pups first exposure to birds

L

ljckr

New member
I first got on here to ask for help with our new 4 month old gwp not wanting to retreive, and with you all helping me found at she was teething and not to rush it. So today we went out to some ponds to see if would could find some ducks to let her chase them around and some bird interest. We have not shot around her any just trying to get her birdy. I let my boy sneak over to the pond and he killed two and wounded one. Got her out of the box and let her run around and try to find the wounded duck. She found it and started to chase it ,caught it and then held it down and looked at me like now what? I knelt down from about ten yards away and told her here , to my surprise she bent down and brought the duck straight to me.:eek:

When she brought it back to me i loved and praised her for several minutes. told my boy to walk about 30 yards away. I took the duck and tossed it a couple of yards away and let her chase it again and signaled my son to shoot, he did and she paid no attention to it caught the duck ,i said here and again she brought to me again! I did this 3 more times and each time she
brought it to me, i remebered from this site not to push it and finish with the dog wanting more it was very hard to do but we did.

So exicted to see this pup retreive to hand , pay no attention to the gun and was very birdy and wanting more, llike i said wanted to keep doing this all morning but stopped with a very successful morning trainig session and hope she continues to progress, like someone poested on here the light bulb came on and I'm so excited to go back to the ponds and do some more. Sorry to ramble but was kinda of worried about the retreiving part and all in one day she retreives to hand tracked the bird down and showed no ill effects towards gunfire. Bad thing is wasn't smart enough to rember to take a camera,will rember next time and post some pics.
 
Good boy, that is the way to get into the swing of things. They are always wanting to have fun. Keep it up But take it slow don't burn her out on training.......Bob
 
That is so cool when that happens. Sounds like she/he is on the right track. Next, when she see's you go to the gun safe to retrieve your gun, she will go ballistic.:10sign:
 
sometimes i think we get more excited than the dogs do and someone has to put the brakes on us! but when you lose that excitement and joy of the dog it's time to do something else, but i don't see that happening anytime soon.
 
aaata boy, but be carefull with that gun yet, thats the basic thing, but we still like to be slightly farther away, and don't bring it closer for a few sessions. You did the right thing by stopping, It's hard Hah? but it is smart, you can put her up and then do it later is the beauty of it. You can probably go back to the ball in the hall idea again too for some more work, And as you did before, let her hold it till she drops it on her own or for quite a bit, and just keep it short for quite awhile yet. You will start to see big improvements. Thats the key to positive reinforcement, "slow" but efective,and offten no force breaking. Keep up the good work, but at the same time don't get too excited and rush. You have all summer basicly. She will be rollin by fall. But keep up on that delivery:thumbsup:
I don't know if I told you this before, but another hard thing to do is to crate or kennel her more now that she's advancing. No free running, is a term used by pros I know all over, The dog will look more forward to training and concentrate better, if thats what she does when she gets out, then put her up again. A couple rub up's doesn't hurt, but less is more. I know we want to do the play factor, but you will have all kinds of time for that. (No tug of war, ever. and no sqweeky or noisy toys, plastic water bottles ect.) The noise entices chomping, which can lead to bird chomping.
 
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that's one thing i really watch when i introduce the dog to the gun is their body language at the time of the shot , ruined the first dog i ever had. I had no clue what i was doing just took the dog out and started shooting,since then i've learned a whole lot. Also have alot of time untill next bird season just glad to see we are heading in the right direction for now also plan on joining the local navhda club as soon as they start their spring training days to have those people help me even more.
 
Dog Now Hardwired

ljckr said:
I first got on here to ask for help with our new 4 month old gwp not wanting to retreive, and with you all helping me found at she was teething and not to rush it. So today we went out to some ponds to see if would could find some ducks to let her chase them around and some bird interest. We have not shot around her any just trying to get her birdy. I let my boy sneak over to the pond and he killed two and wounded one. Got her out of the box and let her run around and try to find the wounded duck. She found it and started to chase it ,caught it and then held it down and looked at me like now what? I knelt down from about ten yards away and told her here , to my surprise she bent down and brought the duck straight to me.:eek:

When she brought it back to me i loved and praised her for several minutes. told my boy to walk about 30 yards away. I took the duck and tossed it a couple of yards away and let her chase it again and signaled my son to shoot, he did and she paid no attention to it caught the duck ,i said here and again she brought to me again! I did this 3 more times and each time she
brought it to me, i remebered from this site not to push it and finish with the dog wanting more it was very hard to do but we did.

So exicted to see this pup retreive to hand , pay no attention to the gun and was very birdy and wanting more, llike i said wanted to keep doing this all morning but stopped with a very successful morning trainig session and hope she continues to progress, like someone poested on here the light bulb came on and I'm so excited to go back to the ponds and do some more. Sorry to ramble but was kinda of worried about the retreiving part and all in one day she retreives to hand tracked the bird down and showed no ill effects towards gunfire. Bad thing is wasn't smart enough to rember to take a camera,will rember next time and post some pics.
Click to expand...

Your dog is now hardwired. Great job!
 
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