Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 4:30 pm Post subject: Hunting
Can anyone give me some pointers on where to start with Chesters 'hunting/finding', as so far we haven't trained in any type of cover.
I want to start things 'right' so as opposed to me just trundling on 'my way' and hopefully getting there in the end, I thought I would ask first
Out walking today I came across a great place for training with plenty of cover.. and will be taking him there at the weekend, and have bullied OH into coming with me to help (dummy thrower)
Should I get my blind retrieves 100% on flat/clear land before trying cover? Or can I just go straight in?
I haven't introduced a 'hunt/find' whistle as of yet and I don't think he is ready for that yet, or should they go hand in hand from the start?
His marked and memory retrieves are now 100% (delivery sometimes poor)
presumabley uve introduced the words there or lost to his marked retrieves to give him confidance when he is in the correct area but maybe questioning himself that he has actually marked correctly?
oh course that is my own personal novice experience, if you have, i just started chucking dummies into thick cover and giving him the there command and he hunted till he found the dummy, then started increasing the distances
im sure some one far more experienced will say im talking bobbins and you should do it another way
I used to send him out by using my hand in front of his head, and my command was 'go find'... followed by 'find' if he needed any help in remembering.. then after meeting with for a training session, I changed my sending out command to 'Chester out' so not to confuse him.
So technically, I don't have a 'find/hunt' command as of yet, as never 'really' needed one, as haven't done any blinds in cover, only open and flat, so he has never really used his nose to find them.
When he drops the dummy near me, as opposed to delivery to hand, I said 'find' and he would then pick up and bring to hand. Not sure if I should be doing that or not to be honest..
ive always tried to work the opposite way round, i want my dog to get his nose down and use it, too much time spent on grass like bowling lawns encourages as u may find out that they use their eyes too much and forget that wet thing on the end of there faces, there or lost is not really a command as such but more an encouragement that hes in the right area now get your nose down and find it.
it may help to scent your dummies with a dead rabbit in your game bag for a couple of days or if abit squemish scent can be bought that you inject into the dummy, but you sound like you are doing really well so keep up the good work,
I'd start by giving marks into cover, gradually building up the density and difficulty of the cover. He needs to get his confidence first.
Then progress to memories and then on to blinds, at a pace dictated by his progress. You may need to go back a few stages with blinds as the cover will have an impact on the quality of his straight lines and send him off course.
A tip i've picked up from the forum is the magic corner to help build confidence. So you use the same corner of a field for say a memory retrieve, always putting the dummy in the same spot and gradually building up the distance for the retrieve.
Then sessions later you move onto just a blind, but the dog has confidence that there will be something there and you have the natural barrier of say a hedge to channel him into the corner and not over shoot. Does that make sense? It should work with a flat grass or corner with cover.
I hope I explained it correctly
I did too many blinds early on (way before teaching anything 'find' was our fun game) and have had to reel back as I pretty much had a dog that wanted to work alone and hunt constantly ignoring my arm signals
Thanks Sarah, makes sense.. will give that a go as well.... My 'blinds' are never really true blinds, if you know what I mean, as I train alone. I try to be as sneaky as I can, but he always knows exactly where they are..
If your dog has really done nothing in cover then I wouldnt worry too much about the hunt command whistle yet. To start with I would just increase the level of cover very gradually, so that the dummy is easily found. The biggest priority is that he learns to hunt, and gets confidence in his own ability. I feel if you introduce a hunt whistle in the very early stages you could get him too reliant on you.
Ideally these early retrieves should be sufficiently straightforward that he doesnt need to hunt for too long before being successful.
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