I’ve probably bragged about it enough, but if you don’t already know, Dakota got her first retrieve this year as she is going on 4 years old. I stated in one of my posts that I didn’t care whether Sophie and Dakota honored each other’s retrieves because I saw this “dishonor” as being productive for Dakota’s training and experience.
Which brings me to the question – what order of training do you use and how do you decide it? Does your training plan lead to a progression of skills or is it just whatever sounds good at the time (sometimes mine is a mix of both). Does your dog have natural born skills that you can take advantage of? And do you as the trainer, bring out the best in your dog or do you inhibit tendancies that you could otherwise take advantage of?
In Dakota’s case, it was using bad behavior to reinforce good behavior. Example 1 – the obsessive traits that make her a pain in the butt when it comes to obedience, also makes her a more dedicated hunter than Sophie so I use her obsessiveness to my advantage while hunting and training.
Example 2 – allowing Sophie and Dakota to dishonor each other’s retrieves reinforced the concept of retrieving for Dakota, until she finally retrieved on her own. Now that Dakota has successfully become a retriever, I can train them to honor each other’s retrieves during the off-season.
As for Sophie, she mouthed the birds she retrieved for the first 4 years, which I worked to eliminate since I could see nothing good coming from it. But at the age of 5, she suddenly stopped mouthing birds on her own and other than one panic attack while retrieving, hasn’t damaged a bird since.
So as you train your dog, look closely at their personalities and behaviors. Eliminate counter-productive behaviors, and see if there are any bad behaviors that you can take advantage of.
Tags: bad behavior, dog training, retriever training, train hunting dogs
