Dealing with distractions

[t-setter]

My year-old setter male is coming along fairly well during yard training...except when he sees song birds or cats. At that point, he will race to the end of his check cord and yank up hunks of sod with his teeth and basically pay no mind to me. Any suggestions?

[birddog1968]

Where are ya at with him? How far along , I mean?
Are you using a book or set program?

What you describe tells me the dogs got some drive, thats nice ! Now just to put it to work......More info would be helpful.

What part of Pa you in? Im down on the shore in Maryland.

[SetterNut]

At a year old and in the yard (where he thinks he is king) distraction are nomal at that age.
Just keep at it and be consistant and fair. Between maturing and continued training, I think you will see improvement.

[t-setter]

I'm in Tioga County. I got the dog as a 7-month-old back in December. To that point he had no training at all, knew no commands, but had been worked on birds several times a week (by the breeder) since he was about 10 weeks old. Given the long winter, wet spring and two kids playing baseball until mid June, I didn't begin formal yard work until about the beginning of June. I generally follow the George Hickox method of stimulation training (before he got into the clicker training), with some Paul Long mixed in. At this point, I've only used stimulation to teach kennel, which he does fairly reliably. He is progressing nicely with heel and doing OK with whoa while heeling. He comes to the whistle and verbal command for the most part while he is on the check cord, but I do have to reel him in sometimes. I am planning to begin using stimulation for "here" training beginning this week, although I know Hickox recommends teaching whoa first. I have done very little bird work since purchasing him in December, and am hoping that when I get him into real birds on a regular basis, he might not be so possessed by song birds taking flight. At this point, my training sessions go pretty well, so long as there are no distractions. Once he sees feathers or felines, he no longer focuses on training.

[slistoe]

Time, repetition and being more prepared as a trainer to anticipate the situation and deal with it quicker. If you know what is going to happen, whenever a song bird or feline appears that CC would get real short, real quick.

Personally the song birds I wouldn't worry about (other than advance prep on control when doing yard exercises) but I would break the dog off cats real quick just like breaking him from any off game so he will not want to have anything whatsoever to do with them.

[Ryman Gun Dog]

t-setter,
Your young dog is acting quite normal, if you need help with your Setter I have a Grouse Dog training operation in Potter/Tioga, Pa. I never ever take clients
from the internet forums, however I have helped many men and ladies free of charge, especially military veterans. We do not use the Hickox stimulation training program, we train in a different manner. If you would like some help drop me a private message and this fall I will make time to help with your Setter. Further I agree with SL, break the dog from running cats or any other animal, let his play with the birds however.
RGD/Dave