Certainly not your normal training grounds.
I've been working Vizsla littermates on the check cord and transitioning them to the electric collar out in the field.
 But.
They are both super super visually oriented and bird crazy and the field I train in has a huge amount of songbirds in it right now.
If I try to transition them from the check cord to the collar right now it might be a bit of a train wreck because I am positive they would have a tremendous amount of visual chase for those songbirds and that might require me to use a greater intensity for recall or a change of direction then I would prefer.
So I have this huge indoor arena at my disposal and it's proving to be an excellent place to transition both dogs without the distraction of those songbirds.
I will probably advance them both to well compliance when I throw a hat and probably even a "stop to flush" on a thrown ball cap.
Getting that level of control before we head out into the Songbird amusement park will undoubtedly give me a much higher degree of control then I would without this unusual intermediate step.
Harvey demonstrates.
I imagine they will be back out in the field at some point next week.
Not sure why Paisley missed it on the way out but she sure didn't miss it on the way back!
Juggling ear protection, blank gun, transmitter and my iPhone I cleverly turned it off before the flush but of course she was absolutely flawless.
In full disclosure, she actually had a small break that was easily controlled.
On the way out I had pulled a fluttering quail out of my bird bag and some feathers had flown off in this area so when I saw Harper on point I thought maybe she was being extra cautious around the feathers.
I was wrong.
When I go to release a dog (I've trained) to relocate and they don't move it means I just haven't located the bird that they have.
A little turn to mark the birds flight, no real forward progress but a cautionary whoa in any event.
After a really cold few weeks in January the training weather now is perfect.
Paisley demonstrates .
I guess I haven't seen or don't see what he has seen or does see but he's pretty sure he has seen or does see something worth seeing.
First time since I pulled the plug in early March of 2020 and headed north ahead of Covid that I'm back training on the property I sublet from another professional trainer down here in NC.
I actually trained in Vermont during Covid in the winters of 2021/2022 and the last couple winters down here I just didn't have the dogs to need to utilize this property.
Great training grounds 30 minutes from where I stay and it's fun to be back there .
Ronin
Here's Ronin and his first day of reward base marker training.
Just under two years old, he was previously trained by somebody else undoubtedly using the old-school yanking crank method where dogs literally learned to do things they do not know how to do because they're trying to avoid something physically unpleasant.
The technique I'm employed here is known as "luring" where you manipulate a dog body position as it follows a food reward in your hand. That food reward is roughly the size of a garden pes and the volume, one or more, varies.
Swinging into heel/flip turn, sit, down and a little bit of heeling for his first session.
A lot more fun and enjoyable for both him and me than yanking him around with a prong collar/choke chain or blasting him with an electric collar.
Before some people start clutching their pearls and throwing out sophisticated judgmental terms and phrases like bribing and cookie trainer they need to understand this is a teaching tool and what has been taught will ultimately be reinforced with an electric collar after he makes a thoughtful transition back to that device.
Yank and crank works you say? So does a black rotary phone hooked to the wall with a 4 foot cord but I don't think many people use them anymore because there is a better way.
I'm happy to report that the fountain in the pond where I am living in this winter is illuminated. 🤯
Tela.
And no, I didn't miss, it was an intentional flyaway ....
Not strapped in on a table. No using physical pressure to get her to open her mouth, No literally teaching her to do something she does not know how to do because she wants to avoid something physically unpleasant.
Teach.
Give them a contextual understanding of how what has been taught will be reinforced starting with levels of pressure that don't reinforce but give the dog a contextual understanding of the reinforcement concept.
Then fairly reinforce that behavior.
It's not 1960 anymore, why is almost everybody still training like it is ?
I'm always a little reluctant when I post the age of a dog at a young age that is very advanced from a training perspective.
I worry people will start measuring their dog against these dogs to the detriment of their training development and program.
So why do I do it occasionally?
Because I want to show people what is possible following a different training approach then the very common, "you have to hunt them for a year or more and then can only formally train them at one and a half or two years old" that is still so prevalent.
I've written how allowing dogs during their "development" to point at any range they desire, bust and chase and frequently have birds shot over them is literally classically conditioning your dog to do things you probably don't want to do when it gets older.
Ellie, about 8 1/2 months old, is about the fourth youngest dog I've trained in my professional career that was this advanced at this age.
If you look at the snowbound kennels.com website or talk to me about my training program you will never hear me talk about when to do what because of a dog's age or when to do what from a training perspective because of a dog's age.
Time is a human idea and we need to look at each dog as an individual and only advance that dog as that individual dog allows us to do regardless of age.
It might be an incredibly precocious cooperative young dog that in the right hands can advance remarkably but I also caution people I have sent dogs home over a year old that I did not think were really ready for formalized training.
I was 6 feet tall when I was 11 years old. Do you ever think I climbed that rope in gym class? No way, never did, could do a little more than reach up and pull my feet off the ground while my more athletically precocious classmates scampered up the rope easily.
If someone had said then that I would never become an athlete based on where I was then they would've really really missed the mark.
It's honestly just the same with dogs,
No one:
Someone should invent a camouflage bird dog.
Vizsla:
Hold my beer.
Professional training for retrievers, pointing, flushing and companion dogs.
