Dog training for pheasant
11-20-2010, 05:25 PM
#21
Fork Horn
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: North Idaho
Posts: 129
Lots of good info here on training your dog. Like most everything else, not everyone sees it the same way. So we wind up with a lot of choices. Guess I'm no different so here's my basic 02 cents worth. I should say up front I've only had labs so this may not apply to those other dogs.
First of all, I Never consider it training my dog to hunt. I do believe most dogs are born to hunt. What they are not is born to be obiedient. Thats where you come in. First you need to know what you want your dog to do for you. Once you established that than the obiedience training can begin.
I have a few basic rules. Never play and train in the same place.
Get your pup to the field as soon and as much as possible. Let them experience the smells of the field and its obstacles.
You'll need patience, patience, and yet more patience. Repetiton is the key to the learning process. Thats where your patience comes in. If you are having a bad day, don't take it out on your pup. Patience and praise for your pup are a must. Did I mention patience, and never holler or strike your pup out of anger.
So when do you start to hunt your pup. My feelings are when you are confident of your pups basic obiedience skills, which I look at as being, come, sit, stay, and leave it. I would look at having your dog whistle trained to these skills by this time also. Never introduce your pup to an E-collar till it has these skills down. I feel that training is an ongoing process for a pup. So there's nothing better than taking it to the field to hunt after it is known to be obiedient.
If you are a first time dog owner and handler, that field training works both ways. The handler will be learning right along with the pup. There is no substitue for expierence on either end. Being most of our upland seasons start in mid September, I like to get pups that are born sometime in February. By September, with alot of work, they are ready to take hunting. You must always bear in mind, that they still very much lack expierence at this point in time.
But it is so much fun watching them learn and development. And before the end of the season, you will be a team, if you have remembered to be patient and use alot of praise. Well, that's my basic, maybe a little longwinded, 02 cents worth. Enjoy your pup.
P.S. My lab usually sleeps on the couch and has to endure dress up sessions from the girls. Its a rough life.
First of all, I Never consider it training my dog to hunt. I do believe most dogs are born to hunt. What they are not is born to be obiedient. Thats where you come in. First you need to know what you want your dog to do for you. Once you established that than the obiedience training can begin.I have a few basic rules. Never play and train in the same place.
Get your pup to the field as soon and as much as possible. Let them experience the smells of the field and its obstacles.
You'll need patience, patience, and yet more patience. Repetiton is the key to the learning process. Thats where your patience comes in. If you are having a bad day, don't take it out on your pup. Patience and praise for your pup are a must. Did I mention patience, and never holler or strike your pup out of anger.
So when do you start to hunt your pup. My feelings are when you are confident of your pups basic obiedience skills, which I look at as being, come, sit, stay, and leave it. I would look at having your dog whistle trained to these skills by this time also. Never introduce your pup to an E-collar till it has these skills down. I feel that training is an ongoing process for a pup. So there's nothing better than taking it to the field to hunt after it is known to be obiedient.
If you are a first time dog owner and handler, that field training works both ways. The handler will be learning right along with the pup. There is no substitue for expierence on either end. Being most of our upland seasons start in mid September, I like to get pups that are born sometime in February. By September, with alot of work, they are ready to take hunting. You must always bear in mind, that they still very much lack expierence at this point in time.
But it is so much fun watching them learn and development. And before the end of the season, you will be a team, if you have remembered to be patient and use alot of praise. Well, that's my basic, maybe a little longwinded, 02 cents worth. Enjoy your pup.
P.S. My lab usually sleeps on the couch and has to endure dress up sessions from the girls. Its a rough life.
Last edited by KT29; 11-20-2010 at 05:29 PM.
