Ain’t there yet? Neither is your dog!
You’ve arrived expecting to see your dog locked-up and standing strong on birds, but it’s not and the situation is out of control. Why?
A common problem and honestly it’s not the dogs fault.
Thoughts & Tips:
- Most pointing dogs will automictically stop and stand on birds BUT will they remain standing and for how long?
- If your dog is a big runner and will not hold birds until your arrival. I would suggest setting boundaries to advance control & trust.
- If your dog regularly busts birds and will not hold point or stand, I would recommend going back to basic ‘standing’ training and add numerous distractions to enforce “NO moving until released.”
- Your bird dog needs to understand the Whoa command (verbal & non-verbal) and STOP on a dime.
- When your dog is standing/on-point the dog should not move – there’s situations that a dog will slightly-creep (stealth mode) to get into better scent zone or tracking a running bird – this is OK – just NO busting or chasing. You need to read situations that requires ZERO movement when standing -vs- allowing to track moving birds. Are you reading your dog correctly?
- The dog should only move/release when you give it your Release command. Master your Release command.
- Don’t allow crowding and enforce this during training.
- Control your dogs range without shutting it down. Control patterns and know how to enforce them.
- What are your hunting traits? Does your dog understand and acknowledge your style of hunting?
- A GPS or Tracker collar is a tool that should be considered when hunting.
- Allows monitoring and tracking of movement.
- Improves your capabilities to control problem situations.
- What if it’s too windy and verbal commands are not heard or your dog is out of sight.
- How do you control a dog that you can’t see? hmmmm
ref; Breaking Bad, April 2022
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