Tips to get close working dog out farther?

[rfoley]

My wife and I have 2 year old Brits (a male and female from the same litter) that have great noses and are natural pointers. I worked them on pen raised quail this past weekend and I am really looking forward to getting them out this fall to see what they will do on wild birds. My one concern is that they are working to close to me, they almost tripped me a couple times this past Sunday. At times I was turning my back on them and walking as fast as I could just to put some space between us. I figure some of this is due to my inexperience and some due to their inexperience. I plan on getting them over some more pen raised birds at least 2-3 times more before season opens up in Oct. This is my wife and my first time training so we are looking for all the pointers (pun intended) that we can get. Any tips on getting a dog out from under foot are greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and great luck this fall!

[Chocolate Head]

Even if you don't have birds planted, keep taking them out for runs. They will build confidence and may venture out further. Walk slow and move toward them, until the figure out what is expected of them. Lastly, don't over command them. Let them explore. My understaning is that you really can't make a naturally close working dog run big, but you can teach a big running dog to work closer. Your issue may not be natural instincts, so this may be fixable through repeated runs and confidence.

[Greg Jennings]

Try planting birds in familiar places and letting the dogs range out at distance to find them. I.e., teach them that the birds are far away from you, not up close.

Greg J.

[jczv]

Here's what worked pretty successfully for me (nothing original here) and most of which agrees with the previous two posts
* No talking / whistles / yahoo's / anything - this is the toughest one for me
* Be relaxed - if there's a situation (people watching etc.) where you're going be agitated about your dogs not ranging enough then pack up and go home
* In my dogs case I never ran him without at least one bird out - convince the dog there's always birds out there somewhere
* Never call your dog in to a bird that is near you
* Never back plant birds until your certain your dog will always stay to the front
* Run with another dog that ranges larger then your dogs currently ranging - but don't start with a huge ranging dog that's just going to create to much separation

* If you have pigeons-launchers-land then:
*** Pick a distance with the goal the dog will never find a bird within X distance of you.
*** Start with 50 yards, then 75, 100, 150, etc.
*** Initially it doesn't matter how you dog gets out from you (tracking your scent, chasing another dog, etc). As long as the dog finds birds away from you.
*** Walk a route rather then wander around in a field

* If you have access to an empty field with good edges - example corn stubble or a freshly hayed field with a tree line - essentially no cover except the edges
*** Plant the edges and walk whatever distance your shooting for away from the edge (especially plant the corners if there are any)
*** Once the dog knows there's birds in the corner or toward the end of the edge then turn away from the birds earlier and earlier to create more separation.

Last look at what your dogs doing and try and determine if there's other specific issues to work on. Is he looking at you for direction then shutup and don't give him any. Are they stopping to much to mark etc.? Pace is to slow?

[Brushbustin Sporting Dogs]

One thing to try is actually let the dogs watch you plant the birds. Stake the dogs out and walk out 100 yards with the bird plant it then walk back and let the dog hunt for it. I think it gets the dogs to always looking ahead for birds and has worked for me.

Robbie

[dugger13]

* No talking / whistles / yahoo's / anything - this is the toughest one for me

Of all the tips, this is the most important in my opinion. I thought i would highlight it for you. Good post jczv

[Brittguy]

When you walk as fast as you can , they can still easily keep up and stay around your feet. Try going out in the field and then just stand still. They should get bored after awhile and start wandering away. When they leave just walk slow a little at a time and don't say anything.Walk so slow that they want to leave to see what they can find.Now if they should just happen to find a planted bird when they are investigating ,great.

[WildRose]

Lots of quiet handling.


Lots of just letting the dog run and explore.


When planting birds for the dog to work, do so after a good long walk. That let's the dog learn that the birds aren't generally going to be found fifty yards from you and/or where you start. CR

[MTO4Life]

What I did (granted she was a pup when I started) was take her into a field with very low grass or with only dirt) and let her run free. She slowly gained her confidence and started to venture farther out. If she got too far, I would hide behind a tree or clump of brush, and she would eventually realize she couldn't see me. She would come back to where she could see, and then would keep on exploring. When we started this, she would only go 30, maybe 40 yards. Now she will venture out, a great distance (depends on terrain) and will stop to check in. I only have to give her an "OK" and she's off again. Not sure how it would work with a 2yr old. I don't know if this is the proper way to train a dog (my first one), but she has no problem venturing into the bush and not hanging too close to me.

[rfoley]

Thanks for the advice everybody.

I think I just need more patience and Jake needs more time in the field. I took him and his sister out to our training grounds yesterdayto work on some planted quail. He started out close, but after getting him into a couple planted birds he got the idea and started hunting further out. As my wife and I were walking back to the van and talking (not paying attention to the dog) he got about 100 yards away and looked like he was gonna keep going. Good thing he comes right back when I call him. Hopefully experience will make us both better.