Training the dog, next steps?

[mr.orange]

So I've been working with my girl, Callie. She's half beagle, half border-collie. Think of a beagle dog with a short hair black and white coat and that's her.

She's demonstrated repeatedly her love to fetch the tennis ball. Throw it 100 yards with the chuck-it, and she'll find it and run it hard back to you. For hours she'll do this and not tire out. When I had her out this year she wouldn't bring either pheasant back even though she had a hand in running one down and flushing it up, and pushing the second one until it popped up. So I put some remi pheasant scent on the tennis ball and within two dozen throws, she decided to tear the brand new tennis ball in half...hmmm.

Yesterday I introduced the canvas dummy in the house and she brought it happily back (lots of praise and treats given), and today I doused the dummy in the pheasant scent (what's in that stuff?), and took her outside. Well she introduced some new behaviours...

While she brought the canvas dummy back about 20 times (more treats), she decided that she didn't want to give it up a few times, and she never did that with the ball. And then she also showed signs of wanting to shake it a couple times.

So what should I do next? I was thinking of glueing some of the pheasant feathers from this year to the canvas dummy to make it look a little more 'real', and then transition to one of the rubberised pheasants I've seen at wholesale sports. Any other ideas?

 

[stevietangles]

if you can get a hold of a farm raised bird introduce her to it. if she has drive to retrieve dummies get a dead bird and entice her or tease her with it for a couple of seconds the throw the bird a couple of feet and allow her to fetch. there are hundreds of ways to introduce dogs to birds and guns. you can also tape a wing to the dummy. buy a book or jump on youtube. good luck.

 

[Turkeyslayer 1300]

Get a live pigeon and put it in a sock or in some panty hose. Have you introduced her to gun fire?

 

[Cinch]

What are you hoping to achieve with your dog? Are you planning to hunt upland or waterfowl? How about big game? Flusing, tracking or retriever? Do you want a dog that can handle? Your final goal for your dog will greatly determine what it will take to get there.

 

[Longshot]

The first step in training ANY dog for hunting(and otherwise) has to be 100% obedience.Without it you might as well not worry about the rest.Sounds like you still have some work to do and are getting a little ahead of yourself.