Recently, I was talking to Maurice Lindley about a dog I was teaching to be steady-to-wing-and-shot.
“I think Chalk has turned the corner,” I said.
“What did he do to make you think that,” Maurice asked.
“He’s calmer,” I replied.
Wait For Tomorrow
An old-time dog trainer gave me advice some twenty years ago when we were working dogs together. He said to wait for tomorrow. It was his way of telling me to be patient and not expect to see immediate results. This advice has stayed with me because it works.
Over the years, I have learned the importance of waiting for the next workout to see results especially when it comes to e-collar work. Unfortunately, some trainers want to see immediate results, but if I see results the same day, I know I probably overdid it. One of the reasons is because dogs are more amped up in the training field and around birds so it may take a lot of e-collar pressure to get them settled down. Once the adrenalin wears off, they still remember this higher level of stimulation and may be spooked by it.
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Intelligent Dogs
Do you wonder if your bird dog is intelligent? I think about intelligence all the time and try to evaluate it in my dogs. Over the years, I have asked a number of pro-trainers how they define it. One of these trainers was Dave Walker, and he said intelligence and natural ability were the same things. The more intelligent the dog, the more natural ability he had. It took me a while to understand what Dave was saying because I was thinking about intelligence in human terms, kind of like a dog IQ test, but intelligence is best viewed in relationship to a breed’s purpose. If the breed’s purpose is to find birds, intelligence is measured by how successfully these dogs hunt or, as Dave said, their natural ability. I began studying my pups to evaluate their natural ability. Continue reading →
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