Author Topic: working help, complete starter upper!  (Read 1565 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Angels of Fur

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 815
  • Gender: Female
  • Alfie and Honey
working help, complete starter upper!
« on: March 23, 2009, 09:05:14 PM »
Hi, with Alfie's apparent High working drive, obsession with chasing birds and the fact his background of FTCH is outstanding, we are looking to start going to gun dog training, we dont want to work him and put him into trials but feel that training would be beneficial.

If we could get into working him and go beating then the OH would love that.

Alfie seems to be a natural learn, brilliant at recall, sit, stay etc, we need to work on his heal though.

But we have bought dummy's and throw into rough terrain etc etc to get him the feel for it, we have bought a whistle too. Now he is a year old we can get him into a gun dog club. they wouldnt take him before he was one?

Anyway we are yet to buy books but who better to ask then well experienced COL'ers

What are the general commands on the whistle?
My life is now complete.......cockers are my life

Offline Crazy Cocker Gang

  • Donator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2458
  • Jack, Flynn, Brie and baby seth xx
Re: working help, complete starter upper!
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2009, 09:28:02 PM »
I use 4pips recall, 2pips turn when quatering and 1pip for sit.
Chasing birds is really not a good thing for a working dog to be doing. It can be very hard to stop once its started, but not impossible.
I really like Joe Irving books.
Never let dummys be toys, dogs should enjoy finding and retrieving them but never be allowed to play with them. If Jack *finds* a dummy i have hidden for him he knows to immediatly bring it to me.
Also with dummys, get them to sit and then throw the dummy but dont let them go after it until you have sent them for it, again he needs to bring it straight back.
Introducing a whistleto his recall and sit shouldnt be difficult.
If you have a recall command allready give it and when Alfie is running towards you blow your whistle 4 times, they pick it up quickly.
To get him to sit on whistle we had our looking at us and gave the hand signal for sit with the whistle blast, again they soon associated it with sitting.

Offline Angels of Fur

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 815
  • Gender: Female
  • Alfie and Honey
Re: working help, complete starter upper!
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2009, 09:34:11 PM »
we only take the dummie out on rare occasions, we never use it in the house, and only throw into cover, maybe i should only introduce when we are at that stage?

Alfies instinct is to chase the birds, but as said when we recall, he comes running back. I have mastered the sit command by using a full hand signal, he can do this a few metres away now, so now i need to pip the whistle straight after hand signal and he sat?

Recall how many pips on whistle or a long sharp blow?

 
My life is now complete.......cockers are my life

Offline Crazy Cocker Gang

  • Donator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2458
  • Jack, Flynn, Brie and baby seth xx
Re: working help, complete starter upper!
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2009, 09:46:47 PM »
Get your whistle in before he sits. try and give your whistle blast then your hand signal a split second after it.
I do four short pips for recall. With a whistle most commands are a series of quick pips. Some people do use a long slow whistle blast for down.
I would first start with getting him to retreive his dummy properly before doing blind retrieves.
Get him to sit and throw the dummy, wait a few seconds then send him for it as hes nearly on top of it shout "lost." When he picks it up recall him straight away. Give him some fuss and take the dummy from him.

By saying lost Alfie will pick up he is the right area and close to the retreive so it helps when hes being sent for blind retreives in future training. You can tell the dog hes nearly on it and to start looking in a small area.

Hope that helps

Offline Nicola

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16455
  • Gender: Female
  • FTCh Caoimhe
Re: working help, complete starter upper!
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2009, 09:58:48 PM »
I use slightly different whistle commands but what you use doesn't really matter as long as you are 100% consistent in the commands and always use the same one to mean the same thing. I do multiple pips for recall, two short pips for changing direction, one long low blast for 'stop and look at me' and one long louder blast for 'stop, lie down and look at me'.

As Jack's Mum  has said if you do intend to work him then you can't ever let him chase birds, if he already does this it's going to be very hard to train it out of him, I've been there with Alfie and it took the better part of a year. To teach the stop whistle start at home by giving him the 'sit' hand signal you've taught him whilst simultaneously blowing the whistle and then do it in various environments and gradually up the distance from him and the level of distractions going on until he drops automatically when you blow the whistle no matter where he is or what's going on around him. This is the most important command a working dog has to know and it's vital that they are 100% on it.

Again as Jack's Mum says he should be steady to thrown dummies and should never run in for a retrieve until you release him - I don't know if you saw the videos I posted of Rodaidh the other day but there's a bit on there where I put him in a stay and walk around him throwing dummies over his head, picking them up myself and throwing them again before sending him to collect one which I point out to him - this is a great steadiness exercise. He also needs to bring it straight back and deliver it to hand. Start by getting the basics in place before trying to do blind retrieves etc.

Gundog Training Made Easy by Eric Begbie is a good, short book and I also like Joe Irving's stuff and Clicker Gundog by Helen Phillips. Hope you enjoy getting him into working training, it's great fun and he'll undoubtedly love it :D
Nicola, Tilly, Rodaidh and Caoimhe x



http://www.flickr.com/photos/30049807@N08/