Finally, we're passed the "hamster" stage. The puppies eyes are open, they are getting teeth, they can hear, they are pretty good at walking and they are starting to play! Here's some more information for you to ponder, as you wait for the arrival of your new family member... PUPPY DEVELOPMENT: For a very good book on the developmental stages of your puppy and what you need to be doing at each stage to be certain the puppy is properly socialized, get "Another Piece of the Puzzle: Puppy Development" by Pat Hastings and Erin Ann Rouse which can be purchased at http://amzn.to/kdvtjj. The book is a quick, easy read and the information is important if you want to help your puppy grow into an amazing companion. TRAINING BOOKS: For the all-important first year, my "bible" of training books is "How to Help Gun Dogs Train Themselves, Taking Advantage of Early Conditioned Learning" by Joan Bailey, which can be purchased at http://amzn.to/iwwlia. If this is your first Small Munsterlander, or if it s been a while since you ve had a Munster puppy, I very much encourage you to purchase this book and read it from start to finish before you bring your puppy home. If you follow the very easy steps outlined in this book, I can guarantee your puppy will be started on the right track and will be both a wonderful family companion and a very proficient hunter by the time he is 9 months old. I think you ll be surprised at how easy this early training can be. Even though Joan does not use an e-collar, her training methods are very easily adapted. For the next steps in training, the objective of which is to have a finished gun dog, I highly recommend Joan Bailey's, "How to Have The Best Trained Gun Dog, Taking Advantage of Proven, Unique Training Methods, All Natural - No Expensive Electronics Needed" which can be purchased at http://amzn.to/pxgvkg. This training begins after the puppy's first hunting season, when she is at least 9 months old. One of the most common mistakes made by new Munster puppy owners is to do too much obedience training too early. Your highly cooperative puppy will amaze you with his ability to learn new commands very quickly at a very young age, so it s easy to get carried away. If you put too much pressure on your puppy too soon, you will prevent him from developing the boldness he needs to be a good hunting dog. All he really must know to hunt with you his first season is to come when called which should be non-negotiable. Do not use advanced commands like fetch or heel. Instead, encourage him to bring it here and teach good leash manners. Else when it comes time to actually train those commands, he will already have "learned" he doesn't have to obey them. For basic commands like kennel, whoa, and wait, use the words so he learns their meaning, but don t expect nor enforce compliance. Read Joan s book and relax. A book to stay far away from is "Training Pointing Dogs" by Paul Long. Some of the Page 1
worst training advice I've ever read is in that book. NAVHDA: I recommend you signup for the NAVHDA New Member package at http://navhda.org that includes the training book and video. Although your puppy will be pre-registered with NAVHDA, you still need to join the international club. Once you are a member of the international club, check the navhda.org website for a local chapter near you and join it (usually costs just $25-$35/year). Your local chapter will give you some great people to train with year-round. These people will know where to get birds and where the best training spots are near you. NAVHDA members are usually not professional trainers, but are hunters like you who want to have a well-trained dog to hunt with. Do not expect them to train your puppy nor even to tell you how to train, but certainly ask for their advice and guidance. Most NAVHDA members are more than willing to share their knowledge and to lend you a hand when needed. Just be sure you do not jump from one training technique to another, as consistency is very important when training a dog. Preparing for the Natural Ability Test is extremely worthwhile, can be a family project and will get your dog ready for her first hunting season. Taking the Test is also really fun and is something you won't regret doing. PROFESSIONAL TRAINER: I cannot say this strongly enough DO NOT send your puppy away to a trainer until he is at least 9 months old *and* has hunted for at least one season. The minimum age makes certain he has the mental maturity to handle the pressure the trainer will put on him and the hunting season ensures he loves hunting so much that nothing the trainer does to him will turn him off of hunting. This breed is slow to mature and highly social. As puppies, they do not do well when left alone in a kennel for days on end. Most trainers spend only 15-30 minutes once or twice a day, 5-6 days per week, interacting one-on-one with a dog in their care. Most have staff who clean the pens and feed and exercise the dogs. Your dog will receive little affection (if any) while he is at the trainer s. While an adult Munster can handle 6-8 weeks at a trainer s in stride, a puppy cannot, especially if the puppy has a sensitive temperament. This recommendation comes from experience. I had one of my puppies go to a home where her owner, believing he was doing the right thing for her, sent her to a trainer at age 6 months. He was inexperienced with training a versatile hunting dog and didn t have easy access to birds and fields. He wanted his puppy to take and pass the NAVHDA Natural Ability Test, so he looked for a trainer with NAVHDA experience. He found a good trainer, but unfortunately the trainer didn t have any experience training a Munster (he primarily trained German Shorthaired Pointers), so didn t know the puppy was too young for professional training. The puppy was there for 6 weeks and made little progress. She went home for a few weeks and was sent back to the trainer for another 6 weeks. In the end, her owner had spent thousands of dollars on professional training, only to have a housepet. She was bird shy, gun shy and feared water. We offered to rehabilitate her and I m certain we could have turned her around, but by the time the owner let me know of the problem, he had Page 2
