Timid Pup

[BF Daves III]

Hey guys this is my first time posting on here and I'm looking for some advice. I have a 7month old GSP female who is one of the smartest dogs I have ever been around. She has done nothing but impress me so far while we trained on here, whoa, sit, and other obedience commands. She does not waiver when given a command and I have othr peple tell me how impresses they are with the way she acts and her demeanor. I am fairly new at training and have one hang up with this pup(I know she is still young).

I spent the first 3 weeks I had her doing nothing but bonding, she never left my side except at night when she was kenneled. Now when we work the fieldI have trouble getting her away from me and motvating her to get out in front. She will work the field back and forth between me and my wife if we seperate but will not get in front. Any tips on how to get her a bit more confidnce and maybe wean her off of me just a bit?

Thanks in advance,

BF Daves III

[kninebirddog]

Kinda sounds like you spent to much time on obedience and not enough on her independence in the field...I would try and find a training group near you and get her out with other dogs and on some birds and don't forget a roll of duct tape as it will be very important you not say a word...just let her explore with no coaxing or coddling or direction verbally from you

[GUNDOGS]

By any chance have you been teaching her to heel??..if so, maybe shes under the impression she is expected to heel or stay close and doesnt feel independent enough to wander too far from you..if you have been working on heel back off of it for a bit until she ranges out some..also you mentioned you have worked on "here" or come which we all teach, if you have called her back to you with "here" when you have taken her on off lead walks she is most likely thinking she is not suppose to go off on her own or she gets called back so i would do more field walks in a safe place off lead and just walk without talking to her at all and if she goes off on her own a bit dont call her back just let her explore, safely off course...doesnt sound like shes timid just feeling out her boundries and doing what she thinks shes suppose to do which is stay with you and your wife, so just show her going off on her own is okay..good luck and welcome to the forum.....ruth

[jhoughton]

Put her on birds, birds and more birds. She will forget you exist in the field.

[ezzy333]

Hey guys this is my first time posting on here and I'm looking for some advice. I have a 7month old GSP female who is one of the smartest dogs I have ever been around. She has done nothing but impress me so far while we trained on here, whoa, sit, and other obedience commands. She does not waiver when given a command and I have othr peple tell me how impresses they are with the way she acts and her demeanor. I am fairly new at training and have one hang up with this pup(I know she is still young).

I spent the first 3 weeks I had her doing nothing but bonding, she never left my side except at night when she was kenneled. Now when we work the fieldI have trouble getting her away from me and motvating her to get out in front. She will work the field back and forth between me and my wife if we seperate but will not get in front. Any tips on how to get her a bit more confidnce and maybe wean her off of me just a bit?

Thanks in advance,

BF Daves III

I would bet it won't take over a very few bierd contacts to solve your problem. Once she decides the birds are in front she will get over it very rapidly. Have fun.

Ezzy

[Cajun Casey]

Put her on birds, birds and more birds. She will forget you exist in the field.

Right there, enough said.

[RayGubernat]

BF -

As others have mentioned, you need to allow the dog to build its confidence an independence in the field.

Not to worry...it will happen, sooner or later if the dog is well bred. The more often you take the dog out in the field, the sooner the dog will start to explore and push out.

The advice on being COMPLETELY silent is absolutely right on. Let the dog do what it is bred to do without any interference, or encouragement or direction from you.

You can take a bag of pigeons with you into the field and when the dog is cruising by, toss one out. Let the dog chase heck, encourage the dog to chase by running forward a few steps toward the departing bird. Just keep on walking...the dog will return shortly. I like pigeons for this kind of work because they WILL NOT land back on the ground. and the dog cannot get into trouble.

If the dog is very hesitant to get away from you in the field, you can plant a bird a hundred yards or so up the edge of a field and then walk up the bird wth the dog. The next trainng session do exactly the same thing. Keep doing exactly the same thing until the dog understands that there WILL be a bird to chase 100 yards out under the same bush. You can even stake the dog out and let him WATCH you go out and plant the bird. Sooner or later, the dog will just take off and head to that bush to roust that bird. Then you plant the bird 20 yards farther along that same edge. I think you get the idea.

