Off season for the dogs

[ScreamingPotato]

My old girl is 11, so I started letting her up on the couch. That's about all she's doing til next December.

Momma took her for a walk around the neighborhood tonight, doggie came back looking like she ran a marathon. Hurts my heart a bit.

 

[GreenNDark Timber]

Year 1 - socializing, introduce them to tracking, birds, develop point, obedience.

Year 2 - obedience, force fetch, drags, tracking, search patterns in heavier cover, duck searches, begin working on steadiness

Year 3 - obedience, blood tracking, duck searches, heavy cover hunting, steady to wing and shot

Year 4 - enjoy your dog.

Year 5 - enjoy your dog

Year 6 - add a new puppy

Pretty good summary right here. I'm happy I'm in year 4 but already looking forward to year 6 (or maybe 5).

One book I'd recommend is "How to Help Gun Dogs Train Themselves" by Joan Bailey. It focuses on year 1 and the importance of letting them develop naturally. It was a great reminder for me to be patient and not force anything too early.

 

[loganwayne]

I've been following this thread for a little bit now and am wondering if folks here are following a training plan or just picking drills where the dogs need improvement?

I have a new pup coming at the end of July and have a couple pointing specific books that I've begun reading, but am curious as to how you all develop training plans for your dogs.

i have used the upland institute videos on two dogs now. They do a good job. But like others have said if you can find someone with more experience you and your dog are going to get better faster. That said every dog is different dont rush the dog they have a long life. ( this is something i have to step back and tell myself all the time) just because someones dog did it at 6 months doesnt mean yours should or that it will be a bad dog.

Build a pigeon loft and get some birds now, unless you have access to alot of wild birds. Bird dogs need alot of contacts with birds.

 

[Jason Snyder]

We traveled last week, so we worked in a lot of new training areas. Up until now I’ve been doing pretty much everything on ball fields with mowed grass. We used this as an opportunity to start working into heavier cover.

All of a sudden, she can’t just look for bumpers, she has to use her nose. The transition has actually gone really well. We also introduced the “hunt dead” command. She was searching for and finding bumpers in waist high grass and brush.



Today we did a rabbit drag in some forested area. I did this on an 30’ check cord to keep her speed down. She quickly picked up the rabbit and carried it back our start without issue.

After that I placed a blind ladder and then let her watch me drop the first one. This was some of the best work I’ve seen from her yet. She took the line, ran hard and then used her nose. She did a really nice job of casting and pushing out and found all four bumpers. This is the cover we were working in.

 

[Cant hit em]

I have friends doing an HRC test in washington next week so we did a mock Seasoned test today

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[TSAMP]

Caught birds today and couldn't help but take advantage of the cooler temps.

 

[jmez]

Nice day. Didn't get out of the seventies.

Sent from my moto g power 5G - 2023 using Tapatalk

 

[160andup]

Busy off season starting here in the next couple weeks. Added this little girl to the pack this week. Will be a fun summer and fall!

 

[Jason Snyder]

Nice day. Didn't get out of the seventies.

Sent from my moto g power 5G - 2023 using Tapatalk

My gosh those are gorgeous grasslands.

 

[Jason Snyder]

We transitioned to water this last week. Training got derailed by a pretty good bout of food poisoning/stomach virus, but we’re back on track.

Working on crossing water and searching the far bank. So far it’s going pretty well. Unfortunately the water I’m using is just a smidge too wide to throw bumpers across so I’ll have to start planting them and walking back around.

Lots of marked throws today with a few blinds in the mix. Good strong work, she’s a very good swimmer and is not displaying any tendency to drop the bumper as she comes out of the water.



Got a little pointing work in on the hike back to the pickup.

 

[TSAMP]

Chain gang. It's getting warm and letting the dogs cool off between training sessions is important. Don't stuff a hot dog in a crate.

 

[jmez]

Pretty hard to beat North and South Dakota if bird dogs are your thing!

 

[danhuntingmi]

For us off season ended Sunday. Still can't carry a gun, but at least the dog gets off a leash.

 

[KurtR]

A month and a few days will be chasing honkers . Still a few tests to run and have to make the decision if I am signing up for the grand in August to run in October

 

[TreeDog]

Been slacking on the summer training. Conditioning hikes for both of us have gone well though.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Went out last night for an hour. Planted a half dozen bumpers on the far bank that she couldn’t see. Took her around to the far side, threw one marked toss and sent her, did another, then sent her on four straight blinds.

Gave my old dog two of the blinds to clean up the bank and then gave her a double marked toss and sent her on both retrieves. Did this one more time and then called it. Super happy with how she’s pushing straight to the far bank and then searching.

For reference, it’s about 40 yards across at this point. I’ll start pushing her out to 50-60 in a couple of weeks.

 

[Cant hit em]

A month and a few days will be chasing honkers . Still a few tests to run and have to make the decision if I am signing up for the grand in August to run in October

Do it !!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[KurtR]

Do it !!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I really want to but not in the cards this year. Being a responsible adult sucks haha! Next fall its in nashville and i have a place to stay for free there so not having 9 days of hotel or air bb will save alot of money. On the plus side decided to run a double master in august and if we get two passed he gets his master title. Then its 100% hrc training for the grand.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Things are really starting to click. We’ve done true blind piles on land the last couple of days, working at 50-70 yards. I threw in a couple of wagon wheels for variety. Last night I planted a few bumpers in the forest and we worked the “hunt dead” command. We finished off today’s session by putting her in a down stay and throwing bumpers over her head, then sending her on retrieves and doing the same thing. The growth I’ve seen in the past two weeks is really amazing. 7 weeks till test day.

 

[Cant hit em]

Been focusing on water blinds , set of doubles then the blind


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro