Isn’t the ‘come’ command the most important for my Brittany bird dog?
It does rank in the top 3 on my list of important commands but the question is tricky.
“When” and “how” is most important in the way ‘come’ is taught.
I suppose the most important thing we should all remember is that the Brittany, though lovable and cuddly, is put on earth to hunt. Unlike flushing and retrieving breeds, they are not bred to stay around your feet within shotgun range because their job is different.
A flushing / retrieving breed should … …be close at hand because when they ‘make game’ you can identify the change in behavior so that you can be ready for the shot and so that they are flushing game within the relatively short killing distance of a shotgun.
On the other hand, a Brittany must possess independent drive to seek out game away from his handler and once game is found, hold tightly on point and wait for his master to catch up and walk forward thus producing the located game. A Brittany, or any pointing dog for that matter, that stays within shotgun range all of the time is of little use. Of course there are upland game birds that are best hunted with a close working dog but in a general rule of pursuing upland game, this is true.
So back to the “come” command. Before I move on though, I will discuss a very much discussed question, “do I use ‘come’ or ‘here’?” Here’s my humble opinion based on years of hunting in windy west Texas and other plains states.
I use ‘come’ because it is has a hard, low sounding consonant and comes from deep in the diaphragm when yelled as opposed to ‘here’ which is produced from positioning the mouth / tongue. Test it yourself. ’Come’ is an explosion of sound released when you allow the air to blow the rear of your tongue away from the windpipe. ‘Come’ can be down right gutteral. Also lower tones carry better outdoors. You can choose to believe it or not as it is JMHO.
I got a little off center for a second, lets get back on track.
Ok, if your Brittany is a bit soft and wants to hang out with you the last thing you want to do is put pressure on him in the field to come and / or stay with you. Your first jaunts afield should be about your dog exploring his world and gaining self condfidence to independently explore his world without your direction. Yelling ‘come’ all the time in his early days afield will most certainly shorten his range, especially if a soft personality.
Using treats around the house is a good way to introduce the command. It is away from the field and done in a passive way to familiarize him with the command. There will be a day when it must be enforced in the field, just not right now if still gaining self confidence. You will know when the time is right to put a handle on your dog afield. Usually it is after he is seeking and producing game well away from you, correctly or not. If you are worried, tie a stiff check cord to his collar for him to drag about (supervised!). Keep in mind I am generally speaking of young pup.
I have an article titled 8 weeks to 8 months on my free training tips web page located at brittanys.com Give it a gander if you are interested in puppy introduction and haven’t seen it already.
2 comments
Dave,
This is great advice on this commentary. When I was young, I wanted to be able to see my dog all the time when hunting. They don’t cover much ground with that thought process.If a person wants their dog to hunt like God made em to, they have to quit calling them in every time they are out of sight. I use a beeper collar with a page function if I am worried about where my dog is. I recommend that to everybody. My Dad always told me to stay out the dog’s way and let them hunt, that they knew more about hunting than I ever could. I now know he is right. Your bird finds will go way up, if you let your dog “really hunt”.
I use the word come also. I always use the dog’s name as a preface. I say for instance, “Abby come”.
Bob
Being retired from the Navy, one of the first things taught to us in drill practice was that there is a preparatory command followed by the command of execution.
I decided shortly after I entered into the Navy that a ‘preparatory command’ might just work with dogs and to my delight, it did.
Like you, I too issue the name first to get his attention followed by the command of choice.
Folks spend a lot of time talking about their dogs mentioning the dogs name in front of it but not actually talking to the dog. If one calls that dog to come by speaking its name only, it may later be a bit ‘tone deaf’ to the request.
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