Urban Gun Dogs: Training Flushing Dogs for Home and Field by Anthony Roettger & Benjamin H. Schleider

Author:Anthony Roettger & Benjamin H. Schleider [Roettger, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Benjamin Schleider
Published: 2005-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

Dixie stylishly demonstrates the outdoor “hupping” drill. (Photo by Chip Schleider

The purpose behind outdoors “place” training is multifold: to begin to prepare the dog for line steadying, a basic retrieving drill, to condi- tion him to stay next to you in a blind, and to get the dog ready for advanced retriever training. If he does not stay where you place him, he will not be ready for baseball, an advanced retriever drill we will discuss in the next chapter. With consistent practice and patience, he will make significant progress. Ultimately, your goal is to have a dog you can rely upon to sit next to you in a duck, goose, or dove blind, as well as to quarter beautifully to flush upland game for you.

GUNFIRE CONDITIONING DRILLS AND INTRODUCTION TO GUNFIRE: It does not take a lot of common sense to understand a surefire way to make your puppy gun-shy is to take him at the tender age of eight weeks to your local gun club and tie him up outside the skeet range. Yet time and again we see the results of just that approach. Once a dog is gun-shy, it is extremely difficult, very costly, and often unsuccessful to try to cure him of the malaise. We recommend a slow, steady, and staged approach to conditioning your dog to gunfire. The approach is so gradual, that when a dog finally hears actual gunfire, he will think that it is nothing out of the ordinary. Start conditioning your puppy when he is eight weeks old. After you have called the puppy to dinner, using the four to five pips on the whistle, give him his food and allow him to start eating. Stand far away from the puppy while he is eating and clap your hands loudly once. Do not do this directly next to your puppy, but several yards away within earshot and visual distance of the puppy. Initially your puppy will look up at you, but resume eating. Make this a part of your nightly routine for several weeks. Gradually close the distance between you and the puppy during the course of this training to within a couple of yards.

After two to three weeks and after the puppy is fully conditioned to the handclap, take out the two blocks of wood connected with the nylon cord that we discussed in Chapter 3. Feed your puppy as usual, but go back to the position where you originally started the handclap routine. When the puppy is eating, clap the pieces of wood together to make a sharp sound. Start out with a sound a little louder than a handclap (you will want to practice a little before you deliver the wood clap), and follow the same routine that you did with the handclap. The objective is for the puppy to become so used to the sound of the wood clap that he barely raises his head from the food bowl. Keep up this nightly routine (note: we feed our dogs in the evening) for several weeks.

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