| RE:0
Rich, because the dog is of a hunting breed and has lots of
energy, does not mean it will make a good hunting dog.
This dog is a year old and has many bad habits that need to be stamped
out and this isn't easy, but it can be done. My brother got a English
Springer Spaniel that was a year old and had come from a negligent
home. To this day, Spunky was the best hunting dog and family dog
he ever had.
The first thing you need to do is to get this dog under control,
so this dog will not run off and will obey your commands. If you
think its tough now, its tougher out in the field when other hunters
and their dogs are out there with you. The first step I would take, is
that you keep this dog on a leash with you whenever you can. Take it
everywhere you go and teach it general obedience commands. You must feed
it and care for it yourself, so that it bonds itself to you and sees you
as its master. Start teaching it to retrieve. Start with short retrieves
and increase the amount. Also, you'll need to get the dog use to gun fire
and there is a right way and a wrong way. Don't fire a gun over the
dog's head to see if it is gun shy. This can cause a dog to become gun
shy, whereas, if it had been done right, the dog would have been OK.
I use to use two 2x4's that I would slap together as the dog picked up its
retrieve and increase the degree of loudness until it was use to a shotgun
going off. Take your time ! I would bring the dog to the gun club on trap
shooting nights. At all times, make the experience a fun experience for
the dog. Give the dog lots of attention and he'll see the experience as
one of pleasure. Its best if you can find someone with gun dog training
experience to help you.
As far as your kids helping, only allow them to give the dog the same
commands as you use, like "hup" for sitting, or "here" for come. Only
allow them to walk the dog on a leash until you've gotten the dog under
control. Don't allow them to take the dog into the woods. The dog will
rather be allowed to run freely with them than to be with you yelling
at it.
The library has many good books on training gun dogs, but
nothing can replace the knowledge of an experienced trainer.
There are some gun dog training schools around and this would
be a good thing.
Good luck !
Jim
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| Ditto: 1
Work on the basic commands first like sit, come, stay, heel, and no.
Progress to fetch, drop it (not all people use this command), whoa, up,
kennel, scent recognition, pointing, ...
Since Brittany's are pointers they tend to range a little further than
flushers - this is fine as long as they hold when pointing.
Personally, 200 yds. is the max. I'll let my Vizsla range out.
Normally she works betweek 20 to 70 yards in front of me. Also, when
you have confidence in yor dog, let him do the hunting.
Just remember, it is going to take a lot of time.
Good luck,
Mark
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| Rich,
Richard Wolters wrote a series of books about dog training. One of
his earliest, 'Gun Dog' relates to pointing dogs. I used that as
my primary text when I trained my Brittany. His book is geared to
starting dogs when they are very young (3 months or even younger), so
you are a bit behind the curve here. The earlier replies are correct
that you will have to modify some already learned behavior.
The only change that I would make to earlier recommendations is that
I would NOT work on retrieving yet. With a pointing dog, the thing
that you want most if pointing. If the dog will point then it can also
point dead. Early retrieve training can interfere with pointing. So, I
would do this (all with a long check cord on the dog):
Lot's of praise when he does things right, start over when he
doesn't. Always try to set him up to succeed -- at least in
the beginning.
Work on the basic commands -- come, sit, stay, heel, and no.
As part of the stay command, use the traffic cop hand signal for
stop. When the dog will obey stay using the voice and hand together,
work up to just using the hand signal.
Once you have the dog understanding and obeying come, and also the
stay hand signal, teach WHOA. Put the dog in a stay, back off a
way, give the come command and then use the command WHOA along with
the hand signal for stay. You want the dog to stop in his tracks
on the WHOA command.
With the WHOA command in place, you can move on to scent training.
I used a small canvas dummy and grouse scent that I ordered from
Cabelas. Put the scent liquid on the dummy, and tied it to the
end of a spinning rod. Get the dog excited about the dummy, drag
it around using the rod, get him to chase it -- but don't let him
catch it. After a while, he will try to sneak up on it instead
of chase. When he does, use the WHOA command -- voila, he is
pointing. Arm yourself with a cap gun, and have your kid hold
the dog's check cord while you walk to the dummy, kick at it,
flip it up in the air with the rod, and pop the cap gun. After
it lands, tell the dog to get it. Keep him under control on the
cord so that you can get to him, praise him and get the dummy.
What you want to really build in is the sense that he needs you
to help him get the birds. He uses his nose to find them, You
make them fly and then fall where he can get them for you.
Once he has the idea of pointing, you can then move on to having
him try to locate the dummy. I used to have my son take the dog
around the house while I cast the dummy into tall grass. I would
then call the dog over and send him to search it out by scent.
- Dave
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