God I’m gonna miss the little guy. He just turned a year and goes for a month so I’m hoping he dosent hate me when he comes back!!! Anyone have any experience sending a dog out? He needs to learn to be steady on shot and bring bird to hand. I’m hoping a month is max for him to be gone. Anyone see any negatives when dog comes home?
Pup going to training for a month
- Thread starter ScottH
- Start date
No!
But I have seen the opposite many times when customers come to pick up their dogs-and that concern From the customers..
‘After having that dog for a year-and the obvious love you have for him and have shown
He 99.99% of the time he will be ecstatic to see you
Be aware though that what you are expecting could well take over a month-depending on the dog
Your making a good decision—don’t worry
I agree with David---you may want to lower expectations if he's only going for a month. I sent my 7 month old Lab to a trainer last July; got him back last mid-September. I knew the trainer; he did a heck of a fine job and we actually hunted him, in Iowa, Indiana and Illinois last fall. He learned fast and we shot ducks as well as pheasants over him--he appears to be a born retriever. But I want him to be the best he can be, as I'm pushing 70 and he'll probably be my last dog. So I'm sending him back in July this year for some polishing up. I expect he'll be there at least 2 months. I'm working him in the water with this heat. What I love about him is 1). He has a burning desire to be outside and to retrieve and 2). He never gives up on a retrieve, whether it's a dummy I throw, or a live bird in the field. I think he's going to be great, he's well on the way now at about 19 months old.
Thanks guys. Dakota was at a 2 week on 2 week off training for a month for basic hunting at another place and guy didn’t do too good with him. He does hunt well. He points but will run up to bird and grab a couple feathers or try to carry by the wing. Not sure why he did this but at time he was 10 months old. I’m hoping a month but we will see
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That two weeks on-two weeks off—Makes absolutely no sense what so ever!
The issues you are having can be cured by a competent pro.
‘BUT—they are going to need to go way back on some missed early training!
Make sure you are sending him to a competent pro this time
Its a sad fact but some that refer to them selves as pro’s -have no idea of what they are doing!
Example—some years back I was running some short introduction to blinds with a young dog at a public training area-one local self appointed pro was there -making comments to a few others that I didn’t know what I was doing—because I was using orange/red bumpers and that made it to easy for the dog to see them!!!
This —PRO—had no clue obviously that dogs are color blind
-and they were being used BECAUSE-the dog couldn’t see themi had enough of his cr#$ and informed him so to his face and in front of his customers!
Get customer Referances-and check them-please!
The dog is showing the instinct—just needs a good pro-
‘Sorry for the ranting-but I’ve seen this more than once
Good luck
No reason to apologize this is why I asked. The new guy is a guy I meant at a hunt. My dad trained K9s so he knows about trainers and said this guy knows his stuff. I don’t know much about hunting dogs. This guy owns a hunting preserve and trains for a living. He’s amazing with my dog when we go for hunts so hoping he does good with Dakota
Winchester30
Active member
Join a dog training club like Navhda or something local so you can learn how to continue to train your dog yourself. You will learn quite a bit and bond with your dog more.
Good luck.
Good luck.
westksbowhunter
Well-known member
Scott if your plans are for a dog that is ready for the field, I would suggest finding a trainer with a 3 month gun dog program. It takes 2 weeks for a dog to settle in so not much will be accomplished in a month. Here is a summary of the training program from a guy I would suggest.
BASIC FORMAL TRAINING CLASS
- Your dog's career as a bird dog begins here. This 3-month class will steady your dog on game and develop the fundamental skills every bird dog should know. During this class, we will teach dogs both an on and off-lead heel, teach them to work scent and be steady on game, work on handling, honoring, recall, loading, and basic manners to be a refined bird dog. At the end of the Basic Class these dogs have seen numerous birds and hunting scenarios every day of class and they are ready for the experience the world outside the classroom will give them. These are "green broke" dogs ready to begin a career!
- The first month of training works to develop behavior or conditioned responses to mechanical cues of a rope (ie: on lead heeling, on lead recall, whoa post, direction changes, etc). The second month progresses to transitioning those conditioned responses to the remote cue of an e-collar and begin the steadying process on birds. The third month puts the finishing polish on the dog and brings them to the cusp of learned behavior. This 90-day program teaches a dog all that he needs to know to be successful and mannerly in the bird field and in life in general.
Oh man 3 months may kill me away from my dog!!! Yea guy says when we go up he will come up with a game plan for us. I love hunting over this dog. He’s not perfect and I’m ok with that. I appreciate all the info had no idea these hunting dogs had so much time vested!! This one is a handful too. Has separation anxiety so bad he’s on meds. I’m hoping he can handle it
Munster927
Well-known member
I would second what Winchester said. If you have the time and means, getting involved with your dog training a bit is helpful. Plus you'll learn how to teach your next dog too. I trained my first dog with help from my NAVHDA group. I made mistakes with her as any one makes mistakes taking up something new. My second dog I've trained, she's alot better at things the old dog doesn't do well with largely because of my mistakes.
Generally speaking, getting a good hold on a retrieve can be done fairly easily with some well coached positive reinforcement training as well.
Generally speaking, getting a good hold on a retrieve can be done fairly easily with some well coached positive reinforcement training as well.
birdshooter
Well-known member
Hate ya.. hell he won't even remember ya.... just kiddin.
I sent one of mine out for 8 weeks to be steadied and force fetched. I did get to go visit once. Yeah I sure missed him. But it was well worth it and he was happy to be back home as well.
birdshooter
Well-known member
Is this your first GSP? They are a very active breed and need lots of exercise as you probably have already noticed. They can get a little squirrely if they don't have a place to vent all that energy. I would have to guess he's probably just bored if chewing shoes at 1 year old. Get one of those Black Kong toys, I think it's called "Kong extreme". They're damn near indestructible, note i said damn near.
An ole saying.... A tired Shorthair is a good Shorthair.
An ole saying.... A tired Shorthair is a good Shorthair.
Yep 1st gsp. I have a rotti too. Yea knew they were hyper too. This one is diagnosed as a 10/10 with separation anxiety by vet behaviorist who has him on trazadone which helps but he’s still a handful. We have a fenced yard he can go in all day and we take him to local gamelands to run nightly but dosent seem to slow him down lol
Winchester30
Active member
How were the dog’s parents? Same way?
No they didn’t seem to be. So I bought them from a hunting breeder my buddy got his from. Now I’m no dog trainer but man never had a issue getting a dog to listen u til this one. Super hyper. Like I said he has separation anxiety to the point the bites me when I leave. He’s got a great personality but needs a lot of basic work. If I have a treat or a shock collar on him he will come sit stay all that. Have no treat or no collar he basically ignores me. Dakota come he will stare at me with his toy and that’s that. Play fetch?? Forget it he will get the ball then ignore my commands. Put collar or even long lead on he listens but when he has nothing on forget it
Winchester30
Active member
That’s too bad, he sounds like he’s working for himself and not working for you.
I have a gsp who is a machine in the field but turns completely off in the house. Maybe I got lucky. He only gets anxious in the house after 3-4 days of no activity.
I used the Rick Smith Puppy Development training dvds and am a member of my local Navhda chapter.