Training young dogs in Montana, part II

As I mentioned yesterday there are a lot of factors that influence training dogs in Montana, not to mention the most obvious, genetics.

Today was a classic day afield.  Dogs of good breeding are doing well.  Those dogs that come from unknown genetic gene pools … and seem to be average to below average are still a bit behind the learning curve even though they have the same amount of time on the ground as all the other dogs.  In fact, I find that the dogs that aren’t ‘getting it’ end up with more time on the ground than dogs that do, which is a bit unfair so I do my best to balance it all out in the end.

 I guess what is frustrating to me is that I see situations where a dog doesn’t ‘get it’ all the time and the owner doesn’t understand why their dog is different.  The first thought that comes to the average owners mind is “my dog isn’t getting training time” etc.  In reality the first thought should be ‘what makes my dog different than your dogs’…genetics.

Just because it looks, smells, walks, and talks like a Brittany doesn’t mean it is a Brittany bred for hunting companionship.  Many Brittanys (and other breeds of course) are the product of  ‘hey, I have male that hunts and you have a female that hunts so lets breed them’.  That’s a mistake.  Professional breeders consider known proven producers and what they have a history of producing when putting together a litter.  Two ‘unknowns’ from a back yard breeding will produce an unknown which is usually less than satisfactory.

I digress.  We had a terrific day afield today.  We flushed 5 coveys of Huns and well over 100 sharptails.  Each brace had a lot of bird contact and thus we had quality dog training today for all dogs.

Take care and give your dog a treat for me! 

Dave.