# Good places to start dog training



## deerhunter5611 (Feb 4, 2015)

I've got a 7 1/2 month old blue tick coonhound and I've been trying to find a good place to take him for some obedience training. I'm going to turn him into a deer trailing dog to track deer, not really run him. 

Do you guys know any good places that would possibly be specialized for hunting dogs and obedience training?

Here is a picture of him now.


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## king killer delete (Feb 5, 2015)

Why do you not train him. It is not hard to teach a dog to sit stay and come when he is called. I would buy book or video and do it myself.


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## deerhunter5611 (Feb 5, 2015)

I've tried the CDs and books I want him to do much more than sit, stay, and come when called. 

He already knows how to sit and stay.


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## Joe Overby (Feb 5, 2015)

What do you expect from sending him off for "obedience" training? Specifically, what skill set do you expect him to learn?


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## gunslinger33 (Feb 5, 2015)

Where are you located?

Socialization (exposure to other dogs and people) are some of the gains taking your dog somewhere other than doing it at home. Most trainers first focus is obedience. Your dog must be under control first. This means do what you ask when you ask , not when your dog chooses


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## Hoss78 (Feb 5, 2015)

Lots of time, and a decent shock collar worked for me.


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## gunslinger33 (Feb 5, 2015)

Joe could answer this question better than me but I don't think obedience training ever ends. Every command goes back to obedience and the established rules. Whether it's picking up a duck or tracking blood, the command is X and the expected result is Y. If I do this good things happen if I don't not so good things happen.


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## deerhunter5611 (Feb 5, 2015)

Joe Overby said:


> What do you expect from sending him off for "obedience" training? Specifically, what skill set do you expect him to learn?



Well I'm mostly trying to get him to sit, stay, lay down, come when told to, and heel.


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## bowshooter50ga (Feb 17, 2015)

Teach him all of that yourself at home, save yourself the money of hiring a trainer.  I got an English Setter as a pup, taught him all of those commands myself.  He learned to sit/stay in about a week, the rest (including house breaking) took about a month.  I've done the same thing with a 2 y.o female pit who had no obedience training, took about 2 weeks to cure her of her bad habbits.


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## Joe Overby (Feb 17, 2015)

First you say


deerhunter5611 said:


> I've tried the CDs and books I want him to do much more than sit, stay, and come when called.
> 
> He already knows how to sit and stay.


and then you say


deerhunter5611 said:


> Well I'm mostly trying to get him to sit, stay, lay down, come when told to, and heel.



So I am really confused.


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## king killer delete (Feb 17, 2015)

Me to?


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## deerhunter5611 (Feb 17, 2015)

Joe Overby said:


> First you say
> 
> and then you say
> 
> ...



Sorry if this confused you, but I have already taught him to sit and stay...kinda. 

He doesn't come when told too and only sits and stays when told to, IF, not distracted. He also jumps up on people a lot and on the counter a lot. He also tends to pee in the house sometimes. 

If you guys have any opinions on how to fix these things please let me know. 

I have tried staying consistent, but he is too stubborn and I am running out of options. I have heard from people online that obedience training at a facility or with a trainer is very beneficial. 

I'm new to the whole dog training thing and could use any help if possible.


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## Scrapy (Feb 17, 2015)

I've trained hounds all my life. They can learn more than most people think but they just are Not a hop to it, eager to please , can't wait on the next command type of dog.

Come, they will come. They get so used to come that they might be a little lax about it. But Sit, they don't hear sit that often and if it was taught like you mean it can be a better choice under extreme conditions. For example I had a dog running a coon that was fixing to cross a road and a truck was coming. I called him but he was fixing to cross anyway. I yelled sit and he dropped his but on the road shoulder. That saved his life. 

As far as jumping on people , get every one to grab his front paws and step on his hind toes every time he does it. Or take even stronger action.  I really don't think you are going to end up with a dog that wins any obedience awards if he is competing with almost any other breed. We call it handle in the hound world.
Big difference in "training" and "breaking" You break a dog from bad behavior like jumping on people or house breaking.


