teaching a dog to heel and restraint in a blind

[deadeye]

i have a 9 month old german wirehair pointer male. i have had him in the field and he is already locating birds, pointing, retrieving and locating cripples. he has a good disposition and gets along very well with my wife's two little house dogs. for a puppy he obeys well and really wants to please. true to his breed, he is extremely energetic and he is difficult to restain in a hide or blind. being a pointer, his main burn is to cover alot of ground and locate game. both the mother and father dog of this pup retreive on land and light water duty (shooting pond or ducks in and around small bodies of water and they retrieve birds from shooting in a hide). so far as walking and standing at heel---------not good so far. he is full of **** and vinager (already close to 80 lbs.) and he wants to run and hunt. i have deliberately been patient with him and have not severely chastised him due to all of his natural virtued displayed so far in the field. i know that as he matures he will calm down a good bit.

so having said all of this here are my two questions:

 

1-need suggestions on teaching him to heel when i walk or stand with him using a lead.

 

2-how to teach him to contain himself in a blind or hide

 

any experience help is appreciated

[Lloyd90]

My 9 month lab is pretty much the same. As I have been told you need to clamp down the on unwanted behaviour!!

 

Just walk with the dog on the lead, when he pulls make him sit every time, also you can try yanking the lead, but instead of yanking back do it to the side This unbalances the dog and they dont like that. Both had improved my bitch's lead walking considerably!

 

As for steadyness I am currently doing exercises to improve this aswell. Mainly just sitting her, walking back say 5-10 yards. Walking in a cirlce round her , keeping her focused on me.

Start off close so if they move at all you can put them back in a sit. Just keep building on this and it does help I cant offer much more help sorry. Ive only done 2 sessions with my trainer lol

[al4x]

believe me bigthug your lab is far from the same :lol

 

deadeye work on the basis the dog may never sit happily in a hide and if it does it is a bonus. First things first you are finding out they are a lot slower to mature than other more conventional dogs but now is the time to make a difference. With mine you can chastise till the cows come home makes absolutely no difference she will still do what she wants everything has to be about fun and her stomach. Work on the steadyness and expose to game as much as is possible it will slowly make a difference and it will be slow. The plus points are they hunt like few other dogs and mine will from the moment it gets up to when it goes to sleep! she is getting better and at 2 and a half is fine on retriving and beating on less formal shoots and excellent when out with the rifle but still won't come roost shooting and sit still. We're getting there but the instinct to work is very strong and you have to work with them. Mine is getting good out beating as the interaction is there every minute you are working with her same as walked up shooting but anything that involves not getting in the thick stuff is difficult. Its funny as she is patient as anything at home or out lamping but with 4 feet on the ground and game about then its a different matter.

Best hints so far are you may well need a training collar shortly arround the year mark to keep hold of him, mine did for a short period but we got sorted fairly quickly. Reward based training works best with them so lots of fuss lots of treats and work hard on recall and steadyness. Recall can be difficult on them as once on point nothing moves mine so you have to pick your moments. Yours being male is going to be harder still, its hard work but is worth it you just have to remember not to loose your cool and they do get there in the end but it is slow progress to be spot on.

[new to the flock]

If you are having problems with the heeling, sits, waits, and freezes...(stays)....then start here:

 

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/ind...showtopic=47072

 

It makes no differance whether it is a pointer or a retreiver without a solid obediance foundation you can not go forward.

 

The big difference is if you loose your cool with a retriever they forgive you and 30 seconds later they are back for more just as happy, where as a pointer will sulk for a week or two and give you nothing for that time. You have to stay happy and upbeat with a pointer or you will get no where.

 

NTTF

[cracker]

Haven't the time to proceed through Dan's pictorial but the short answer is hypothetical: "Crikey, if only we in the UK had NAVHDA to see us through." That's the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (which focuses on HPRs). Heeling and steadiness in a blind or hide are both integral to the programme and testing.

 

So you've no NAVHDA but you do have a hide or blind that you can get the dog inured to. They are creatures of habit and if you have them sit in a hide whether birds are incoming or whether it's situate in the middle of the strand at Blackpool, they get accustomed to the surroundings. Pointers are restless and fidgety at sitting--but only if they've not been trained to sit quietly and patiently in a hide. How do they learn to sit quietly and patiently in a hide--by sitting in one, of course, to make it habit forming.

 

In the States, many retrievers have their own hides--one of them is called a Mutt Hut http://www.cabelas.com/p-0049665660153a.shtml. A camouflaged Vari-kennel can also be deployed to keep the dog stationery and subdued--and happy, so long as the dog can look out and scan the sky at what might be incoming.

 

If the dog's seeing birds incoming isn't important to you, and you want to impart blind manners to the dog in the simplest way, you may want to go beyond "sit" and teach it the "down" position whilst in the blind--and reinforce it when the dog tries to get to its feet. Heeling they can master at 10-12 weeks but that's another story and not really germane to this discussion.

 

Doesn't really matter how horsepowered your dog is, or what kind is it--if you get it acclimated to spending quality time in a hide, all will come together for you. No shortcuts, though, and while using the e-collar for obedience and manners will work to an extent, it also can be a cop-out plus it may require the level of "juice" that can backfire on you when working the dog afield.

 

Good luck,

 

MG

[Blackbart]

The best way to train it for hide work imo is to get out often with a buddy and let him do the shooting and you just concentrate on the dog.It is nigh on impossible to give the dog the attention it needs when shooting yourself.

[deadeye]

my gwp male pup is coming around nicely. i make a point to exercise him most days and after he has run a good bit i work on basic commands and he is starting to heel much better and i set up the blind that i often put up for open field shooting and just get him to sit with me there for a while and he has made a substantial improvement in healing and sitting in a blind. he is only 11 months old ---- he is going to be a really fine gun dog and it is very gratifying to see him coming about. he loves to retrieve also and i am going to start him on water soon. i would say that it does not pay to rush a young dog and it is extremely important not to loose your cool but rather be consistent and patient with a young dog. rome wasn't built in a day.

[bigben]

i have 2 gwp bitchs who are both just over 18 months old and walking to heal is something neither of them have any interest in. one of them will do it fine off the lead but put her on the lead and she just wants to pull the other one just likes to pull all the time. i do feel as thought we are getting there with them now but it takers time and at time has been very annoying, im sure this is just down to there instinks to to work.

 

sure you will start to get there sometime soon!