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A Boy and his Boykin
- Thread starter Cuttin Caller
- Start date
J.A.F.O.
Well-Known Member
I had one growing up,name was Bo. Awesome dog! Great in the field and great on the couch.
GUNNERX2
Well-Known Member
Saw an episode of RNTV where the owner, John Stephens, had just got a new Boykin and was having the dog trained by a guy around Bucksnort. Don't remember the fellow's name but maybe someone on here does.
My Boykin is self trained. I'm not nearly as diligent with it to turn him into a showcase retriever or trial dog, but he's well behaved, obedient, and pretty good retrieving practice dummies. I'll start more with him transitioning to birds over the summer to see if he'll work out as a dove dog. My Boykin is the greatest dog I've ever had, and is the reason we'll continue to have them long after he's gone. The guy we got him from warned us early, though. Boykin people are weird. Boykin people are what Orvis folks are to fishing.
It takes some time to learn your dog, and separate out some of the heavier-handed techniques that work well for Labs. Boykins tend to be less stubborn and more sensitive, so they don't always respond as well to sternness as a Lab would. Start now with a pinch collar and a short lead to learn how to sit, and your expectations to heel, walk, and return to you when called. Playtime is critical so that he learns to enjoy retrieving, playing with you, but also knows early on that his job is to bring things back every time.
I've used the Brown Dog Academy group for some good training drills and advice. Blaine Tarnecky is the guy's name that runs it, and his Patreon is something like $10/month for access to videos. He is Boykin specific, and has a lot of videos for basic stuff, on through complex trials. I keep his videos bookmarked, and have used a lot of his training advice to work with my dog.
A couple troublesome things for us early on:
1) Our Boykin was tough to potty train. It took significantly longer time to get him accustomed to OUTSIDE being the same as PEE/POOP. Use the words early and frequently with him while you're out there so he knows the expectation to "GO" is the first priority when outside. He was bad about getting so wound up with the outside world that he'd forget to pee or poop, then come inside and immediately relieve himself.
2) Getting him to leash train was very simple. But I'm still struggling with having him not going into "explorer" mode when walking around. I want him to always understand that his job is to keep on my left at all times. So enforcing that as much as you can, especially when you need him on his best behavior, will be critical
3) My Boykin is exceptionally food motivated. I've avoided using treats too much for training because I don't want him being food dependent on everything. I rarely give him snacks, and he eats twice a day. Pull his food up when he's done to keep him from cruising. I'm also struggling because a guy here at work was giving him food a bunch, and now I'm having to break the dog from bad habits because he's always wandering off to seek him out for snacks. It's really been a setback for a lot of his training. Make sure everyone is crystal clear about your feeding expectations for the dog.
1) Our Boykin was tough to potty train. It took significantly longer time to get him accustomed to OUTSIDE being the same as PEE/POOP. Use the words early and frequently with him while you're out there so he knows the expectation to "GO" is the first priority when outside. He was bad about getting so wound up with the outside world that he'd forget to pee or poop, then come inside and immediately relieve himself.
2) Getting him to leash train was very simple. But I'm still struggling with having him not going into "explorer" mode when walking around. I want him to always understand that his job is to keep on my left at all times. So enforcing that as much as you can, especially when you need him on his best behavior, will be critical
3) My Boykin is exceptionally food motivated. I've avoided using treats too much for training because I don't want him being food dependent on everything. I rarely give him snacks, and he eats twice a day. Pull his food up when he's done to keep him from cruising. I'm also struggling because a guy here at work was giving him food a bunch, and now I'm having to break the dog from bad habits because he's always wandering off to seek him out for snacks. It's really been a setback for a lot of his training. Make sure everyone is crystal clear about your feeding expectations for the dog.
Oh, and allergies can be horrendous for them. Bosco would spend so much time scratching/itching/dragging his belly his first few months that we couldn't hardly spend time training him. He eats NutriSource duck/oatmeal food to help keep allergies at bay. Vet said absolutely do not give the dog grain-free food. But when it got to where we couldn't keep his attention because he was so itchy, he started getting allergy shots. It was an instantaneous fix. They'd last about 6-8 weeks, then he'd get another one. That carried him into the dormant grass winter, which was much better. He needed about 2 more until he outgrew his allergies.
This is Bosco
This is Bosco
MickThompson
Well-Known Member
Do they go to the same barber? They both have some curls going on.
Follow a good program and you can DIY. There's a decent Boykin following in TN and I'd imagine you can find someone relatively close by that's good with the breed. Very smart dogs that want to please you but as others have mentioned, you can lean on them too hard and they will shut down.
Follow a good program and you can DIY. There's a decent Boykin following in TN and I'd imagine you can find someone relatively close by that's good with the breed. Very smart dogs that want to please you but as others have mentioned, you can lean on them too hard and they will shut down.