given up on her. He said she was an amazing pet, great with the kids, great in the house and they loved her to death, but she would never hunt. If you cannot commit to taking your puppy on off-lead adventures at least 4 times per week, then you should not be getting a Munster. This breed is highly cooperative and therefore quite easy to train, so anyone with the time, money, patience and desire to do it can train a Munster. You will not be training your Munster to hunt. That comes naturally with practice, so all you ll be doing is giving your puppy the opportunity to practice his hunting skills. You will either need to buy birds or to take him to places where there are wild birds, but it does not usually take a lot of them. TOYS: Since you will be hunting your puppy, I recommend you do not let him chew on a lot of squeaky toys. In my experience, it can promote excessive chewing on whatever the puppy has in her mouth. You want your puppy to carry objects without biting or chewing on them, so squeaky toys can be counterproductive. You can, however, use squeakers to get your puppy excited when playing fetch. I've found it's pretty easy to disable the squeakers, so don't throw away any such toys you already have. For a squeaker that is inside a soft toy, take a large safety pin (baby diaper pins work well) and puncture the squeaker around the small end until it can no longer squeak. For a toy with a small, round, hard-plastic squeaker on the outside, use a pin to fully open all of the small holes. SLEEPING QUARTERS: Your puppy will be comfortable going in/out, sleeping and playing in a crate with the doors open. Don't bother buying a small crate now with the plan of getting a larger crate later. Your puppy is going to grow so quickly that it would be a waste of money. The crate needs to be approximately 21"W x 32"L x 23"H (females) or approximately 22"W x 31"L x 25"H (males) so your dog can stand up and turn around it in. Generally this size will be called "intermediate" for females and "large" for males. There are some terrific crates available now - lots more than 20+ years ago when I started breeding. It doesn't matter if you use a hard-sided, furniture, wire, or soft-sided crate, but you'll probably get the most use out of a hard-sided crate because it can be put anywhere to keep your dog safe and secure, such as into the back of a truck. I own 2-door crates made by Ruff Tough Kennels and highly recommend them. They are unbreakable, don't rust or scuff, and are easy to clean so they stay looking like new: https://rufftoughkennels.com/kennels/intermediate-double-door-dog-crate (Intermediate size for females) https://rufftoughkennels.com/kennels/large-double-door-dog-crate (Large size for males) Both sizes can be purchased with the 2nd door on any side of the kennel. I recommend purchasing the add-on handle kit. I also recommend having extra vent holes added. We have the water dish to use when traveling and are very happy with it. ** http://amzn.to/2fyrxcg ** Page 3
Check out the Merry Products Gate-N-Crate, a combination crate, gate and pen. ** https://denhaus.com/collections/dens ** Check out their many choices of unique dog den furniture. ** http://amzn.to/2fjfb8d ** Check out the Easy Out Remote Pet Door Opener, which lets you open your pet s crate, pen, kennel, room, or door flap up to 150 ft. away with the push of button on a key-chain sized remote control or with a smart phone. If you prefer to purchase a hard plastic crate that can be broken down into two pieces for storage/travel, you should know that none of them are very tough and long-lasting and for the most part, one is just as good as another. Consider it disposable and know that you will have to replace it every few years. Some things to look for are: (1) Rotary dial latches to attach/detach top/bottom sections. This makes putting it together and taking it apart much faster and easier than most other connectors. You want a connector that doesn't break easily and that doesn't have small pieces that are easily lost. You also don't want connectors that rust. (2) Ventilation on all 4 sides. It's easy to keep a dog warm in a crate by purchasing a cover, but it is difficult to keep a dog cool, so you want maximum ventilation. (3) Reversible door. This makes it possible to put the crate anywhere in your home and leave the crate door open without it getting into your way. You can also put the crate into a vehicle in different directions and still be able to get the door open. (4) Door that has e-coated wire. Without such a coating, the door will rust. (5) Removable door(s). You will want the ability to remove the door(s) so it isn't in your way if you want to leave it open. DOG BED: People often purchase a dog bed for the living room and another for their bedroom once their dog is housebroken. It's not necessary to live with a crate in your house forever, if you don't want to. The worst thing about most dog beds is they collect dog hair and there's no way to clean it off. The type of fabric they typically use, especially on the bottom of the bed, holds dog hair like a magnet. After purchasing practically every type of dog bed made, I finally found the best dog bed in the world last year. It has a removable, washable cover made from recycled blue jeans and the filling is made from recycled plastic bottles! The cover is thick and holds up well against a chewing puppy and it practically repels dog hair. Wash and dry it and it looks like new. It's called "Carpenter Cyrus Denim Pet Bed." You can buy it at several places online. KENNEL BED: If your dog will be spending time in an outdoor kennel, which I highly recommend if you will be leaving her alone for long periods of time, you should purchase a Kuranda Bed (https://kuranda.com/dog-beds/standard-dog-bed). Dogs prefer being up off the ground to sleep, which is why they like to be on the couch (or better yet, the back of the couch). In addition to keeping them cleaner and cooler, it prevents them from getting callouses from the cement (which are really ugly). There are many knock-off brands, but in our experience, they aren't as durable. We've had one of our Kuranda Beds for more than 10 years and it still has its original fabric. For outdoors, be sure to select "Outdoor Mesh (Vinyl Weave)" for the fabric, because it Page 4
allows air and water to flow through, helping your dog stay cool and dry. Speaking from experience, the other fabrics collect water so you constantly have to empty it off the bed. For female or small male, you'll need size Medium (35 x 23). For a standard sized male, you'll need size Large (40 x 25). More information and instructions will follow as the puppies get older. Call if you have questions, Michelle Michelle Wilbers Brush Dale Kennel michelle@brushdale.com 563.672.3291 Page 5