New Member to GDF & Soon to be GSP Owner

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JVMJR
Rank: Just A Pup
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2020 12:18 pm
Location: Newnan, GA

New Member to GDF & Soon to be GSP Owner

Post by JVMJR » Sun Apr 05, 2020 1:39 pm

Hello, folks. My name is Jon. I live SW of Atlanta, GA. I am 51, married to my much better half for 18 years. We have two teenage kids. Over the years, we have had three cats (one who lived 20 yrs), two guinea pigs, and a dozen or so county fair goldfish. The kids have been asking for a dog for the last couple of years. Out of respect to the 20 year old cat, we thought that we would let her see her days out in peace before bringing a playful pup into the mix. The cat passed back in November. We started searching for a dog in February, and made a decision to get a German Shorthaired Pointer about a month later. Both the bitch and the sire are AKC registered GSP's and are active hunters. The litter of pups numbered ten. The runt pup died after about a week, leaving nine pups; six males and three females. We chose a fat little female, who muscles up to the milk wagon, and we will call her Ellie. The bitch is a classic liver roan GSP. The sire is as black as night, with a little grey and white ticking. Ellie is mostly white, with black patches on her legs, head, and rump....but she has a liver colored sniffer.

I have hunted with and over GSP's for chukar, three species of quail, two species of grouse, and pheasants, just not one of my own. I am excited to take on the new challenge of owning and training a gun dog. I grew up with dogs, mostly mutts, but always man's best friend. They had manners and would retrieve every tennis ball and baseball in the neighborhood....but they were never gun dogs. I know how to train a dog to sit, stay, and come, and that's where my experience ends. While in wait for Ellie to be fully weaned, I am doing some reading. I am absorbing "Tarrant Trains Gun Dogs" and "Best Way to Train Your Gun Dog: The Delmar Smith Method". I have also watched several Rick and Ronnie Smith DVD's on Puppy Development and their Silent Command System.

My expectations for Ellie are as follows: We'll be companions. She'll be house dog, who hunts, just like me. We'll do our best to respect one another. We'll train to hunt more than we will hunt. I hope that we get 15 to 20 days of actual hunting in each season, between October and mid-March, in-between honey-do's, soccer matches, and the holidays. I hope that she outperforms her trainer, but know it is my pleasure and ambition to provide her manners, structure, opportunities to be successful, and give her the opportunity to hunt.

Here is what I have gleaned so far: be patient, be consistent, be purposeful, be patient, be measured, have an objective when training, start simple, keep it simple, be patient, begin training and end training on a good note, be patient, don't expect perfection, but don't accept mediocrity, when in doubt...it is me who needs the training, and be patient. What have I left out?

If any of you kind and knowledgable folk know of training grounds, places to get into live birds (pigeons, quail, etc.) for training, in and around SW GA, I am all ears. We belong to gun and rod club, and will no doubt spend some training and hunting time there, but variety is the spice of life, especially in training (new landscapes, new socialization opportunities, new experiences). In the coming months, we are going to focus on basic puppy stuff, get lots of play and exercise, work on basic manners, if we have success there (house broken, sit, stay, stand, and come, calm disposition, can heel), we'll be ready to work on birdy stuff? When do you introduce your dogs to real birds?....and how frequently? When do you introduce your dogs to gunfire?

I invite your commentary, hope to learn from your experience, and thank you for being an active part of this forum. As I gain first hand experience, and attempt to codify it as wisdom (usually through the school of repeated hard knocks).

Best regards,

Jon

mask
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Location: Idaho

Re: New Member to GDF & Soon to be GSP Owner

Post by mask » Sun Apr 05, 2020 2:51 pm

Hi Jon and welcome. Crate train your pup the first jump out of the chute. Crate training makes house training a snap. Once she is house trained we can talk more. fwiw I never punish a pup for retrieving no matter what they retrieve. I like the book training with Mo. It is a good guide. Since I cut my teeth on the Bill West method and Mo may have improved that method a little. Best to you and yours.

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Sharon
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Location: Ontario,Canada

Re: New Member to GDF & Soon to be GSP Owner

Post by Sharon » Sun Apr 05, 2020 3:40 pm

Welcome to the forum Jon. You'll get good help here with any of your questions.
" We are more than our gender, skin color, class, sexuality or age; we are unlimited potential, and can not be defined by one label." quote A. Bartlett

cjhills
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Re: New Member to GDF & Soon to be GSP Owner

Post by cjhills » Sun Apr 05, 2020 5:00 pm

JVMJR:
Nice to have some new blood.
One interesting little fact is if she has a liver nose, she is considered liver and white. No matter how black she looks......Cj

birddogger2
Rank: 3X Champion
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Re: New Member to GDF & Soon to be GSP Owner

Post by birddogger2 » Sun Apr 05, 2020 6:58 pm

Jon -

Welcome aboard.

Life is an adventure and you have just added a little spice to your adventure. Good for you.

Everyone does it a little different as far as training a bird dog is concerned. No matter because, more often than not, the genetics carry through and the dog does fine.

It is absolutely fine to read up on several different approaches and more information never hurts. I do suggest that you read up on several methods and pick one that seems to make sense to you. If it works for you...it will very likely work fine for the dog too.

Three things:

1) Every single time you interact with your dog...you are training it. Make sure you are training it to do what you want it to do.

2) Plan your work first. Have in your mind EXACTLY what you want to accomplish, how you are going to do it and what to do if something goes sideways. ALWAYS quit a winner with a happy dog. Then go out and work your plan.

3) A happy dog and a happy trainer make for a good team. Sometimes a healthy sense of humor is a real asset.

Have a ball. We are all here for any questions. You might get ten different answers to any one question, but the odds are every single answer will work, so just pick the one that makes the most sense to you.

RayG

RayG

JVMJR
Rank: Just A Pup
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2020 12:18 pm
Location: Newnan, GA

Re: New Member to GDF & Soon to be GSP Owner

Post by JVMJR » Tue Apr 07, 2020 11:14 am

All, thank you for the kind words and encouragement.

Cjhills, thank you for the interesting note on Ellie's coloring. The kids had fun that fact; so did I.

I appreciate the point that there are multiple training methodologies, not one, and not only one that works. I will explore. I ordered a copy of "Training with Mo" and will attempt to add it to my lexicon. Mask, good call out on the crate training, that is the first order of business.

I look forward to interacting with the Forum. You all have offered up a good introduction and welcome. Thanks!

Jon

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