Gun Dog Forum

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i teach my dogs they are only to be released from whoa when i touch their head and release them. also i would tell her whao "before" she moves, right after the bird is launched and keep reminding her to who until you release her. this will mean you will have to do some more yard work to teach her to...

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it comes down to birds, birds, birds......stop holding her on birds in the field. she has to get the "chase" out of her system before you can start to "whoa" the dog. teach whoa in the yard without birds but invest in a bird launcher and keep putting flyaways in front of her...sooner or later she wi...

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i have experience with this. I have a 13 year old dog that is diabetic and on insulin. when he was diagnosed he had blood sugar over 430. i was very hesitant to do the insulin but i am glad i did. once you find the right level of insulin and feed it is no problem at all. i check the blood sugar befo...

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i am a huge believer in arkat. i have fed it for a couple years now and have great success with it. i have seen GSP's with weight problems on other feeds gain the needed weight on pro athlete in a month and keep it on. I have fed every formula of enhance and would highly recommend all of them. i cur...

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sometimes the heat will cause a dog to lose a little interest. you mentioned you are working of force retrieveing and that could also be a contributing factor. i would finish any FF training before i put her back on birds. also, if she likes to fetch, get a dead pigeon and play fetch with her each a...

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this is why i prefer the ear method. getting a dog to pick up off the ground is by far the hardest part of FF training and using the ear method you have more control over the dog to get him to pick up off the ground. I would suggest starting to use the ear method to finish the dog off with FF.

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i cut training back this time of year and i always bring alot of water for the dogs when i do go out, which is early morning or late evening. this is also a good time to go back and work on some yard work and obedience training while it is hot. you can never do too much of that.

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not sure why but getting a dog to pickup off the ground is the slowest part of FF. just be patient with the dog. it will come. it just takes longer than other parts. dont get discouraged, if the dog is doing all other parts well, you are on the right track and just need to keep at it.

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keep the collar on him in all situations like this until he gets a bit older and through this "stage" he is in so he doesnt learn he can misbehave with the collar off.
sometimes it is easier to prevent bad behaviour than it is to correct it.

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"come" is plenty at that age. if you get the dog to come and do some wing on a string work you will be way ahead of the game when formal training starts

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While catching a bird isn't a good thing, overreacting to a pup catching a bird often makes it worse. What you did (or tried to do, had the release box worked) was right. You put her in a situation where she wasn't going to catch a bird, which reinforces the point instinct. The one thing that so ma...

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letting a dog hold a dummy when he doesnt want to give it in the first place can start a bigger problem of not wanting to give it up later in life and become possesive of the bird. not all dogs are like that but it can pop up if you let him think it is his. you need to get the dummy out as fast as y...

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this is the number 1 problem i have to deal with with clients dogs. I will say from experience that at 7 months old the dog is now learning he is a dog and is developing his own tendancies, attitude and so forth. If you havent thought about a e-collar and some collar conditioning and training, you m...

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i agree with the no sitting advice. every year i get a couple of clients dogs that were taught to sit before I could work with them and "whoa" train them and it is frustrating to work on whoa when every time you stop the dog it sits. if you want to teach sit, wait until after it has been whoa traine...

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dont worry about your dog pointing robins and such. its a phase all pointing dogs go through and any discouragement may translate into blinking the birds you want him to point. over time your dog will forget about robins and focus on game birds but that will only come with hunting experience so the ...

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My plan now is to take a little more time at the start of sessions for "fun stuff" and only use the "nick" command to re-enforce his obedience. Following your advice I will only use the continuous button if he is totally disregarding my commands AND I am certain that he knows what is being asked of...

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is there going to be any need for this out west?

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With my 1yr brittany, I was walking her in one of the fields we hunt and she found some small birds (not game birds) and she took after them till they flown away and then return to me. I was told once that its a bad idea to let her do that. Is this true? If so why? She loves to chase birds out of t...

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getting a dog to pick up off the ground is the hardest part of FF and some dogs will try and lay down to try and get out or ovoid the pressure. just calmly lift her up with her collar and keep going. dont make a big deal out of it or you may make matters worse. i see this sometimes with clients dogs...

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if you are not adding pressure by a ear pinch or toe hitch you may get this response as the dog is kind of bored with what you are doing. it might be a sigh that you may need to start the pressure part of the ff if you are satisfied with the dog knowing "fetch" "hold" and "drop". as long as you are ...

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I have an English Setter in training, hasn't hunted yet, and lately he has begun sitting when I tell him to whoa. Then when I put him up on his four legs he tucks in his tail as if he's being punished. Anyone here ever have this problem, and if so, what did you do to solve it? this is a common prob...

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SubMariner, No more free feeding, it's not working for him. He must be taught to eat when YOU put the food bowl down. As a trainer myself I teach this to all my dogs, clients dogs too, as a means of establishing early "I AM PACK LEADER" to eat their food when the bowl hits the ground. I put the foo...

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dont worry about it. I use bark collars all the time with my labs and shorthairs.

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its not as much an age thing as it is where the dog is in its training. I dont start on whoa until the dog has been worked around birds and get out and hunt. about the time the dog starts to show some pointing instinct is when i usually start whoa training. I would, however, loose the choke chain an...

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i would be very very very carefull in giving z-gold to a dog. i used to work in a feed store where we sold that product and from what the sales reps have told me it is highly dangerous to give to a dog.

