First Time GSP Owner Looking for Advice

[Deepwoods]

Best damn dogs out there in my opinion. I run, hike, hunt and thoroughly enjoy spending time with my female gsp. I am firm with her when training but let her have her time when out in the field. She is 1.5 and full of energy. We log many miles a week hunting and hiking. She keeps me going when I don’t feel like getting out. The energy is off the charts and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Obedience the first year will produce a wonderful dog. Above all, stress basic obedience and reward well. The dog will work for you and you will be amazed how fast this breed learns. Enjoy!!

 

[RMM]

Had the little guy for about a week now, things are going as good as can be expected. He has spurts of energy then needs a nap. He's learning sit and come pretty quickly. We just introduced "stay" a few days ago and I would say he gets it about 50% of the time. The only big problem we're having right now is keeping him from wanting up on the couch. He was the last pup to be picked up and the breeder was letting him on their couch.

 

[Mosby]

Had the little guy for about a week now, things are going as good as can be expected. He has spurts of energy then needs a nap. He's learning sit and come pretty quickly. We just introduced "stay" a few days ago and I would say he gets it about 50% of the time. The only big problem we're having right now is keeping him from wanting up on the couch. He was the last pup to be picked up and the breeder was letting him on their couch.

I have a 12 week old Vizsla pup sleeping next to me on the couch. I gave up keeping my dogs off the furniture. He's probably the last pup I am going to get and I've decided to spoil the hell out of him. How is he going to take a nap with you if he isn't on the couch? We have a large number of cheap blankets we keep on the furniture and wash as necessary.

Jokes aside, you might want to hold off on the "sit" command. That can interfere with his "whoa" training and sometimes dogs will confuse the two and start to sit on "whoa", which is just one more thing to break him of.

 

[KurtR]

Had the little guy for about a week now, things are going as good as can be expected. He has spurts of energy then needs a nap. He's learning sit and come pretty quickly. We just introduced "stay" a few days ago and I would say he gets it about 50% of the time. The only big problem we're having right now is keeping him from wanting up on the couch. He was the last pup to be picked up and the breeder was letting him on their couch.

While I haven’t done pointers so what mosby said may be way more pertinent sit means sit. Stay it’s a command that is needed to muddy the waters.

 

[jmez]

With a pointer I would use whoa rather than stay.

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[RMM]

With a pointer I would use whoa rather than stay.

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We are using the whoa command, just wrote stay instead for some reason

 

[Deepwoods]

You’ll get a lot of advice, there is a difference between stay and whoa. Truly any command should imply stay. Meaning if you say sit, that is all that is needed. When you back away the dog should remain with that sit command. Now, a high energy breed like a gsp will need this command reenforced as a puppy. Just correct them with the command and then use your release word when done. I personally have not seen any issues with stay and whoa differentiation. You may need to help on whoa by lifting there abdomen on the beginning but they will get the idea after practice, practice, practice. Nothing wrong with using stay imo, but that’s not per “the book”. I sometimes use stay but try to stick to the one word approach with a command. For example, whoa is never followed by stay. Whoa has been trained as feet planted and no movement once the dog stops asap. The only time I use stay is really for kennel or place when outdoors hunting. As long as the dog is responding to what you want, you can mix it up a bit. There are no hard fast rules for every dog.

 

[Salmonchaser]

I try to read most threads before posting. I apologize if I’m redundant. Get a good medical kit, including a surgical stapler. Learn how to use it and how to stabilize your dog. GSPs and barb wire don’t mix. Molly has received more than 100 stitches in her life. All from wire. She has no problem recognizing and negotiating fences it’s the downed and broken stuff she seems to find. Miss Sugar once ran a Tpost through from one arm pit to the other but outside her chest Cavity. Then there are the rattlers, porcupines, skunks, badgers, eagles, wolves and grizzly bears, all of which we’ve had to deal with. Actually no injuries from the wolves or bears but that was do to having voice control of the dogs.

 

[Summitdog]

They are great dogs. The ones I’ve known have been susceptible to the cold (for obvious reasons).