Training Tips
 

Those who want to buy a puppy without experience, first of all must know that training a dog is not a quick and easy thing. In order to succeed, we need three essential qualities: calm, patience and kindness.

Calm to know how to control the instinct to punish the dog for his disobedience. Kindness in the teaching method, providing persuasive rather than coercive and violent means. The training will take place only in the form of a game! And a lot of patience to repeat the exercises without hurry until we get the desired results.
Train a puppy is an art. Help a healthy dog ​​to become an excellent hunting dog is a passion that requires a considerable effort. If you follow carefully these 10 rules, it's quite likely that your puppy will become a hunting dog.

1) Socialize with your puppy

Socialization is an important element of the training. The first 12 weeks of life are fundamental.
From the eighth to the twelfth week of life, puppies should get in touch with as many people as possible. Of course their experiences should generally be positive in order to avoid the fear towards stranger people. Knowing all kind of experiences, the puppy learns to know the world by developing a balanced personality, ready to face any event with harmony.  
To properly expose a puppy to new experiences take him out for walks, both in town and in countryside, to introduce him to other animals, new people and all kind of smells. Allow strangers to touch him. The puppy needs to learn about the world.

2) Pay attention to health

Find a veterinarian nearby your home. Keep up to date the vaccination booklet. De-worm your dog and stay informed about the presence of lehismanniosi and filariasis in the area where you live or where you bring your puppy for a walk. A simple prevention can avoid some nasty diseases. Even fleas and ticks can be dangerous, so be careful!
Take under control the ears and the skin of the puppy to make sure that everything is ok. Even the formation of tartar can be avoided if you teach your dog from a young age to have its teeth brushed: you can find in specialized shops toothpastes for dogs with meat flavour . 
Give your dog a quality diet based on meat, but do not feed him with too much proteins. And never forget the water!

3) Wait the right moment to start training your puppy

The puppy needs to learn a few simple commands for its own security and for the correct behavior at home. First of all, you should teach him to obey to a "NO" and that biting is unacceptable. You can also begin to teach them to come when called. Reward your puppy with its favourite food. Between 10 and 12 weeks of age the puppy is ready to learn to seat. Do not repeat the commands for too long, just make clear the meaning of those words. After 14 weeks you can start to develop its instinct, launching a stuffed sock or a tennis ball in a demarcated place so as to prevent that the puppy can run away with the object. The object used for this exercise should not be left to the dog after the exercise; your puppy must consider it a prize.

4) You are the pack leader!

The dog is an animal that lives in packs. If the puppy considers you the pack leader, he will do whatever you want. You must always be a patient without losing respect. You should NEVER hit the puppy with your hands, otherwise it will be afraid of you.

5) Repetition is the key of training

One of the main targets of the training is to always get the same results from your commands. This is achieved through repetition. The puppy learns through the repetition of the exercises. But keep in mind that the puppy's attention is limited. Long and tedious lessons are less effective than frequent but short lessons.

6) Do not exaggerate

Dogs understand only what they have learned during the training or during daily routines. Limit yourself to a defined number of commands. The dog will obey better and promptlier.

7) Proceed step by step

During training all experiences are closely related. Training should be seen as a flexible tool. You can proceed to the next step only when the previous one has been learned. The teaching of each command must be broken down into simpler fractions to allow the dog to learn faster and better.

8) Don't lose patience

"Love your dog" is the main requirement for all instructors. Remember that you are the first to learn from your mistakes, asking the reasons of your failures. Don't punish a dog for not having executed a command that he does not understand. The Dog must be corrected exactly where he made the mistake and immediately after making it. 

9) Prepare step by step your dog to hear the noise of the shotgun

It is strictly forbidden to expose the puppy to shothuns, if you have not carried out the right preparatory work before. If your hunting dog is afraid of shotguns, it wil represent a serious problem. There are dogs that have never heard the noise of a shotgun and they would never get scared even in a trench. However, it is usually necessary to prepare your dog step by step to this kind of noise. 
Get your puppy used to noises by slamming doors or by tapping on the pot before feeding him. Before shooting for the first time, your puppy should be already accustomed to game. You can do it in our training dogs area.
Once your puppy becomes fond of hunting and he has learned that his task is to identify the game, by us you will have the opportunity to to make him be familiar with the shotgun. As soon as he succeedes in precisely stopping a quail, a patridge or a pheasant and the bird starts to fly in front of it, only then you can shoot. You can start this part of the training by using a gun loaded with blanks, and then go step by step to the real hunting gun.

10) Show your puppy the "animals"

The more animals your puppy sees, the more experience he will gain. Of course, this means that he will become a great hunting dog. Unfortunately, no one is able to teach a dog how to hunt in a garden. When we talk about "animals", we mean those birds that represent the favourite game of the hunting dog. This is key point if you want to teach your dog how to hunt. The hunting dog training consists in observing and respecting the work carried out by the dog when he is in strict contact with the game. If your puppy has never seen a bird, he would never become a hunting dog. 

Training should not be seen as a restriction, but rather as the discipline that will allow your dog to better develop those innate traits that only a real a hunting dog has.