Solid Foundation Gundogs

08/11/2024

Bella picked up 2 seasoned passes this weekend. Half way to her first title.

08/01/2024

We’d like to start offering a service to anyone that would like to have high quality photos of their dogs.
If you have interest in photos of your 4 legged friends for stud/dam pictures, puppy/ litter photos or just a cool action shot of your dog we’ll make it happen!
Water entries and retrieves, flushing birds roosters or standing on an intense point we’d like to help!

Pm to reach out about availability!

07/31/2024

Ani Rose gets bigger ever day. She’s almost 5 months old. Puppy teeth are going to start coming out anytime now, then the real work begins!
Whiskey Grain Kennels Kona pup.

07/20/2024

07/13/2024

09/05/2023

https://youtu.be/WNcMdZuFsaI?si=bspFqvxmQ8rktRTe

Seminar 1: Choosing the Right Bird DogA short clip from our recent Bird Dog Seminar where I go over some of the basics of choosing the right bird dog and fin...

02/12/2023

"HRCH EverReady's Turn N Burn" We couldn't be prouder of the year Tugg had. Tugg saw 300+ bird go down this year. He ended up with over 150 retrieves. The retrieve count isn't in my opinion the hole story. 150 birds is good, not great but is good ( we always want to kill more birds). What we are most proud of is the other 150+ birds that he sat and honored quietly and respectfully. From the uplands and pot holes of North Dakota, to the corn fields of the Mid-west, in the mighty Mississippi and in the raging storm that is a wild snow goose hunt Tugg just maintains his composure and biddability. He spoils me every time we are out in the blind. 🍻 Tugg, thank you for a wonder 2022 waterfowl season!

02/12/2023

Always ready 😎

📸 Tanner Ely

02/09/2023

Nothing like bird introduction with puppies to start the 2023 training season! This little Brittany pup “Duncan” will be joining the bird dogs this coming spring. We are very excited to break into training some bird dogs as well as our waterfowl retrievers! 📸

01/21/2023

Joining the crew is
“Flatlanders Lost that lovin feelin”
Obi is a Pudelpointer pup and if some of you remember we had this one’s momma in for training at one time, Bindi ❤️.
We are super excited about this pup and adding another skill set to our existing dogs.

Thanks to Flatlander’s Pudelpointers for getting us hooked up with this handsome fella!

01/14/2023

01/13/2023

Working Wake a steadiness drill. As I explain, this is how I teach dogs to choose steadiness. I’m not using any physical pressure on the dog or restraining him. We are using good genetics ( high drive and intelligence) to teach the dog that pushing his butt in the ground is what gets him released to do his work! This technique can be used with the HIGHEST drive dogs and be successful. The higher the drive, the harder they try to be steady and put their butt on the earth.

01/08/2023

Advancing our recall training with Wake.
General recall training and collar conditioning have been completed. So now we are taking it to the field and adding distractions.

We will spend the next few days practicing calling away from a distraction. Then we are going to spend sometime calling away from a distraction. Keep your eyes open for the next step/video in our recall training process.

02/14/2022

Working on the hold with another dog.
Wiz in the new guy on the block. He's almost 3 years old and need some work on "hold". I have a lot of time to make this right. It's not the hold that is the true issue, it's the retrieve that's needs cleaned up. He likes to do laps and has a few other bad habits. This process doesn't only condition a hold but conditions the manner in which the dog returns with the retrieved item. So we are fixing the hole retrieve, we are just starting with the hold step.

02/08/2022

Say hello to the newest member of our team! SHR/WSD Kilgolagh Vidal.
Wiz (aka Tannis) is going to make a fantastic addition to the team. He's a little bit of an older dog and has a few things to learn but that's what we are here for. On the smaller size for a male dog, he lacks no desire and is quick as a whip. He got put into our hands yesterday and I've already started to work with him. I want to begin to build a relationship with this dog ASAP. He has no shortage of drive but with a pedigree like he has it's no wonder.
Stay tuned as we build him up from and making him a Solid Foundation Gundog

https://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=1129586

01/25/2022

I saw a post today in a private group that gave me a good topic to think about and share. That is building value on a reward. A dog with low food drive was the specific topic. I train every single dog with food, extensively. There are several reason for this but that may be a topic for another post. If I have a dog with low food drive, I do not switch “treats” to something the dog will find higher value. I change my tactics. I become more animated or make the food more dynamic. The goal is to get the dog to engage with me at this point in training. Reinforcing the dog very very often. Even giving 2-3-4-7-10 treats in a row just for one behavior, even if that is just recalling or giving me their attention. I’m teaching the dog to become excited about rewards not the food.

