Dave Walker Seminar

We had the Hall of Fame dog trainer Dave Walker down to instruct another seminar this past week. It’s always a great feeling to see him work dogs in a non abrasive manner. Dave’s calm demeanor and patience with the dog goes a long way in his training methods. Dave truly has the six sense for working dogs. They dogs  naturally become his friend in a short one on one session. It’s like Dave talks to them with ever saying a word. We got two great days of instruction. From teaching dogs to hold point, to turn on command, here command, honoring another dogs point, and retrieve. It was a packed day with clients and there dogs. We had all types of different breeds. German Shorthair Pointer, English Pointer, German Whirehair Pointer, Griffon, French Brittany, and American Brittany.  Dave makes time to work each dog with the owner so they get a hands on training. I learn more each time he works a dog.

This past week I had the great opportunity to visit Ben Garcia from Hideaway kennels. He gave us some great tips on how to take our training program to the next level. One lesson I have learned in life is you can never stop learning. He are some shots of a great week.

Working Bandit

We worked all breeds of dogs at all different ages. Here is a Bandit a 7 month old Brittany we worked him on standing some of his birds. We used a check cord but with a very soft touch.

Bull on bird intro

One of the simple small things you can do with puppies that has a huge impact later on is to introduce them to birds at a young age. Introducing them to birds at a young age will help build there confidence and drive. Ben showed us some tips that will help teach the pup to not only build his drive but teach him to return to you.  This drill helped the pup build hunting drive, return to you when called, and took some of the chase out.  Great drill accomplishing three things in one session.

Here Ben Garcia and I talked about teaching a dog whoa. Ben uses the whoa post method to convey the message to the dogs. The whoa post is all about timing and teaching the dog to stand still. Unlike most people we didn’t  put as much pressure on the dogs as is normally seen when using the whoa post. This made me fill even better about the process than before. While teaching whoa as this level Ben stops all other training and focuses intently on whoa.

Scout Pointing a bobwhite Quail

We currently have Rick White’s dog Scout back in for training. Scout spent a couple of months with us last fall and we got him trained so Rick could take him hunting. Now Rick has brought him back for us to finish whoa braking him and to polish so of his training. Scout’s sister just won a NSTRA trial a couple of weeks ago here in Utah. She is only a year old and she won the A field hands down. Were excited to see what Scout will do in the upcoming NSTRA event. The Best of the West trial to be held in Lehi Utah.

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!