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## Joe Overby (Feb 18, 2015)

Ok. My take on it. Dogs...of any breed...aren't gonna come when called if at first they don't want to. The only way to make them is to put so much pressure on the command they resent you for it...hence the lazy response. 

Everytime the dog jumps up he needs to meet your knee...so he knocks the wind out of himself...he does it to hisself...it is therefore has idea to quit jumping...he learns it faster. If you teach him sit...and I mean 99% response without pressure in any and all situations, distractions or no, you can command sit when he goes to jump as well. So the new habit begins to be to run up to somebody and sit awaiting reward instead of jumping.


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## Joe Overby (Feb 18, 2015)

As far as house breaking goes. Crate train the dog. If he is out of his crate he is outside or under your direct and complete supervision. If he wakes from a nap, stops playing, drinks water, eats anything, has been good for too long, or has been inside for 1/2 an hour take the pup outside until he has done his business...then praise him and treat reward him for going outside.


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## crackerdave (Feb 18, 2015)

Somebody should start a "boot camp" for basic training of dogs snd their owners.


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## SJA (Feb 18, 2015)

Joe Overby said:


> As far as house breaking goes. Crate train the dog. If he is out of his crate he is outside or under your direct and complete supervision. If he wakes from a nap, stops playing, drinks water, eats anything, has been good for too long, or has been inside for 1/2 an hour take the pup outside until he has done his business...then praise him and treat reward him for going outside.



Some people pay $500/week to learn this.  It's not that hard.


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## bkl021475 (Feb 18, 2015)

SJA said:


> Some people pay $500/week to learn this.  It's not that hard.



 I'm in the wrong business!


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## Joe Overby (Feb 18, 2015)

99.99999% of the problem isnt the dog, It's the convoluted, inconsistency of the dog owner...who rarely wants to be honest about the capabilities and limitations of their dog. I charge $600 a month to teach dogs and owners...I know many programs that are that much a week.


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## king killer delete (Feb 18, 2015)

Joe Overby said:


> 99.99999% of the problem isnt the dog, It's the convoluted, inconsistency of the dog owner...who rarely wants to be honest about the capabilities and limitations of their dog. I charge $600 a month to teach dogs and owners...I know many programs that are that much a week.


I have seen some chain pet stores charge 400 bucks for several hours of one on one training for the owner and the dog.


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## NC Scout (Feb 21, 2015)

*Basic & Clicker Training*



deerhunter5611 said:


> Sorry if this confused you, but I have already taught him to sit and stay...kinda.
> 
> He doesn't come when told too and only sits and stays when told to, IF, not distracted. He also jumps up on people a lot and on the counter a lot. He also tends to pee in the house sometimes.
> 
> ...



Carry treats in your pocket to help motivate him to come when called.  Most dogs are well motivated by food.  Practice inside then try it outdoors.

Put a thick, short leash on him, even let him drag it around *under supervision*, and step on it to prevent his front end from leaving ground when you see he's about to jump up on people or counters and say "no".   

He has to be crate trained to stop him peeing in your house.    Every time he goes out and does his business let him stay out of crate for an hour or so but then put him back in crate until you're ready to take him out again. When he goes out, if he does his business, he gets to stay out of crate for awhile, if he doesn't, he goes back in the crate, and so on.  You have to control when and where he pees for at least 30 days to establish an outdoor peeing habit on him.  

An obedience course would be beneficial. It will help socialize your dog and a good trainer will give you a lot of tips.  

If you're going to use him for tracking, I'd get him use to wearing a harness now. Use his collar while working obedience but use a harness for tracking.  You don't want to discourage a tracking dog from pulling on his harness.

Check out clicker training.  I recently did a clicker training course with a border collie puppy and was blown away by how effective clicker training is on dogs.  Its effective because it allows you to "mark" desirable behaviour the instant the dog performs it and timing is crucial when training animals.