Do not panic, do not overreact. Have patience and keep it positive and keep it fun.

Sooner or later the dog's genetics will kick in and you may well be quite happy that the dog learned to like being around you. A dog that likes being around you and feels comfortable and safe around you will want to stay with you, hunt for you and come back to you.


RayG

[Cajun Casey]

Hear, hear, to Ray.

Also, tossing birds will build a connection between birds and handler in the dog's head that will help steady the dog later. A bird will mean that a person should be in the picture. This is pure old Delmar Smith and works like magic.

[kninebirddog]

BF -

As others have mentioned, you need to allow the dog to build its confidence an independence in the field.

Not to worry...it will happen, sooner or later if the dog is well bred. The more often you take the dog out in the field, the sooner the dog will start to explore and push out.

The advice on being COMPLETELY silent is absolutely right on. Let the dog do what it is bred to do without any interference, or encouragement or direction from you.

You can take a bag of pigeons with you into the field and when the dog is cruising by, toss one out. Let the dog chase heck, encourage the dog to chase by running forward a few steps toward the departing bird. Just keep on walking...the dog will return shortly. I like pigeons for this kind of work because they WILL NOT land back on the ground. and the dog cannot get into trouble.

If the dog is very hesitant to get away from you in the field, you can plant a bird a hundred yards or so up the edge of a field and then walk up the bird wth the dog. The next trainng session do exactly the same thing. Keep doing exactly the same thing until the dog understands that there WILL be a bird to chase 100 yards out under the same bush. You can even stake the dog out and let him WATCH you go out and plant the bird. Sooner or later, the dog will just take off and head to that bush to roust that bird. Then you plant the bird 20 yards farther along that same edge. I think you get the idea.

Do not panic, do not overreact. Have patience and keep it positive and keep it fun.

Sooner or later the dog's genetics will kick in and you may well be quite happy that the dog learned to like being around you. A dog that likes being around you and feels comfortable and safe around you will want to stay with you, hunt for you and come back to you.


RayG

It is fun when you start to watch a young dog figure out about the field ..specially when they discover BIRDS

[Cajun Casey]

Just noticed where you are from. There is a NAVHDA training day Saturday at Mounds, north of Okmulgee. Good people there and they are supposed to do puppy bird work early. www.oknavhda.com

[RayGubernat]

Just noticed where you are from. There is a NAVHDA training day Saturday at Mounds, north of Okmulgee. Good people there and they are supposed to do puppy bird work early. http://www.oknavhda.com

If you could get there and arrange to put your dog on someone's chain gang for a while it might help the dog to bolden up. On the chain gang your dog watches what is going on and gets jerked around and pumped up by all the other dogs. The excitement of the other dogs is almost like electicity and the chaingang is like an electric wire. You dog is connected and the juice will flow. Best part is you are nowhere around.

If the chaingag is in full view of the training field...that is the best possible place.

I would make an effort to go. Even if you cannot wangle a spot on a chaingang, just having your dog there along with all the other dogs...watching what is going on...should get the dog wound up pretty tight. When it his turn to go, he might surprise you if he is really cranked up.

RayG

[Cajun Casey]

I can rig a chaingang, but I don't guarantee she wouldn't learn to construct an earthwork worthy of WW I France. I think it would be a good day trip. Even if Terry is not in charge of hugs. Bring the whole family.

[BF Daves III]

Thank you all for the advice. I found some birds (quail) locally and am gonna put my pup on some next week. Any suggestions on the best way to introduce them to her?

[Alcona]

Had a very similar situation with my pup. I focussed too much on whoa-ing her her first couple times in the field whereas i shouldve let her explore more, my intentions on keeping her close were to keep birds within range as well. This led to her staying in closer and closer, too close, fine and dandy if you just wanna walk her around and keep an eye, but notif you want her to hunt. I was able to correct this problem after the first live bird training session, she now will find the bird when i tell her and if i want her to stay in close while doing so, i just whoa her up a little and so far it's working. i'll add, since some people use the command differently. I utilize the whoa command on her whenever i want her to stop wherever she is as long as she's within sight. but im pretty new to all this so all i can really do is share my experience, like others have said, this will probably be corrected once you get the pup on some birds.
-Zach