Teaching to go further away to search

[joanne_v]

I've started doing basic gundog work with Krum and he's picked it up amazingly well and has made it very easy for me! However I cant seem to get him to search further away than about 15ft from me if its a hidden retrieve. He's fine if he see's where I throw something. I have tried to build up the distance but we've hit a plateau. Can I teach a 'go back' command or how can I improve on this in another way? He is getting there with left and right using hand signals but unless I move forward to point him in the right direction he cant find the dummy.

Also at the moment I use either 1/2lb dummies or a squeaky duck toy, he far prefers the duck toy. He isnt keen on the 1lb rabbit skin dummy. Are there any proper gundog phessie dummies or is this fine for now? For quartering I use small biits of treats or loo rolls as he loves picking them up!

[babushka]

We use canvas dummies with phessie wings tied on.

[millrace]

you could try this for distance, firstly get down to dogs height and see what they see gives you insight into what they view when a dummy is thrown,,,,using canvas dummy add some pheasant scent if you wish,,sit dog at heal on lead call mark and throw dummy out, now both walk forward and find dummy lift and walk back,can all be on lead,repeat few times then do off lead starting with short distance and build up to longer therefore learning a longer retrieve also rem to always hunt downwind for hidded retrieve increases chance of finding,,,

simple back command,,,,,,,on laneway or path drop dummy at side call mark and then continue walking,turn call mark and send for retrieve while shouting back againing increasing distance and dog associates word back with the running back to get dummy,,,if that makes cence...lol you may have read bout the three card trick for going back recon this is waste of time great to show off with but not of much use in the field,,this is much simplier back...

just rem a cocker aint a lab and therefore they dont do hundred yard retrieves and personally i dont want mine to either.... leave those for the lab men on the shoot.......

[Annette]

When we did our fun gundog training we had a sort of fenced in alley thing. We stood at the open end and threw the dummy or ball or whatever down to the end. I think we did this without the dog seeing where it went, but it was along time ago.

Then we released the dog and sent it "back" with voice and hand signal, and off they went in the only direction they could (except the pesky ones who fancied a good run around the field instead! )


Not sure if that helps much as it was only fun training aimed at gundogs. But the trainers were experienced at working their dogs so I guess they were doing it "properly"

[joanne_v]

Thanks for the tips, will give the back command a go.

[DLK]

It a shame that some people dont want their cocker to retrieve like a lab because they can.  I run competitions for working dogs and I have seen cockers win hands down on blinds against the lab men.

The idea of the 3 card trick is to have control, and I feel is not just for show so sorry to disagree.

To get the dog to hunt out past its comfort zone "15 feet"

In an ideal world we should hunt into the wind if we have a dog that is not pulling out.  NB if you have a dog that pulls out of range it is a good idea to have your back to the wind.

When getting the dog to quarter get a dead rabbit or bird and tie a line to it, drag the game across the floor as wide as you need the dog to go.  Dont worry if you go quite wide because you want your dog to drift out.  When you turn with the game leave a retrieve there a ball, dummy or what ever works for you.  Dont be to keen on the whistle to turn the dog back in.

Try this see if it gets your dog out.  Previously on a post i wrote about how to train the go back command have a look at it to see if your getting it right.