Therapy work and training video

Sophie is becoming more and more excited with each therapy visit, and on Friday was whining with excitement, something she’s only done when we went hunting. So Friday morning she got vacuumed and bathed, and Doc got his first vacuuming. All our guys love being vacuumed, and with Doc we introduced him to the experience by first brushing him with the pet attachment, then brushed him with the vacuum turned on, and finally with the brush attached to the vacuum. He liked it so much that he came back for a second vacuuming.

Sophie doing her work at the rehab center 5-17-13

Saturday afternoon I took the guys out for some training. Mia does well enough, aside from honoring, that I can focus on taping her training. Doc now needs to take the next step in his steadiness, and Elvis needs some work on steadiness as well, but both are coming along nicely. Once I clip my Pheasant’s wings and eventually get more birds, I can start using them and give the partridge a break.

Rethinking Prattle and Pace

PDJ Pass Along Email
December 2012

Coming Soon: Rethinking Prattle and Pace
By Tom Huggler, Eastern Encounters

I once asked an experienced trainer of pointing dogs what was the most important tool he could recommend. Expecting “the e-collar” for an answer, imagine my surprise when he said, “Duct tape. Nothing is more important than a roll of duct tape.”

“Huh?” I wondered, “How’s that?”

“Tear off a strip as wide as your mouth,” he continued. “Then use your imagination.”

The trainer, who has since retired, explained that most bird dog owners talk too much to their dogs: “Here!,” “Come around!,” and “Hunt ‘em up!” are good examples, repeated far too often, and you may well have your own running commentary of stock phrases.

Why do some of us constantly jabber away or blow on the whistle until our neck veins swell like a soaked clothesline? Is it because we are trying to manage a dog that ranges too far or is otherwise out of control? If so, consider the checkcord or e-collar. They are far more effective than hollering or whistling all the time. If we want the dog to turn left or turn right, we can simply walk that way. A four-footed partner that truly is a “partner” (one that wants to please and hunt with us), will get the idea and fall in. Some of the best ones I’ve owned, mostly setters, learned to take hand signals; one dog that grew deaf relied on hand gestures almost exclusively the last few years of his life. I shot a lot of birds over that faithful pal and sorely miss him today.

Or do we yell and whistle to let the dog know where we are at all times? With few exceptions, our partner always knows where we are, or at least where we last were. To my mind, the well-trained dog wants to hunt with you and for you, and it’s his responsibility to check in, to keep tabs on your whereabouts. A steady stream of noise from us is a reminder that he can freelance anywhere and we will follow him.

I know some hunters, including a couple of highly successful ones, who turn their dogs loose and never expect the animal to check in. Their logic is simple: The dog knows how to find birds, and the more ground he covers, the better the chance he will make contact, so why hold him back? Let him go and then find him—hopefully still on point—with the aid of a beeper or GPS tracker. Although I don’t subscribe to that thinking, I admit that it works for some. It depends mostly on the dog and whether he is mature and experienced.

The rest of this article will appear in the January/February 2013 issue. If you’re a subscriber, stay tuned! This issue will soon mail! The full table of contents is available on our website on our Coming Soon page.

In early December, we launched a redesigned website because let’s face it, we needed to catch up with the times. Here’s what you can expect – we made a few changes this time around – when you visit www.pointingdogjournal.com:

- We removed the Subscriber Only section, so feature articles, which will change at least once every month, will be viewable by all. Our annual Traveling Wingshooter outlooks are still on the website but easier to find and share with others!

- An Online Marketplace for time-sensitive material, such as training seminars, litters, etc. Get the word out fast!

- A new participating feature called “My Bird Dog.” Every month we’ll give you a prompt and you send in a photo for our consideration. The winner and honorable mention will be featured on the website. All winners will be posted for public voting. The overall winner will be featured in an issue of The Pointing Dog Journal.

- Overall, a fresh look and easier ways to sign up for a no-obligation issue, pass along email, subscribe, or renew.

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If you are not a subscriber to The Pointing Dog Journal and you have never requested a no-obligation issue before, you can request an issue by filling out the no-obligation form on The Pointing Dog Journal website or by calling 1-800-447-7367.

Doc ventures into the pasture

Doc’s nose is going full speed.

