Hi Penny,
As a matter of interest I do actually live in Wiltshire, but do not have ground to train on.
No dog is ever to old to train, however as with most things in life habits are harder to break the more established they are, and therefore require a strong resolve from the trainer in order to get to the same level as a dog trained correctly from the word go. I start training the stop the moment the puppy arrives home, as the intention is for it to be an instinctive reaction to the command as this means that the action starts to take place on hearing the command no matter what the dog is doing. The stop and the recall are what I call the only `commands' I use, virtually all others are `instructions'. As commands they , once trained, are non-negotiable and non compliance always results in a negative consequence for the dog. With mine this usually means a long period of lead walking and repetition of training commands and instructions whilst remaining on the lead. It is important however to remember that when training these commands, the actions achieved must always be fun and rewarding for the dog, and this is somewhat confusing for the novice handler, as when to bring in a negative consequence without losing the `fun'. It helps when you know the character and mental thought processes of your dog, and that when your dog does not do what you think it has learnt, its not down to the dog being `rebellious' it is more likely that you have credited it with more ability to learn that it actually possesses!
To ensure everybody is on the same page, I'll reiterate that the STOP is trained as the SIT. By definition a sat dog is stopped, and likewise a sat dog does not need a `stay' as it should not break the sit until you give it its next instruction. I always start to train the sit with a new puppy at feed times, as the puppy is generally in the right position of sitting when waiting for its food which is prepared above its head height. The word sit is given before the dog naturally goes into the sit or is put into the sit, ( I also use the raised hand as a visual signal, but don't use the whistle for sit until the dog is doing sits in the garden as part of another game, often using the hand signal as an aid in this transformation. Its important to realise that my dogs have all three signals for sit, although the whistle becomes the stop, the dogs ears are not concentrating on the distraction during a chase! and therefore is available to me!) When the puppy sits it is rewarded by having its food and thus an association is formed. I can also manipulate this into a learning sequence by removing the food before the puppy reaches it, if it breaks the sit before being told to do so, this makes the puppy focus on you for instructions, and can often reverse the consequences of an overindulge young puppy who may have inadvertently been given a high status.
Once this stage has been achieved, I will often move the puppy into another room at feed time, and with the food down go through the sit, often this will worry the puppy and is a test of its concentration and trust, as well as what it has actually learnt as a signal, ( an older dog will get one of the three to ensure it understands ALL three) A note of caution here is if the puppy sits without a command its not learning the signal its more likely its associating the event!
Once I'm confident in the dogs understanding of the command I start to build in the speed of compliance, again this is reward based, although the reward is very subtle and is in fact the release. i.e. the faster the dog sits the quicker it is released from the sit. From the command being given I count to when the dogs bum is on the ground, I then double it and count this out before I release. If you are consistent with this sooner or later the dog will make the connection, especially if you do not let the dog do anything else except do the sit once the command has been given. If the dog refuses to sit and requires putting in the sit its then returned to lead training, do not make the mistake of repeating the command to get compliance.
An older dog that is use to `free running' has to do several sits on a lead before it is released, and then is tested regularly during its free running with the whistle, any resistance to sit, the ` I'll just finish this sniff before I comply' syndrome, results in being put on the lead and kept on lead stops for the rest of that walk, remember to use any set backs to your advantage, putting the dog on a lead gives you an opportunity to work on heel walk, sits, downs and waits, which all go to keep the dog focus on you. Something else to consider, especially with gundogs, when hunting they like to get there first, so if they have been slow to sit, then if you keep walking whilst you are counting out their release, you will be getting onto the hunting ground first, and you will quickly see a positive result to this technique. Something else to consider is that, unless you are in advance hunting /working, that on release your dog should return to you with the recall so both can be worked on simultaneously, and manipulated and assessed on a day to day basis, just remember to leave any negativity for a poor sit/stop at the point of sit not on the recall which should always be rewarded in a young dog like you have not seen each other for some time,
Do they give up the chase and sit? Well earlier this year, Teal'q was hunting out some scrub on the way home, and he flushed out a roe doe, now we know this doe and I have used her to train him, he is a deer dog after all. But because this doe is use to my dogs being steady, instead of galloping across the field away, she decided to do an idle trot, which meant Teal'q thought his luck was in as he broke cover. By the time I realised what the doe was doing, Teal'q had made good ground and closed the gap to about ten metres, the doe was nearly stopped and turning to watch the dog ( thinking he usually never gave chase!) I hit the stop whistle and he stopped nearly colliding with the deer as he did so, she jumped over the dog (thats how close he was) and then took off. So he's about 90% on the stop, always room for improvement!
Peter