Search found 1084 matches

by crackerd
Thu Nov 06, 2008 11:11 am
Forum: Training
Topic: Hup question for springer trainers
Replies: 11
Views: 4497

Re: Hup question for springer trainers

With any dog, any dog, what it won't do at ten feet realiably, it won't do at eleven. Think about it. Great point for seguing into why it's so important to train with others, preferably a pro, when it comes to spaniels. The way steadiness training works is, the handler rolls the bird in front of th...
by crackerd
Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:45 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: What breed has your dog been mistaken for?
Replies: 140
Views: 39957

Re: What breed has your dog been mistaken for?

A Chessie X fruit bat cross
Image
but a lot of people recognize her as a Boykin.

Of course the real fruit of her labors lie elsewhere
Image
like delivery to hand. :wink:

MG
by crackerd
Thu Nov 06, 2008 7:56 am
Forum: Training
Topic: Hup question for springer trainers
Replies: 11
Views: 4497

Re: Hup question for springer trainers

No, the pup's lying down will not "upgrade" to hup over time. You need to have hup instilled from the start, and since hup means sit in spanielese, that's easy to do. Whether at the food bowl before it's released to eat, or before the dog says its prayers at night, or at your side whilst heeling. Th...
by crackerd
Wed Nov 05, 2008 2:55 pm
Forum: Training
Topic: E-collar Training
Replies: 16
Views: 4183

Re: E-collar Training

It's absolutely fine to train a retriever to be a robot since that is their purpose in life Their purpose in life??? That's some rather absurd hyperbole, don't you think? Have you ever seen a retriever working at a trial or test? Have you ever seen a retriever handle ?--guessing that would be your ...
by crackerd
Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:26 am
Forum: Training
Topic: E-collar Training
Replies: 16
Views: 4183

Re: E-collar Training

Sharon, thing is, GH is (or was) a pro--a retriever pro. The original poster implies that the basic commands will be taught solely through use of the e-collar--if true, that's very misguided. Retrievers have obedience down well before the collar is introduced because they're trained with indirect pr...
by crackerd
Fri Oct 31, 2008 12:33 pm
Forum: Training
Topic: Since I can't get any love for a Flushers subforum...
Replies: 8
Views: 3031

Re: Since I can't get any love for a Flushers subforum...

Nice account, always captivated by a Boykin adventure. If you really want to show off your mud poodle at his best, go next door to NoDak and work him nonslip for waterfowl on the potholes.

MG
by crackerd
Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:58 pm
Forum: Training
Topic: Introduction w/Trainig Question
Replies: 5
Views: 2127

Re: Introduction w/Trainig Question

Given the trouble you're getting at the line with the dog, I would do the opposite. Notch the JH title first. Then have yourself a gunning dog. When you hunt over a hunt test (or FT) retriever, you inculcate "bad habits" which can be summed up as the dog getting loose. At the JH level, that will be ...
by crackerd
Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:49 pm
Forum: Training
Topic: Introduction w/Trainig Question
Replies: 5
Views: 2127

Re: Introduction w/Trainig Question

The cold hard truth? Have the pro run the dog. Even at JH. And if it's only a title you want, one and done. You said, "we always run mock test's". Who is we? The whole thing needs to be done to get her ready. My thinking is that something from the mock tests to the real thing is missing. Wfwlr, the ...
by crackerd
Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:02 am
Forum: Training
Topic: I need advice; two training problems
Replies: 7
Views: 2340

Re: I need advice; two training problems

I have a six month old male chocolate lab. He's doing pretty well in his training; doing doubles, follows hand signals, responds to the whistle, introduced to gunfire, and e-collar conditioned. But recently I have hit a wall with him. Problem 1: when we are training with the gun I just can't keep h...
by crackerd
Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:12 am
Forum: Training
Topic: Lab slow to retrieve
Replies: 2
Views: 3489

Re: Lab slow to retrieve

If the dog's turned out a reliable retriever, I wouldn't sweat or fret over lack of drive. Has it picked up birds other than or including fresh-killed doves? Has it been at your side waiting patiently (if not expectantly) in a duck blind? Has it delivered to hand? If so, you've got nothing much to w...
by crackerd
Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:53 pm
Forum: Training
Topic: Trouble entering the water for a blind retrieve
Replies: 5
Views: 2417

Re: Trouble entering the water for a blind retrieve

Those are some good ideas. I worked some more by throwing a dead duck for her and then sending her to get it. It helped if the bird was tossed high and did a big splash. Thing is, that ain't a blind. A search isn't a blind, and a blind isn't a search...or a mark, which is what you've described abov...
by crackerd
Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:45 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: What breed has your dog been mistaken for?
Replies: 140
Views: 39957

Re: What breed has your dog been mistaken for?

