enjoy fooling with your dog, you're better
off doing something else you enjoy or get paid for and buy a
trained dog or hire a pro to train yours. By the same token,
if the pup is not enjoying it, you'll never develop him to full
potential).
4. LEARN TO "READ" YOUR DOG. (Always be aware of what
he is telling you by the look in his eye, the way he carries
himself and the way he holds his head, ears or tail).
5. ALWAYS QUIT BEFORE YOUR DOG LOSES INTEREST. (This goes right
along with reading your dog. Keep things short and sweet. You
want to quit while he still wants to do more).
6. ANTICIPATE DISOBEDIENCE OR MISTAKES AND BE PREPARED TO ACT.
(Timing is very critical to successful dog training and sometimes
a reaction is too late).
7. SOFTER DOGS NEED MORE ENCOURAGEMENT, PATIENCE AND TIME. (
Ideally your personalities should be similar. If they are not,
you may need to adapt your personality to the dog).
8. DON'T BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES! (Get out with your dog and
enjoy the process together.) P.S. Being a male chauvinist, I
used the masculine pronoun for simplicity. Feel free to use "she"
or "her" if you have a female dog that's offended by
my use of the male gender.
It's a nice feeling for a father to find himself in agreement
with his son's opinions and I couldn't agree more if I'd written
those guidelines myself... and maybe over the past 40-odd years
I have written something similar. It would be nice to know that
something worthwhile the old man did rubbed off on the kid. |
For both Mike and I know that in the art of dog training,
only a few arrogant imbeciles would lay claim to "originating"
an operating rule or technique. Dogs and dog trainers have been
around for as long as jokes and comedians. Both have passed down
generation by generation basics, adaptations and variants of
methodology which aid in green-breaking or fine-tuning a useful
 shooting dog. We all learn from
others, past and present, and just about the time we think that
through hands-on experience we've made a discovery or originated
a break-through, along comes another trainer who says, "Oh!
Yeah! That really works. I've been doing that since old Bill
Smith showed me how when I was a kid."
|
Achieving success as a gun dog trainer
and recognition as an authoritative writer about that subject
doesn't put a man on monetary easy street. Quite the contrary,
it costs time and money to learn canine characteristics first
hand through daily contact, care, training, hunting, investigating,
and discussions with thousands of other gun dog-fascinated men
and women who know more, as much, or less about the subject than
you.
But for me it's been a hard to beat life-style. I hope that Mike
will also come to know that the greatest satisfaction derived
from the effort comes from the knowledge, or at least the belief,
that through publication of what we've learned and earned we've
been able to explain the necessities and some frills of what
goes into understanding, caring for training the gun dogs which
thousands of sportsmen take afield each season.
Hopefully, you'll consider and find use for the 15 general guidelines
when you are applying specific techniques in yard training and
field working your personal gun dog. Even more importantly, they
should make training easier on and more fun for your favorite
gun dog, puppy, prime of life or near the end of the trail.
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