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TRAINABILITY

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A kooikerhondje is highly intelligent and willing to please its owner. Those are two great qualities, if not requirements, to start any training program. Care should be taken to create a good training environment for your kooikerhondje, and don’t just start to train without understanding the dog’s nature, specifically;

  • Kooikerhondjes are very sensitive to interaction with their owner/trainer. Striking a loud tone and demanding to be obeyed will get little done. To the contrary, this may result in a timid, shy or fearful dog.

  • Kooikerhondjes are sensitive to their environment which may be constant source of distraction during training. Therefore, socialize your dog to people, situations, and environments early on to help it ignore this and focus on training.

  • Don’t expect to train with repetition - drilling commands leads to boredom and underperformance. Instead build in challenges and obstacles to solve.

  • Short sessions whereby the dog can have more successes than failures are most effective. Break down complex commands in successive parts so that successes can be booked along the way.

  • Though sensitive, kooikerkondjes are not shy to take command if no firm guidance is given. ‘Firm guidance’ is not harsh nor negative. It is being clear and consistent while asking for your dog’s cooperation every time and all the time.

Kooikerhondjes are very adaptable and love to engage in many sports. Look beyond obedience and agility and try flyball, trick dog, disc dog just to name a few.  They have a strong prey drive so you can capitalize on that with fastCAT and barn hunt. Kooikerhondjes even have been used for Search & Rescue!

Though a small dog, they have a big personality. With a capable and supportive trainer they can tackle many problems, to their delight!

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