Ghosts of the Christmas Goose Past.

Image

Image

MG
by crackerd
Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:13 pm
Forum: Training
Topic: Colors & Water Retrieves
Replies: 10
Views: 2789

Re: Colors & Water Retrieves

Let's start by establishing that with retrievers, orange bumpers are used expressly for blind retrieves because the dog cannot see them --or see them as it would a white bumper. And since in throwing bumpers that are to be retrieved, you're asking a dog to mark, i.e., see a fall, that's all orange s...
by crackerd
Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:55 am
Forum: Training
Topic: New Pup
Replies: 9
Views: 3483

Re: New Pup

The short answer is you need training at this stage more than the puppy at its age. Glom onto a copy of Cherylon Loveland's retriever puppy book pronto and you'll get all the answers both for yourself and your pup.

MG
by crackerd
Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:44 am
Forum: Training
Topic: To hold or not to hold
Replies: 20
Views: 5761

Re: To hold or not to hold

IMHO Fetch works for me. Eventually I move to the dogs name. There's no right or wrong way to teach retrieving, just easier and more difficult ways. The comment above implies one of two things: The pup learns "fetch!" as a command to retrieve from the start (say at eight weeks old) or else the pup ...
by crackerd
Sun Oct 12, 2008 5:29 am
Forum: Training
Topic: To hold or not to hold
Replies: 20
Views: 5761

Re: To hold or not to hold

The short answer is "hold" can be imparted far in advance of force-fetch pressure. Just by dint of having something in its mouth http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/crackerd/008Rigg9wksWhiteWashing.jpg a pup's inherently got "hold" down. Your job is getting the pup to understand what the word mea...
by crackerd
Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:04 am
Forum: Training
Topic: When do dogs mentally mature?
Replies: 6
Views: 3315

Re: When do dogs mentally mature?

Not only depends on the dog, but on about a dozen other variants foremost amongst them one's own interpretation of maturity. Is a retriever inherently "mature" at the age it begins competing in all-age stakes in field trials? If so, the average age is 5+ years. But I've run them in open stakes befor...
by crackerd
Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:22 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Clumbers
Replies: 4
Views: 1579

Re: Clumbers

That's the idea. The Working Clumber Spaniel Assn. essentially resurrected the breed as a gundog. Males may go 50 pounds, bitches 40-45, all muscle and fit--whereas you can double those weights for the snow pigs. And make sure they have snoods on the ears at all times so they don't wet. On the other...
by crackerd
Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:51 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Clumbers
Replies: 4
Views: 1579

Re: Clumbers

In the US they're "affectionately" referred to as snow pigs. That gives you an idea of their capacious comportment and use (99 percent in the show ring). You'll find more authentic activity amongst the breed (i.e., as working gundog) here . Likewise little working milieu in the US for the Clumber's ...
by crackerd
Fri Sep 19, 2008 12:16 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Boykin info.
Replies: 13
Views: 5246

Re: Boykin info.

Bill, it'd be almost like coal to Newcastle or carpets to Kilmarnock, on account of the little devils you mentioned. The cockers you've got are not widely known in the US, and called "field cockers" to distinguish them from the show mops that proliferate here, both American cocker and "English" cock...
by crackerd
Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:54 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Boykin info.
Replies: 13
Views: 5246

Re: Boykin info.

"He"'s a she that's all of 25 pounds soaking wet, and testimony from anybody who knows Boykins (Neil and bobman here for two) will tell you they're the born-to-retrievin'est dog on the planet. Congratulations and good deal getting up with a reputable breeder because that also tells you there's a goo...
by crackerd
Fri Sep 19, 2008 3:24 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Boykin info.
Replies: 13
Views: 5246

Re: Boykin info.

