As has been said obedience training and fostering the love of retrieving is important to do right now. Keep things fun and positive. Select a training program and follow it. Remember consistency is key when training a pup. Check out some of the more gundog and retriever based forums for more info and recommendations or programs
Do-all hunting dog
- Thread starter sbound
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As has been said obedience training and fostering the love of retrieving is important to do right now. Keep things fun and positive. Select a training program and follow it. Remember consistency is key when training a pup. Check out some of the more gundog and retriever based forums for more info and recommendations or programs
Play lots of fetching games, lots of play time, and obedience training first. 16 weeks is just a baby... lots of time!
As to firearms conditioning, try what I did: take your pup to the range. At first, keep her in the truck, and hang out with her in the parking lot near the trap/skeet or rimfire ranges (if your local range has discreet areas for these.) If she doesn't flinch at the sound of small-bore or shotgun fire from inside the truck, park near the rifle range and see how she does. During these park sessions, interact with her in the truck and use toys or treats as needed.
Pretty soon she will be accustomed to gunfire and associate it with fun/reward. Next you can walk her on-leash near the ranges, and continue until she's fully acclimated to gunfire. My dog's favourite place on this entire planet is the range. She starts to go nuts in the truck exactly one half-kilometre from the turnoff on the highway. If I keep driving past, she pouts for an hour. LOL
Great tip. I will definitely do this. I havn't researched how to get her used to the sounds yet, but I think this is a good one. I will also take the .22 out in the bush when I'm hiking with her and see how she reacts.
Dogs only for upland and waterfowl. No 'big game'. Page 21 of the MB Hunting Guide.
As to the OP's original question I'd recommend a Large Münsterländer. There are breeders in Saskabush.
The surest way to screw-up a good upland/waterfowl dog is to send him on deer and/or coyotes and/or coons etc... and vice versa... surely there are dogs out there that will do a passable job on everything (but nothing overly well)... but you will go through many thousands of dollars and years of heartache trying to create one... your safest and surest bet would be two dogs; a retriever (take your pick) and a hound (take your pick)... or any of the combo breeds that excel at either pursuit... IMO don't attempt what you originally envisioned.
I am not of the opinion that you bring a dog to the range to expose it to gun fire. The dog won't know 'why' and IMHO there is a greater chance the dog won't like gun fire...
What I have always done is find something the dog LOVES. For Nos, it was SUPER JUMPS and retrieving. So, when Nos was in mid jump, I would fire the 209 primer starter gun from about 50 meters away. He looked but didn't care & I was slowly able to close the distance. Now you can fire anything around Nos and he IMMEDIATELY looks for something to retrieve.
Here is a pic of Nos when he was young when we were doing just as described above. Oh, and he didn't always get to retrieve the dummy duck WHICH HE ABSOLUTELY LOVES & was saved for this exercise... So he REALLY digged the gunfire! Slow and steady wins this race with ANY dog and introduction to guns.
Cheers
Jay
What I have always done is find something the dog LOVES. For Nos, it was SUPER JUMPS and retrieving. So, when Nos was in mid jump, I would fire the 209 primer starter gun from about 50 meters away. He looked but didn't care & I was slowly able to close the distance. Now you can fire anything around Nos and he IMMEDIATELY looks for something to retrieve.
Here is a pic of Nos when he was young when we were doing just as described above. Oh, and he didn't always get to retrieve the dummy duck WHICH HE ABSOLUTELY LOVES & was saved for this exercise... So he REALLY digged the gunfire! Slow and steady wins this race with ANY dog and introduction to guns.
Cheers
Jay
Mount Sweetness
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Ontario
Do not bring a young dog to the range
Observe your pup around noises. Good chance pup is already cool with it. Harley was so curious and oblivious to noise he tried to smell the chain saw when it was fired up. Chain saw brakes are a wonderful thing. Follow previous advice of pick a training programme and follow it. Plan for success. If you want the dog to turn right on a hand signal, put them in a situation where they have to, then reward them when they do it. Repetition, repetition, repetition are the three most important things. They have the instincts, now you just have to get them to do it for you. If you run into a snag talk to an experienced trainer, usually a simple way out of it. Good luck.