Looking and Listening

It was such as nice day that I decided it was time for Doc to meet the pasture. He was mainly curious and followed me through the grass and weeds, but from time to time ventured out short distances on his own. Doc was a little overwhelmed by all the smells and the strangeness of the ground, weeds and tall grass but I liked what I saw – he’s cautious but not intimidated and seems to have Mia’s tendencies to seek out the thickest grass and weeds. He also seems to prefer keeping his to the wind which is nice to see.

Nose to the wind.

Headfirst into the grass.

Friday morning I took Sophie to visit an assisted living center and after that drove to Boise where we spent the weekend our youngest daughter and her boyfriend. We went to Cabela’s and shopped for non-toxic shells and reversible reflexite bands but came away disappointed. They didn’t have what I was looking for and the clerks couldn’t answer any of my questions. Weren’t inclined to look up the answers either, so I settled for some Rem oil wipes as a consolation purchase.

Observing.

The grass is as tall as he is.

Nose always is to the wind.

A nice sunrise in Boise.

Unforced Errors

The following is a “pass along” article from the Retriever Journal.

RJ PAE
Unforced Errors
by Steve Smith

Anyone who has ever seen my dogs in action will testify that I’m not a dog trainer. Like you, perhaps, I’ve done things a pro would never do and spent a lot of hours undoing them. And a dog’s first season is a great place to start. But that’s all part of the Master Plan. See, working with young dogs is fun; it’s our recreation. If a dog were fully trained with no faults, what would we do in the off-season for relaxation? Golf? Give me a break. No, the challenge is to always have something to work on. A dog should always be a work in progress.

So if you want to make sure the fun lasts all year, I can give you some
important pointers, things that you can do in that first season that will make sure you keep busy and entertained for the next 10 months.

The basics of all training start with obedience, and that’s a good place to start the investment in your and your pup’s off-season activities. You do this right, and you can log some serious hours next summer.

Come/Here: This is the best place to start. A dog that doesn’t know these commands will run all over the boat-launch site in the pre-dawn. He’ll chase a flushed pheasant into the next zip code, a bird you could have shot but the dog was in the way. He’ll refuse to get close enough to you so you can grab him and load him either into the boat in the morning, or into the truck at the end of the day. You’ll find him paddling just out of reach with a duck he’s fetched or parading back and forth 10 feet away with a pheasant or grouse. You’ve got his e-collar in your hand and he circles the truck so you can’t catch him and put it on him. It’s okay to just chuckle and shake your head – he’s a puppy, right?

Sit-Stay: Think about a dog in a cramped duck boat that doesn’t know either of these commands. Can’t you just see it? The dog’s pacing back and forth; trying to get into your lunch; standing on your lap so he can see over the camo netting; leaping up as you stand to shoot; racing the length of the boat and launching himself into the water at every shot, hit or miss. Or you open the tailgate and his kennel door for a morning pheasant hunt, and he jets out of there almost knocking you over. At his age, no one can expect him to be anything but exuberant, you know.

Heel: You want him to sit next to you to take a line and he’s bouncing all over, looking anywhere and everywhere except where you need him to focus? Oh well, we’ll work on that later. Right now, just get him into the water or out into the field ahead of you and maybe he’ll get the idea that there’s something out there to fetch.

Back/Over: This one, if you handle it right, can give you hours and hours of fun training in the off-season. You don’t want to spoil a young dog’s enthusiasm and zest for life, so just let him run or swim around and eventually maybe he’ll catch a scent of a downed bird. You don’t want an automaton, do you? You might consider carrying a pocketful of rocks with you so you can toss them in the direction of the bird and maybe get his attention focused there (works better on water, by the way).

There you go. Your favorite pastime – dog training – is locked in. Just remember, you’ll never be able the spread the fun out if you teach the pup all these things before the first season. This is better; everyone knows it takes a lot more time to unteach and then teach than if we taught it right in the first place. Ender

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Ever since its inception nearly a decade ago, no magazine has reached into the hearts of the hunting retriever people like The Retriever Journal. That’s because we — editors, authors, and photographers — are real retriever people ourselves. We produce this great magazine from the bluebill and ruffed grouse country of northern Michigan, not the concrete canyons of Los Angeles or New York.

This isn’t just what we do for a living, it’s our life; it’s who we are, and it shows in every issue. We hunt with, hunt-test, field trial, live with, and delight in our Labs, goldens, Chesapeakes, water spaniels, and all the rest of the great breeds that are such a part of our North American sporting tradition. In fact, you can say that The Retriever Journal is an “expert’s magazine” because it’s written by experts for experts and those who want to be!!