gwp pup
- Thread starter jtl
- Start date
Everything else is as you want them to be.
jimmy milnes
Well-Known Member
At 11 weeks old its just be bonding an recall matey not much more, make the dog think your the best thing since sliced bread an that making you happy is the best thing in the world.
Enjoy the ride.
Jimmy
Enjoy the ride.
Jimmy
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
As above, and avoid letting it experience the things that may undermine the final product. Eg, avoid situations where it may get a chase etc. It should be fun, fun and more fun with it at this stage.
Thanks guys. Shes lots of fun , already pushing her way up the pecking order. Ill be sure Im above her, even if the wife dont think so
. Proving an amazing nose already- Ham cob from 50yd no problem! Six yr old spaniel thinks hes a pup again so thats handy.Hold on for the ride
. Proving an amazing nose already- Ham cob from 50yd no problem! Six yr old spaniel thinks hes a pup again so thats handy.Hold on for the ride
jimmy milnes
Well-Known Member
Oh an once its cleared its needles, get it out an about to socialise it, take it up town on market day, along to the car boot sales local parks walk it along the busy roads. Let people make a fuss of it but tell them if it jumps up to stop till it sits again.
Its all pretty basic dog training at this stage but as said above, think about stuff before letting the situation arise, too many folk will let a pup get away with stuff they dont want it doing as an adult, then have to get the dog tto stop doing it once the habit has been created.
Jimmy
Its all pretty basic dog training at this stage but as said above, think about stuff before letting the situation arise, too many folk will let a pup get away with stuff they dont want it doing as an adult, then have to get the dog tto stop doing it once the habit has been created.
Jimmy
Hayduke
Well-Known Member
Plenty of time with hound. Deer blood trails in the garden are fun, with a wee bit of meat or praise at the end. "Sit" (wouldn't bother with "stay" they mean the same and extra words confuse). Check out Paul Michaels Deer Dog Blue Print - an excellent Kiwi deer dog trainer, cant go wrong. Also you and dog hang out around sheep and lambs asap to familiarise and not take undue interest, easy if you have farmer friends, if not frequent walks nearby.
The three things that I would concentrate on would be recall, recall and finally recall.
I have a year old pup and decided early on that I wasn’t going to do any ‘work’ training until she is a well trained dog. She sits, stays and comes back to me now. That’s about it.
I’ve had her stalking and night shooting and slowly introduced her to shot deer over the last couple of months and she’s coming on well. She sits quietly in the truck and generally is a pleasure to work with. She’s found about 15-20 shot deer so far and should get another hundred or so before the buck season this year.
She’s still stalking on a lead so next thing to train will be more reliably walking to heel when stalking and sit/stay for extended periods and stay while I’m out of sight.
I think concentrating on her being an obedient dog for the first 10/11 months will pay dividends. If you buy a working GWP from decent parentage then you’ll never need to worry about it’s appetite for work. Mine certainly hasn’t had or needed any encouragement at all. My last dog was trained to the shotgun as I would a Labrador and then for deer stalking at a later date (I actually only took up stalking so I could do more with the dog) and I think I made it hard work for myself by introducing her to too much too early.
I have a year old pup and decided early on that I wasn’t going to do any ‘work’ training until she is a well trained dog. She sits, stays and comes back to me now. That’s about it.
I’ve had her stalking and night shooting and slowly introduced her to shot deer over the last couple of months and she’s coming on well. She sits quietly in the truck and generally is a pleasure to work with. She’s found about 15-20 shot deer so far and should get another hundred or so before the buck season this year.
She’s still stalking on a lead so next thing to train will be more reliably walking to heel when stalking and sit/stay for extended periods and stay while I’m out of sight.
I think concentrating on her being an obedient dog for the first 10/11 months will pay dividends. If you buy a working GWP from decent parentage then you’ll never need to worry about it’s appetite for work. Mine certainly hasn’t had or needed any encouragement at all. My last dog was trained to the shotgun as I would a Labrador and then for deer stalking at a later date (I actually only took up stalking so I could do more with the dog) and I think I made it hard work for myself by introducing her to too much too early.
