Gun Dog Forum

I’m presuming all you proud conservatives are in sync with the Republican platform approved yesterday that would pull the United States out of the international climate accord, open national forests to logging, declare coal a “clean energy resource”, and do away with the EPA. It’s not enough that yo...

Yes, remarkable for sure, but more because of the technical abilities of kids. When they grow up maybe they'll be able to play like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slLJFBeq0TM

You're joking but I'm not. What is your solution when the dog in question has no desire to work for treats and won't take them or will spit them out? Sorry ... I did think you were joking. I guess you should do the methods suggested by GH and MG since they work ... or maybe send the dog to someone ...

com'on GH ... I put "force fetch" in quotes. The point is that the dog learned the commands of fetch, hold, and drop with no force - quickly, and at an early age. Later, the commands were proofed by the ecollar.

mnaj_springer wrote:Ouzel, what if we use the same scenario you set up for us, but that GSP doesn't give two craps about your kibble or chuck of hot dog... What do you resort to then?

try Hungarian partridge

Well, my pup came up with that problem about a month ago and so I consulted my "Lardy expert" training buddy. He recommended the same line drills and in-come sit whistles that MG recommended, and I already knew what GH would say about the rope drill (from a previous post of his a year or so ago). Af...

And there is a very good reason for that. When a trainer issues a command to a dog, he wants that dog to respond because the dog knows he HAS to respond, not respond to get a treat. There is a gigantic difference. Treating is GREAT FOR PUPS AND YOUNG DOGS, but an older obeys commands because he kno...

ezzy333 wrote:Treats are not a new method but have been pretty much discarded in the past 20 or 30 years as they cause some other problems that most trainers do not need as they don't want to spend time correcting them.

Can you be more specific?

We'll ... when I read through my copies of Smartwork, Smartfetch, Smartwork II, and Lardie's articles I don't find a single reference to using treats for teaching OB or other skills, or correcting problems. That's outdated. Positive reinforcement methods can aid in teaching/correcting except that th...

Ignore most of the advice you've been given, get a decent retriever training program (Smart Works, Lardy, Fowl Dog) follow it and ignore most of the advice given here. Building a dog is like building a home; first you study a blueprint, then you lay a foundation, then comes the framework and follow...

you don't reward for a dropped dummy.

trade objects you want retrieved for treats (at first cut up pieces of hot dogs, then a few pieces of kibble, etc.). Work up to dummies. At first reward every retrieve, later every third or so, still later you won't need to reward.

I wouldn't hesitate to do so, and doubt the order makes any difference. As far as tips are concerned I imagine you'd want your dog to have some training for basic pointing and retrieving skills. But, if it doesn't, I would say that just hunting the dog as much as possible would be excellent training.

I picked up a new book, "Absolutely Positively Gundog Training" by Robert Milner. He's a respected ex-field trailer and has written several books. He's very knowledgeable and I can recommend this book pretty much without reservation. That said, positive or clicker training won't make a field champio...

I've become an advocate of "clicker" training because of it's power to shape the dog's behavior for the many tasks needed for a gun dog. Actually I don't often use a "clicker" but merely trade treats for behavior I want to encourage ("Good girl/boy" works like a click too). I used it instead of forc...

I still have to wonder, when you see a setter run and a pointer run, ignoring their coat, colour and everything else can you actually see a difference in the way they move? But, of course http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag352/Hollyouzel1/gypsy%20running%20with%20duck%20in%20water%20copy%20copy_...

I would treat her with some food - trade retrieving the dummy for some treats. At first, every retrieve; later, after every few retrieves. This gets the momentum for retrieving going and as she gets older treats won't be needed. I think live birds are always preferable to dead ones.

For 30 years I never gave food treats, but I'm now firmly in the other camp. As said above, food is used for pretty much all animal training except gun dogs. It's amazing how you can shape the dog's behavior, or how they sit, or how they heel, retrieve to hand, whatever, with some well designed trea...

You may be remembering your labrador and it's retrieve and expect the GSP to do the same. That said, a lot of upland dogs do love to retrieve multiple falls but you have to train them differently. Did you train the MH lab yourself? If so, you would have to step back a ways and rethink the process: o...

You're on the right track. Tennis balls make crazy dogs anyway. You can steady the dog later and keep up the fun times for now. That bloodhound sounds like a bad actor.

Ckirch, that's a really sad story. Having a daughter interested in dogs will probably help you get another. This thread got me to thinking about how we miss our dogs, but I think they may miss us even more. A number of years ago when my dad died of pancreatic cancer his favorite dog was up on the be...

I don't find the arguments for a separate hold command very convincing. Probably one of those "the way we've always done it" methodologies.

Looks to me like you're doing a great job! Nice dog BTW. As an aside (to the experts): help me understand why one teaches hold command BEFORE the fetch command. "Fetch" is the command normally used to get the dog to open its mouth and take the dummy so it can't even begin to "hold" the dummy unless ...

mtlhdr wrote:Kinda like what good is covering a small piece of ground thoroughly if there are no birds on it...

Exactly. More to the point: sadly, even a meat dog can't find quail in the Midwest/South any more.