Cavalier Talk

An untrained Cavalier King Charles Spaniel can be a nuisance and even a danger to himself or others. A trained Cavalier, on the other hand, can be a fantastic companion. Training will also help you to bond closer to your Cavalier.

Train your Cavalier King Charles Spaniel to Heel

Heeling is when your Cavalier walks calmly on your left with his head next to your left heel. Once trained, he will be at your heel whether you are walking, running or stopped. He will not be trying to run ahead or off to the side, and he will not be yanking as hard as he can at the leash to pull you along.

Attach a leash to a choke chain collar, and put the collar on your Cavalier. Give him a few minutes to relax and get used to the collar. When he tries to walk too far away, just stand firm and let him see that he can’t go any farther. He may try this a few times. Don’t yank on the leash but do talk to him and pet him, and he should soon figure out that the collar will not bother him if he stays near you.

While training your Cavalier, your praise is his reward. Praise him every time he does the correct thing, even if you had to force the correct thing to happen. The more he hears “good boy”, the more he will try to do the correct thing so he can hear even more praise.

With your Cavalier on the left side of you bring the leash up into your left hand and across to your right hand holding the leash with both your left and right hands. The leash will be held tightly in your right hand, and let the leash stay loose in your left hand. Heeling is always done with a loose lead. Corrections are made by giving a quick tug with your left hand. Now, with your Cavalier on the left side of you, say “heel”, give the leash a quick tug as you step off with your left leg, and say “good boy” as soon as he starts moving. Keep walking - different directions - different speeds - all the while saying “heel” with a quick tug of the leash and saying “good boy” every time he stays with you. You might have to tug “heel”, tug “heel”, tug “heel”, three times or so before he gets near your heel area and you say “good boy”. If his mind starts to wander, his attention will go back to you the first time you make a turn and he doesn’t. Left turns are great - walk almost into his head, kind of pushing it and him with your leg while saying “heel” and “good boy”. It won’t take long at all for him to realize that he has to pay attention to where you are at all times. This is the essence of heeling - paying attention. After he seems to be getting the hang of go straight and making left turns, throw in a right turn. He will not be expecting this, and he will probably need to tug “heel”, tug “heel”, tug “heel” before he gets to hear “good boy”.

Keep this first session down to about 20 minutes of actual heeling. Finish up with an extra happy and excited “good boy” and lots of petting and hugging. This is the signal that this session is over. A Cavalier has a very short attention span. You will need to have a heeling session once or twice a day for 15 minutes everyday for the next week to get him to remember what to do.

Your Cavalier may get the hang of this early and improve more and more each day. Or, your Cavalier may be one of the tougher ones and will need a full week - or even two - to really catch on. If your Cavalier is one of the “slower” ones to catch on, it may actually be that you are not being consistent enough, or not saying “good boy” like you really mean it, or you are not tugging hard enough to get the message through. It may not be his fault.

We having more training tips posted on our website at www.cruisincavaliers.com

An untrained Cavalier King Charles Spaniel can be a nuisance and even a danger to himself or others. A trained Cavalier, on the other hand, can be a fantastic companion. Training will also help you to bond closer to your Cavalier.

When training always remember that Cavaliers respond best to positive reinforcement. Do not yell at your Cavalier and if you feel frustrated call it a day by ending on something simple and positive and then try again tomorrow. Cavaliers can feel your tension so do not even try to pretend with them. Always use positive reinforcement like treats, verbal comments like “good boy/girl “, and I like to use the under the chin quick pet at times as well.

There is a process to training. The key is to get your Cavalier to perform the action and at that exact moment you give the command for the action, then praise your Cavalier and reward with a treat. After a while, your Cavalier will associate the action with the command.

Train your Cavalier King Charles Spaniel to “SIT”

1. Place a treat in your right hand and hold the treat over the Cavalier’s head. Slowly move the treat back behind your Cavalier and usually your Cavalier will sit in order to follow the treat moving behind him. (If he backs up you might need to use your left hand to gently press on his rear to assist in the first few sit positions)

2. At the exact moment your Cavalier sits say “sit” and present the treat. In the beginning I also say happily “Good Dog to Sit“.