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personally i would opt for a dog run with a roof on it. once a dog has found a way to get out of an enclosure, like a yard, it will keep trying other ways until it finds one. the downside to the invisible fence is you have to have the collar on the dog all the time when in the yard and if it ever go...

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it really depends on the type of food you are feeding. not all dog foods are created equall. some dog foods are more digestible than others so it doesnt take as much food to get the same amount of nutrition. regardless of the food, if you cant see any ribs but maybe the last one the dog is not under...

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Actually if your dog is not as strong in the pointing area yet, you dont want to worry about him chasing flushing birds just yet. having him chase those birds will help his bird/point desire and eventually if under a controlled environment with launchers, it will help steady him up too. its like try...

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you mean there is an upside to excessive barking. lol

I for one dont mind a dog that barks for a reason but one that barks just to bark usually gets a bark collar for the day.

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it really depends on the dog. some dogs thrive on pressure. some dont handle it as well as others. it also depend on the type of presure and how the pressure is given. Every dog can handle some degree of pressure but not all dogs can handle high levels of pressure or pressure given in the wrong mann...

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i do agree with the comments of the dog needs to "get the chasing out its system" but that isnt all that needs to be done. the dog needs to be trained with an e-collar to come back when called, preferably with a tone button from the collar. I had this same problem with a clients dog that i fixed rec...

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In general males are larger, and piss all over the yard, bushes and every vehicle tire he can find. I quit male dogs for the marking alone. there is some truth to this.....some male dogs are very territorial and have to mark alot. I have a specific clients' dog that comes and stays with me a few da...

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the 2 most critical things you need when working with a gunshy dog are alot birds AND patience....I just fixed a gunshy dog for a client and it took a month, a steady supply of birds and a whole lot of patience working with the dog a little each and every day. if your dog is crazy about birds then y...

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the BIGGEST misconception about force fetching is it has something to do with "fetching". It really has very very little to do with the actuall "fetch" part of fetching but has mostly to do with the dog learning to deal with and handle pressure. sure you can make any dog pick up something 15 feet aw...

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What you are doing is the basic way to get a dog started to come when called, regardless of breed actually. but the key isnt to go to a 50 foot lead as the dog is already "leash-wise", which is part of the correct process actually. you now need to work him towards a non-leash response to come when c...

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now i am confused ...because my vet told me it was better the sugar level be too high than too low......

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IMO, Rick hit the nail on the head! Live birds breath is what most of the sent comes from. Ever tuck a head when planting vs. dizzying them? If you don't let them sit long enough the dog is much more likely to run past a tucked headed bird. Dogs, with experience, learn the slight variation in smell...

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[quote="BellaDad"]Interesting, I didn't see it that way. I appreciate the advice. I understand your points, but why is it not a good idea to reward her scent pointing a bird? I get that it's not the bird I'm looking for but at a young age of 7 mo and only a month into birds why dont' I want her to d...

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i am dealing with a similiar problem with a clients dog. it is a brittany that is gunshy but hasnt had alot of birds. the only sure fire way to get the dog over the problem is give it a positive reward with gunfire such as birds. shooting around a dog without a reward can alot of times make it worse...

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he is getting too old to get out much as his arthritis is setting in now. he is a 12 year old lab. occasionally his sugar drops real low but usually it being too high has been the problem. when i first took him to the vet his sugar level was 441 and it took a while to get the insulin and diet to whe...

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as far as i know I will have to give insulin the rest of his life. I have been playing with his food and bean intake and so far it is working once I increased the amount of beans he is getting with each meal. no more $60 per 30 lbs dog food. :mrgreen: thanks for the input and help from all you who r...

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thanks for your input.

i fed enhance.......

i have heard pumkin from alot of people now. i am trying beans but havent found the correct amount of beans for a lab so I am still tinkering with that one.

how much pumkin would you feed a 90 lb lab per day. i feed and do insulin 3 times a day.

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R-Heaton wrote: I would have to say a good pair of hiking boots,,, but thats just me.

I agree, that is also a much needed piece of equipment.....ESPECIALLY for those people that chase chuckars

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I am going to look at GSP puppy's today. I know males are generally more high strung than females, but I was wondering if a neutered male would calm down enough to be considered. I am looking for a good house, family and hunting partner. I owned a female years ago and was real happy with her. Thank...

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well, i hope it works. i have no problem giving insulin or adding something to his food to help with the diabetes. he is one of the greatest dogs I have ever owned, and i have owned ALOT of dogs over the years. I hope this is a good solution as i dont like spending $60 for 30 lbs of dog food. I am v...

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thank you for the info. reading those websites helped out alot and gave me some options. i just got off the phone with a nutritionist at my dog food manufacture they suggested adding a green bean to increase fiber as opposed to a pre-packaged commercial dog food. i think i am going to try that.

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thanks for the info. i will check them out.

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I have a question hopefully some of you can shed some light on. I have a diabetic dog now that i give insulin 3 times a day. the vet said I need to be feeding a specific food that is high in fiber. he put my dog on science diet W/D and it is now up to $60 per 40 lb bag. you can see where i am going ...

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a few questions about your training...... do you train in the same area? are you using the same kinds of birds? do you use a bird launcher or are you planting birds naturally? The reason i ask is the dog sounds like it is getting too familiar with your training program and need to mix it up a bit wi...

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I have raised pigeons for almost 30 years now. there are some health concerns but are pretty uncommon. the most notable is pigeon breeders disease. it is kind of an allergic reaction to the tiny dust particles from pigeons that gets in your lungs. some people are very allergic to it and over time it...

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