I came across a great quote in Gun Dog magazine the other day about consistency with our dogs, “Corrections are consistent when canine misdeeds are always corrected appropriately. If misbehavior is sometimes ignored, the dog must experiment every day to see what the boss currently permits.” Pro Tips – Spaniels – Gary Breithbarth G&D Kennels, CA. Gun Dog Oct 2007.

The idea is to be consistent with correction and what behavior is acceptable and what is not. Otherwise we have dogs that need to test us on everything all the time. Additionally, I think this make for a more unstable dog, because they don’t ever know where they stand.

I just bought a new training pistol (starter pistol, blank pistol) from gun dog supply (http://www.gundogsupply.com). After visiting with them about the different options they have, they were very helpful, I decided on the Kimar 209 primer pistol Made by Traditions. I couldn’t be more happy with it. It has a solid feel to it like a real pistol, is loud without being too loud and fits nicely in an Uncle Mike’s Sidekick holster. Also, the 209 primers are cheap and easy to come by. It also comes with a nice plastic case. (I can see that the latches won’t last too long on the case, but it’s a nice touch.) It was a great buy for the money.

Pistols are nice to train with because they can be on your side, grabbed quickly when you want a gunshot, then put away so you have two free hands. If you want to train with a pistol, but can’t justify buying one the few months you’ll need it to train just one pup, if you have a .22 pistol, you can use it. Revolvers, like the Ruger single-six work particularly well with blank loads. (Ah, maybe a good reason to buy a new gun!) Simply use your .22 and purchase .22 blanks. Trust me, even though blanks may cost more than loaded shells, buy them so you don’t have to worry about where the bullet is going to end up. You’ll have enough on your mind training the dog. As a side note, if you buy crimped loads, like for a ramset concrete nail gun, there is some debris (probably acrylic glue in the end of the shell) that shoots out, so don’t point it at anything close.

Another is to make your own shotgun popper loads. If you have a shotgun reloader, simply reprime shotgun hulls and don’t crimp them. These work well in an over/under. If you have a pump, cut the crimp off and they should feed through the magazine fine. This works very well, helps the dog learn to look where the shotgun is pointed and it’s not quite as loud as a pistol. This is a great tool, one that I love to use with young puppies, but I often find myself having to lay my nice shotgun down on the ground so I have use of both hands, then it gets stepped on by a pup.

A final alternative is to use your muzzleloader with only the 209 primer or the cap. This will work just as well as the shotgun popper loads, except that you can shoot twice and they are a pain to clean.

 

Continuing with our previous theme about training during the winter when it is dark, I thought I’d share my roading outfit. Exercising dogs is critical to their overall mental and physical wellbeing, and very important for training. Another reason to get them in shape is that you can take them on a several day hunting trip and they can hunt the whole time, but in the winter when it’s dark before and after work it is difficult to get them out and exercise. When it’s light out, I typically like to take the dogs out on a dead-end back road and let them run free while I run from 2 to 5 miles. They’ll get out a ways from me then I’ll call them back and we all get our exercise, but when it’s dark, I just can’t give them that much freedom.

My solution was to build a roading rig for our 4-wheeler. I saw one advertised for $170 through a hunting dog supply outfit, so I built one for about $25. I made it from the following items:
(1) 10’ length of chain link fence top-rail pipe ($10)
(4) Eye bolts ($2)
(4) Swivels ($5)
(4) Heavy bungee cords ($3)
(4) Brass leash snaps ($5)

I drilled holes 2” and 20” in from each end and installed the eyebolts and swivels, then I cut the ends off the bungee cords threaded the snaps through and tied them in a circle using a zeppelin bend knot. I tied the bungee together so it would be double the strength and so that there were no sharp wires or anything to get cut on. I use 3 nylon straps (NRS) to attach it to the front rack. It holds tight and takes just a second to attach or detach it.

As for harnesses, you have to buy pulling harnesses just for roading. Don’t try buying the walking dog harnesses at the pet store. Trust me on this one, they don’t work. Gun Dog Supply.com has a 1” wide nylon roading harness for $17 that works great. Strap these on the dogs, clip them to the snaps and you’re ready to go.

Most dogs take to it very quickly. Start slowly and make sure the dogs are with you and you are not dragging them. (They will hurt their pads very quickly if they are fighting you and you try to pull them along.)

I find that the dogs do best between 8 and 12 miles an hour. Just this morning (before taking the above photo – notice how calm the dogs are) I ran them a full 4 miles non-stop at 10 miles an hour. When I run them first thing in the morning, they get a great work out, are ready for training and are much calmer all day.

Thankfully we have passed the winter solstice and the days are getting longer.

Another idea for training during the winter, when it gets dark even before you get home from work is to move your training table inside the garage. If you don’t have one, build one along one length of the garage wall. If you like, you can put shelves under it, face it with panneling and have a new storage place for your decoys and other hunting paraphernalia.

By moving the training table inside the garage it provides a warm, lighted place to work on lots of commands, including, hold and fetch (trained retrieve), over, down, whoa, and anything else you would otherwise have to bend over for. Plus, having them off the ground and on a narrow runway helps the dog focus on the task at hand.

My table is 2′ wide and 14′ long. I would have made it 16′, but it was too long for the space I had available. I framed the table with 2×4′s and made 2×4 legs. I used one sheet of 3/4″ plywood, cut in half for the deck. Julie likes to use a piece of shelving as a ramp to walk the dogs up, whereas, I either have them jump up or lift them up.  It makes one more place you can train when it’s dark out.

