I was bored, so figured to make a post about Tribby
Tribby is off to a professional trainer and seems to be doing well. She is a 2yr old King Llewellyn Setter and we decided to bite the bullet and get some professional help training her.
They are starting with a 4-wk obedience "off-leash" course, to sorta "tame her" a little. Right now, she is totally unmanageable, not her fault.. just had not ever taken her out for birds.
After that is done, we will spend a few weeks working her at the house to get her transitioned away from the trainer and back into life at home with what she has learned. Then, we plan to go back and start working on her gun-awareness (making sure she is okay with guns going off). They have a really good program, from what I have seen and heard, so letting them make sure it is done right, since I cannot do that as well by myself either and don't want to mess that up. they will also work on her retrieving ability.
Then, going to go find an upland trainer to help us come up with a plan to get her up to speed with upland birds.
No idea if we will get a chance to hunt them much, but she deserves to be trained on them.. and I hope to get some good training myself from folks that do this a lot more than me.
Here's a pic of her...
She likes sitting next to my desk when I am working heh (the uploader turned them sideways, sorry)
Hunting is easy..it's getting permission from your wife that is tough.
Hey Smokey - Agreed. One step at a time. I know we have some she "stalks" in the yard once in a while.. lol. I took pictures of them once when they were in the front yard when I got home one day. Now, they sorta just "pass through" once in a while and she gets the smell of them and goes nuts
R
Hunting is easy..it's getting permission from your wife that is tough.
Redmark Kennels in Lexington is handling the initial training. I searched the forums here and a few folks mentioned them in good standing. I also know a friend in Lexington and they personally recommended them, so that was good enough for us. They are handling the 1-month off-leash training.
After that, we will have to debate the next phase. I cannot locate anyone around me that is not a dang Lab trainer.. heh.. upland trainers are hard to locate... so.. not sure how I will handle the next phase as the Redmark place seems to be pretty dang pricey and since I have zero idea what or if I will even find places to hunt.. spending $2,800-$4,200 more for the next phases.. when they do not train Setters, upland.. they train Retrievers...not sure just yet... but.. the "next phase" they mentioned is $700 a month and it is 3-5 months
R
Hunting is easy..it's getting permission from your wife that is tough.
Rob Martin in east Texas has a good reputation for training pointing dogs.
Did a great job with my boy Jack
There is time, and you must take it, to lay your hand on your dog's head as you walk past him lying on the floor or on his settle, time to talk with him, to remember with him, time to please him, time you can't buy back once he's gone" GBE
There is time, and you must take it, to lay your hand on your dog's head as you walk past him lying on the floor or on his settle, time to talk with him, to remember with him, time to please him, time you can't buy back once he's gone" GBE
Check into NAVHDA.org for the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association chapter in your area. The one up here by me has monthly training days. Matter of fact we’re heading out to one this afternoon for a couple hours. We haven’t had any birds on my lease in several years and this is a great way for our dogs to get to do what they love most.
They make ammo specifically for hunting for a reason!
I went to a Perfection Kennels clinic this year. Dogs that had never seen a game bird, or been around gunfire were there. In 3 days they were conditioned to the ecollar, gunfire, and were shooting birds over them that they pointed. The kicker was they was most were also retrieving to hand. I had thought $1000 to bring a dog to a 3 day clinic was kinda pricey. But after seeing how much was trained over those three days, its a smokin deal. Its always cost me a lot more to send them off to training.
Shopping with your husband is like hunting with the game warden. Experience is what you get, when you didn't get what you wanted.
I trust professional dog trainers less than politicians. Do yourself a favor and learn to train your own dogs. You can accomplish in a few weeks what a paid trainer gets done in a few months. Every dog is different but those guys get paid by the month and not by the job.
quote=bill oxner]I've had a few PMs asking about my training method. I did this on another forum, so I still have the pictures in my album, so here goes;
All bird dogs point. The breaking process teaches them to hold point. There are two ways to teach a dog to hold point, with dozens of variations. The first way is to let the birds train the pups. That generally involves launchers and pigeons, with some whoa breaking mixed in. It's very effective. I use the Delmar Smith method, substituting the e-collar for the bump under the chin. My dogs are completely whoa broke before I put them on birds. I use pen raised quail, because I can be done with them for the summer. I like to start in August, and finish in time for hunting season.
I start off on the whoa post. I introduce the e-collar the same day, that I introduce the whos post. Here's cracker on her first day with the whoa post;
I keep them on the whoa post only until I can get out in front of them, and then go to the yard for heel and whoa. Cracker tended to sit, so I had to start with the suitcase hitch. I
go from the yard to longer walks. The pup has pretty well gotten it down after three weeks.
I then go from the walks to whoa in the field. Here's Cracker in the field in the field, before I put her on birds. This whole process has taken me around four weeks.
This is her first day on birds. I train alone, so I had to plant the bird, where I could wrap the CC around a bush. Notice the slack CC.
I kept her on the CC for three training days. She only went around on the bird one time. Here she is after 9 training flushes.
I started walking some of the birds out after a few days. Here you go;
A little side note. My birds were not recalling all that well, so I used Cookie to point them while I netted them;
A lot depends on the pup, and you have to adjust for each pup. Cracker has never taken out a single pointed bird or covey. [/quote]
Quail hunting is like walking into, and out of a beautiful painting all day long. Gene Hill