Sending dog to a trainer

[TonyG]

It’s definitely tough to send a pup away when you’re in the honeymoon phase for the first 10 months. The first pup I sent away for two months was tough but make a time to go visit once or twice on a weekend for an hour or two.

It really depends on how much time you have to spend with the dog for training and bonding. I see a couple people in here talking about taking the time to train yourself. Is it possible? Absolutely…. Some dogs are born naturals with genetics and just need time on wild birds out in the field as well their first year as well as some mild to moderate training.

At the same time there are dogs that need training every single day to get them to your satisfaction with their abilities. Everyone is different. A lot of people do not have the time or resources for daily training (birds, launchers, etc…) If you are already spending $1,000-$2,000 on a pup this is where trainers come into a huge benefit if you are having a hard time teaching something and can’t get it to stick

They can diagnose and put a plan together for the issues they see. Some of those trainers have trained thousands of dogs. They are gonna have an answer and the best chance at helping vs. the average joe. This is not saying it can’t be done in your own and not discrediting anyone that does. It’s all a personal preference. I’ve done both options and it really depends on how the pup does the first year before I would send to a trainer.

Check out the upland institute if you’re hunting upland and want to train yourself!

Best of luck!

 

[loganwayne]

I have been using upland institute. Have launchers, pigeons easy access to flight ready quail. I just don't have the time in winter for the bird work. Twice a week is about all I can get in. The trainer I would use does training twice a day for 6 weeks. That is a whole lot more bird contact and work than I can do in that time and the main reason I want to send her off

 

[qwerksc]

All my dogs love “bird camp” they will never forget you or miss you, the dog is just out having the most fun ever, when we go to pick em up or weekly training, the dogs want to show you what they learned.
Yes, you will miss the pup, but, the early, birds, guns and fun, will be huge for the young dog.
The wife and kids will understand soon enough, get them involved in training and hunt tests field trials, all the hunting dog games, good for everyone.

 

[TonyG]

What kind of training? Obedience? I have always laughed at guys who send hunting breeds to learn how to hunt or retrievers to learn how to retrieve. If you are have to pay a trainer to teach your dog how to retrieve or a pointer how to find and point birds, you are buying dogs with poor genetics. All I have ever trained my dog is general obedience and e collar conditioning. I didn’t even know guys sent their pointers to trainers to teach them how to point until a few years ago. I am chuckling to myself as I type this because of how ridiculous it all sounds.

I’d have to disagree with you here sir. Doesn’t matter how good of genetics you have in a pointer they’re not robots.

Plenty of dogs with top end genetics need to be steadied better, force fetched, and backing trained.

Yes, there’s dogs that don’t need any training other than obedience and wild birds, but that’s not every dog. Trainers are around for and they can help tremendously with areas of issues needing to be fixed.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

I’d have to disagree with you here sir. Doesn’t matter how good of genetics you have in a pointer they’re not robots.

Plenty of dogs with top end genetics need to be steadied better, force fetched, and backing trained.

Yes, there’s dogs that don’t need any training other than obedience and wild birds, but that’s not every dog. Trainers are around for and they can help tremendously with areas of issues needing to be fixed.

I know three people who have sent their bird dogs to different trainers and every single one came back gun shy.

 

[qwerksc]

What do you want out of the dog? Meat dog? Or finished master hunter?
Big difference. I’m somewhere in between, love the game, love the hunt, but, most of all, love the dogs..

 

[KurtR]

I know three people who have sent their bird dogs to different trainers and every single one came back gun shy.

What are those trainers names so people can avoid them. You have to seriously f up to make a dog gun shy . On the other hand I know of and have seen hundreds of dogs sent to trainers who are not gun shy and run at the grand and also have fc’s.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

What do you want out of the dog? Meat dog? Or finished master hunter?
Big difference. I’m somewhere in between, love the game, love the hunt, but, most of all, love the dogs..

A finished master hunter doesn’t do any better on wild birds than a dog with excellent genetics. A lot of stuff they teach pointers are ridiculous. For example, steady to wing and shot is great unless you wing one. Particularly with pheasants, they are a few hundred yards away by the time you release your dog on a retrieve. All my dogs were initially trained that way, which is fun on pen raised birds, but it makes for a long retrieve and some no recovery situations on wild ones.

Look, if thats what you are into as a hobby and you are training your own dogs and testing them, thats cool. If you are sending your hunting dog to be trained by someone else to be a better hunting dog, your wasting money. Just buy a better dog. Just my opinion. Don’t really care if you agree or not.

I don’t hunt waterfowl and am not into labs, so maybe you can train a crappy lab to retrieve better?

 

[qwerksc]

A finished master hunter doesn’t do any better on wild birds than a dog with excellent genetics. A lot of stuff they teach pointers are ridiculous. For example, steady to wing and shot is great unless you wing one. Particularly with pheasants, they are a few hundred yards away by the time you release your dog on a retrieve. All my dogs were initially trained that way, which is fun on pen raised birds, but it makes for a long retrieve and some no recovery situations on wild ones.

Look, if thats what you are into as a hobby and you are training your own dogs and testing them, thats cool. If you are sending your hunting dog to be trained by someone else to be a better hunting dog, your wasting money. Just buy a better dog. Just my opinion. Don’t really care if you agree or not.

I don’t hunt waterfowl and am not into labs, so maybe you can train a crappy lab to retrieve better?

Games and hunting, not the same. Find the best genes ya can, do what ya want. Love yer dog. I’m not a lab guy either.

 

[JjamesIII]

A lot of good clinics you can download and walk you through training yourself. If it was a problematic dog, I think that’s where a good trainer shows his skills and should step in. Otherwise, I would find a reputable program that suits your style and have a good time strengthening your bond with the pup.

