Dogs & Dog Training
Anything hunting dog training.
She is coming up on 19 months so prey drive has become manageable. Duff you gave me an idea so I called a breeder/trainer in idaho who purchased a litter mate of mine. He says his girl has no issues, scored a 112 in Natural Ability. I know of 2 other full sisters (not litter mates) who scored 112. So my dogs issue does not seem to be widespread issue within my breeders plan. Frank in Idaho suggested to launch the bird much sooner and launch before I apply physical pressure to whoa. So will look at my training there.
For wild birds she does hesitate and Ive gotten some fine points from her though with youthful inconsistency. looking forward to see what she does in the coming season.
I was at Bong this weekend, strictly as a spectator. I have a 10 month old pup that I plan on running in Started next year, although I kind of wish I would have run her this weekend. I did watch my breeder run two of his dogs in Finished class. What a joy to watch his and the other dogs work their stuff in this class. Very disciplined dogs with obvious excellent training. Just watching them gets the adrenaline going to do more training and get out hunting!
On a side note, I hunt Bong a lot, so I went over to the area I hunt and walked back into some of the fields. Well, the grasses/weeds are extremely high this year as a result of the early rains. It's going to be hard to see your dog working in a lot of the areas. Time for the bell on the collar. I would much rather see my dog, especially this pup, at all times.
For the past few weeks Ive been really focusing on trying to bring out the point in my 16 month old Griffon. She seems to be missing that pointing gene :^) Using the Mo Lindley method with pinch collar with planted pigeons. Hard to tell if she is getting the message so its frustrating. I shot a pigeon for her today and she responded with a beautiful fetch. She is getting the hang of the fetch real well.
Now that the weather is starting to look a little more favorable we'll get back to training 3-4 days a week. It feels like it's been a long winter, only got out once a week or so to run blinds over winter so the older dog is a little heavy from sleeping in the sun all winter. It's gonna be a good summer, may run a test or 2 with the old workhorse that will be 6 in August, and the new pup turns 10 weeks old tomorrow. Not likely he's gonna see the blind this year, depends how fast he matures and if I can get him through swim by before the season starts. And I'm 3 weeks from heading down to Ainley to get my new truck kennel 
River, how old is your pup? He or she have all adult teeth now? What method are you using toe hitch, ear pinch..? Couple things right off the hip. IMO. change to a paint roller. Be stern and consistent. You're only going to get a couple seconds of a hold at first. And that's great. Work on it for five minutes, 2-3 times a day. It will all of a sudden click. But you will be picking the roller up a lot.
Ive been working on beginners force fetch with a 1 inch diameter cedar stick. The dog acts like she cant handle it, wants to spit it out, cant hold it blah blah blah, like a rebellious teenager. So when thats over I go split firewood and she is most able to steal 8 pound logs and carry them 200 feet away, then proceed to chew them to bits.
