starting to lose control...

[FLocker]

Would appreciate any thoughts.

Hve been trying to take it slow in regards to pressure with my 7 month old E. Cocker. She has flushed and had about 15 quail killed over her so far with no indication of any gun sensitivty. She has never quit looking for a dead bird, and hasn't wanted to chew or destroy any bird she has found. We also work on a couple dummy retrieves each evening, and general manners around the house.

As she has boldened, she has started playing keep-way with shot birds. On our last outing on planted birds, i took the check cord off because it was always getting fouled in cover, and when i stepped on it as she ran past with a bird, it was a pretty violent stop, which i didnt want to her to associate with a bird in her mouth. Other than that, i just let her have fun with her prizes until she happened by me.

My question is, now that she has been exposed to birds and gunfire without incident, how do i (or do i even?) try to establish some control at this point in her development? Do we go back to dummy's and check cords, and leave the birds until she is more obedience trained? or may she ready for some sort of correction with a bird in her mouth?

I know she is a toddler, but i would rather avoid bad habits than fix them with pressure? Ken Roebuck's spaniel videos and the EC/ESS book "urban gun dogs" have been great, but they all seem to skim over this middle ground between pup and adult.

THanks for any and all of your opinions!

[snips]

I would still leave a light weight CC on her to get her in. You can put a harsher Come command on her after she is more mature.

[RayGubernat]

I have absolutely no experience training a flushing breed...BUT...I am a very strong propoent of installing the brakes and steering before sending the car on to the racetrack.

I would encourage you to continue to work on obedience type commands both in the yard and in the field. Having a dog hup(sit on command) is a very useful thing for a spaniel. A stiff, smooth, 10-12 ft checkcord should not foul much. I would leave one on such a young dog when in the field.

I personally would err on the side of caution and do a good bit of the obedience work first before letting the dog loose in the field, but with a cocker, you do have the luxury of a dog that is bred to hunt a touch closer than the lunatic pointers I am used to. So doing both field and yardwork concurrently might be very possible and productive for you an dyour youngster.

RayG

[Tall Boy]

I would look at it like this: As long as there was no "here" command then I would let the pup have a good time. But I would give a "here" command after a couple laps and then reinforce it, sternly, "here" is not a command to give leeway to.