- Location
- Manitoulin Island
I agree with not taking the dog to the range. The first German Shorthair I had from a pup was a male. He would run varying hare and deer. Had a totally different bay when running deer. A short wow-wow on hare and a deep Haroo-Haroo on deer. He would retrieve ducks, but drew the line at Canada Geese. We were hunting black ducks off an old beaver lodge in the swamp that we had to canoe to. He retrieved several ducks. When a goose flew over and I dropped it, he swam out around the goose and back to the lodge. He would point and retrieve grouse. The second shorthair I had from a pup was excellent on grouse, but wouldn't give tongue on deer. My third shorthair was an adult when I got her. I wouldn't do that again. She was gun shy. I took her to the range and she was so upset that we left. I had some success with her by leaving her in the truck and shooting grouse on the side of the bush roads. She would get excited when she saw the grouse and when I shot it she would retrieve when let out. Eventually she would hunt grouse, but never liked gun shots. A shorthair does not really have a warm enough coat for late season waterfowl. They are not comfortable in cold weather if out too long.
Hey Silverado, it worked for you & that's great! But I am of the opinion that there is no reason to take a pup to a range... I am of the belief that they need to be distracted doing something they love to ensure try don't develop gun shyness...
Cheers
Jay
I think most people - myself included - would agree. I started Ruby off by taking her into the bush and messing around with a .22 using Remington CBee's (amongst the quietest), then moved to Subsonics, then regular .22 LR and finally centerfire. But I never "practiced" with centerfire - she only heard it while we were hunting, but by that point she was fine with it. Now whenever I bring the rifle out she starts wiggling and grabbing her lead with excitement. She associates it with good times.
I didn't set out to have a dog (because I thought my circumstances would make it not fair to the dog,) but I ended up with one anyway (inherited.) He's an Attention Hound (Pomeranian/MiniaturePinscher) and a good hunter of mice and gophers but too excitable and willful to be trained for anything else. If I had thought I could get a dog I'd have chosen a better hunter of birds and then if I wanted more hunting capacity I'd have gotten another dog. I think if you can't be with the dog more often than not - i.e. if you leave it at home alone while you are out to work full-time, you ought to get more than one dog anyway. They are social animals.
For me, it was also a matter of wanting my dogs to like the range. They generally go everywhere with me, including to work every day.
We have a really nice, spacious range property here - about a quarter section plus our fallout pattern. It's a good place to hang out.
I should be clear that it was a couple of trips out there before the dogs were anywhere near gunfire at close distances. First couple of trips were playtime away from the firing lines, and in the truck in the parking areas. When it was obvious that the dogs didn't even raise an ear to the sound of shots "over that way", we moved on. My lab can be on leash right behind the rifle line and only wants to go for her run during target change time LOL.
I can also say this: the lab has spent a LOT of her life at the range, and around gunfire. She's almost 9 years old. She exhibits ZERO hearing loss that I can tell. By that I mean, if she is upstairs sleeping on her bed in the bedroom, and I open the cupboard in the kitchen where her treats are... she is charging down the stairs. Amazing.
What you're describing is a versatile hunting dog, as distinct from pointing, retrieving or flushing breeds. Versatile dogs are intended to do all three. Despite the names, German Wirehair and Shorthair Pointers are versatile breeds, as are some of the other ones mentioned in this thread. Jay posted a perfect summary of what a good versatile dog can do; what he's shown is exactly what versatile breeds are meant for! Draathaars will be counted under the GW breed on the NAVHDA site, that's why you don't see them listed separately.
If you go to http://www.navhda.org/registry/versatile-hunting-dog-breeds you can see the list of versatile breeds and go from there in researching which one might be right for you. I'm unaware of any that are intended to run deer, though many will certainly blood track in addition to pointing, retrieving and flushing.
They're great hunting companions, had a Small Munsterlander and now on to a Pudelpointer...
Best of luck!
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