Whining, advice needed.

kingstonandy

Well-Known Member
I've got a 1 year old chesapeake bay retriever intended to be my stalking companion.
I started simple training on heelwork and blood tracking whilst he was still very young and he's progressed very well. For the last couple of months he's come with me on most outings and been perfectly behaved at the bottom of a high seat for a couple of hours.
I have shot deer, fox and rabbits with him, but I don't think on any occasion he's seen the quarry prior to the shot.

He has on occasion been distracted by low flying birds when we're stalking a hedgerow, but I thought we were overcoming that.
Yesterday evening I'd been in a seat for an hour when I heard him start to whine below, it was dusk and the pheasants were crossing the field en-masse headed for the treeline in front of me. The dog had seen them and was really struggling to control himself, sitting up quivering with excitement and making an intermittent whine/whimper.
I let him know that I wasn't happy, but it didn't stop so I slipped down from the seat and quietly chastised him and turned him round to face the other way. By this time the pheasants had gone, and I hadn't completely given up on the evening so I got back into the seat.
15 minutes later a rabbit approached to within 20 feet of the dog and again he made no attempt to chase it, but made far too much noise.

This time I wasted no time getting down to deal with the dog, but again the source of temptation was gone so I had no way to test or further train him.

I'm now very concerned, a noisy dog is of no use to me at all so I need to nip this in the bud but don't know how to. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Andy
 
Hi Andy
You might get a bit of stick of your mates ;) but try taking a water pistol(or an washing up liquid squeezy bottle) with you saves you getting down the seat and its more effective because your not showing the dog any attention and its more of a shock to him.

Wayne
 
Andy

Wayne's idea is a good one and I've used it myself on my dogs when they have whined on the peg on shoot days. You need to be consistent with it - sadly I wasn't and the dogs still whine on occasions.

I was sitting in a high seat on Sunday morning and my older labrador (Fallow) was sitting below. She whines very quietly and whilst it's annoying to me, it doesn't seem to have any impact on the deer - two muntjac came within 20 yards of the seat.

One other thing you might try is an idea that's in Guy Wallace's book. He has one of those corkscrew type dog tethers that he screws in below the high seat. The tether has a metal loop on it (mine do as well) through which he runs a long rope, clipped on at one end to the dog's collar. He holds the other end of the rope when he's sitting in the high seat. He uses this to keep dog's steady and to make them lie down when he's up the high seat. I haven't tried it but it seems a good idea - you could use it to "check" the dog if it starts whining.

Of course if you have one of those Wirehaired Pointer type dogs you could find that it bolts off after a deer/rabbit/pheasant pulling you down from the top of the high-seat, squeezing you through the metal loop and off through the undergrowth, not unlike Wile E Coyote!! :lol:

willie_gunn
 
A whimpering dog is a fecking night mare to every one round it .Not for the deer but they take the attention off the job in hand. I would certainly not sit for hours up a high seat with a young dog who is bored out of his tits. Small sits at first long stalks and plenty of fun .
When the whine some times they don't know they are doing it i had a terrier that did it you could give it a real hard time and to minutes later he would be at it again.

try the squeezy bottle it will work if only temporary .

Best of luck Andy ;)
 
willie_gunn said:
Of course if you have one of those Wirehaired Pointer type dogs you could find that it bolts off after a deer/rabbit/pheasant pulling you down from the top of the high-seat, squeezing you through the metal loop and off through the undergrowth, not unlike Wile E Coyote!! :lol:

willie_gunn


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
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