An enjoyable private lesson

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Steve and Austin Harman from Oklahoma.  They brought their two one year old Brittanys Gen and Rafe with them to the lesson.

I always start every lesson by … obtaining background information on the dogs and what training has been done thus far.  I was pleased to hear that both Steve and Austin had been training their dogs according to my plan.  Furthermore, I was impressed at how much they had accomplished. 

Both dogs couldn’t be more different in personality, Gen being much softer than Rafe.  So for them to make such progress with both dogs was an awesome accomplishment.  They were whoaing well and performing basic commands as instructed by their owners.

Often a ‘how to’ book appears to give you all that you need but when you get into the thick of it, questions arise.  This is what I call ‘minutia’ that may not be of much signifcance to put into a book but over several lessons with your dog (as taken from the book) simply add up to mutlple nagging questions.  This is why I tell folks who are using any method from a book or video to first make sure there is a pro that uses those techniques that can help you out if need be.

The lessons yesterday offered more guidance & more detail to tighten performance than anything else.  Some explanations were made of how we blend one lesson with another and practice so that I could tweak their technique.  That was about it.  I feel confident that Steve and Austin’s dogs will continue to do well. 

As with anyone I remind folks to return to the last level the dog performed well should there be an issue at the current level.  This is to remind the dog of the last level and to help reblend the next level.

In the field, bird dogs are either standing point, running to find birds, or coming to you.  All of those activities require that the handler have some degree of control.  So when you think about it, you are simply ‘putting a handle on your dog’ which is my talk for being able to have some control.  Keep in mind we don’t want to over control and have some sort of no brain robot for a dog instead, we want enough control to keep your dog out of trouble and help you communicate with your dog in just about every situation.

To get to the field, you must do it one step at a time with each lesson building on the other.  There is NO shortcut.

The whole purpose of ‘yard work’ (teaching commands in the yard) is to eventually move to the field and have ‘field work’ (reinforcing those commands on a bigger scale). 

Since dogs learn incrementally with each lesson building upon the last lesson, we start ‘small’ (in the yard) before we go ‘big’ (out in wide open field)…blending steps, small to big but in ever increasing increments.  It’s just that simple.

An example of how a dog can be confused.  Let’s say your dog is whoaing beautifully for you in your back yard off of his check cord with no e-collar.  Now lets say that your back yard is only 30 yards wide/deep.  Now you figure your dog is ready for ‘big’ so you take him into the field release him and can’t get him to whoa at any distance.  Why??????

I’ll tell you why, because two factors come in to play.  First, small to big INCREMENTALLY and the fact that dogs are location oriented which means that the dog thinks that what they learned in your yard doesn’t apply to them elsewhere.

Let’s readdress the incrementally issue.  When you first go to the field you must start small as you did in the yard.  That means using a leash.  If he does well, go to the check cord.  If he does well, let him drag the check cord.  If he does well then take the check cord off.  This is assuming he is following commands as instructed at each level.  Always, and I mean always, start small at EACH and every new location you are going to train or hunt at.  This is just until you can trust him to obey no matter where you go.  The old saying is “if they have it in 3 strange locations, they’ll have it everywhere”.  A lot of validity in that old saying.

We simulataneously address the location problem by doing as instructed above.

Steve and Austin learned the difference between ‘whoa’ and “ABSOLUTE whoa” ™.  That’s another discussion for another day.

Y’all have a happy huntin’ season and give that Brittany a treat for me!

Dave

P.S. Take a neighbor kid hunting and preserve our heritage.