savageshooter565 said:
Thanks all for the help. I have ordered Gun Dog by Wolters. Welcome and thank you Brian.
By the way have you guys checked out
http://www.abebooks.com/ what a great site. Every book under the sun for dirt cheap.
What command to you guys use for left and right or do you use "left" "right"
or just hand/arm movements?
Thanks again.
SS
Thanks Savageshooter,
I used hand signals for my Golden, (arm really). I duck hunted on Lake Huron and with the wind blowing he'd not have heard me. After a bit of training your dog will be looking back constantly for your command. The whistle is good but if the wind is wrong he'll never hear it.
I've taken this over to my Brit's training and he knows sit, come and over hand signals now. At three years he's just now settling down. He's the first dog I've needed a shock collar for but now the wearing of it is all that is needed without having to enforce commands.
One thing Wolters and others expect is you'll have a helper for dummy tossing. I've never had much help and found the dummy launchers to be a great help. The sound of the report and ability to get them out alot farther than you can throw helps.
Making training a fun time and ending with success before the dog is bored has been key to me in training.
When I lived in a sub with a fenced in yard I invented a good training game for a retriever. I'd put Alex, (what a name for a Golden), on a sit and stay and walk to the hiding spots available and pretend to hid the dummy keeping it hidden from him. I'd stash it behind one and come back to him and release him. I'd let him search for it and sometimes give him a whistle blast to get him to sit and direct him by hand signal where it was. Since my scent was everywhere he had to go by visual to find it like finding a duck.
Sometimes I'd leave him indoors for the hiding and put a couple out there even hanging one a couple feet up in a tree. He loved the game and did well duck hunting.
We both retired from duck hunting a few years back when our hunting partner moved south. We did buy his house and ten acres and the dogs and I have enjoyed working the resident pheasants here.
Alex went and got old on me and we had to put him down last summer. He now rests under his favorite crab apple tree,( the old house was on Crabtree Lane no less), with his favored throwing dummy and a pair of my old socks he'd love to drag out of the hamper and bring to me.
My wife, Brittany (Ruger) and I miss him dearly these days. As we got a few inches of fresh snow last night I'll be taking Ruger out to stretch his legs in a little while. Every trip out back is more training for us both and help us learn to work as a team. Hopefully this little guy will get to the point where Alex would do what I was just thinking about or almost it seemed.
As you can see I get long winded most especially talking dogs.
