Even though puppies can leave, either by being shipped, or by being picked up, at 8 weeks old, or anytime after that, training any 8 week old puppy can be challenging. Most 8 week old puppies may need to go every hour or two, day & night!
With our Dakota Sport Retriever puppies, the preferred way of training is to first dog door train them. We usually begin dog door training puppies at weaning, which is at 7 weeks old. They have a temperature controlled inside area, with dog door, to go outside anytime they want. Usually by a week or less, the puppy naturally begins to only go potty outside, on it's own. We also like to dog door train puppies so that they are used to the outside weather and temperatures. If they do get too hot or too cold, or too wet, they can go back inside as they please!
After a puppy is fully dog door trained, we crate train, and begin full housetraining. We limit puppies to our kitchen, making sure to keep them off of the carpet! With Dakota Sport Retrievers, some automatically never make any mistakes in the house at all with our system! The ones that do, normally are fully housetrained, with being limited to the kitchen, from 1 to 7 days. Depending on the puppy's age when training begins, they soon are able to have full run of the house!
If you have a dog door, or get a dog door, getting a very young puppy can be very effective, especially if you are able to limit their inside area to begin with. However, most homes do not have dog doors.
If a Dakota Sport Retriever begins crate training at age 4 months or older, they usually can have full run of the house within 1 week! They often no longer "need" to sleep in a crate after 1 to 2 weeks! Before 4 months old, puppies will, and do chew excessively!!
We find that Dakota Sport Retrievers are all very easy to train, and adjust very well to new homes, if they are trained and arrive at their forever home before they are 1 year's old. After a year old, they may take a bit longer to adjust to a new home.
Even though most families do want their new puppy as young as possible, it is very satisfying to receive an older puppy that is already trained, or at least at an age that it is ready for training! That way, you can spend your time enjoying your new addition to your family, and not just spending your time cleaning up after him or her!
We also find that Dakota Sport Retrievers very naturally love to follow people! Therefore, they are very easy to leash train at any age! They are not known to run off at all! However, if you do get an older Sport Retriever, make sure to be well bonded to your new puppy or dog before just turning him or her loose! But they can be without a leash in many circumstances once bonded to you, which can take from 1 minute, to a week, depending on your puppy or dog.
Dakota Sport Retrievers are also very motivated by treats, praise, and toys! Most Dakota Sport Retrievers do love toys, and naturally play fetch! So, they are very easy to train basic commands, such as sit, drop, stay, ect. Do realize that a very young puppy is not ready to learn the command stay.
Dakota Sport Retrievers do love water! When it is hot, they love to splash around in a kiddy pool, or to go swimming! Some will even try to play in their water dish. In which case, they may need to be trained out of doing that?
We do offer training here, and we also offer neutering & spaying here! We can get any male puppy that is 4 months old or older neutered, or any female that is 7 months old or older spayed. If a puppy is not already trained, we do require training here in addition to spaying or neutering. Sometimes we may offer a puppy that is already neutered.
So, unless you are fully prepared to be very patient, do a lot of cleaning up after your puppy, and getting up several times during the night, and spending a lot of time taking your new puppy out, consider an older puppy!
Many of our older puppies are used to travel, content in a crate, and more prepared to go to a new home! They are very socialized, friendly, happy, well adjusted puppies!
Shipping an older puppy is more expensive, due to a larger crate size. However, you will have far less vet costs, if you get a puppy that has already had all of it's puppy vaccinations! Also, a puppy that is 12 weeks or older has a lot more immunity!
We all seem to be living in a faster, and busier paced world. Many households have two parents working, or only one parent, or may not be married at all, and have a demanding career. Even stay at home moms often have many projects with their children, community or personal activities.
There are still a lot of people that prefer to train their own puppy, or want to receive their puppy as young as possible. However, others would much prefer to receive an already trained puppy! Housetraining a young puppy can sometimes get frustrating, and it does demand a lot of time! Being right there with the puppy most of the time is best! Which is something that not everyone can do.
An untrained puppy may cry, or even get car sick when traveling. Sometimes even pottying in their crate. An untrained puppy may fight a leash, and pee on your carpet. An untrained puppy may cry at night, or anytime when left alone. May chew on things that you may not want chewed.
We are constantly training puppies, and do have system and schedule down! If possible, we dog door train a puppy first, then move to crate training, and from there, housetraining! We also train the puppy basic commands, such as sit, drop, (lay down), leash training, get them to sleep quietly through the night in a crate, get used to traveling, come to their name, and basic house manners. Such as not to chew on shoes, furniture, rugs, ect. However, all puppies do need toys of their own, and lots of them!
