I put an e-collar, that hasn’t worked in years, on Tur Bo and lead him out of his kennel with the piggin’ string. He has never felt electricity. When I felt him pull on the leash I would go in the other direction. This makes him pay attention to what I’m doing. I lead him to the retrieving bench and told him “up”. This gets him used to jumping when I say up. He already jumps on his house when I tell him to. The retrieving bench is higher than his house so I assist him with the leash.
After he is on the bench I have him walk up and down. I walk up and down, then stop and pet him several times on both sides of the bench. This gets him used to the bench. Dogs like to smell your breathe when you are happy. With a leather glove on, I stick 2 fingers in his mouth just behind his canine teeth. I keep them in his mouth until he stops moving and accepts them. At first as soon as he quits chewing or trying to spit them out I wiggle my fingers and take them out. As he gets used to this I leave them for longer periods of time. Later I will use a retrieving buck and progress to him walking on the bench with it in his mouth. Then we will move to the ground. I like to get ‘hold and give’ real well before we do the trained retrieve.
Retrieving bench and dogs on chain gang.
I then put him on the chain gang and got Whitey out of the kennel. I put a working e-collar on her and made her heel to the retrieving bench with the piggin’ string. She jumped to the retrieving bench and I walked her up and down, stopping occasionally to pet her. She has been through the trained retrieve so I had her do some retrieves on the bench then tossed a tennis ball on the ground for her. I only threw the tennis ball 5 or 6 times. I like to leave them wanting more. I put her on the chain gang with Tur Bo.
Dogs on the chain gang.
I then went through the same routine with Blaze, then put her on the chain gang with the other dogs.
I hid 2 pigeons on the training grounds and put Tur Bo through some more heeling with the piggin’ string on the way to the bird field. This really reinforces the heel command because the dogs know that there are birds to be found and they really want to be turned loose. When I turned him loose he blew through the first part of the bird field without getting close to the first bird. He started pointing at every place he had ever found a bird and I just kept walking. He wouldn’t let me get ahead but he didn’t trust his nose. When we got near the second bird he decided that it was in a brush pile where he had found birds before. He tried to point but he couldn’t get any scent so he would move around to the other side and try again. He did this 4 or 5 times then started hunting another area. He was moving pretty fast when he finally caught the scent and whirled into a point. As soon as he went on point he tried to take a step and I flushed the bird.
We hunted back toward the first bird and Tur Bo was hunting now instead of just stopping at ever bush. When he got close to the other bird he slammed into a point. He was about 75 yards in front of me when he went on point. I watched him as I walked toward him for any movement. He was on the opposite side of the bird than I was and I walked to the bird without him moving. I took some pictures then moved to the side to take some more but that was too much for him. He moved and I flushed the bird. I let him run back to the chain gang.
I put 2 pigeons out for Whitey and worked her on the piggin’ string toward the bird field. She ran by the first bird and slid to a point. I walked in front of her and kicked the cover and flushed the bird. She didn’t move. I walked around some then lead her away, then whoaed her, tapped her on the head and sent her on. She pointed the second bird and again didn’t move even after I flushed the bird. I lead her away, whoaed her and tapped her on the head to send her on. She hunted back to the chain gang.
Then I put two birds out for Blaze and worked her to the bird field on the piggin’ string. She pointed the first bird right off. I walked in front of her and kicked in the cover and she was solid. When I flushed the bird she forgot that she was supposed to stand still. She started chasing the pigeon and I pressed the e-collar on level 3 until she stopped. I didn’t say anything. Finally she stopped and I let off the button as soon as she stopped. When I let off the button she started moving again. I hit the button and said whoa. She stopped and I picked her up and carried her back where she was originally on point. I only said whoa 1 time and didn’t say anything else. I walked in front of her and kicked the cover then slipped the piggin’ string on her and lead her away.
She pointed the second bird and I walked in front and kicked the cover, but this time I made her stay on point longer than usual. Finally I flushed the bird and she didn’t move. I went to her and stroked her up and told her what a good dog she was. Then I went in front of her again and kicked the cover, then lead her away and turned her loose. When we got back to the chain gang I turned the other 2 dogs loose and let all 3 run for a little while before I put them up.
I really enjoy watching young dogs learn and trying to figure out how to get across to them what I want them to learn without putting a lot of stress on them.