How Do I...(deal with a stubborn dog)?

elijah79

elijah79

New member
I'm a little frustrated and bewildered. I have three dogs, two GSP's and a Weimaraner. My female GSP is 6-years old and fully trained. My other GSP and my Weim are both males at a year old. They're all awesome dogs and have their own quirks too. My question though pertains to my male GSP: He's a year old as I said, but he's still got a lot of puppy in him. His attention span is about as short I've ever seen!! I can't get him to pay attention for too long when I'm trying to work with him.
Can anyone give me some advice in how I can go about working with this little live-wire? I have every confidence that he will make an excellent bird dog, but I think we've just got to get over this little bump in the road. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
 
Old timers used to train multiple dogs by putting them out on what was called a chain gang. Meaning that the owner would put out a long chain with several tie out points for multiple dogs. Then they would tie all the dogs out by the truck, then take one dog and do training or hunting while the other dogs watched.

I do not use the chain gang method, but I will leave dogs in the truck, while hunting or training so that the dog in the truck gets real excited and demonstrates a tremendious desire to be part of the pack.

Hopefully your dog has been introduced too birds before. If not I would go back to the basics with a wing on a pole, hopefully he will be interested. Making them crazy about a wing on a pole is the goal.

In your case, If your dog is only one year old he needs to be stimulated by as many bird encounters as possible. Putting the dog in a good bird area is helpful. If not Try hunting him by himself by placing out birds, if he does not show interest or looses interest after awhile put him in the truck, and hunt the other dogs. He will not like staying in the truck, trust me.
 
I have the same problem with my gsp. Problem with me though I have no place to get into birds or people to buy birds from. Any suggestions you can e-mail me if you want.
 
elijah79 said:
I'm a little frustrated and bewildered. I have three dogs, two GSP's and a Weimaraner. My female GSP is 6-years old and fully trained. My other GSP and my Weim are both males at a year old. They're all awesome dogs and have their own quirks too. My question though pertains to my male GSP: He's a year old as I said, but he's still got a lot of puppy in him. His attention span is about as short I've ever seen!! I can't get him to pay attention for too long when I'm trying to work with him.
Can anyone give me some advice in how I can go about working with this little live-wire? I have every confidence that he will make an excellent bird dog, but I think we've just got to get over this little bump in the road. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
Click to expand...

Some of this will go away with age and exposure to birds. I don't have any real tricks to get him to have a longer attension span, but remember to be calm but insist that he follow your commands. Keep the training short, if he is not paying attension you are fighting uphill.



Phil V. said:
I have the same problem with my gsp. Problem with me though I have no place to get into birds or people to buy birds from. Any suggestions you can e-mail me if you want.
Click to expand...

Pigeon are good for training in a launcher. You can trap them, buy them or raise some homers.
 
I have felt your pain I have a 2yr old male GSP and he still has some puppy in him but this year he has turned into a hunting machine. When I got him as a pup 5 - 10 minutes and he was off chasing a bug or just running around the yard. But like SetterNut said keep the training short but make sure he follows through with your commands. I would do little 5 -10 minute training sessions and have been adding a few minutes to that over the course of the last 2 yrs and ended up with great hunting buddy. A little bit seems to go a long way or it did in my case. Good luck and happy hunting!! :thumbsup:
 
Work fast with a slow dog and slow with a fast dog. IE if dog is supercharged try to keep dog calm by training in slow fashion. If the dog is docile make your training more lively. This tip will help hold a dogs attention longer.

Jacked up dogs are a blast as long as you get your obedience rock solid. Have fun and dont get frustrated.
 
Is he getting enough exercise? With my last dog, she always was much easier to train after she'd gotten a good walk/run. Otherwise, it just seemed like she was too full of it to settle down and work.
 
Some dogs you will need to simply be a more stirn or firm aproach with. Now I don't mean to beat the hell out of him, but some collar intro and when you say a comand, show him you mean business right away. Some light era pull, pinch etc or nick with the collar to get him to respond right away. If you let him get away with stuff he will just keep pushing your buttons. What are you trying to do that he will not listen to??
 
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