What forms does pressure take? My opinion is ever evolving on this. I have a recent example from a field trial where I saw a young dog feeling pressure and the owner; a friend doesn’t believe he is. This young dog is recently green broke, in that he stands birds consistently and doesn’t chase. In the right situation the dog runs a big shooting dog or all-age race, at other times, and rather frequently, it’s less mature in application.
During an all-age brace I scouted the dog for him we were braced against a pro and an accomplished all-age dog from his string. It was hot and the young dog was not having a competitive all age run. The inexperienced handler kept pushing and tried to keep pace with his brace mate. As a result he over encouraged small positive moves and over handled as the dog paced itself to shorter objectives. All of it was a lot of talk…attaboys, and then here…Here…HERE’S!
In my observation, the dog was disheartened by the pressure of the pace and got confused. I cannot help but think that if the handler didn’t drop back to a gun dog pace, and even better yet an amateur gun dog pace he would not be better off. It occurred to me that the handler sees pressure only as physical correction or harsh temper driven voice corrections. Whereas I believe the dog can feel pressure from the environmental conditions…place, situation, etc… especially when they are immature. I did not respond to the thread, but it seems similar to me to the young dog that showed no fear of gun fire until dove hunting from a blind with multiple gunners.
What is Pressure to a Dog?
Re: What is Pressure to a Dog?
Pressure comes in many forms and from what you described that dog was put under too much pressure. With young dogs too much voice becomes pressure. Pressure is when you see a dog look confused it don't have to come in the form of physical correction a stern voice could be pressure. I believe pressure is an individual dog thing what some do well on others may shutdown on. I have one at home now if I raise my voice his tail goes down and we have to start the session over. I have a young dog at home that I haven't found his pressure level yet a tug on the check cord a loud voice he is just happy all the time
Re: What is Pressure to a Dog?
Yes sir.. You covered a bunch of good points in your postChukar12 wrote:What forms does pressure take? My opinion is ever evolving on this. I have a recent example from a field trial where I saw a young dog feeling pressure and the owner; a friend doesn’t believe he is. This young dog is recently green broke, in that he stands birds consistently and doesn’t chase. In the right situation the dog runs a big shooting dog or all-age race, at other times, and rather frequently, it’s less mature in application.
During an all-age brace I scouted the dog for him we were braced against a pro and an accomplished all-age dog from his string. It was hot and the young dog was not having a competitive all age run. The inexperienced handler kept pushing and tried to keep pace with his brace mate. As a result he over encouraged small positive moves and over handled as the dog paced itself to shorter objectives. All of it was a lot of talk…attaboys, and then here…Here…HERE’S!
In my observation, the dog was disheartened by the pressure of the pace and got confused. I cannot help but think that if the handler didn’t drop back to a gun dog pace, and even better yet an amateur gun dog pace he would not be better off. It occurred to me that the handler sees pressure only as physical correction or harsh temper driven voice corrections. Whereas I believe the dog can feel pressure from the environmental conditions…place, situation, etc… especially when they are immature. I did not respond to the thread, but it seems similar to me to the young dog that showed no fear of gun fire until dove hunting from a blind with multiple gunners.
Mo