By
Ken Devonald
To successfully train any dog, let alone one subjected to the challenges and temptations that face a gun dog, you have to be the focus of his world, at least whilst he is working or training. To get the best out of your relationship, it is important to reward the dog with whatever motivates it most. Here are some suggestions.
Food is often thought of as an effective training reward, and true enough, it will catch a dogs attention. But in economics there is a concept of the law of diminishing returns. Put simply this means that if you have stuffed your face with biscuits and someone asks you to give up something you wanted to do in return for another biscuit, you aren't going to want to give up what you wanted to do.
So if you have a dog stumble across a hare (or jackrabbit if you are reading in the States) then try rattling the biscuit bag - I can almost guarantee he will already be out of control and will not have any intention of returning for a biscuit - after all he can get those for just sitting when he hasn't got the chance of catching a giant rabbit! So give treats little and not very often - then it is like having a chocolate cake with cream when you have been dieting!
What about praise, will this stop him in his tracks when old longears gets up out of his form and runs so slowly just out of reach? You can shout 'Good Boy' after him, but he will still be trying to work out how that hare can run so slowly but why he still can't catch him. And whilst he is thinking that, he isn't going to stop to have his ears scratched. So praising him at this point is, well, pointless.
Punishment? Will it work if you kick his backside or tell him off when he comes back, tired and exhausted after chasing that hare for ten miles just to try to catch it for you? No, he is going to think that is the last time I am going to run up to him when he calls me back.
Threats? I have tried these, including 'If you don't come back now I shall NOT get your dinner tonight!' and he has shouted back that hare was on his menu tonight, thank you very much!
The only thing that motivates a dog to do as he should is embedded repetition of basic training. Basic training for the sit, enforced by the occasional treat, and gradually diminishing praise will make it automatic for a dog to sit.
Then start challenging him. Take him where you know a hare (or a rabbit, or bird) is hiding, but keep him on a length of rope. As soon as the hare gets up, give him the sit! command (not too loudly - you have him on a rope, so he isn't going far enough to get out of earshot, and you want to be able to do this quietly when you do it for real!) Since he is on a lead, he can't run and you can hold his attention. Repeat until the dog sits as soon as the hare moves. Vary it with rabbits, deer, pheasant, partridge, or whatever game you have in your hunting ground, and before you know it your dog will be sitting as soon as game moves, giving you a clear shot (or clear view, if you are just working the dog for pleasure).
A word or two of warning - don't leave the lead too slack, or you may find your arms yanked from their sockets, or the skin of your hands leaving on the lead - stopping thirty kilos of GSP or labrador can be a bruising experience if they have too much momentum!
To successfully train any dog, let alone one subjected to the challenges and temptations that face a gun dog, you have to be the focus of his world, at least whilst he is working or training. To get the best out of your relationship, it is important to reward the dog with whatever motivates it most. Here are some suggestions.
Food is often thought of as an effective training reward, and true enough, it will catch a dogs attention. But in economics there is a concept of the law of diminishing returns. Put simply this means that if you have stuffed your face with biscuits and someone asks you to give up something you wanted to do in return for another biscuit, you aren't going to want to give up what you wanted to do.
So if you have a dog stumble across a hare (or jackrabbit if you are reading in the States) then try rattling the biscuit bag - I can almost guarantee he will already be out of control and will not have any intention of returning for a biscuit - after all he can get those for just sitting when he hasn't got the chance of catching a giant rabbit! So give treats little and not very often - then it is like having a chocolate cake with cream when you have been dieting!
What about praise, will this stop him in his tracks when old longears gets up out of his form and runs so slowly just out of reach? You can shout 'Good Boy' after him, but he will still be trying to work out how that hare can run so slowly but why he still can't catch him. And whilst he is thinking that, he isn't going to stop to have his ears scratched. So praising him at this point is, well, pointless.
Punishment? Will it work if you kick his backside or tell him off when he comes back, tired and exhausted after chasing that hare for ten miles just to try to catch it for you? No, he is going to think that is the last time I am going to run up to him when he calls me back.
Threats? I have tried these, including 'If you don't come back now I shall NOT get your dinner tonight!' and he has shouted back that hare was on his menu tonight, thank you very much!
The only thing that motivates a dog to do as he should is embedded repetition of basic training. Basic training for the sit, enforced by the occasional treat, and gradually diminishing praise will make it automatic for a dog to sit.
Then start challenging him. Take him where you know a hare (or a rabbit, or bird) is hiding, but keep him on a length of rope. As soon as the hare gets up, give him the sit! command (not too loudly - you have him on a rope, so he isn't going far enough to get out of earshot, and you want to be able to do this quietly when you do it for real!) Since he is on a lead, he can't run and you can hold his attention. Repeat until the dog sits as soon as the hare moves. Vary it with rabbits, deer, pheasant, partridge, or whatever game you have in your hunting ground, and before you know it your dog will be sitting as soon as game moves, giving you a clear shot (or clear view, if you are just working the dog for pleasure).
A word or two of warning - don't leave the lead too slack, or you may find your arms yanked from their sockets, or the skin of your hands leaving on the lead - stopping thirty kilos of GSP or labrador can be a bruising experience if they have too much momentum!
Ken Devonald has two German Shorthaired Pointers and has
previously trained spaniels. He lives and works in the Scottish Borders,
where he has plenty of opportunities to train his dogs to point and
flush rabbits.
He is webmaster of a Gundog Training Site and is always keen to receive quality articles for publication or inclusion in his monthly (or thereabouts) newsletter on all matters canine. He is a keen (but lapsed) shooter and fisherman. As he has just moved to the East Lothian coast he is hoping to pick up fishing where he left off.
He is a professional programmer by training and is busy automating his newsletter production to save time and effort since he is naturally lazy. Other sites he is involved with include a fishing-and-shooting site, a roedeer-stalking site, and a chicken-keeping site.
You can visit the gundog training site at gundog-training.com.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_Devonald
He is webmaster of a Gundog Training Site and is always keen to receive quality articles for publication or inclusion in his monthly (or thereabouts) newsletter on all matters canine. He is a keen (but lapsed) shooter and fisherman. As he has just moved to the East Lothian coast he is hoping to pick up fishing where he left off.
He is a professional programmer by training and is busy automating his newsletter production to save time and effort since he is naturally lazy. Other sites he is involved with include a fishing-and-shooting site, a roedeer-stalking site, and a chicken-keeping site.
You can visit the gundog training site at gundog-training.com.