 

[TheGDog]

What I never understood... is why folks send their dogs to another person to perform the training. When you own a dog, training is really a 24/7 thing. The question in my mind is, why wouldn't a person, instead, research and learn about the progression of training that's typically performed to achieve the desired outcome and functionality you desire in your animal.... FIRST.... and I mean really understand it from a Pavlovian conditioning perspective.

Otherwise... there is a high likelihood of you the owner, sort of "undo'ing" a lot of the conditioning.
A DAMN LOT of training a dog is actually re-training that HUMAN to be consistent in what they will demand from the dog behaviourly.

Also.... training is something the whole family unit has to get set hip to. Ya see it all the time... 1 member of the fam puts in a lot of work and repetition to initially get the conditioning in there... but then like person X or Y within that same home EFF's the training all up by not reinforcing it, usually unintentionally just because they don't understand how training/conditioning works. (And yes, I presume these trainers will also at the very least show you and give you some training on how to continue the work they've initially done. But if the main owner person doesn't fully grasp how training works, it's very easy for them to "undo" some conditioning that's already in there by them not being consistent in what they demand from that pet once they get'em back.

 

[khart_6882]

A finished master hunter doesn’t do any better on wild birds than a dog with excellent genetics. A lot of stuff they teach pointers are ridiculous. For example, steady to wing and shot is great unless you wing one. Particularly with pheasants, they are a few hundred yards away by the time you release your dog on a retrieve. All my dogs were initially trained that way, which is fun on pen raised birds, but it makes for a long retrieve and some no recovery situations on wild ones.

Look, if thats what you are into as a hobby and you are training your own dogs and testing them, thats cool. If you are sending your hunting dog to be trained by someone else to be a better hunting dog, your wasting money. Just buy a better dog. Just my opinion. Don’t really care if you agree or not.

I don’t hunt waterfowl and am not into labs, so maybe you can train a crappy lab to retrieve better?

There’s one on every post…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JjamesIII]

Games and hunting, not the same. Find the best genes ya can, do what ya want. Love yer dog. I’m not a lab guy either.

Genetics are the foundation of what your building on. Training is the frame work. I wouldn’t start out with investing time and money on unknown/unproven genetic traits because I’m not an expert trainer. It’s hard enough to train to high standards, so I’ll take every advantage I can. Sure, you can get a random pup with unproven traits and excel, but I’m spending more money hedging my bets that I’ll have the dog I love perform how I want in the next 10-12 years.

Hunt test and field trials are good sources of data for breeding. Otherwise I think they suck because it’s become a game with its own set of objectives. They refer to a good hunting dog as a just a “meat dog” like it’s a bad thing. We should refer to their dogs as “agility dogs” or the like. Launch bumpers all day long or whatever “lab guys” do, but my goal is to have the best hunting dog I can. Ribbons and plastic cups won on silly games mean absolutely nothing.

 

[KurtR]

Genetics are the foundation of what your building on. Training is the frame work. I wouldn’t start out with investing time and money on unknown/unproven genetic traits because I’m not an expert trainer. It’s hard enough to train to high standards, so I’ll take every advantage I can. Sure, you can get a random pup with unproven traits and excel, but I’m spending more money hedging my bets that I’ll have the dog I love perform how I want in the next 10-12 years.

Hunt test and field trials are good sources of data for breeding. Otherwise I think they suck because it’s become a game with its own set of objectives. They refer to a good hunting dog as a just a “meat dog” like it’s a bad thing. We should refer to their dogs as “agility dogs” or the like. Launch bumpers all day long or whatever “lab guys” do, but my goal is to have the best hunting dog I can. Ribbons and plastic cups won on silly games mean absolutely nothing.

Dog s that run tests can dogs that just hunt can’t . There is never been a dog that has competed at the top that won’t do everything meat dog will and do it better. I hear the same bullshit I don’t need a field trial dog. Don’t worry you won’t you don’t have the dog with the talent or the knowledge on how to make an all age dog.

 

[KurtR]

A finished master hunter doesn’t do any better on wild birds than a dog with excellent genetics. A lot of stuff they teach pointers are ridiculous. For example, steady to wing and shot is great unless you wing one. Particularly with pheasants, they are a few hundred yards away by the time you release your dog on a retrieve. All my dogs were initially trained that way, which is fun on pen raised birds, but it makes for a long retrieve and some no recovery situations on wild ones.

Look, if thats what you are into as a hobby and you are training your own dogs and testing them, thats cool. If you are sending your hunting dog to be trained by someone else to be a better hunting dog, your wasting money. Just buy a better dog. Just my opinion. Don’t really care if you agree or not.

I don’t hunt waterfowl and am not into labs, so maybe you can train a crappy lab to retrieve better?

What’s a finished master hunter?

 

[qwerksc]

I've been working with her for several months and her progressed had slowed some. So this morning I decided I'd shot a few for her. She's been gun conditioned. Well I think her watching it bust and then shot she finally put it together and I saw some pretty good improvement this morning.

Something that I gotta work on is she doesn't want to retrieve a dead bird she just goes and points it again. I think some more time with birds and she will figure it out.

French Brittany?

 

[Irish Miner]

What’s a finished master hunter?

It's a real thing. The dog usually has ribbons to show for it.

 

[loganwayne]

French Brittany?

Yes. She's our third

 

[qwerksc]

Yes. She's our third

I have two of them. Dark nose kinda gives it away.
Where did ya get her from?

 

[loganwayne]

I have two of them. Dark nose kinda gives it away.
Where did ya get her from?

Stephen's gun dogs out of Alabama. Both her parents are European imports.