the car on command, not when the door is first opened.  She'll drop to a hand signal or whistle - we practice those when we're out.  She had pretty much uncontrolled free hunting until she was 18 months old (and loved it, and still does) with the only requirement that she come back to me either when called or whenever she crossed the path I was on - we live near hundreds of acres of wood and she roamed them at will.  Since last summer, she's been asked for progressively more attention - spells of heel walking, sit-stays or down-stays and more controlled hunting. She's never going to be a hunting dog, but it's interesting to see her quartering a field pretty much by instinct.  She's the fittest dog at the agility club by miles - or she was until she damaged a pad in the snow and had to come down to lead walking for 3 weeks until a) it healed and b) the ground softened up a bit.  Now she feels positievely flabby, but only to me, nobody else knows what I'm talking about...

We're heading for KC GC Silver soon and then Gold as soon as we can after that - just to get them, not because it particularly proves anything, but it gave us something to aim for when we weren't able to compete at agility.  Should've sat the silver last summer, but events keep getting in the way. Soon, though.... soon....

thanks everyone for your replys. I understand what you're  saying.

I wasn't sure about the switching off (the ability to relax at given times), that is to say if it was an individual trait or it was something that is brought  about in their training or is fostered in some way by how one goes about doing things.

mike

Ollie lives in the house and for us some degree of good doggy manners was always going to be important.  That said he's never be subject to what Fiona has called square bashing, just good puppy schooling (believe me, it was anything but formal!)  His 15 minutes of fame was to be in the puppy arena at "Discover Dogs" at Earls Court as part of the puppy class demonstrating for the KC Good Citizen Dog Scheme.  It's not affected his gundog abilities, I stopped going when it became clear that doggy junior school was going to conflict with gundog training, but when we next get a puppy he will go to puppy class as well.

I can accept that if you have several dogs that live in kennels and are primarily working dogs you don't need the same manners as we do from a dog who spends perhaps 10 -12 days shooting per season and the other 340 odd living in the house as a pet.

The dogs live indoors ...................................all our dogs do at least the KC Silver, but please don't think they are angels  ..............Tegwyn 10½ months old......... passed her silver last week.

Coco is just over a year and lives in the house with 4 other dogs, 3 retrievers and 1 other spaniel - the house is not enormous & we don't have a large utility room so they are in the kitchen most of the time.  In order not to drive everyone crazy, we have a "system" and the dogs know what is expected of them when they come indoors after a walk, when they are being fed, getting into & out of cars - I've given up on the waiting at the door, esp. when we're off for a romp in the morning - it's chaos, so I let it be chaotic till they've worn off some energy!  Like Manda's Abs, Coco has walks with all the other dogs so lots of free hunting, but I call her to heel & work different areas, I also task her to flush and give her lots of hand signals and stops - the other dogs have picked it up and i love seeing 4 black tails & 1 brown one disappearing into a hedge where I have indicated!  Coco is fairly obedient anyway, and I also think that because she was so ill when she was a tiny pup & I couldn't put her down on the floor we bonded very closely - she'll pretty much do anything I ask and I'm careful not to abuse her trust.