Running in

[darren m]

my springer as started running in , normally she seemed steady , but this last 2 weeks roost shooting as made her a bit over keen.

 

she marks birds brilliantly , and retrieves them no probs.

 

the problem is shes getting over eager and wont sit still for more than a few minutes at a time , i,m for ever bo**ocking her to sit .

 

then tonight she actually ran in for marked birds before i had even sent her a couple of times.

 

i think she thinks every bang ( shot ) she ears is a retrieve and is ready to go

 

how can i correct her on this .

 

thanks all

[WGD]

Do more retrieving yourself, or let somebody else's dog have retrieves your dog has marked. If birds are easy picked, don't let the dog have them, pick them yourself. Also do the same with dummies in training, even use a launcher if you have one and leave your dog sitting where the shot was fired while you walk out and get the dummy. Complete pain in the spuds to do but the only way to sort the problem you've got IMHO.

 

Good luck

[darren m]

hi mate -- i understand what your saying , shes only 15 months and was very steady.

 

its only happening since i,ve been roost shooting these last few weeks , she loves it but her adrenalin takes over .

 

even before i fire a shot she's wagging her tail and wriggling about , its it unheard of for a springer to sit still for more than a few minutes , both my past labs would sit still no probs.

 

the running in i think i can break :look: , but just getting her to sit still while i,m looking up or around is my main problem

 

any more ideas welcome

 

thanks lads

[Lloyd90]

Keep her on the lead so she cant run in ? Then take it off n send her in ?

[garyb]

Do more retrieving yourself, or let somebody else's dog have retrieves your dog has marked. If birds are easy picked, don't let the dog have them, pick them yourself. Also do the same with dummies in training, even use a launcher if you have one and leave your dog sitting where the shot was fired while you walk out and get the dummy. Complete pain in the spuds to do but the only way to sort the problem you've got IMHO.

 

Good luck

[darren m]

cheers lads -- being doing as suggested for the last few days , throwing dummy , firing shot and blowing whistle .

 

then going and picking the dummy my self while she sits.

 

in thoery ie. training , she does ok , i cant fault her she does it perfect ...... i will take her out roosting again on sat , problem is thats when the arednaline take over such a riggle ****

[new to the flock]

Darren,

 

Have someone else do the shooting this weekend while you work the dog. I would follow this proceedure.

 

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/ind...showtopic=37571

 

NTTF

[darren m]

well lads thanks for tips , in training this week she is perfect and wont move , i,ve made her sit while timing her , thrown cold game ( pheasant, pigeon ) and all sorts of dummies around her and she was great .

 

BUT when i took her shooting last night , she was a totally *** again

sat for a while then got all fidgity when the birds started coming in , she looks up and marks them brilliantly .

 

i have to admit i missed a load ( i shot like a **** ) but i hit a lot of tree branches :blink: and every time a branch fell to the ground with a thud , she automatically thought i,d hit the pigeon i was trying to shoot , so she gets up ready to fetch and starts to creep forward.

 

so every time this happened i broke the gun put it down walked over to her scruffed her back to the spot she started in and gave sit command , but no matter how hard i scruffed her or gave her a tug on her ear ( usually works ) she just repeatedly kept moving ie bottom shuffle .

 

this is so awkward and stressful the whole point of getting out shooting is so i can take the dog with me and i end up watching her to make sure shes not on the move and therefore missing the birds.

 

lads -- what else can i try or should i just peg her down and enjoy the shooting and slip her off if there are any retrieves.

 

ps . shes coming up to 16 months old so still a young un and is a great little lass and i love taking her out .in early training i used to take her to the clay ground and through dummies and fire a shot over her etc , then send her for the dummy , i,m thinking that this might be part of the problem .

 

thanks

[WGD]

IMO she's a bit on the young side mate, and some spaniels just don't do sit and stay even if you're Paul Daniels. Is she a hard hunter?

 

I know trialling boys who's dogs (spaniels) are impeccable to shoot over but will run in on a duck flight or a roost shoot. Pegging down will let you concentrate on the shooting, but you should treat it as training and still make the majority of retrieves yourself then give the dog one or two harder ones before leaving.

 

ATB.

[darren m]

yes mate she is very hard hunting and so was her mum , theres a bit of trialing blood in her for my sins.

 

do you think that makes a difference??

 

i took her out this morning walked through pens etc , flushed a few , stopped her on whistle , but even then she only half sits and if i run over to her to chastise her she just flops on her back . continue on a bit more all the time shes hunting like mad at full speed and i can see her starting to take over rather than me comanding her then as her adrenalin takes over , she starts to semi - ignore the stop whistle ( little *** ) .

 

i,m i making a mistake here by trying to train her in such a enviroment , maybe theres just way too much sent there , if i train in the horse paddocks she is so much better behaved ....

 

 

alas - when we got home in the garden i sat her up on the whistle and hid a few pheasants in the bushes , she behaved and retrieved them perfectly pee,d off

 

thanks lads

[darren m]

Darren,

 

Have someone else do the shooting this weekend while you work the dog. I would follow this proceedure.

 

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/ind...showtopic=37571

 

NTTF

 

NTTF - i shall try that this saturday mate

[Lloyd90]

Sounds like being in the pen with all that scent is a bit too much for her mate. Try to scale it down and very gradually work up to it

[WGD]

Darren, I think the only thing you are doing wrong in the gamey environment is letting her get too hot. Hunt her for a few minutes, get a flush and a stop to whistle then call her up and go somewhere else and work on something else. Next time let her flush a couple of birds and so on, what I'm trying to say is don't let her get ahead of herself, they all do even with the best handlers - you need to try and read her and rein her in BEFORE it starts to go t1ts up, otherwise she's just learning a behavioural pattern you don't want her too. Think calm, slow and short periods of time for a while yet... if only I could follow my own advice I might be quite good at this!

[darren m]

i think you could both be right

 

i do tend to spend about an hour-ish in the pen and after the 1st flush ( sometimes theres only one any way ) she does tend get her head down really hunting hard for another.

 

when i take her out of the pen into the woods etc shes already wound up like a spring , she hunts a great pattern but shes just so fast and her quest for game is taking over she stays close but the stop whistle on occasion passes in one ear and out the other

 

the other problem is with so much scent about when roost shooting in the same woods she wont sit still and shuffles about .but again its in the same enviroment ,

so maybe i should just peg her down this weekend and enjoy the shooting , then send her for a few retrieves then slip the lead back on in between.

 

you got me thinking now mate -- she hunts great and quarters , so its not that , that i need to train is it , its more like a steadiness thing

 

food for thought -- thanks

[Shogun]

I personally don't see a problem with the training you are doing, i have a 12 month old springer which is also a very fast hard hunting dog. I had him in the rabbit pen from the age of six months! The most important thing with this type of dog is the stop command it must be absolutely 100%, i don't expect my dogs **** to touch the floor when he flushes game but he must stop. you really need to get this message through to your little bitch or you will be in trouble. If needs be you will have to go back to basics for a while to really reinforce that stop whistle. This may also partly solve the problem of her getting up off the sit when you are roost shooting because speaking honestly it doesn't sound like to me that she full understands that if you say sit she must sit until you tell her otherwise. Bear in mind as well that dogs like ours don't like to sit for long periods, they want to hunt. So a bit of squirming as long as its not to far isn't to bad. Just my thoughts hope this helps a little.