oneounceload
member
Another vote for "Water Dog", worked well for my Golden
Hunting dog help!
- Thread starter kdunn
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Patocazador
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I've found after looking through 3 of Wolter's books that he gives almost the same training regimen in all of them, just tweaking it enough to specialize in a few areas. IMO they all give the same advice.
I think he wrote one book and just did minor editing for each succeeding one.
I think he wrote one book and just did minor editing for each succeeding one.
Yup, I have heard the arguements both ways. I used a one syllable name because I am from the school of thought that the dog's name is a command. The command in common language would be something along the lines of, "Hey you bone headed over priced hot blooded over achieving hyperactive canine. I have hundreds of hours of training in your sorry rump and I want you to stop in your tracks and give me your complete and undivided attention right now". It just depends on how you want to use the dog's name.
Pit4Brains
Member
Pine cones with real wings tied on them work well to teach a soft mouth.
I started my lab on top of a carpeted 55 gal barrel. I gave him the command "whoa" as I walked around him and slowly increased my distance from him. The pup will be unstable on the barrel and it will make him want to sit and not come to you. I'm with gamestalker on the importance of stopping a retriever in his tracks. It has saved my dog more than once.
Whatever commands you choose to use, keep them constant and only use them for training/field work. Don't mix training with family dog business.
I also work with an orange whistle. When my dog sees it, he knows we're going to train or hunt.
The commands I found to be important are, Whoa, Come , Sit , Fetch it up, Hunt it up, and heel while we're moving from one local to another.
I use the fetch it up after the shooting is done and he has seen the bird drop. Hunt it up is when I get a winger or one that went into the bush and we can't locate by sight or there are birds on the ground that I want him to flush. This gets his nose on the ground and he does a good job of covering an area.
Good luck with your pup.
If you can work on hand signals as well, that could be real "handy". I didn't do that with my dog and sometimes I wish I would have..
Pit4Brains
Member
Good point. The family named our dog Rosco but I use Ross for a preparatory command. Who is about the only command I use without saying Ross first.
MCgunner
Member
All this is instinct in a good dog. Don't have to have a "bloodline", either. My best labs have been of questionable genetic background.
Of course, some of my most worthless were, too. LOL I had an AKC lab of good bloodline that was gun shy, though. He was pretty worthless, but he was free and a good pet. A dog is either gun shy or he/she isn't. A good dog, like Molly the superdog, learns to do back flips of excitement when the shotgun comes out of the cabinet.
Molly, the super dog......
Get a cheap Daisy BB gun. Then find the dogs favorite thing, cheese, bacon, hotdog etc.. Then when it's a few months old take the gun with no BB's in it and let him see it every time you feed him his favorite stuff. Play with him a little and geek him up with "Get the gun" or some such before he gets the grub. Now put some BB's in it and rock them in the barrel while doing the same thing. He now knows the gun makes noise. After some days or maybe weeks if you have a shy dog, he'll get used to it. Then fire it just before he gets the treat. Then move up to a .22 with CB's etc.. I been doing it that way for 50 some yrs. and it always seems to work for me. Not a pro trainer or anything close.
buck460XVR
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About eight years ago my oldest had a new bird dog(about 18 months old) that needed some field time. We went to a game farm and had them release a dozen birds for us so we knew we'd have plenty of work for the dog. Dog had been around guns and shooting since a pup and never seem to mind them. First bird went up, my son shot and the dog laid down on the spot and would not move. Regardless of what we did, they dog would not move from that spot. My son felt like he had somehow ruined the dog and was totally frustrated. If approached without a gun in hand, the dog would stand and wag it's tail, but have a gun in hand and it would lie down and whine. Obviously it was scared of the guns and the noise they made. Regardless, we finished hunting the 80 acre field with the dog never moving from that spot, even tho we raised and shot most of the birds released. All it did was whine loudly at us when we called to it. Nuttin' seemed like it was gonna get him to leave that spot. On the way back to the truck the dog finally came over to us and suddenly acted excited about the birds we were carrying and just like that, struck off into cover. Just a short distance from the truck it struck a point and we flushed and shot a rooster over it's head. The dog never flinched and after retrieving the downed bird( a bit hard mouthed, but retrieved none the less) went right back to hunting. It has since become such a great bird dog that folks beg my son to take them hunting with him and my son and his dog work part time at the local game farm guiding other hunters. To this day I do not know if it was the guns, their noise or our hollerin' that got to that dog. But it was obvious in the long run, his breeding, instincts and desire to hunt made him forget whatever it was. Two weeks ago while shooting clay pigeons at my son's cabin, the same dog had to be restrained because it would stand directly in front of the thrower we were using and point it. Every time a gun went off it would cry in despair because it couldn't go look for downed birds. After we got done shooting the dog was released and it spent the rest of the evening looking for and bringing back pieces of broken pigeons.
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