Brit won't use her nose
 

I got a brittney that refuses to use her nose when hunting anyone have any suggestions on what I can do about this?

RE: Brit won't use her nose
 

Refuses to use her nose???
Can you tell us how she is refusing? She has to breath through her nose, so she is taking in air, unless she doesnt want to hunt...I dont really understand "how" she can refuseto use her nose. What are you doing, when she "refuses"?

Is it a stubborn dog? A pup? An older dog? What training stage is she in?(intro, Started, Finished) I need some more details, thats a pretty vague statement, my dog wont use her nose...

RE: Brit won't use her nose
 

she won't scent anything birds, food, treats doesn't matter she won't use her nose to find any of them. She uses only her sight. She's 1 1/2 years old. She has most of her yard work done we are still trying to get a few things a little better with that. Have not gotten to shoot anything over her. She will point birds and just about anything else that flys but only when she sees it. She doesn't even act like she can smell the birds when I've lead her up to quail I've placed out for her.

RE: Brit won't use her nose
 

She can smell them, unless she has something physically wrong with her scent detectors in her nose. She just wont acknowledge their scent presence... hmm.
Never had that problem before.
I would try this:
1. blind fold the dog, with a towel or a sock.
2. place her food inher bowel, but not in the usual spot.(if shes outside dog, put it in the yard; inside, put it in a different room.)
3. Next get her within 10' or so of the food (make sure she is hungry)
4. Let her sniff around to find her bowel.
5. The reward is supper, and take the apparatus off...

I would also do this with a fav. toy. Blind fold, sniff, play with toy as reward.

Progress into bird wings during yard work, let her find the scent with her nose, then point. Blind folded if need be.

Make her "work" for food, toys, or during yard work. I dont think her sniffer is broken, but I think she is getting bored and inversely lazy. Hence the easier sight points. Keep changing up your training tactics, never do a same routine, she will start getting bored of the same old games.

It could take a week or more, and I dont know if it will even work, but I would try it... Good luck.

RE: Brit won't use her nose
 

Laying a foundation to train on.
Ever hunted with a dog doing yard work?
No
Bird Drive is step1
Learnig to Hunt is Step 2
Yard Work is step 3 or 4 (Depending)
To Fix This Problem.
Stop Everything
No Birds No Nothing for a few weeks or Months.
Restart in October or November
1. Put Dog In field with Birds. No Presure, No Gun.
Point, Knock, Chase, Whatever they do just so they are having fun and finding alot of birds.(2 weeks Min.)
When the dog holds steady for you to shoot a bird.
Shoot It
Repeat this for 2 weeks.
Now start the yard-work
Then Do something different
Field-Work and Yard-Work are required differently by different dogs.
Sometimes once a week for some everyday for others.
Never work the dog so much that he becomes goofy. Some can only handle this once a week.
Learn Your Dog.
If you have a bad training time.
Put the dog up and do somethingelse.
Never continue something negative and always try to end with a positive.

RE: Brit won't use her nose
 

Dale,
I respect your knowledge of gundogs and as a trainer, but I dont see where halting training is going to get the dog to use her nose instead of sight pointing... I agree with you on easing the pressure and ending ona positive side, but dont you think if he just tried to switch it up instead of halting training would help break her lazy habit? Please enlighten me. Im just suggesting a force break of sight pointing.

Bird drive is #1, but this is the problem, she isnt showing bird drive... Even when he puts birds out...I'm just saying, force her into using that nose. Then again, maybe she just aint got bird drive in her blood...

RE: Brit won't use her nose
 

Don't take that as she isn't interested in birds. This dog is bird crazy that is all she cares about in the world. Her favorite thing to do is go out to the horse pasture and chase cow birds all day the only thing wrong is her not using her nose. Pretty much everything else is good to go she will sight point birds and hold point until I release her. She will even run through the fields trying to find the birds but only by sight (I've actually watched her run over a quail that was hiding in the grass that then busted after she stepped on it). I can get her to listen to all of her basic commands. As far as the blind folding goes I've tried something similar to that with treats and all she does is falls over and starts freaking out until she gets the blindfold off but I am more then willing to give it a shot again.

RE: Brit won't use her nose
 

Just wondering. What kind and variety of food was themother (Geez - can't use the word b - i - t - c - h on a gun dog site?)of the litter that your dog came from on?
What kind and variety of food do you have your dog on?
Do you know anything about the other pups from the litter as far as their noses?


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RE: Brit won't use her nose
 

Whatever you decide to do, you have to stay consistent! Dont givean inch, she wont ever forget what things she can do to get her way.

Let her freak out if she wants, wait patiently for her to calm down, then get her up on her feet and procede.

This is not good, I dont know what is wrong with her, insticts should tell her to find them with her nose. Only thing I can think of would bea blind fold or something, to get her to depend on her nose to search...

RE: Brit won't use her nose
 

She came from the Nolans Last Bullet Line. Her parents both hunted very well from my understandings but I do not know anything about the other pups. I took her to a trainer a while back and he was saying just keep doing what I was doing and she'll figure the nose thing out but it still hasn't clicked. From everything I know about this breed it should have come naturally to use their nose instead of their eyes being that they generally can't see what they are hunting but they can always smell it. She's never used her nose though even when she was itty bitty. I'm starting to get worried that she has something wrong with her.