The story is essentially this: the Boykin got shanghaied into AKC by a few show folks who've got negligible interest in the breed as a working gundog. It gets better (or worse). Boykins are listed in miscellaneous class by the AKC, which means they cannot compete in the breed ring yet, but they were...
by crackerd
Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:33 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: NAVHDA test question
Replies: 23
Views: 8028

Re: NAVHDA test question

Your pup should be fine. The NA test has some goofy logic behind it, not to mention that "natural ability" implies a pup oughtn't be trained at all before entering, and some new owners took (take) that literally. If the dog won't go in the water for a bumper, then a bird is substituted and thrown to...
by crackerd
Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:20 pm
Forum: Training
Topic: Lab Trouble
Replies: 11
Views: 3535

Re: Lab Trouble

Bill, there are some who advocate force fetching all gundogs as a matter of course; my rationale is a little different. I don't think it's necessary, but feel the little pain inflicted on and incurred by the dog during the FF process is far less than the anguish I as a hunter would get over a lifeti...
by crackerd
Mon Sep 15, 2008 8:52 am
Forum: Training
Topic: Lab Trouble
Replies: 11
Views: 3535

Re: Lab Trouble

Could work, Bill--don't think anybody would discount clicker or treat training for shaping puppy behaviour. Problem is, this dog 's dictating the terms of what it will or won't retrieve. That's why GH cited force fetching in conjunction with following a sequential program--FF is foundational in any ...
by crackerd
Thu Sep 11, 2008 3:30 am
Forum: Training
Topic: Struggling with attention and heel on leash
Replies: 12
Views: 4430

Re: Struggling with attention and heel on leash

gonehuntin' wrote:Use a heeling stick.
A what, GH? Next you'll be telling how its use oughta be twinned with that other training tool, the prong collar... :wink:

MG
by crackerd
Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:18 pm
Forum: Training
Topic: Butting heads with my springer
Replies: 7
Views: 4005

Re: Butting heads with my springer

Sean, advice on this and other boards is free too and most of the time you're getting what you pay for. But one invaluable bit is to find a spaniel pro and consult with him, even if it's by phone. Training is a "piece of cake" only if you interpet "training" as letting the dog flush some birds and (...
by crackerd
Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:26 am
Forum: Training
Topic: Training a Boykin
Replies: 9
Views: 5486

Re: Training a Boykin

Depends, really. Are you training for this http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/crackerd/Crack-LookWhatsComingToDinner.jpg or this? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/crackerd/08Crack1.jpg There's Pam Kadlec's book "Retriever Training for Spaniels: Working with Soft-Tempered, Hard-Headed, Inte...
by crackerd
Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:44 am
Forum: Training
Topic: Butting heads with my springer
Replies: 7
Views: 4005

Re: Butting heads with my springer

Following on to GH's advice, an e-collar will rein in the dog but before using it on a spaniel, you should cultivate a questing or quartering pattern in your dog. Spaniels quarter naturally; what yours does is called "punching out" and it's the bane of hunting with a flushing dog. No idea what "perf...
by crackerd
Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:44 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: What breed?
Replies: 13
Views: 3875

Re: What breed?

A Boy- what ? That one of them that picks up chucks http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/crackerd/08CrackWholeHog.jpg bucks http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/crackerd/zC408.jpg and anything that sorta clucks? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/crackerd/CrackThruTheGloaming06.jpg Little bi...
by crackerd
Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:33 am
Forum: Training
Topic: Just wondering?
Replies: 9
Views: 3891

Re: Just wondering?

I've never found they had a use in training pointing dogs that couldn't be done better with something else. CR Which conversely means, Evan, if it were used with pointers here, the heeling stick would fall under the name the Brits have for it: Riding crop. You had to know this question would be met...
by crackerd
Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:56 am
Forum: Training
Topic: FF in RI
Replies: 1
Views: 806

Re: FF in RI

Next door: Paul Botelho, South Dartmouth, Mass.; to the west: Buck Shope, Swift River Retrievers, Orange, Mass., and a little up the road in Rhody, a talented amateur who might help, Mike Coutu.

MG
by crackerd
Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:28 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Lab Kennel in Oklahoma
Replies: 3
Views: 1453

Re: Lab Kennel in Oklahoma

by crackerd
Wed May 07, 2008 4:50 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Springer Spaniel book/video
Replies: 7
Views: 2786

Re: Springer Spaniel book/video

Working Springers & Cockers , by Mike Smith, Published by Biddles, Ltd. This book is one of the few really good books specifically geared towards the spaniels. Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to fine. I did a web search & bought it this past weekend over the internet. This is the only span...