When we train dogs to come, we think that they will come to us every time but dogs don’t see the command the same way we do.
Several years ago I was hunting in Kansas with the only dog I had at the time, Lady. At that time there was a lot of quail in Kansas and we had been into several coveys. We were hunting down a creek toward the edge of the place we had permission to hunt. Lady pointed a covey, as I went toward her the quail flushed across the fence into some high weeds and brush. Thinking some of them may have stayed on my side of the fence we worked on down toward the property line. We didn’t find anything on our side and Lady crossed the fence to the other side.
I watched from the fence line as she hunted fairly close to the fence. As I watched another hunter come over the hill into the area where the quail had flown to. He came down close and we talked for a few minutes, with me not paying any attention to Lady. He had a bird dog with him and I told him where the quail had flown but he never invited me to join him. As I went away from the fence I called Lady.
She always hunted for me and usually came when I called. After calling a couple of times and not seeing her I bumped her with the e-collar. She still didn’t come in. This was before GPS collars. I had not even had an e-collar for very long. I called again and when she didn’t come again I thought maybe the e-collar wasn’t working so I turned it up. When I pressed the button I heard her yelp. Still she didn’t come. My second mistake, I got angry and pressed the button again. Again she yelped. Then the guy that was hunting the other side yelled, “she’s standing right beside me.”
Lady pointing Wendy backing on a better day
She had come to him thinking because she had come to someone she had done what I wanted. I felt really bad, as I went to get her, for shocking her needlessly. As soon as she saw me coming she ran to me, happy to see me. My dogs never get angry at me when I screw up, thank God.
Some years later a friend had a young pointer over to work it on my pigeons. He was really proud of the way she would come to him when he called her. After working her on some pigeons we started back to get some more to put out and he went back on my side of the training grounds while I stayed on my neighbor’s side. The young dog was on my neighbor’s side because that’s where we put the pigeons. He called her to come, and she came to me. He called her to come again and she stayed by my side. I stopped walking thinking that might help her go to him. The third time he called her she started yelping. I knew what was happening because of what I had been through with Lady. I told him to wait and I walked to him. As soon as she saw him she ran to him.
Dogs view known commands different that what people do. Sometimes dogs will knowingly not come when they are called. They are called dumb animals so we have to know when they are confused and when they are blowing us off. They often read us better than we read them. Hard to tell which is the dumb animal.
Yesterday and today it’s raining so I can’t train dogs so I just thought that might help someone when they get into a situation like that.
A friend stopped by to show me his Visila puppy. We went out to my pigeon pens and turned some birds loose for her. She was 11 weeks old but was already hunting as we walked down to the dog training area. The first pigeon I took from the coop I let her smell before letting it fly away. I held the bird until she a few feet away. When the pigeon first flapped it’s wings she took a step back, then started chasing. I did this with 5 more pigeons and she was really getting to like chasing birds. The last pigeon I put to sleep by putting it’s head under a wing, then pulling it legs straight, and placed it on the ground on the wing that it’s head was under.
She saw the bird on the ground, walking stiff legged, she came over to sniff the pigeon. That wasn’t enough to wake the bird. She backe
d away then came back again to sniff the bird. This time it woke up and flew away with Sadie in hot pursuit.
We walked Sadie through my training grounds with her hitting the brush and checking the birdy looking places. Matt may need a horse to keep up with this pup when it gets grown. We walked to the back then back to the pigeon house and all of the birds were back in the coop. I turned them loose again for Sadie, one at a time. She was really chasing by the time we were through. She also was watching the pigeons as they flew around.
I like to see any dog do what it was bred to do but older dogs are supposed to know what they are doing. When puppies start chasing, then point their first bird, that is real special.