Couple of Questions

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RatDog
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Couple of Questions

Post by RatDog » Tue Sep 20, 2022 11:44 am

1. Those of you who keep your dogs in the house, I have been crate training my pup, she’s about 11 weeks old at the moment. Crate training has been great she has taken to it really well and seems to be getting the idea of the house training.

Question is this, if you keep the dog in the house part time and in a kennel part time, when and how do you transition from the crate to the kennel?

2. I talked to a handy man about helping me build a training table like they use at Smith kennels. It’s going to be a bit spendier than I had thought, to the tune of $1,000.00 all in. I know they are useful but is that worth doing for someone who is , at most, going to be training one dog at a time every couple of years?

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gypsy
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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by gypsy » Tue Sep 20, 2022 3:15 pm

All my dogs sleep in the house in their kennels.

Any table, bench, tailgate will work. I started with a goat milking stand. Even a chest freezer will work.

Don't make stuff difficult. Your dog doesn't care.

Now ever time my three year old GSP sees a picnic table in a camp ground she jumps up on it.

My daily training has really worked great. Today she pointed and retrieved a nice sage grouse.

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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by RatDog » Tue Sep 20, 2022 3:37 pm

gypsy wrote:All my dogs sleep in the house in their kennels.

Any table, bench, tailgate will work. I started with a goat milking stand. Even a chest freezer will work.

Don't make stuff difficult. Your dog doesn't care.

Now ever time my three year old GSP sees a picnic table in a camp ground she jumps up on it.

My daily training has really worked great. Today she pointed and retrieved a nice sage grouse.
Cool! Sage grouse has been on my list of species to knock off of the list for a long time.

That’s kind of what I was thinking. Seems like I could get by without it for my pretty limited purposes. Thinking the money might be better spent on a pigeon coop.

Thanks!


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Garrison
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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by Garrison » Tue Sep 20, 2022 4:15 pm

With my pups I split time between the two, as well as give them time on the tie-out chain. When I am gone for the day, they go in the outdoor kennel, when we are home they are allowed into one area of the house (family room), and they head to their crates if we are eating or are away from the house for a short time. As pups they are only allowed in the house or out of the crate if being supervised.

I want them comfortable in all three situations. They need to be quiet and okay with being outside alone, or out in the truck in the crate alone, or left on a chain, as well as being a house dog. Wait too long and you might have a dog that is way too needy when you don’t want them to be. My Setter lets me know when it’s time for bed, and heads outside to his kennel before bed. The old guy would rather sleep in his crate in the house.

Garrison

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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by RatDog » Tue Sep 20, 2022 5:41 pm

Garrison wrote:With my pups I split time between the two, as well as give them time on the tie-out chain. When I am gone for the day, they go in the outdoor kennel, when we are home they are allowed into one area of the house (family room), and they head to their crates if we are eating or are away from the house for a short time. As pups they are only allowed in the house or out of the crate if being supervised.

I want them comfortable in all three situations. They need to be quiet and okay with being outside alone, or out in the truck in the crate alone, or left on a chain, as well as being a house dog. Wait too long and you might have a dog that is way too needy when you don’t want them to be. My Setter lets me know when it’s time for bed, and heads outside to his kennel before bed. The old guy would rather sleep in his crate in the house.

Garrison
That sounds about like the program I’m going for. I have a run that has a fenced off area in the garage and dog door to a fenced area outside. I want her to sleep out there and that’s where she’ll be when she’s home alone. When we are here I want her to be able to be in the house or the back yard.

I started her out with the crate inside and have been getting up and letting her out 2-3 times a night. It’s been about three weeks and the house breaking seems to be going well. Definitely still have the occasional accident.

Thinking I should probably have her start sleeping in the crate out in the kennel. Eventually just have her sleep on her bed out there.


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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by RayGubernat » Tue Sep 20, 2022 8:15 pm

My dogs have always been kenneled outside, so no help on the first part of your query.

As far as benches are concerned, lots of things can work. What you are doing is getting the dog off the ground which creates a bit of uncertainty for them. A picnic table works, as does a picnic table bench. The key, I think, is taking the dog off the ground. It is also a whole lot easier on your back. I made a wobble bench using a fold up metal sawhorse, a 10" X 30" piece of 3/4" plywood and a 1/4" carriage bolt, a couple of washers and a nylon stopnut. The bolt is NOT tight but has about 1" of slop so if the dog moves around, the board will tip. The dog learns, very quickly, to stand still, similar to how it learns to stay on a barrel. You can put the bench under a tree and run a rope over an overhead branch . If you get the rope height just right, if the dog comes off the bench, only its back feet are able to be on the ground, which is a vey uncomfortable position for the dog. They learn not to make that happen pretty quickly too.

