Bringing home a puppy soon, from Meliora or elsewhere? Here are some resources I’ve found most helpful in different areas of preparing for & training a puppy.
Also check out our list of favorite dog-related supplies!
Basic Obedience & Manners
These are the must-sees for all new-puppy owners – no matter if you want a family companion or a show, sport, or working dog, these are approachable resources to help you introduce basic obedience and manners and solve common problem behaviors with your puppy.
This FREE video series follows Pat Stuart (Operant Canine & Canine Paradigm) raising his English Springer Spaniel puppy, Valerie. It’s covers no more than exactly what the average pet owner needs to raise a well-mannered dog, organized based on the stages of puppy growth.
The McCann Dogs team explains things in a very clear and engaging way, and often show the process with “untrained” dogs which gives a more realistic picture. Once you have seen enough of their videos, a lot of the themes start to repeat – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as they often explain things in a slightly different way that can be helpful to forming a more complete picture. They also have a couple great “puppy training schedule” videos which I found VERY comforting to my Type-A personality – like this one and this one – as well as many videos each on classic problem areas like puppy biting, crate training, and leash walking.
Dr Gayle Watkins on Socializing Puppies – Podcast
There used to be a video series by Dr Watkins available online called “Savvy Socialization”, but in it’s absence, this podcast should give a similar overview of what the goals really are with socialization and how to approach it well – not just for the first few months, but for the first year or more with your puppy.
Advanced Obedience & Sport Foundations
Want more than the above? These resources go more in-depth into trickier concepts, which can be useful for advanced obedience and/or foundations for a sport or working dog.
Teaching Engagement Skills – Self Study Course
Taught by one of my all-time favorite trainers, Forrest Micke, this is an in-depth look at the most foundational component of training your dog. After all, if your dog doesn’t pay attention to you or value you, it becomes nearly impossible to teach them anything. There are two main “sections” of the course – the first being an introduction to communication, management, and learning theories with your dog, and the second focused on specific engagement and relationship building exercises.
Tug: A Deeper Perspective Video Lecture
Other bird dog folks will tell you to NEVER play tug with your hunting dog, but, I beg to differ. My bird dog isn’t as into tug as, say, my terrier-mix, but tug is an awesome relationship building game with your dog if you do it right – and no one does it more right than Jay Jack! Additionally, his theories on the layered stress model and biological fulfillment are also worth your time to learn about.
Mission Control by Jane Arden – Book
A fantastic read for helping your high-drive dog learn control and appropriate outlets for their drive using postive-reinforcement methods. It starts with discussion on theory and some basic obedience training, and then contains lots of practical and well-explained exercises for more advanced work.
Control Unleashed by Dr Leslie McDevitt – Book
Some overlap in principles to Mission Control, but many new strategies and exercises as well to help both high-drive dogs manage their arousal levels and nervous/fearful dogs build confidence in high-arousal situations. This book is largely geared towards foundations for agility, but games like Look At That! and many others are applicable for real life and any sport.
Sport-Specific
Fenzi Dog Sports Academy – Intro to Nosework (NW101) Course
Scent work, or nose work, is a fantastic outlet for any/all dogs, but especially for Drents or other sporting breeds who are hard-wired to use their noses to find things. NW101 is a fantastic and thorough introduction to the sport. Honestly, FDSA is a fantastic resource for courses for many different sports and activities, from the beginner to advanced levels!
Awesome Obedience by Hannah Brannigan – Book
Another fantastic resource if you are interested in competition heeling and/or the competition sport of Obedience with your dogs. This book broke all the skills down into tiny digestible pieces, complete with diagrams showing how to do each exercise and flowcharts on the process.
Force Free Gun Dog Training by Jo Laurens – Book
While unfortuantely this book doesn’t cover pointing, it has a fantastic section on shaping a retrieve that was incredibly successful for Iris and I after trying to teach her a retrieve via two other different methods with limited success. Again, it did so in very digestible, small pieces that made it almost impossible not to succeed! Also has several useful sections for spaniel/flusher specific skills.
Meliora Drents 
Leave a comment