Another example would be with bumper and birds. If I have a medium drive or possible a low drive puppy I’m not going to use a bird to get the puppy to chase or retrieve. That would teach the puppy to value birds not retrieving. Retrievers/gundogs aren’t born loving plastic bumpers with throw ropes on them. They are born loving to retrieve. If a puppy has low drive or doesn’t love plastic bumper I don’t change object. I train the dog to love those items.

I’ve had plenty of dogs that have low motivation for food that we teach to really love food though play and building a reinforcement schedule. Tugg, my personal dog, doesn’t finish all the food in his bowl on a regular basis. He doesn’t get excited at meal time. He continues to lay down in his kennel while I prepare his food. If I take that same food that he didn’t get excited about out of the bowl and put it in a treat pouch, he has an immediate adrenaline run. The drive comes alive. That all has to do with the relationship and interaction not the food.

The bumper or food starts out as the primary reinforce. At some point there is a transition were the food or bumper becomes the secondary reinforce and the interaction becomes the primary driver of behavior. Like a person that is addicted to slot machines. At first money may be the thing that gets you to pull the handle. Before long pulling the handle itself is more addicting then the money.

📸 Nate Coughlin

01/24/2022

I think the relationship in the field is something that we often forget about when training our Gundogs. We get so consumed by the work with young dogs that we don't do the things to build the relationship. The dogs build a better, more positive association with gunner stations and bird boys than with the owner/hander. Rightfully so too. Those stations always produce good things for the dog. I challenge myself everyday to be different. To have a dog have a better relationship with me than the stickman. Heeling to and from the bucket should not be an exercise of discipline and punishment for failures and faults, rather rewards for success. The dog should not be in a hurry to get to the line. If the dogs enjoy being with me then the white bucket is just another good place to be, not the only place to be.

12/17/2021

Just finished up this afternoons training session with all the dogs. I wanted to take a minute and give an opinion on the English Springer Spaniel. I've been around some really nice ESSs and that's what lead my wife and I into getting one ourselves.

What an awesome little dog. I've really enjoyed training and owning Grady. Not one bit of buyers remorse here.

If you are an upland bird hunter and are looking for flushing dog you'd be remorse to not consider an English Springer Spaniel.

The natural quartering and athletic ability is unreal. Strong retrieving desire. Flashy and exciting to watch. Smart as a wipe and as quick to learn new behaviors as I've seen in any dog breed.

12/16/2021

Take a look at a couple options of how to transport your Texas rig decoys in any out of the field. Check out the video to see my favorite way!

11/28/2021

Creating eye contact, even when faced with a distraction. These small things, to me, are what create very biddable dogs. I am teaching him to be more than just impulsive. I want a dog with a lot of control. I'm trying to develop an attitude, a habit of how we interact together. Working through me to access rewards. Whether that be a ball, a bird or a food. Building a Solid Foundation, a good attitude not only about work but working with me.

11/26/2021

Today I'm working with Grady, getting him to focus on me for a reward. Creating good habits, looking to me for rewards and bonding is what we are looking to get out of these sessions.

11/25/2021

The last 10 feet of the retrieve is all obedience, the act of searching for and retrieving an item is bread.
10 weeks in.
Basic obedience is done
Socialization with other dogs complete (much too rowdy with other dogs, lacking social skills)
He walks at heel on and off lead really well.
Recall is good but can always improved.
Collar conditioning the recall is done
FF is 60% done. No Force to pile or force to water
Gun fire introduction is done.
Bird introduction is done
I've started to free shape his steadiness. Free shaping the steadiness is letting the dog make the decision to wait instead of him complying with a sit/stay command. This makes steadiness hands off, for the most part. When a dog chooses to be steady t makes life a lot more simple.

I'd say for 10 weeks into the program we have some good momentum!

11/25/2021

Tugg out kicking butt on the big water. Picking up a couple more ducks with one big gorgeous hen mallard.

