Maggie German Whirehair Pointer

Gun dog training is a passion we have here at Best Gun Dogs. Here is a 6 month old German Wirehair Pointer that we are introducing to birds. Starting dogs young and getting them introduced to birds is a vital step to getting your bird dog to utilize his natural abilities. Bird Introduction is one of the 7 areas we focus on in our training program. We like to take our time to introduce young dogs to birds. Make sure it’s an enjoyable experience, keep things fun, let pup get a good nose full of scent, move the bird to get his attention, and toss the bird to let him watch it fly away.  By letting the puppy smell and see the bird, being careful not to let the bird hit the dog with a wing. You will get his senses firing and his natural bred hunting skills will take over. Bird introduction is a huge part of training don’t miss this critical time as a puppy to get the dog more than interested in birds get him excited about birds.

English Pointer Emma

This is Emma, one our few English Pointers in our kennel. She was sired by National Champion Attitudes High Finance. Emma has been such a pleasure to have in our kennel. She is almost completely a finished dog. Here I took a picture of her pointing a Bob White Quail. We are working on her staying steady through distractions,  so I got up real close in her face. She held this point for several minutes while I got to her with the setter in the back ground teaching him to honor. We are just adding some polishing touches on Emma’s training. Some of Emma’s strengths are her natural desire to retrieve and natural bird finding abilities. She has even retrieved to me some shed horns of deer and elk. She is quite in the kennel and on the chain. She also has a real sweet personality. Not real big in size either. Great things do come in small packages and Emma is proof of that!

Luke on Point

Luke is one of our up and coming stud dogs at Best Gun Dogs! He is only a year old and is showing he has what it takes to hunt wild birds. Not only has he pointed, retrieved, and honored naturally he is great to have around the house. He never barks unless something is amiss. He is very gentle with my boys Kobe (3) and  Kyson(1).  From the day he got of f  the plane at 6 months of age he has been ahead of the curve.  We are excited to see him grow through this season and watch his progress.  As most Dixieland Breed dogs he was born a bird dog!

Emma and Lucy

Emma

Lucy

Meet the English pointer side of our kennel. Emma is the white and black female. She is a Attituide High Finance breed dog. The orange and white dog is Lucy she is a Elhew breed dog. Both are doing really well in there training and have been a joy to work with. They both retrieve well. Hold there points and are so much fun to work with. I lost them for a few minutes yesterday. When I came around the corner this is what I found! It still takes my breath away when you seen a dog on point.

working on retrieving

Recently we have had a few dogs which have been overworked on retrieving. These dogs have started to get sloppy in there retrieves. We have one German Shorthair Pointer that the owner says he can play fetch for hours with.This seems all fine and great, yet can translate into sloppy retrieves on birds. The dog may like to roll the bird in it’s mouth, drop it at your feet, drop it a few feet short, or not even want to retrieve at all. When working on teaching your dog to retrieve make sure to start young with a sock or something easy for the pup to pick up. Keep the sessions short 3 retrieves then quit. Keep the dog wanting more and more. Try to work the pup in an area with no distractions and where bringing it back to you is an easy route. Work pup two or three times a week. Don’t over do it. If pup doesn’t want to retrieve don’t worry about it we can correct this later. Keep your sessions short and sweet. Make retrieving a reward. Even when we advance to live birds and are training the dog extensively we only let the dog retrieve about every 5th bird or so. Make the retrieve a reward for handling the bird correctly. Don’t over do it!

Here is a picture of Griff. Griff is a two- year- old Wirehaired Griffon. He has been with us for a few weeks and is starting to point and retrieve. He has been a lot of fun to train. Griff has a ton of personality and is very vocal. He will let you know when he is having a good time or not. My little boy loves to play with him and thinks that he is funny looking! (I guess he is use to shorthairs). I have been impressed with Griff’s bird drive and eager to please personality. I found some good information at the American Whirehaired Pointing Griffon web site http://awpga.com/

Griff Pointing

Here’s a quick tip to keep your dog happy and enjoy retrieving. Reward before you take. What I mean is a lot of us have the tendency to grab the bird from the dog when he first brings it back. Don’t do this! When working your dog on his retrieving send the pup on  a retrieve, but when he brings the object back reward him first. You could reward him by petting him on his head and rubbing him down his spine or patting his side to let him know a job well done. Also, a cheerful “thata boy/girl” will help boost the dogs confidence. Then you can take the object from him. Don’t take the bird from him right away. Let him know that you are happy that he brought you the bird and then give him the release command. This is really important when working with young dogs or dogs that haven’t had the chance to retrieve many birds. A pup will realize that you are glad he brought you the bird and will encourage the dog to continue to retrieve. If you take the bird right away this can lead to the dog wanting to either not bring the bird, play tug of war, or even make it so the dog wants to play a game of keep away (come get me boss). So keep this in mind while working on fetch. Make sure you keep it fun at first. Make it a reward for the dog to get to fetch a bird and when he does reward him when the bird is brought to hand.

