A Clarification

[Neil]

On another thread I rightly criticized some old time trainers, but I want to be very clear how much I respect them as a group. My first mentor was born in 1896, there was nothing he couldn't get a dog to do. I saw him take a run off bolter, and within a month had him handling at 50 yards, without an e-collar.

So I apologize if anyone thinks I was irreverent.

Did you have an old time mentor?

[live4point]

My mentor has been gone for several years,and he told me stories of the old trainer he learned from.Those old guys had to be inventive.Sometimes they had to hide helpers along paths they thought a big running dog would take to catch them and teach them something.One thing about it,those guys could train a dog and didn't need electronics to do it.I have an e collar myself,but my goal with every dog I own is to get them trained to where I don't even need to put it on them.Hate the looks of a fine looking bird dog with a dang e collar hanging on it,just doesn't look natural to me.

[Sharon]

Never thought that at all Neil.

My Dad was my mentor. Starting at about age 10 , I was learning about training and breeding beagles. After he died , I took a break and then at some point got into pointing breeds. Ugo Pennacchietti , Joe Willer, Don Frigo helped me to understand lots at that point and I'm still learning from many on here.

[gonehuntin']

I'm getting to be an old trainer. The old trainers had no books, dvd's and vhs wasn't invented, they thought about it, improvised, improved, implemented. There were no bulletin boards to ask questions on and no televeision shows to show you how some nimrod thinks it is done. The old methods worked and you better believe, they still work.

From the old programs came the new programs. The new programs ARE the old programs implemented and embellished with modern tools. The old boys were tremendous innovators and that very thing is what is wrong with many of today's trainers: they have forgotten how to think and that they were born with common sense. If someone writes it, or makes a dvd of it, it must be true and must be gospel. It's easier to go on the net and ask a question than to think about and try your own solution.

Think about things and reason them out. That's what great trainers do.

[Tooling]

I have an e collar myself,but my goal with every dog I own is to get them trained to where I don't even need to put it on them.Hate the looks of a fine looking bird dog with a dang e collar hanging on it,just doesn't look natural to me.

Ditto..been working to lose the collar altogether.

I like the ol' salty guys..always have, wisdom and downright know how seems to run deep with these gents.

[live4point]

The beauty of it is,all you need to train a bird dog is a rope and a bird,and you can train a lot of dogs with one bird if you know what your doing.

[DougB]

The beauty of it is,all you need to train a bird dog is a rope and a bird,and you can train a lot of dogs with one bird if you know what your doing.

The beauty of a dog is that you can do it wrong once in a while, and still wind up with a good hunting partner.