Quartering

[Benellimelody]

Now then fellas,

 

Am back for a little bit more help if possible :blink:

 

1 of the cockers has now decided it is a lot more fun to hunt on its own rather than hunt for me!

 

When she hunts she starts off well and pretty close yet then starts to switch off a bit, straighten out and range. I have tried using a lunge line with a tug when i give 2 pips on the whistle but she doesnt really hunt properly at all on it and dont think this is necessary. She does turn on the whistle but not every time. I try not to constantly be on at her but its hard.

 

She definitely doesnt realise i am trying to work with her therefore is trying to get further ahead all the time and not hunting fast and close, more wide and loose.

 

What can i do can do to get the dog hunting for me rather than hunting for itself?

 

This dog is really motivated by a challenge and gets bored very easily otherwise. I cast out dummies when quartering yet the chance of another retrieve and lots of praise wont keep her close to me.

 

Another thing, She wont hunt anywhere near as fast and hard as say if she was looking for a blind retrieve.

 

What can i do can do to get the dog hunting for me rather than hunting for itself?

 

thanks for any help

[JonnyR]

Hi,

 

I have been having a few lessons with my local keeper, who trials cockers. One thing he has advised me is to make the dog think you are smarter than they are. On this, we get the dog to hunt a patch of ground, then secretly put a dead bird, dummy etc in the cover after and then get the dog to hunt it again. Do this with a bit of cover you are standing right next to and insist the dog keeps on until it gets the retrieve/reward. Then praise it up. Doing this a few times the dog will soon get the idea that you know better.

 

It will probably need 2 of you to do this successfully.

 

Trust this makes sense?

 

cheers,

[Spaniel]

my springer was hunting a bit far out and i have been told its due to her thinking that there is something out further for her to find....thinking about it when i use to hunt her i would fire a dummy out in front for her to retrieve.....so maybe thats where this had come from...so i have stopped this.

now im hunting her as normal over some rough ground, i will throw a ball out either side of me at about 6ft away depending which side she is on at the time, then i will peep her on the whistle and just point into the direction where the ball is, encouraging her to hunt for the ball etc.

last night was my best session to date, her nose is always down but she stayed nice and tight and i gave her loads of praise each time she found and delivered the ball to me. :blink:

 

I have about a max of 20 mins hunting and then some sit work to me throwing a dummy a head and across in front of her and thats it.

Plus I now only do this once every 2 nights, as i found the other week that when i was taking her out each day, she was not so hot on the hunting, so left it for a complete week and now re-started again and she is excellent.

 

Plus as above resend the dog back over the ground again with the hidden object in place

Edited April 27, 2010 by Spaniel

[cracker]

Hi,

 

I have been having a few lessons with my local keeper, who trials cockers. One thing he has advised me is to make the dog think you are smarter than they are. On this, we get the dog to hunt a patch of ground, then secretly put a dead bird, dummy etc in the cover after and then get the dog to hunt it again. Do this with a bit of cover you are standing right next to and insist the dog keeps on until it gets the retrieve/reward. Then praise it up. Doing this a few times the dog will soon get the idea that you know better.

 

It will probably need 2 of you to do this successfully.

 

Actually three's a better number:

 

>...if you really want to enhance control and quartering: When you're using assistants on the wing (each flank) to get the dog "windshield wipering" a quartering pattern, always stash a couple of pigeons in your own vest.

 

Every three or four quests across the field, roll in a pigeon ahead of you and just ahead of the dog's turn from left to right (or vice versa)--do it so that the dog doesn't see the bird rolled in, but will work right across it while quartering and thus can't help but put the bird up. Maybe the bird gets up on its own. But either way, it's a flush, a flush that occurs right at your feet and if the dog doesn't hup to the flush, you're "on top of it" and can make an immediate correction.

 

What's best about this drill is it imparts to a flushing dog that good things happen in close proximity to the handler--and a flusher learns quickly that for quartering, its best range also happens to be shooting range.

 

MG