I have been told by many that obedience training should come last when your intentions is to work the dog in personal protection and police trainging. Does this included the basic commands of sit , come, stay etc...? I am looking at some of the videos Ed has to offer and will be purchasing a few of them. While reading the outlines of whats covered in the videos, this question popped into my head.

David, obedience training is fine with a young little guy like yours. Just make it fun and don't use any corrections at all. Use markers and a lot of treats and play. After a few sessions, he will learn on his own that putting his butt on the ground, get's him a treat. Running to you, gets him a treat. Looking at your face, get's him a treat...you get the picture

Hi David,

Alex is right. My 11 week old is already sitting, downing, recalling and doing the eye contact game. Its all fun and creates a good bond. No negatives are allowed.

Howard

Thanks alex and howard for your comments. I have been reading Ed's e-books like crazy and have learned alot over the past two days. I ordered Ed's videos on obedience, raising a working puppy , and building drive and focus. I look forward to learning much more when they arrive.

Thanks again!

FWIW I made a small mistake of not utilizing my dog's food 100% in the beginning of training. Especially if you are feeding a kibble type of food. I Still do it with RAW too just it's a little more messy..

My error was just using treats, clickers etc during training and just plopping the bowl of food down at mealtime after a short down/sitz /whatever.

In doing so I missed a whole bowl of building the bond between myself and my pup in plopping down the dish and letting her eat by herself.

As Howard and Alex pointed out make everything a positive game and that can include mealtime. That's a great time to do the eye contact game, feed the whole meal just doing the eye contact game or 1/2- 1/3 of the meal whatever you have the time for.

Move around the kitchen get him/her used to coming to heel as that is where the food is, move the food to the front .. the pup comes to the the front looks at you .. perfect.. feed him/her a mouthful, etc etc.

I stumbled on this info from watching our dog's breeder imprint his young working/competition dog prospects. To me it is a very under utilized useful tool that most new puppy owners do not have the information on.