Quote:
Originally Posted by poohbearsmom  Have I told you I love you lately, Mick? |
Me too
And now...back to the OP
Ditto what PBM said about getting them evaluated sooner rather than later. As she said, raising a pup that may become involved in SchH is different than raising a house pet.
A few comments about my own dogs and experiences:
I became involved in the sport with Blitz (the Rott) when she was 2 1/2. At that time she already had agility and rally titles and had had lots of training and "control" put on her. She tries very hard to be "good"-this has transferred across to the SchH field as well. Our helper/trainer has worked hard to find ways to show her it's OK to be "bad", and more and more the evil Blitz is coming back.
With perserverance, we're now "this close" to being ready to trial. I started training Omen (the Pit) several months after Blitz, thinking that it was just something for him to do and have fun with. He's actually coming along very nicely, and is not having some of the issues we had with the Rott, because I never did anything with him other than flyball (which requires very little control) and stopped trying to train obedience with him, labeling him "dumb as a stump." In reality, I just hadn't figured out how to get thru to him. He'll be ready for his BH soon
Point being...you can avoid some of our training issues by getting them involved as youngsters.
Don't forget...there's been so much talk about bite work in this thread...there's also obedience and tracking. It's a huge time commitment and with the cost of gas
financial, if you have to drive far for training. Tons of work but well worth it.