3. Repeat this process several times a day doing about 5 sits at each session. Do not try to train for an extended period of time in the beginning. Keep training for short periods of time and keep it fun.

www.cruisincavaliers.com

Our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies begin litter box training between 3-4 weeks of age.

Both the litter box and Second Nature dog litter can be purchased at PetsMart, PetCo, and most pet stores. Cavalier puppies will occasionally chew on the litter and it is ok if they ingest it, but most of the time they will just chew on it a little bit and then find something else to chew on.

I recommend families that work full time and adopt a 10 week old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy to purchase a large crate that will be large enough to place a bed, litter box, and attach a water bowl to the crate if their Cavalier puppy will be left at home for periods longer than 3-4 hours during the day.

For additional tips on house training your Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy please visit out website at www.cruisincavaliers.com

Hurray! Cruiser and I took our Canine Good Citizen Test at Canine Sports Academy in Norman, OK today. Today was the Academy’s grand opening. Cruiser and I have only taken the first four weeks of our CGC class and still have 4 more weeks remaining, but we decided to go ahead and give it a whirl today. We are so proud of our boy! We will continue going to class and now begin to perfect our positions so we can move into Novice level for obedience and rally trials. Eventually, I will be able to add more information to my website about the different events that dogs and their owners can become involved with. Training brings a very tight bond between owner and canine.

www.cruisincavaliers.com

Last night (8/12/08) Cruiser and I finally began our Canine Good Citizen class that I have been wanting to do with him for quite some time now. Since Cruiser is a champion already I don’t have to worry about confusing him with stand or sit. Show dogs need to learn to stand for long periods of time and therefore most handlers do not teach show dogs to sit. Obedience training is totally different and the sit command is used often.

We lucked out and have a class all of our own right now…maybe a few more people will enroll next week, but there is a testing day mid-September that our teacher (Miss Cathy) thinks we will be ready for, but we will see. Cruiser definitely has a head start since he already knows how to walk on a lead and he has always been such a quick learner. He is 3 1/2 yrs old now so his attention span will be much greater at this age making it much easier for me to train him. Luckily he doesn’t have any real bad habits that need correcting so we can just jump right on into our new training program.

Our homework this week includes working on our heel command. I now hold the leash totally different than in conformation and when we come to a stop from heeling we want Cruiser to learn to sit automatically so teaching him to sit is also in our assignment. Cruiser actually accomplished both these assignments within a couple of tries last night, but I will need to go over them with him daily so that he realizes that they are actually his new commands to follow when asked.

Once we get Cruiser through his CGC Test then we will head into some obedience trials and see how far we can go there. I want to learn several of the different activities that can be done with dogs like obedience, rally, and maybe even agility since not all dogs are show dogs, but I do believe all dogs can be obedience dogs and should be able to follow the leadership of their owner.

Cruiser is a very special dog with a huge desire to please me. He excelled quickly in conformation obtaining his championship title in just 4 months, which is unusual for a dog that didn’t have much training. I raised him as my pet and then one day just took him to a professional handler and turned him loose. Next thing I knew he won Best of Breed twice at his first show and had a major and 5 points under his belt without even blinking an eye. Cruiser spoiled me. He learns things and obeys commands as quick as snapping your fingers. I have had to learn more patience with my other Cavaliers through training because most of the time dogs do not respond as quickly as Cruiser has responded. I at least know the difference now when you get a dog that has more natural ability to learn versus having to train them to learn.

Right now I would have to say Sadie is the next Cavalier that could turn out similar to Cruiser. Sadie has a lot of natural ability and really catches on quickly. Her temperament test at 7 weeks of age gave a much dimmer outlook as she ranked a 6 which meant she was totally independent and would not accept correction very well…she has proven to me that temperament testing may be a useful tool to get an idea about a puppy at that particular moment, but molding a puppy still continues through their first year and I now believe no matter what the temperament a puppy has at 7 weeks that through puppy classes and regular training any dog can turn into a wonderful companion that obeys commands. (www.cruisincavaliers.com)