Sit to flush

B

BrownDogsCan2

Well-known member
This is something I'd like to do with my next dog. Timing age and experience all play a part.I'm sure. Do you generally wait until the second season? Should I leave it to a prosessional? Are there things that can be done early say 8 or 10 weeks that will make it go more smoothly if I decide to do it myself? I'm sure I've skipped over every chapter or article I've ever come across because until now I have never had any interest in it. Honestly I don't know where to start. If someone could walk me through it. Literature, media. What works, what doesn't , personal experiences, pitfalls, success. All much appreciated.
 
I'm guessing you have a Chesapeake. I'm not sure how pointer people do it as many don't want their dogs to sit.

Easy as pie
Get a rock so;id whistle sit.
On a check cord hit the whistle and sit the dog when flushing a bird (maybe sit him before the flush starting out). Id probably use chuckers or pigeons to save some bucks.
Rinse and repeat a bunch and pretty soon the dog will sit as soon as bird is launched.

I know i trivialized the difficulty but this is the routine that a lot of retriever people use as we already have a whistle sit in place for running blinds
 
Thanks Gatzby. Should I let her get some birds under her belt first. For lack of a better term and lack of experience. I am affraid of making her bird shy. What about sit to shot. Some start with that ? The idea being the flush, the whistle, and the shot would all be cues on the first wild bird encounter. Seems like you would just skip that and not shoot.
I assume a training partner is needed in all this. Can the process be started solo doing walking marks?
I think I am going to start this pup on sit by pulling the contact points out of a collar and just using tone. When she's solid I am going to switch over to sit in the house and whistle in the field. I have two kids in the house. I hate having a dog listen to one person and ignore the other. Or having to hack on them all the time. Am going to leave that out for a little bit. sit, sit,sit sit,sit,sit,sit,sit,sit,sit.. no thanks. If they want her to sit they can push her but down and pet her.
 
One more thing, The dog I have now is going to be 10 this summer. He is physically young for his age. I don't see him slowing down anytime soon. Not steady. How am I going to deal with that. I can hunter a year by herself but eventually they are going to hunt together.
 
Obedience obedience obedience. It is just an extension of the basics. Personally, I like to wait until the second hunting season, depending on the age of the dog. An 8-10 month old pup, I would not steady the first season. A 1.5 year old I would.
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
Thanks Gatzby. Should I let her get some birds under her belt first. For lack of a better term and lack of experience. I am affraid of making her bird shy. What about sit to shot. Some start with that ? The idea being the flush, the whistle, and the shot would all be cues on the first wild bird encounter. Seems like you would just skip that and not shoot.
I assume a training partner is needed in all this. Can the process be started solo doing walking marks?
I think I am going to start this pup on sit by pulling the contact points out of a collar and just using tone. When she's solid I am going to switch over to sit in the house and whistle in the field. I have two kids in the house. I hate having a dog listen to one person and ignore the other. Or having to hack on them all the time. Am going to leave that out for a little bit. sit, sit,sit sit,sit,sit,sit,sit,sit,sit.. no thanks. If they want her to sit they can push her but down and pet her.
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I would definitely would let the dog get a season under his belt to build confidence a plus your pup will probably get hunted before his whistle sit is solid enough. AKC, HRC, and NAHRA all have whats called a walk up. I will use AKC guidlines (if I remember correctly). Dog and handler exit holding blind with dog at heel. Judges will be walking behind, at or near a predetermined location a duck is launched (origination point needs to be 35-45 yards). As soon as the shot is fired you are allowed one whistle toot OR one sit command. A lot of dogs in training for this figure out to sit at the shot. So yes you could throw single marks to help train.

Sit to flush is definitely something you need to train in the yard. If you have a winger and remote release you can start with bumpers and move up to dead birds. The problem with wingers is they are very hard to hide and most dogs figure out if they are quartering a field it easier to just run to the winger. For live birds you will need a box launcher with a remote release plus you can throw bumpers from a box launcher too.

Its pretty tough to ask a young dog to sit to flush when another dog is busting loose and guns are blazing. A lot can change in a year or two maybe hunt them together for a season or two and when the old timer retires than expect sit to flush. If you teach him to sit to whistle he only has to sit when you whistle not necessarily at the flush. If that makes any sense.
 
Thanks guys. Training wise I've done alright up to a point. Whistle sit. Simple blinds. Honor in a duck blind. Retrieve to heal. Lots of marks. I gave up duck hunting 9 years ago, cold turkey. All the bad habits have creeped in. I have two months to get him into shape before the puppy arrives. Last night I typed up a copy of the pedigree and stuck it to the refrigerator for motivation. I'm pretty pumped.

I added a copy to my profile page. On paper she looks pretty solid to me . Now if I can just keep from screwing her up.
 
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BrownDogsCan2 said:
Thanks guys. Training wise I've done alright up to a point. Whistle sit. Simple blinds. Honor in a duck blind. Retrieve to heal. Lots of marks. I gave up duck hunting 9 years ago, cold turkey. All the bad habits have creeped in. I have two months to get him into shape before the puppy arrives. Last night I typed up a copy of the pedigree and stuck it to the refrigerator for motivation. I'm pretty pumped.

I added a copy to my profile page. On paper she looks pretty solid to me . Now if I can just keep from screwing her up.
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I would say that is an outstanding pedigree. Get a copy of the dvd Fowl Dawgs by Rick Stawski. Here is a link http://www.gundogsupply.com/fowl-dogs-1-dvd.html . Great training tool.
 
Admittedly I don’t know crap about chessies but the pedigree looks pretty stacked!
 
Gatzby said:
Admittedly I don’t know crap about chessies but the pedigree looks pretty stacked!
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Yeah I know just enough to possibly get me into trouble. I was leaning towards trying to get a dog out of Porter AFC red dog anything goes. A local dog. That or one of Fishers dogs, really like the looks of Piper. But follow another dog, the sire on my litter. Another local dog. Hopefully all that blood gets along when put together.
 
I do know Piper as I train at Craig’s place occasionally. Piper’s looks sort of reminds me of a coyote or is that Betsy?
Pete Fischer got me into the dog games about 20 years ago, he’s helped me spend a lot of money! But I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
 
I don't know about a coyote. She is not brindle or anything. Whatever that masked deadgrass color is called. I think one of his dogs is? She's a small dog 50's, I guess maybe she does look a little pointy. The litter I'm come out of is a 55 lb. female too. I'm not sure you can even reliably breed for size? Of the 3 I've had 2 ended up quite a bit bigger than there parents.
 
I must be thinking of Betsy, She’s a brindle with a mask. Her coloring is very coyote like. Pretty cool looking actually.
 
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