10/19/2021

I sure do like working with bird dogs. I have a secret, not so secret love for upland birds, pointing breeds and Spaniels. Here's a short clip we shot last winter with Bindi. Bindi is a Pudelpointer, a purebred German breed of dog that is extremely versatile. Though we didn't train it, these dogs excel at game recovery ( deer, hogs, ect ect), all the water drive a big duck hunt could ask for and a motor/point that could satisfy any avid birdhunter.

Recently we got out with Tanner Ely who has been diving into the upland side of things in the dog training world. He has been working with this dog Bindi, wh...

09/29/2021

Fred, owned by Mr. Peter Dolan. Fred is a high power dog and we are working on calm behaviors and his hold conditioning at this point. We are shaping all kinds of other good stuff as well.

He's a video of our 2nd day 4th session of hold conditioning.

09/28/2021

Our steadiness training has paid off! Early season goose hunting, 2 dogs, without tie backs both dogs were fantastic. No breaking, no issues. All four feet stayed I the dog hide. Train black and white. Give the dogs a clear, knowable expectation and watch them make you proud. Our group shot their limit of geese in about 15 minutes. I'm very proud of our program as it relates the success in our steadiness work.

Good job Tugg and Kona!
Whiskey Grain Kennels thanks for the invite! It was a blast!

09/16/2021

Big thanks to .grain.kennels for a fantastic outting on the last day of the goose early season.

Once the bird started flying limits were hit and about 15 minutes. Even found a rich boy wearing a Rolex!

09/04/2021

Let's get our pups steadied up for teal and early goose season. Obedience and steadiness is something I demand during training, hunt test and out on the hunt. I have a high expectation for these very knowable commands!

During this September season, as the pick up crew, let's put the guns down as much as possible and pay attention to our pups. Use the early season as a way to set a precedent with our dogs that we are going to be very strict in our steadiness work.

Creating a culture around safety and steadiness in the blind is my whole goal with SF Gundogs https://youtu.be/BFrUSSuNTkA

Steadiness, being in the ground blind and practice.Never sacrifice a moment to fix obedience, even if than means scratching from a test, rethrowing a more or...

08/31/2021

I recently had a client reach out about behavioral issues with a dog that we trained. The dogs is getting spun up every time my client comes home. There is no off switch. He's loaded and ready to go all the time. My client told me that he is trying to keep up with the dogs training as much as possible. Taking him outside almost every night after work and working the dog. This is a high power dog keep in mind. So running him to burn some steam off sounds like what this dogs needs. I don't think so. Working dogs like this or even petting them to enthusiastically too often could be a mistake.

I want to talk about over training, conditioning behaviors and involuntary responses.. Over training can result in an expectation on the dogs part that we are going to do this fun activity all the time. After too many days/weeks in a row of unstructured play ( even structured play) and dog will become conditioned that you are a reward marker (a reward predictor) and become over stimulated by you simply being present. The higher the drive the worse these over stimulation events can be. Scheduling time for structured walks and down time is extremely healthy for your dog. Also avoiding behaviors that over stimulate the dog in the house may be necessary for some of these high high drive dogs. We don't want that to become a trigger for the dog to go into drive. If that happens then in the house he will be stuck in a chronic state of excitement and anything will set him off. Keep in mind this would be a involuntary response. He's not trying to act the way he is. He's state of mind isn't something he's in control of. What he does in that state of mind though is something he's in control of.

Schedule downtime, reward calmness and don't forget about your obedience as tool to exercise the dogs brain.

Michael Ellis and Leerburg have a great video answering a Q&A on the topic of high drive dogs in the house. I'll post the video at the bottom. They do a very good job of explaining why some dogs can't calm down in the house and what we can do to prevent unwanted excitement.

08/31/2021

Back in the garage with Tommy! I wanted to talk about the small amount of retrieving I'm doing with him at this point (9.5 weeks old). I want to put a strong strong emphasis on building the relationship and the dogs willingness of offer obedience. Eventually I will start to use chasing and short retrieves as the dogs reward system and fade out food. For now though, let keep our pups to a limited amount of retrieves and focus on foundational obedience and getting the dogs attention on us.

Tommy is learning about retrieving today. I don't do a lot of retrieving with puppies until they are 4-5 months old. With retrievers and spaniels, whom love ...