Importance of control

[Jakezilla]

Before everyone gets too focused on contol, bear in mind that for a bird dog to be successful it needs to be allowed a certain amount of independance and freedom. Too much control will hinder their ability to find birds. There is a fine line that needs to be walked. The best bird dogs I know have a little bit of outlaw in them and if you lock them down too tight their bird count goes way down. I see it in young dogs as I develop them. As pups they find lots of birds, when I start to teach them to handle and stay with me the bird count drops. Once they handle properly I give them their freedom back and the bird count goes way up.


I am not saying they should be allowed to chase deer or off game across the blacktop as described above but be careful that you do not micro manage your bird dog. They need the freedom to expand their range to find birds in tough conditions or when bird numbers are low. When my dogs are off leash they always have an e-collar on unless we are in competition. Anytime you do something with your dog you are teaching it something, whether good habits or bad habits. You need to be consistent in what you ask of the dog and you need to always be in a position to correct undesired behaviour.


I agree with Ugo and would not use the tone or locate feature on a beeper collar as a recall. Although I think a well trained dog will know that it needs to stand if it is pointing a bird even if it is trained to recall on the tone. Which leads to Ugo's comment, which I agree with, "In my opinion ONLY, a dog that breaks off a find to come to you has a serious deficiency either in it's core fabric or in it's training."


Looking at MV's post I assume she was not using the tone as a recall but as more of a warning when he gets too far, tone frist then comes the stimulation if he doesn't comply. I know people that use this method or use the vibrate function in some collars. For people like myself that don't use beepers or collars with a vibrate function there is nothing wrong with using your voice or whistle combined with low level stimulation to get the same results. If you are using voice or whistle make sure that the commands are consistent and you the same words or whistle all the time.

[maplevizsla]

Yes Jakezilla I use the beep as a warning only, NOT for recall. Its a 'your out too far and gone too long not in acceptable range and I need to know where you are'. When you live where I do and run the dogs in the bush lot that I do, I need to use this beep function to ensure that he isn't where he shouldn't be. This has never hindered or changed his range or hunting ability. If I beep it ( only once) he reigns himself in now and hunts/runs at an appropriate distance and range. No vibration, it sits on level 25-30 for dog walks and only ever needed level 60 a few times hunting. I am not taking chances of citizens in our town flagging my dog for possibly deer chasing, ao I take the extra measure to prevent it and stop it if it should ever happen.