Pass Along RJ
October 2011

So I have a puppy. Ginny. Almost seven months old, growing up fast... and I have a young family. The kids dote on Ginny; Ginny terrorizes the 14-year-old English setter in the house; and life, in general, is just moving way too fast.

But one thing that is not moving very fast is training. And now I find myself in that "in-between" stage.

What’s the in-between stage? It's past the raw puppyhood, but before the "teenage" years. It's after a spaying and with a full set of adult teeth, but before force-fetch training. It's after the nighttime yipping of being unable to hold it for more than three hours, but before having run of the house.

In other words, it's that stage every trainer faces: At what point do I stop reviewing basic obedience and start introducing new concepts?

I pretty much wrote off this hunting season for Ginny – we knew her surgery was going to happen right in the middle, and she wasn't going to be trained up enough to jump right into it when she recovered. So I found myself slowing down on the front end, not wanting to push her and possibly create a bad experience for her with a negative association.

But now, now she's ready, even though she doesn't know any better, even though she's still so much of a puppy. Now is the moment of truth for every trainer – how much pressure do I apply? How much obedience do I review and refine? Is she going to have a problem with blinds? Force-fetch? She already does marks fairly well and loves feathers, but will she handle? Pop? Can I get her to whistle-sit? She does it at my side, but what about when she’s away from me?

So many questions, such a blank slate.

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