 

Wintertime can be difficult when training a dog for a number of reasons. First, it’s cold and it can be difficult to motivate yourself to get out and train. Second, it’s not always fun to stand around outside and freeze your ears off. Also, one’s patience is often shorter when it’s cold out. Lastly, it’s dark. It makes it difficult to get much field training done when you get off work at five and the sun has already set.

One idea for wintertime training is to work on the “search” command. Dogs that have been force fetched or are natural retrievers can strengthen their search effort by planting a dummy out in the dark and sending the dog to find it with a “search” command. For some of the hunt tests, dogs are required to search unassisted for up to 10 minutes. Now is a great time to get them started.

Start by tossing the dummy into the dark to the same spot over and over so the dog comes to expect the dummy in that spot. Then plant the dummy there unseen by the dog. Bring the dog out and give your “fetch” command and have them go out and get it. Do it again, except use the “search” command spoken with exactly the same intonation as you give the fetch command. Do this several times. Then start to toss the dummy a little ways away so the dog has to search for it. Doing this in the dark or into 3 or 4 inches of snow forces the dog to use their nose. Intersperse searching for dog bumpers with frozen and thawed birds. You can gradually make it more challenging, so the dog learns that on a search command their target is out their, they just need to stay out and use their nose until they find it. Then, the next time you down a bird into thick cover unseen by the dog, you can confidently give your dog the search command. I guarentee this training will pay off come next season. 

 

 

Photo from Jessie’s photo album: http://www.showme.net/~tlem/Keel%20Ft.%20Drum/PhotoAlbum.htm 

Here’s what happened. Sunday, I needed a midnight snack and accidentally left 1/2 of the pumpkin pie on the kitchen table over night. When I got up in the morning, the foil cover was off and the pie plate was as clean as can be. Allie, my 2 year old lab was sleeping contentedly, sprawled out on the living room floor with a full belly.  What should you do? Come uncorked? Discipline the dog? What?

In this case the right thing to do was to do nothing at all. If I would have snatched her off the floor and disciplined her, it only would have been confusing. She would have linked the discipline with her sleeping on the floor, which she does every day.  The same exact thing applies when house training a puppy and you find a mess long after it occurred, or when in the field with a dog and it comes back after ignoring you for 30 minutes. Timing of correction is critical; keep in mind that a dog’s association period for learning is about 2 seconds long, so consequences (rewards or corrections) need to happen immediately.

What I plan on doing with Allie and her table jumping pie eating tendency is to set her up. She would never jump on the table when we are up and around; she has made that association that such an action is not acceptable. However, she has learned from Sunday’s reward that once we are in bed, such an action is acceptable. I plan on putting her e-collar on (a positive thing for her – it means we are going out to run or train and have fun) and then leaving some tasty treat on the table while we go to bed. Then I will slip outside and watch for a while through the window. The moment she jumps on the table I will hit her with the collar. If I get too cold outside before she commits the offence, I will go in put the food up and wait for another day to set her up.

The principle here is in order to properly train your dog, timing is critical; you must catch the 2 second window after the action (positive or negative). To do so later than that only confuses the dog.

 

We are currently working with a young (6 mo.) German shorthair pup that had essentially no human socialization. Frankly, this dog is a wreck, but there is something about her that is really loveable. She has a sweet disposition in her tail-tucked way. The owner took her on rather than seeing her put down, and we are trying to see what can be done with her. It is a real challenge because the standard things we work on don’t even enter into the equation yet. We have had to step way back and work in small baby steps. Just getting her to come out of the dog house to greet us has been a major victory. We have been using classical operant conditioning and clicker training techniques, along with lots of socialization with us, the kids and the other dogs.

Sam & Travis were great help while training yesterday. We are working a young black lab (rescue dog) getting his first experience on birds. He did a great job and was really keyed up on game and would readily find the downed bird. My concern with the dog was his cooperation and willingness to bring the bird back. He’s pretty focused on looking out for himself. We’ll see if we can work him through this.

                           Photo: Unknown – one of those that circulates around the email universe. This dog is not the one described below, but fit the blog article well.

  

  What should you do when your dog retrieves some nasty dead thing? The answer, praise them. This may sound weird, but here are my thoughts. 

I have a Brittany I am training on a long-term basis (> 1 year). The dog has been the carrion finding-est dog I have ever seen. If there is anything dead in the field when we are out for our runs, she will find it. She likes to parade around with the stinkiest things, then go sit under a bush and work on them. Over the last year, I have resisted the urge to scold her for it and take them away. Rather, I would praise her for retrieving and call her to me. Based on a solid foundation for the come command, she would come, but would hold her head away from me and get ready to resist. I praise her for coming, give her a pat and send her on her way with her treasure (usually a dead jackrabbit part, or deer leg). Then I would resume our run at a fast pace and she would usually drop the item after she realizes it is slowing her down and she is falling behind.

Over time, I started to gently take things out of her mouth then give them immediately back and let her have them to run off with. Now, this dog does two things I like: First, she retrieves all game she finds in the field, whether or not it is directly shot in front of her. Second, she retrieves directly to hand without balking.

After she is 18 months or so, I will probably still take her through the trained retrieve (force fetch) to solidify her retrieve, but for now, she has developed a wonderful natural retrieve. I am certain that if I would have scolded her for picking up carrion and ripped stuff away from her that she wouldn’t trust me and wouldn’t have the natural retrieve that she now displays so proudly. I also regularly get her parasite medication and don’t let her lick my face. (Eeew)

As you can see Jinx is coming along nicely. He has some reluctance to hold a large rooster pheasant, but he is getting it. This guy is a fast learner. He readily understands what is asked of him and is a pleasure to work with.