Getting Started with your new pup

A crate is an useful tool for managing your dog, as well as a very helpful tool for house-training your pup. You want your pup to learn to be comfortable in a crate right from the start, even if you don't plan to keep your pup crated as an adult. You never know when you may need to crate your dog because he is injured, or to crate him for his own safety or comfort. Many dogs also like to sleep in their own crate, even if the door isn't locked to keep them in. When he's still a puppy, having him sleep in his crate will make it much easier to house-train him.

It's important that your puppy associates his crate with positive experiences. We like to feed our puppies in their crates. You can also put toys, such as a Kong to entertain a pup when he's in his crate.

While your puppy is still young, you can take him for car rides in his crate to help him get used to riding in his crate, especially if he gets car sick... better to get him over any car sickness before you take him hunting. When taking your pup for car rides, it's best to do it on an empty stomach.

Your hunting puppy will need to know how to "come" when called. When puppies are 8-16 weeks old they have a strong instinct to "follow" and this is the best time to get your puppy to come to you when called.

We highly recommend that you do not teach your puppy to sit. This will become a problem if you need to train you pup to "whoa."

One other command to teach your pup... "NO!" If your pup doesn't learn this basic command as a pup, he will become a spoiled brat as an adult and will be difficult to manage. If you don't want your pup to do something, the time to teach him "No" is as a young pup. If you don't want your dog on the furniture, don't allow it when he's a pup.

You want to encourage your puppy to "fetch" when he is still young . You can start to play "fetch" by throwing your pup's favorite toy down a hallway. You can sit at the end and after your pup goes to get the toy, and tries to run past you, you catch the pup and reward him for the retrieve. It becomes a fun game and soon your pup will be retrieving to you consistently.

You also want to be sure that your pup has a chance to fetch a dead bird while he is still young so he becomes accustomed to having feathers in his mouth.

If you don't work on fetch as a young puppy, it will be much more difficult to get our pup to fetch as an adult.

GWPs are naturally aloof with strangers. To have an adult GWP who is friendly with strangers, it is important to introduce your pup to lots of people while he's still young. The more positive interactions your pup has with strangers, the better!

You also want to introduce your puppy to lots of different places and noises. But, be careful not to overwhelm your pup with too many "new" things at one time. And, if your pup is on the sensitive side, then you especially need to make sure that everything about the new experience is positive.

Do be careful not to take your puppy to new places or introduce him to new dogs until he has received all of his puppy vaccinations and is fully immunized!

Ideally, your pup is introduced to new birds when you take him out in the field and he finds wild birds on his own. But most people are anxious to see how their new pup will react to a bird.

We highly recommend that you talk to a professional trainer or your dog's breeder to get specific instructions for bird introductions. If you do this incorrectly, you can easily introduce problems that may be difficult, or even impossible to overcome. This is also true when it comes to introducing your pup to live gunfire or as we say "the shot."

Your first hunting season with your pup should be all about you and the pup. Taking your pup with your buddies or with other dogs will interfere with your pup being able to learn about hunting and wild birds.

When you first take your pup out in the field, he is likely to bump or "bust" the first few wild birds he finds. Let him chase, so he learns he can't catch the birds. Once he has a nice point on wild birds, then you can shoot a bird for him... after you've done this a few times, your pup will quickly learn that getting a bird is a team effort, and that he needs to wait and hold point until you can get within gun range and shoot the birds for him.