Following a dog

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:06 am

I have heard when you are first taking your puppy into the feild you are supposed to follow him turn every way he turns just make sure you turn so he is always running infront of you.

Why do you do this?

Why not walk in a zig zag line and send the dog in the right direction when he errs?

Casper · Post by **Casper** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:39 am

If I have this right when you take pup for a walk you let pup explore. When he gets out in front of you and starts in a different direction you call his name and walk in the opposit direction. Pup wants to be wiht you so he will come to be with you. If he gets behind you stop and wait till he is in front again and continue your course. This avoids back tracking or hunting an area pup has already hunted.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:41 am

Yes but i mean when training them to stay infront of you why do you always have to turn to be infront of the dog. DOnt you want the dog to figure out it has to go in the direction you want it to.

mountaindogs · Post by **mountaindogs** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:06 am

I play it by the dog. I have a BOLD young girl now that never needed me to turn to follow - she is way out in front and I DO have to turn to have her follow and quarter for ME.

My male as a very little puppy was a follower at first, and I used the method you mentioned during walks. He caught on quickly! 2 walks I think. I do think though that this is generally for very young dogs that are still in a follow MOM/DAD way of thinking, 10 -16 weeks maybe. Just helps them build confidence about running and exploring in front and hunting. My bold girl arrived at 19 weeks I think and if she was ever a follower she was well out of it by the time she reached me!

Wagonmaster · Post by **Wagonmaster** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:22 pm

ryan-

that is the training method in that old and generally discredited tome Gun Dog, by Richard Wolters. He who brought us the theory that the way to teach a dog to whoa is to run at it and scare it to death until it stops. He figured that if you turned and walked towards your dog every time it turned, that would teach the dog to always stay in front of you. What it teaches the dog is to pull your chain whenever it feels like it.

Take the dog into a field, start walking and the pup will learn to keep up and stay to the front. If it starts running to the side or going back, keeping walking in the direction you want to walk in and just start calling it, some people use the dogs name, some people use yo-yo-yo, pretty much anything that gets the dog to pay a little attention to you and to see which direction you are moving. When the dog turns and starts to make its move forward, stop talking and just let it run.

Dave Quindt · Post by **Dave Quindt** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:54 pm

Just an addition to John's post..........

The important thing to understand is to turn your body the direction you want to go and go that way BEFORE calling to the dog. Dogs pay attention to physical cues more than verbal cues - the exact opposite of humans.

Pup's natural instinct is to run "forward" - it's his way of not getting lost. You want to turn your body first, which puts the dog "out of position" THEN get his attention verbally to show him that he's no longer "forward".

The classic newbie mistake in misunderstanding physical cues is to call the dog to you, while at the same time walking towards the dog. You are verbally telling the dog "come here" while physically telling the dog "go away from me".

Make sense?

Dave

AHGSP · Post by **AHGSP** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:10 am

I agree completely with John and Dave and will add, this is also when I will begin using hand gestures to point the dog to the front of me, which I think makes it easier later to teach hand signals to get a dog to quarter in a direction that you want them to cover, that you don't neccessarily plan to go (ie. up an embankment or down a hollow).