Jon P
Well-Known Member
I would agree, don’t start them to early, I started my latest one to early as my older one had a leg injury, prey drive / excitement level on the younger one is through the roof, trying to keep her calm is the issue, if she had started later she may be more settled now.
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
When you've got the basics in place, and turned out a dog you can live with, remember that 'the more they see the more they do' you cant beat plenty of work.
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
If you’re going to work the pup on birds concentrate on steadiness, it’s where most of us go wrong, especially me.
The pup will hunt and point from instinct but will try to chase from the flush, that’s easily fixed. What’s not easy to fix is a dog that runs in to shot or fall of game, so don’t let it happen. Dont let it retrieve game shot over it, once the dog establishes that link between flush shot and fetch it’ll be off like a rocket, that can be impossible to cure. Let her pick up game she hasn’t pointed. Same thing with deer dont let her establish the connection between you firing a shot and her getting sent off on a track with the opportunity for a good ragging at the end of it.
Incidentally she should quickly work out whether you’re stalking or bird shooting and act accordingly.
Send her out on your terms every time and best of luck with your pup.
The pup will hunt and point from instinct but will try to chase from the flush, that’s easily fixed. What’s not easy to fix is a dog that runs in to shot or fall of game, so don’t let it happen. Dont let it retrieve game shot over it, once the dog establishes that link between flush shot and fetch it’ll be off like a rocket, that can be impossible to cure. Let her pick up game she hasn’t pointed. Same thing with deer dont let her establish the connection between you firing a shot and her getting sent off on a track with the opportunity for a good ragging at the end of it.
Incidentally she should quickly work out whether you’re stalking or bird shooting and act accordingly.
Send her out on your terms every time and best of luck with your pup.
Socialisation / where to poop n pee !
Any tips on how to stop chasing from the flush?
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
With persistence and patience, its not too difficult to stop the dog chasing the bird from the flush, but its an absolute bugger to stop them running in to the shot or fall.
When she points I pip the whistle to hold it until I get on in top of her, send her in and hit the whistle again, hard , loud and in her face as soon as the bird moves until she drops, you can reinforce the lesson by randomly pipping the stop whistle when the dog is hunting off the lead until the dog gives you an instantaneous response, don’t let it just stand and look back either, make it sit or lie down and leave it down for varying lengths of time. Keep at it until you get a 110 percent reliable response.
They really love the retrieve so they focus on it and ignore everything else. Try to break the link between flush and retrieve in the dogs mind and yours too. Only send it for the occasional bird, if the bird is dead and lying in the open its of no value to your training regime as a retrieve, leaving the dog where it is and going and picking it yourself Is a better exercise.
Now for the confession, I have 2 dogs and neither of them are reliably steady. They’ll both drop to flush, but shot or fall can be too much temptation despite spending the last 2 months working hard on the problem. Its my own fault, I allowed the association between shot and retrieve to develop, now I’m paying the price, I’ll stick at it for this season at least but one dog is 6, very smart and a hardened sinner, I dont think I can fix her so I’ll use her for rough shooting and deer work, the younger dog is 3 and coming along nicely.
Steadiness, or lack of it is the number 1 reason dogs are eliminated from Field trials, so please give what I’m saying a shot, don’t do what I’ve done.
Thanks, at a very early stage in training ours so just trying to head off any bad behaviour before it gets to be habit.
jimmy milnes
Well-Known Member
In addition to the good advice above, if your dogs not anticipating the flush with your approach "if itbis you may struggle to get near enough to take up the line" to it you could use a line as an insurance policy, this all depends onbthe ground being used to set the scenario as obviously a line will get snagged easily.
Jimmy
Exactly why true pointers where not asked to retrieve here in the uk I suppose ?
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