Your First Gun Dog

[FirearmFan]

There are quite a few members on this board that are very experienced and have been training dogs for quite some time. Being that I'm on my first gun dog and trying to learn as I go I got to wondering what some of the more experienced people's first time around the block was like.

So what was your first gun dog? Did you train it yourself? How did it turn out? What mistakes did you make? As you've become more experienced how has your training evolved or changed from your first time? And if you could go back and do it all again what would you change?

I'm interested to hear your experiences. Thanks.

[DonF]

Nobody in my family has ever trained a bird dog other than me, no help from the family. I bought several different training books and two are far and away my favorites. #1 is the original Delmar Smith book, my bible. the other was The Monks of New Skete. The monks was not about bird dogs, it was about simply training and they kept German shepherds around. Wasn't so much what they did but how they did it. Delmars book was the hands down best I read. It may very well be because Bill Tarrant wrote it, everything was very clear for me. I think one problem with other books I read is they were written by dog trainer's that were pretty much clueless on how to reach people through a book. I have heard a lot about training with Mo and that is one I will get someday. Gun Dog is possibly the worst training book I ever read. I tried Paul Longs book and everybody that read it seemed to really like it well, he didn't keep my attention though. Just anybody does not have the ability to write well about what they do. I think as a example, had Delmar wrote his own book, much would be missing. Good trainer's seem to feel that many things are self evident. Bill Tarrent got those things out and wrote about them. So Delmars book is not by Delmar but by a writer, a good writer that had a huge interest in dogs.

Mistake's? I think I've made every mistake at least one time. Don't dwell on the mistake's. learn what they are and get past them. You are not going to ruin your dog with mistakes here and there. One key sentence in the Delmar book for me was, "pay attention to what your training". Really ask yourself if what your doing would make sense if you were the dog. One other that was great was, "never let your wife or your dog tell you no". You pretty much know in advance if your dog is gonna blow you off. You have done whatever it was 40 time's and the dog blew you off, what make's you think anything has changed unless you did something to fix it. A mistake I still make to often with puppy's today is trying to coax them to come to me when they are clueless what here means or that they are even required to do it. You do that and the pup blows you off, the pup just said no! With Stormy I made the same mistake several time's before I quit trying to call him to me unless I had his check cord in hand. He come's really well now, if I set it up where he can't say no. I do call his name but just to get his attention.

Started playing fetch in the short hall in my house. H'd do well a time or two then the games start. Enough of that, took him outside on his check cord, 12', and toss the ball eight or ten feet from me and held the CC. Suddenly he had no choice on what to do after he got the ball, he come's back to me with it and I let him prance around with it a bit befor taking it. Pay attention to what your training, never let your dog tell you no and one last very important one. Never set your dog up to fail. You know what he's good at and what he's not good at, keep control of him through it all. Your dog get's on a bird and like's to creep, you know that real soon. Either don't let it creep with the cus of the check cord or take the bird away the moment he moves with a remote trap. Do not give him just one more step to see if he can do it right, he already did it wrong!

Don't worry about mistakes much. Try not to make them but everyone on here that has done many dogs at all has made mistakes. I saw the Perfect Start video when it first came out and Jon made a glaring mistake to me and left in in and didn't mention it. Well I told a guy that know's him about it and he asked Jon. Jon knew he made the mistake but didn't think anyone would catch it! rest of the video was very good.

[deke]

I was eleven when I got my first lab. We just took her out hunting with older dogs and she picked it up. I didn't even know you could train a dog to hunt until I was 21 or so. With my first dog we would wade through knee deep mud to get to the pond behind our house, fill up half an empty water bottle with rocks and throw it out into the middle of the pond for her to fetch. Might not of taught her the proper way, but old dog sure put a lot of meat on the table.

[Sharon]

There are quite a few members on this board that are very experienced and have been training dogs for quite some time. Being that I'm on my first gun dog and trying to learn as I go I got to wondering what some of the more experienced people's first time around the block was like.

So what was your first gun dog? Did you train it yourself? How did it turn out? What mistakes did you make? As you've become more experienced how has your training evolved or changed from your first time? And if you could go back and do it all again what would you change?

I'm interested to hear your experiences. Thanks.

Disaster.
Bought her from a pet store. Didn't know any better then . She came from a puppy mill, at 5 weeks ( cheaper to ship and 6 would fit in a orange crate), from a Missouri puppy mill (found out later), when pups were allowed to cross into Canada freely. Not possible any more.
She had spent 5 months in a crate or behind the store glass window.Never been outdoors. Felt sorry for her; foolishy thought I could make all the difference. She turned into a fear biter - big liability - and I put her down at age 3 after doing my best. I gave her 3 good years running in the bush that she would never have had , so feel good about that.

[Big bloc]

First gun dog was a vizsla. Yes I trained her my self. At first I was looking for a trainer. Found 1 and he wanted $500.00 bucks a month plus birds. For 3 months. That was 13 years ago. That was higher then my rent. I talked to him a while and he asked If I raised kids. I told him yes. He sad then you can train a gun dog. He told me to start reading and I did and it payed off. Turned out to be a great dog. 1 other thing he told me was training the dog was easy. You have to train the owner after that. Now I see what he meant. I am on my second dog now and working on steady to wing and shot. It is very rewarding. Good luck