Posts from — March 2009

Everytime I turn around there’s something on the TV or radio that is worded in such a way that some ‘poor’ minority or person with a warped brain isn’t offended.  It makes me sick.

It has spilled over into dog training too.  Now days we have to find a ‘nice’ way to train a dog.  Well I’m for nice and I’m for working smarter not harder but come on folks, nice for pack animals?  Don’tcha watch the wild animal shows on TV?  Haven’tcha seen a show on wolves, coyotes, or even the little ole meer cat?

Animals have packs or societies that function in very basic ways.  Number one rule, if it hurts or kills you, that’s a lesson of what NOT to do.  If the senior animal in the pack bites the other, that’s a strong signal of what not to do!  Ever seen a wolf pull out his ‘licker’ and give a lick to the subordinate coyote in the back for doing something wrong?  Uh, no.  Why?  Because pack animals learn the hard way, that’s the way the good Lord wired their brains.  

Ever watch that animal planet show with meer cats?  Even those cute cuddly things have a pack mentality.  They run off the old boy who can’t dominate or they’ll run off a young sister who is competing for food and status.  The neighboring meer cats attack the poor outcasts ’cause they don’t want ‘em either!  Makes my heart bleed.

“What are you getting at Davey, ole boy?” the Irish in ya might be asking.  (My mother was a McGowan and my blood is green).

When puppies go home they have some fundamental lessons to learn.  First off, no nipping, biting, chewing things you shouldn’t, etc.  How do we teach that?   “Now, now Fido, don’t do that….’click, click’ here’s your treeat!”  Come on!  Are you kiddin’ me?  Thump that bugger on the nose and tell him “NO!!!!”  If he comes back at ya for harder play, THUMP HIM HARDER!!!  DOMINATE HIM!  YOU ARE THE ALPHA!  YOU ARE THE PACK LEADER!  Good grief.

Pups have to learn WHERE they fit in.  What ORDER in the pack!  In other words, what is their RANK?  Are they a buck private in your lil’ army or are they the General?  Establishing pack order at home is paramount very, very early.

Now of course there are times for lovin’ and treats, etc.  But we are talking about life lessons your dog will remember.  Chew a sock?  Wham, punishment!   Come on, I don’t mean for ya to injure anything but his feelings.

Give that dog of yours a treat for me and tell ‘em “Dave says good boy!”

Dave

I am really surprised at the personal e-mail/ phone calls from friends regarding my recent articles on ‘age range expectations’.  I guess I thought it didn’t need to be said out loud.  I was wrong.  My friends tell me that it needs to be said over and over so that folks don’t get disappointed.  In this ‘me too’ and ‘I gotta have it now’ society, many are disappointed in a pup that progresses normally which to them, is slow.

The one common response among friends who talked to me about the 2 articles laughed and said ‘yes, that’s it exactly’ or something along those lines.  Its funny how we start out with our first dog and have an idea of how it will go only to find out later that it was exactly as others would say it would be.  The other thing I heard was that learning realistic age range expectations ™ with their first dog made training and hunting over their subsequent dogs easier and more enjoyable.

Of course there are always special exceptions.  There are dogs out there that are what I refer to as ‘Willie the wonder dog’ and with no training, care or concern, the dog just does it like it has been doing it that way its whole life.   But those dogs are not the average from any line.  Excellent lines will consistently produce good to great dogs but ‘Willie’, well, he’s not the average.  He’s probably an extraordinary expressor of the breed which few folks have the priviledge of owning, ever.

One thing a lot of upland dog purists use to do was keep an upland journal of their exploits afield.  They would add photos to their entries to preserve each hunting memory for life.  I like that idea and recommend it.  Mine are kept on this site.  Perhaps you can keep an online blog / journal or a private handwritten journal like yesteryear… I invite you to just think about it.

Thanks for the visit and give your dog a treat for me.

Dave

As a follow-up, I was asked by several folks just ‘exactly’ what they can expect of a phase I (started dog) etc.  My first article on this subject glossed over the fact that the bulk of your pups learning to hunt properly with you occurs in the first 3 or 4 years.

In this writing, I’ll talk about a few specifics.  Here are some age range expectations, loosely applied to all pointing breeds.  Keep in mind that a year and under is a puppy and 1 to 2 years is a juvenile with juvenile like behavior to be expected!  Any older dog not ever trained falls into the above category the first year and the 2nd year in training it is learning like a new pup / juvenile.

In the first year you can teach fundamental commands such as ‘come’, ‘whoa’, ‘heel’, ‘dead’, etc. through voice / whistle / and hand signals.  Also in that first year, your dog should be able to locate game and point.  Again, not perfectly and with mistakes.

Your puppy will not be perfect and will make many mistakes.  This is NOT necessarily a failure of your training but just the process in which dogs learn.  Compare it to a child who knows not to get in the cookie jar and with each subsequent lesson, the child gets better about not getting into the cookie jar! LOL

In your juvenile’s 2nd year, you will encounter the ‘terrible two’s’.  This again is part of the process.  Though your juvenile dog may have been quite good in year one, he undoubtedly will go through a spell of the terrible two’s in which he thinks he knows it all and doesn’t need your ‘advice’.  He may disregard commands that he was once quite good at and bust birds that he knows he shouldn’t.  Look at this dog as a rebellious teen.  Deal with it accordingly.  Lay down the law so to speak and let him know that this behavior is unacceptable.  You are teaching him that he must be a team player and only as a team player will you both enjoy bird hunting.

As we head into year 3, now a young adult, he begins to understand he is part of a team and that together you will find lots of birds.  This is when he begins to get good.  He is still not as good as he will be because now that he is a team player, he has to figure out his quarry, their tricks, scents, etc.  This is a lengthy process only hastened by frequent trips afield on wild birds.

Year 4 he is a mature adult.  He hunts as a team player and he has wisdom acquired from many days afield since a puppy.  It all comes together.  He will amaze you each and every year hereafter with how smart he is and how he can figure out hunting techniques on his on in order to better pin down birds for you to flush / shoot.

Gus on point in Montana

Hope that helps everyone!

Give your dog a treat for me and tell ‘em Dave says “Good dog!”

Dave