Buying a trained dog?

[StateOfTheUterus]

I was wondering if anyone had experience of buying a family dog from companies who specialise in training gun dogs. I’ve seen a couple of companies who do this advertised, but don’t know anyone personally who has been down this route. I’ve didn’t grow up with dogs so wondered if this would be more likely to be successful for someone who is new to dog owning? I appreciate the training would need to be continued by me for the rest of the dog’s life. I’m just nervous about starting from scratch - I’d hate to mess it up as not fair on the dog.

Are you going to use the dog as a gun dog though?

The companies I’ve looked at say they provide trained family dogs as well as gun dogs. So a young adult dog that’s house trained, able to recall, walk at heel and sit/lie down on command. I think one of the companies is called WKD

Here’s another: mordorgundogs.com/buying-trained.html

Could you look at an older rescue dog thats had some training already?

Do you know how much they are at all OP?

You can buy ready trained family guard dogs. I enquired once and the price was about £14k!

I don’t know the cost - but must be quite a lot!
An older rescue dog is tricky as I have a 5 year old and most places won’t rehome with a young child.

If you’re looking for a lab then they’re super easy to train yourself anyway. My lab pup has had one poo in the house ever on the first morning we had him and that was my fault for faffing. He’s probably had 5 wee accidents ever. Recall comes naturally to him and he learned sit on his first day at home and plenty of other commands in the first few weeks. Loose lead walking took longer but is coming along. I assume the same is probably true of spaniels as they are clever dogs too.

I think these dogs are 'failed' gun dogs - so dogs that will have been trained to the gun but actually can't cut it. It's not uncommon for a perfectly good dog to just not be suitable for working. So their basic training should be all there, but I'd be wary of getting a dog that hasn't lived indoors. (I'm not actually agin kennelling for packs of dogs together, but that doesn't always translate into a dog who can move seamlessly into a home situation).

You need to ask lots of questions and ask to speak to people who have bought dogs from them before - and follow up on that, talk to individuals.

All usual caveats about poor breeders/puppy farms and making sure you are the right home for a gun dog-type in the first place apply.

Thing is even if they are groaned you still have to continue the training every single day. They don’t just learn and then do it forever. Plus in a new environment you’ll likely have to retrain toilet training.

I honestly think you’d be better off doing tons of research and paying for a 1-1 trainer with a new dog.

A dog is a lot of work whether or not you buy them trained first.

*trained not groaned

Dogs respond to different people in different ways. The dog may be perfectly behaved with the breeder they've known all their life, but that doesn't mean they'll behave in the same way in your home.

I walk dogs for a living and they all behave so differently with me compared to how they behave with their owners.

Ah this is the info I need! Yes i can see exactly what you are all saying.
What are the best resources I could look at to prepare and have an idea what to expect on normal timescales to be sleeping through, housetrained, able to sit on command etc? imagine there are just as many schools of thought in dog training as child rearing and that’s confusing enough!

When you train your dog you build up a bond and relationship with them. You'll have to do that again with any dog you get.

I agree a 1:1 trainer would be a good idea. I have a friend with a beautifully behaved springer puppy so I can ask him.

@StateOfTheUterus

Ah this is the info I need! Yes i can see exactly what you are all saying. What are the best resources I could look at to prepare and have an idea what to expect on normal timescales to be sleeping through, housetrained, able to sit on command etc? imagine there are just as many schools of thought in dog training as child rearing and that’s confusing enough!

There really is no normal timescale - it depends on the breed, how much time you dedicate to it, whether you have a trainer or go to classes, what experience you have and on the personality of your dog.

As an example - my puppy was pretty reliably toilet trained by 14 weeks, but you'll read threads on here from posters who are struggling with their 10-11 month old puppies having accidents in the house.

As another example, he didn't reliably sleep through the night without needing a wee until he was about 6-7 months old, whereas other people have puppies who slept through from day one. A lot of is just luck and down to your individual pup, to be honest.

Have you ever owned a dog before OP?
Dogs can be housetrained, and then something spooks them and they have accidents again. They also go through phases while growing up, they have a teenage phase at around 7 - 9 months when they seem to go backwards a bit. It's never smooth. All those dogs you see that are so perfectly trained are constantly worked by their owners.

I know someone who got a trained family dog from Mordor gun dogs - it was a spaniel and they tell you how to keep it trained (for want of a better description) and they stay in touch with you for as long as you want or need. My friend wanted it ready trained as she had a six month old and a three year old and it’s slotted in perfectly. She heard about them through word of mouth from a friend. I’m so surprised to see them on here!

Although sometimes you might get "lucky" with a dog that seems to pick things up quickly. I had a German Shepherd decades ago, that was amazing. But I spent hours training her, she had perfect recall, and seemed to know what I wanted her to do just from a look. I could direct her with glances. But that was a combination of a highly biddable dog and my hard work training her. Every dog will only be as god as its owner, whether you hire a trainer or not

I've met Charlie who owns Mordor gun dogs and while they are well trained tbh I don't think his dogs are for a novice or son on me who wants the dog as just a pet.

With gun dog breeds there are two types - show and working lines. And they may as well be different breeds - workers will almost universally have a higher drive than show and can be very destructive if that's not met.

I also would be very wary of not training your own dog - a strong element of having an obedient dog is having a good bond. My girl doesn't obey my dad half as well as she does me and his boy is selectively deaf with me.

I also would be very wary of not training your own dog - a strong element of having an obedient dog is having a good bond. My girl doesn't obey my dad half as well as she does me and his boy is selectively deaf with me.

Absolutely, bond is SO important. Dogs listen to people they have a bond with and who spend time with them. It's an effort to own a dog regardless of whether it comes "fully trained" or not.

Unless they've changed recently WKD use some aversive training methods and dogs from there are bred to meet commercial demand which isn't ideal

I'd strongly recommend not getting a dog unless you understand the basics of training. Even a 'trained' dog needs regular reinforcement

OK so a leap into the unknown - much like babies!

I’m lucky in that I work part time at home…the company of a dog would be lovely and I could do little bursts of training even when at work and take them out for toileting. But 11 months of housetraining sounds brutal!

Any good resources for training ? Or things to avoid?

Find out about any puppy classes in your area, and research the breed you want.

This is really helpful - I’ll avoid WKD as I don’t like the sound of aversive methods. And yes I can see a dog bred to work will need tonnes of stimulation - I’m not sure that’s right for me.