Luke
Maybe a better title would be Why Don’t Dogs Do What We Want. A friend and I were talking a few nights ago about our dogs and about dogs we used to have. We both have had some that would do every thing in the yard but when we went to the field it was like they had never been exposed to any training.
Luke is a good example, he will point pigeons in the yard and will not move when they are flushed. I shoot blank pistols, throw pigeons in front of him and he is absolutely steady. You can’t move him with a pry bar. I took him to another field with quail hidden in the tall grass and snapped a check cord to his collar with a half hitch around his flanks. The first quail he pointed he hit the end of the check cord real hard. The next one he only tightened the check cord and after that he was steady. Later we turned all 3 dogs out to hunt the birds that hadn’t been shot and when a bird flushed in front of him he chased.
One of the reasons, that Luke is hard to break from chasing, is that he has been allowed to chase for 4 years. I have never tried to get my dogs to be steady to wing and shot with the exception of a pointer that I wanted to run in field trials. She was fairly easy because she was young and didn’t get to chase very much. Before she was 2 years old she was steady to wing and shot but she wasn’t
hunted very much.
Lady pointing Wendy backing
Lady, the best retriever I have ever owned, was a natural retriever but she quit the last day of her first season. It was a good year for quail and she had retrieved all year. On the last day she ran to the first quail I shot, picked it up then dropped it and never even came in to hunt dead the rest of the day. If I got her to come in she wouldn’t pick the bird up even when I threw it for her. She was the first dog I ever force broke to retrieve. In about 3 weeks she was totally force broke and I thought that it was easy to force break a dog to retrieve.
Lucky was also a natural retriever and after his first season I was working him on some pigeons. He pointed a pigeon and I flushed it. When I shot it he ran out, picked it up and spit it out. He never retrieved again until he was force broke. He was the hardest dog I have ever trained. I worked with him on the retrieving bench for about 6 weeks and I don’t think he learned anything. I quit for about a month then decided it had to be done. Everyone says if you stop before you get them trained it is harder the second time. I believe it. I finally got him force broke after about 2 months the second time but most of those days I worked him twice a day. Now he will retrieve.
Whitey
Whitey, a litter mate to Blaze, was force broke and would do everything on the bench or close to it perfect. I worked her on the retrieving bench with retrieving dummies, tennis balls and frozen quail. She ran down the bench and brought them all back with a happy tail. I put her on the ground and she retrieved them like she was happy to do it. When I took her hunting she wouldn’t pick the birds up. She would hunt dead but not pick the birds up.
I put her back on the bench and we went through all of the retrieving dummies and frozen quail. She did it perfect. I thought maybe she didn’t like retrieving birds that were still limber or maybe had some life left in them so I got some quail and put one in a sock and worked her on the bench with it. She did it perfectly. I put her on the ground, threw the bird in a sock and she retrieved it perfectly. I took her hunting and she wouldn’t pick the birds up.
I have force broke several dogs before Whitey, and Blaze at the same time, and they retrieve fine. Why, I couldn’t get through to Whitey is beyond me but it happens. If I still owned her I would try again. Most dogs after they retrieve for a while really enjoy it.
Sometime, things work really well and it’s easy to get through to a dog. Emma, a litter mate to Tur Bo, wasn’t honoring. We worked her 2 sessions on the backing dog, then brought in Molly. Molly pointed twice and Emma backed both times.
What will work for most dogs won’t work for all dogs. You have to have more than one way to train. If you are not getting through try something different.