Eating the bird!
 

have any of you ever had this problem? my springer spaniel will fetch sticks, balls, etc., but whenever i try a dead pigeon, he immediatly tries to gulp it down. So i tied a 30 foot rope on him and made him fetch, dragging him back to me while saying "come". then i praise him and trade the bird for a treat, but then he still tries to eat it! will he get the picture in time? or am i doing it wrong?

RE: Eating the bird!
 

How old is the dog?
What training program are you following?
Are you planning on Force Fetching the dog?


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RE: Eating the bird!
 

Thats my first question How old is the dog... what about FF and collar conditioning? have they been done?

RE: Eating the bird!
 

He's seven months. isnt what im doing called force fetching? and what's collar conditioning?

RE: Eating the bird!
 

NO!

What your doing is called "Yanking the dog back to you with a CC"..

Force Fetch is am enormous subject, cant possible cover it on a forum. You need to get Smarkwork by Evan Graham.

FF is a foundation for reliable retrieves under any circumstances, your imposing your will upon the dog, forcing him not to refuse a "Fetch" command.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Get yourself a training system ASAP!!

RE: Eating the bird!
 

You don't have a problem at all; at least not yet. You have a young pup that wants the bird. That's a good thing. I would find a training program that you like... there are a ton out there. I like Doc's favorite Smartfetch quite a bit. Covers good obedience and everything leading up to force fetching the dog. Are there any others that live around you that train their dogs as well? Could be a good source of help and ideas and a lot of fun.

I would stop playing with birds at this point.

Good luck

RE: Eating the bird!
 

OK, that answered my question aboput "What Training Program" [:o]

RE: Eating the bird!
 

Im reading Hup: by James Spencer. thats helping me out alot now.

RE: Eating the bird!
 

Thats a good book for spaniels.
Get a good universal program, one that is not breed specific.

I like Evan Grahams Smartwork series, Mike Lardy's Total Retriever, Dahl's 10 minute retriever would suffice.

FF is a huge subject, not something that can be covered on this forum sufficiently. What you are doing right now is NOT FF... Not to say your doing something wrong, just dont want you to have the wrong assumption.

Stop where you are in training and explore some different materials. (Evan Graham is an excellent guy, and a top notch trainer, I really like his DVD's).


Collar conditioning is another huge subject.
Your askingPint sized questions that deserve 55 gallon drum sized answers.

Collar cond. is simply introducing the dog to the collar in such a way that the dog realizes that the pressure from the collar is a direct link to you the handler as a correction and not some random act of god... The dog understands that it cannot run from the pressure, the dog knows how to turn off the pressure by complying with commands asap.

RE: Eating the bird!
 

Deleted,,, Double post.