At end of the clicker course, we had to get our dogs, off leash, to go inside a giant cardboard box set out in middle of training area with no other commands, treats, or devices than our clickers.  Every time the dog would go near or even look at the box, we were told to click.  It took less than 15 minutes to get my BC pup inside that box.  Once he put a paw just inside the box and got rewarded with a click, getting the rest of him in was easy.

Your dog is still a pup, he's got a short attention span, train him in short intervals, 15 minutes or less, couple times a day.  As my granddad would say "don't work the bloom off of him". 

Good Luck with him, he's a good looking pup.


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## Joe Overby (Feb 21, 2015)

Big difference in clicker training Lassie and crate training Jethro. All a clicker is is a marker, you could use a bicycle horn, dinner bell, or a simple verbal good. Oh, and not all dogs are food reward oriented. The down side to clicker training, or positive reinforcement training, is there aren't any negative consequences for undesirable behavior, thus, there is no compulsion to make a "good" decision as opposed to a "bad" one. I'm not poo pooing clickers...but as a stand alone program there is no reliability.


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## NC Scout (Feb 21, 2015)

*Agree*



Joe Overby said:


> Big difference in clicker training Lassie and crate training Jethro. All a clicker is is a marker, you could use a bicycle horn, dinner bell, or a simple verbal good. Oh, and not all dogs are food reward oriented. The down side to clicker training, or positive reinforcement training, is there aren't any negative consequences for undesirable behavior, thus, there is no compulsion to make a "good" decision as opposed to a "bad" one. I'm not poo pooing clickers...but as a stand alone program there is no reliability.



I don't disagree with a thing you said.  However, carrying a clicker is a little more convenient than a dinner bell or a bicycle horn.  And humans can be more consistent with a clicker because sometimes humans get angry or frustrated and their voice commands may take on different nuances to the dog without the human realizing it.  

I'd never done clicker training until recently.  I was impressed at how quickly my pup understood it and responded to it. Border Collies can learn simple commands as fast as one or two repetitions so it works well on my Kuykendall BC dog pup.  He needs to move rapidly through training lest he becomes bored and starts devising mostly undesirable methods of amusing himself.  Clicker training wears him out better than a 5 mile romp up the mountain and back.  It makes him think and all that thinking wears him out.  

And I have a dog that will spit out the finest deer liver treat if I could get it in his mouth in the first place.  But I'd be willing to bet that Deerhunter's Blue Tick pup would respond mighty well to a food reward. 

I was just giving Deerhunter5611 some ideas and encouragement cause he sounded sort of down and all dogs, and their owners, are happier when the dog understands what is expected of him.


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## deerhunter5611 (Feb 23, 2015)

Thanks to everyone for the feedback, I have started the crate training for about a week and I can already see a difference.

I've been using lamb lung to help train him and it seems to be working.

I'll keep you all updated and let you know if I come up with anymore questions along the way.


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## deerhunter5611 (Feb 23, 2015)

NC Scout said:


> I don't disagree with a thing you said.  However, carrying a clicker is a little more convenient than a dinner bell or a bicycle horn.  And humans can be more consistent with a clicker because sometimes humans get angry or frustrated and their voice commands may take on different nuances to the dog without the human realizing it.
> 
> I'd never done clicker training until recently.  I was impressed at how quickly my pup understood it and responded to it. Border Collies can learn simple commands as fast as one or two repetitions so it works well on my Kuykendall BC dog pup.  He needs to move rapidly through training lest he becomes bored and starts devising mostly undesirable methods of amusing himself.  Clicker training wears him out better than a 5 mile romp up the mountain and back.  It makes him think and all that thinking wears him out.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the feedback and I'm definetly gonna look into that clicker training , it seems like it really works.


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## NC Scout (Feb 24, 2015)

deerhunter5611 said:


> Thanks to everyone for the feedback, I have started the crate training for about a week and I can already see a difference.
> 
> I've been using lamb lung to help train him and it seems to be working.
> 
> I'll keep you all updated and let you know if I come up with anymore questions along the way.



That's good to hear.  

One other thought, regular exercise will help minimize undesirable behaviours.  If there's a park in your area where people walk dogs, walk your pup there to socialize and exercise him.


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