I think the sawhorse was about $20 and since it folds up, I can store it in a corner somewhere or throw it in the truck to take it with me. Honestly, when I am not home, I mostly use the truck tailgate. A friend took the same metal sawhorse, mounted a lazy susan bearing on the sawhorse and length of MDF on the upper side. It does not wobble, but it can spin. Another friend carries his dog training stuff in a big, lidded tote bin. When he needs a bench, he turns the bin upside down and "VOILA!" he has a training bench. Lots of ways to skin that cat.

If you are going to use a bench for force retrieving work, it will have to be about 8 ft. or longer. I am only interested in using a bench for whoa and pointing work. Two picnic benches butted up together would work.

You can buy a whole lot of other equipment and training birds for a thousand dollars.

RayG

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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by RatDog » Wed Sep 21, 2022 8:41 am

RayGubernat wrote:My dogs have always been kenneled outside, so no help on the first part of your query.

As far as benches are concerned, lots of things can work. What you are doing is getting the dog off the ground which creates a bit of uncertainty for them. A picnic table works, as does a picnic table bench. The key, I think, is taking the dog off the ground. It is also a whole lot easier on your back. I made a wobble bench using a fold up metal sawhorse, a 10" X 30" piece of 3/4" plywood and a 1/4" carriage bolt, a couple of washers and a nylon stopnut. The bolt is NOT tight but has about 1" of slop so if the dog moves around, the board will tip. The dog learns, very quickly, to stand still, similar to how it learns to stay on a barrel. You can put the bench under a tree and run a rope over an overhead branch . If you get the rope height just right, if the dog comes off the bench, only its back feet are able to be on the ground, which is a vey uncomfortable position for the dog. They learn not to make that happen pretty quickly too.

I think the sawhorse was about $20 and since it folds up, I can store it in a corner somewhere or throw it in the truck to take it with me. Honestly, when I am not home, I mostly use the truck tailgate. A friend took the same metal sawhorse, mounted a lazy susan bearing on the sawhorse and length of MDF on the upper side. It does not wobble, but it can spin. Another friend carries his dog training stuff in a big, lidded tote bin. When he needs a bench, he turns the bin upside down and "VOILA!" he has a training bench. Lots of ways to skin that cat.

If you are going to use a bench for force retrieving work, it will have to be about 8 ft. or longer. I am only interested in using a bench for whoa and pointing work. Two picnic benches butted up together would work.

You can buy a whole lot of other equipment and training birds for a thousand dollars.

RayG
Yeah I kinda knew the answer when I asked the question. Just not worth the expense. I am not a carpenter, not particularly handy in general. This is a fact I wish were not true. I’m leaning towards getting out of my comfort zone and building something myself which would probably be about half the cost and might serve to improve my manly qualities. It’s not something I grew up doing so I’ve always found home improvement stuff a bit mystifying and intimidating. At the very least it would give me something to talk about at work while everyone is discussing building their own shops or finishing their basements or whatever.


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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by gonehuntin' » Wed Sep 21, 2022 10:36 am

Scrap the training table, you don't need one. Those are really for Pro's or Am's with a ton of dog's. You'll find that putting a piece of 3/4" X 14" X 8' long between two card table chairs will do a great job for you. The springiness of the plywood makes the dog tentative and they accept pressure easier.

Many times, transitioning from house to kennel is a noisy affair, the dog is certain you've deserted him. For the most part, ignore him and let him yowl unless it gets too bad then you'll have to clamp down. One thing to NEVER do is to go outside and show him attention to get him to cease the howl. That will only further the problem. If I have to go outside the attention they get they don't like.

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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by RatDog » Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:22 pm

gonehuntin' wrote:Scrap the training table, you don't need one. Those are really for Pro's or Am's with a ton of dog's. You'll find that putting a piece of 3/4" X 14" X 8' long between two card table chairs will do a great job for you. The springiness of the plywood makes the dog tentative and they accept pressure easier.

Many times, transitioning from house to kennel is a noisy affair, the dog is certain you've deserted him. For the most part, ignore him and let him yowl unless it gets too bad then you'll have to clamp down. One thing to NEVER do is to go outside and show him attention to get him to cease the howl. That will only further the problem. If I have to go outside the attention they get they don't like.
Sound advice! Thanks!


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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by slistoe » Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:58 pm

RatDog wrote:
Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:22 pm
gonehuntin' wrote:One thing to NEVER do is to go outside and show him attention to get him to cease the howl. That will only further the problem. If I have to go outside the attention they get they don't like.
Sound advice! Thanks!


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Pay particular attention to this part!

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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by RatDog » Wed Sep 21, 2022 9:59 pm

I’ve got that loud and clear. She’s been really good so far about not being very vocal. My last dog would just howl and cry and make every sort of awful noise when we tried to crate train him or left him in the kennel. I had a squirt bottle and would go out and spray him in the face a few times and that seemed to quiet him down for a bit.


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Re: Couple of Questions

Post by Sharon » Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:50 am

Ah, what a memory. In the 50s my Dad would spray them with the hose; he kept it near the kennel. At 10 years of age, I thought, "How mean." :)
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