Sadie on the retrieving bench.
Sadie on the whoa board.
Sadie pointing the quail in the flight pen.
A friend’s dog, Sadie, was lying down on point and I wanted to see if I could get her to stand up. I’m not a pro trainer. I am a serious quail hunter and dog owner. I raise pigeons and have some quail that I work my dogs on. Most dog faults can be worked out with enough birds.
Sadie is an English setter that is about 3 years old. Her owner said she finds lots of wild quail but lies down on point. As long as I don’t put a lot of pressure on her the end result is still a dog that finds a lot of quail. The owner is happy with her as she is but would like for her to stand on her points.
I started her by putting e-collars on her neck and flanks. For the first week I didn’t even turn the e-collars on. I used a piggin’ string to heel her and stopped every few feet. For the first 3 or 4 days I didn’t put a command with the heel or the whoa. After she was heeling and whoaing I started saying the command. After a week of heeling and whoaing, for about a half mile each morning, I turned the e-collars on and started pushing the button, on the transmitter, for the e-collar on her flank, then saying whoa. The e-collar was on the lowest setting that she would react to.
The week of working her on heeling and whoa had prepared her to whoa at my command. Now with the e-collar, I hit the button on the transmitter and waited a half second before saying whoa. Because I had spent the week of lots of whoas as we walked the half mile around my yard she soon started stopping, as soon as I hit the button, before I could say whoa. Each day after she stopped before I could say whoa I would start her off heeling and I would just stop. After a few of these I would whoa her and walk around her. Then I would hit the button on the flank collar and then say whoa if she didn’t stop on her on. Most of the time she would stop before I could say whoa. I was also dropping the piggin’ string and walking on both sides and out front and to the rear.
At no time did I allow her to sit down or lie down. That included when I walked into her kennel. I would have her jump on her kennel. She usually wanted to lie down but I would stand her up. When I first got her I put her on my retrieving bench and she wanted to lie down. I have a chain on a cable running the length of the bench and I hooked a chain to her neck collar then another to her flank collar. I only used the chain on the flank collar a few mornings because she quit trying to lie down on the bench. I continued to use the neck collar because the one time I left it off she jumped off the bench and ran to the quail flight pen to point the birds.
When I took her off the bench I would heel her to my whoa that consists of a 2×6 about 3 feet off the ground. I have a cable running above it with a drop chain that I hooked to her neck collar. The first morning she came off 3 or 4 times. The second morning she only came off one time. Her feet would touch the ground but she still tried to get back on. I helped her each time. I would tell her whoa then walk close to both sides of her and to the font and rear. I let her stand on the whoa board for about 5 to 10 minutes. The owner and I had worked her before he left her and we noticed that when we walked close to her sides she wanted to lie down. If we came into the front of her she didn’t lie down. So I spent a lot of time walking beside her when she was on whoa.
After we did all of these exercises I heeled her close to the quail flight pen, whoaed her then tapped her head and said “okay”. The first few mornings she ran around the pen chasing the quail from end to end. After that she decided she couldn’t catch them and she started pointing until the birds ran then she would go to the other end and point again. Sometimes there would be 5 quail in a bunch and all except one would walk away and she would stay on point until the last one walked away. I really think that her being able to do what ever she wanted around these quail gave her the confidence to stand and be proud. The only thing that I ever said to her was a few times I went to her and stroked her sides and whispered to her that she was a good girl. Of the almost 2 weeks I had her here I only approached her around the flight pen 3 times.
The owner came over and I showed him all of the exercises I was doing with Sadie and had him take my place on each one. After we had gone through all of these things I put some pigeons out in release traps. We turned Sadie loose with e-collars on her neck and flanks. She pointed 6 pigeons and didn’t even try to lie down. The owner took her home so he could take her to the game farm for a test.
The owner texted me late Friday night to tell me that he and a friend had hunted her and she didn’t lie down on point. I think part of the reason she would lie down was lack of confidence. The birds in the flight pen gave her the confidence she needed. But she also got used to me being by her side as she stood on whoa. I walked all around her but I also, did a lot of petting. I don’t know why she started lying down on point but most things can be cured with lots of birds.
Sadie at my quail pen. Her tail is down.
Now her tail is up a little higher.
Now she is really feeling good about herself.