Sometimes we offer already trained puppies! But we can also train any of the puppies that we breed, for you!
There are 5 steps to a great behaved dog! Training, exercise, free choice food, discipline, and space.
Training.. Get a trainer! Or at the very least, get some dog whisperer videos! He really does know what he is talking about!
Exercise.. Dogs do get pent up energy that does need to be spent! They get into trouble if they have too much built up energy. A dog should get tired out once in awhile! A tired dog is a well behaved dog.
Free choice food... A hungry dog will get edgy! With all of our dogs, we would have some major problems if we limited their food! They should have free choice food at all times, unless in training, at which time it should only be taken away at night.
Discipline... Dogs are descended from wolves! They all are! They do need to know their place, and who is the leader, or they will take on that role themselves. A great method is if a puppy growls or acts aggressive, to grab the puppy, put it on it's back, yell NO! Hold it down until it submits. This is what the puppy's mother would do. It is a language that the puppy
understands.
Space.. A puppy needs a place to be by itself once in awhile.. Sometimes it needs to be put in it's own space for a time out. When I was a kid, we got a puppy that was just too cute for words! We pestered him and bugged him constantly! He rebelled against too much attention, and almost became wild! We learned, and he grew up to be an excellent dog! Also.. A dog is a dog, and should learn that it cannot be with the family constantly. A room or a crate to have some space & time alone is very good. NOTE: We do not encourage anyone to keep a dog away from the family at all times! Only sometimes!
1 week will not do much.. But it can get a puppy used to the crate, sleeping in the crate, usually crate trained, or almost crate trained, and used to at least some traveling! In 1 week, a puppy may also learn to sit, which puts the puppy in the "mind" for being trained. Of course, the longer a puppy is in training, the more the puppy will be trained! Usually to get fully crate trained, takes 2 weeks. To get fully housetrained may take 6 weeks, or even a little longer? If a puppy is a little older, and dog door trained first, they usually get fully trained in 2 to 3 weeks.
We find that a puppy that has had at least some training before being shipped is much quieter and calmer, more relaxed, and less stressed, then an untrained puppy during a flight.
However, all puppies are started on dog door training at weaning, which is at 7 weeks old.
Adult Training
Most of our available adult dogs have received at least some training. However, they all could use more training! We do additioanl training on adult dogs before they leave here, usually from 1 to 2 weeks. We focus on whatever it is that particular dog needs training in? We know these dogs, and know what training they need work in! Highly advised, especially if also selecting the spay or neuter option that we provide.
This button is set at $400, for 1 week of training. When you click on it, you can choose more then 1 week, if you want more training! It is advised to get 2 to 3 weeks for a basic trained puppy, or at least 6 weeks for an advanced trained puppy. Or you can pay by the week, and get weekly detailed updates, and decide when you want to receive your puppy!
Training starts whren teh puppy is 10 weeks old. If a puppy starts training at less then 10 weeks old, then it is $600 per week. It is much harder and more time consuming to start train a puppy that is les sthen 10 weeks old. Therefore, it is a higher charge.
We can get any puppy or dog spayed or neutered before you receive it, as long as the puppy or dog is old enough! This service is only offered in addition to training, because the puppy or dog needs to be inside of our house anyway, while healing.
This button is set at $125,and is available for any puppy that is at least 6 months old or older.
This button is set at $75, for 1 week of boarding. Boarding is required if a puppy is still here after 10 weeks of age, but not in training.
Pictures of our dog building!
The Dakota Sport Retriever Puppy Trainer!
Here in TN, our property has two houses on it. Our adult son, Baron, lives in the second house. It is so nice to have another adult here to help with the dogs and the farm on a daily basis! Baron also does the puppy training, and he will meet or deliver puppies.
Baron does give puppies rides on his 4-wheeler, and in his truck, and even sometimes on the tractor or even boat rides! This trains the puppies to be very comfortable with traveling! He does the training in his own house, but he does bring the puppies that are in training to our house everyday also. Our daughter lives 14 miles from us, and Baron also takes puppies that are in training to her house as well. This gets the puppies very used to 3 different houses before going to their new home!
Training is available at $400 per week for a puppy or dog at 10 weeks or older. Training on any puppy less then 10 weeks old is available at $600 per week. No puppies can go into training at less then 7 weeks old, since puppies are not weaned until they are 7 weeks old.