Here I'm petting Sasha before I take the bird

The past few weeks I have been doing some research on some of the best dog trainers in the country. There are to many to name here and everyone has there own preference but I did learn a few important things during my research.  First every trainer out there has a system. He doesn’t go out in the field and just wing it. If you want to be successful at training more than one dog you can’t just wing it. Second thing I realized was that almost every one of them had years of experience, talking with most of them I found out that almost everyone of them had made mistakes before. The first dog they trained didn’t turn out to with the National Championship.  Ha imagine that! Third I discovered the importance of time. To believe you can train a dog to be whoa broke in a week is absurd! Dogs learn by repetition so even though there are lots of tools and equipment to help you be effective you still have to spend the time. Fourth and last. Just because you taught a dog something doesn’t mean you don’t have to continue to work him on that lesson. For example pro athletes still have spring training. If you learn a foreign language and don’t use it for three years you won’t remember everything. Same thing with dog training you can’t teach the dog something put it in the kennel for 9 months and then take it out hunting and expect the dog to work flawlessly. It just doesn’t work that way. The dogs need there reps just like any other athlete or professional.   So what does this mean to you.  If you don’t have the time and resources to get your dog trained the way that you would like and your looking for a trainer. Keep a few things in mind. Ask him for referrals, ask about his system, ask about the amount of time spent with the dog and make sure he has some experience. Good hunting and good training.

A few days ago I had a conversation with a friend here in Utah about bird dogs and training bird dogs. We talked a lot about different training methods, which we thought was the best method for training dogs. We talked about the different uses of the shock collar and bird launchers. If you should or shouldn’t  use electronic launchers, pigeons, shock collars, leads, pinch collars, wild birds, and much more. We even talked about different dog trainers here in Utah. After much debate we did agree on a few things that we felt were truly important.  The thing we agreed on the most was that there are a lot of different bird dogs. Some you can train quick, some slow. Some can retain a lot of different things at once others not so much. So to say that there is one sure fail method way to train every different breed and kind of bird dog is simply not true. For example I  own a young female Brittany, and if I so much raise my voice in the wrong tone she will start to cower from me and start to shut down. With other dogs that I have owned you could yell tell you were blue in the face and the dog didn’t care. What I’m trying to say is simply this. Every dog is a little unique and you have to be able to understand what the dog is telling you with his body language and the way he reacts to certain stimulation. This will help you mold the dog the correct way. So when the time comes you work as a team and have an enjoyable time in the field. Nothing can surpass experience. Years of training and being around dogs will continue to help you understand what’s happening with you and your dog. One thing is certain no matter the breed or dog there isn’t anything quite like watching a good dog work birds and put birds in the bag. Good hunting and Good training.

I get asked quite frequently if I use shock collars in my training methods? My answer is always yes! Before you get all worked up about the use of shock collars and the way in which they are used let me help you understand what I mean. The shock collar if used correctly is nothing more than a long checkord. If you first teach the dog what it is your are asking it to do then you can simply reinforce these commands with the collar if the dog doesn’t respond. For example we teach all of our dogs to come on the command here. We teach this by taking the puppies on lots of walks and when there real young we even carry a treat once in a while to reward them for coming when called. As they get older we clip a 20 foot lead on the dog and keep walking him everyday. When you call him and he doesn’t want to come then you will give a little tug on the cord and maybe pull him in if you have to. Well pup gets the idea after a while and when you call him and tug on the cord here he comes. He has learned the command. At this point don’t take the checkord off just yet you need to introduce the shock collar to the pup the right way. Now you are going to put him in full dress shock collar and checkord and go for a walk. When you tug on the rope you are going to give a little nick on the collar on the lowest setting and do this for a week or so. The dog is associating the shock with the tug and a few weeks down the road you can take pup for a walk with out the rope and just the shock collar. Keep in mind don’t introduce the shock collar around birds. Let the dog know exactly what you are asking him to do before you ever use the shock stimulation to re reinforce the command. Used this way there isn’t a more important tool on the market to keep a dog true to what he has been taught to do.