Reality of training for UT on your own
Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 11:58 am
This may get a tad long-winded, but bear with me.
I had plans of sending my GWP (18 months at the moment) to a professional trainer next summer to prepare him for Utility Testing. It was going to cost my wife and I a good chunk of change (money we really didn't have), but we figured if it helped bring out our dog's greatest potential, it would be worth it.
Lo and behold, the dog eats a gal-darn $1,500 tube sock, and now we no longer can financially even consider the professional trainer.
In some ways, I'm kind of happy it happened. I really want to Utility Test him at some point, and didn't really know how I felt about the possibility of "buying a title." I mean, I trained him myself to a perfect score Prize I in Natural Ability, and the pride in my dog and myself was unbelievable. Would I feel as proud if I let someone else do all the work while I benefited? I'm not sure...
As mentioned, as luck (if you can call it that) would have it, it's no longer a viable option regardless, so it's a moot point.
Before and after NA, my breeder met once a week with myself and one other guy who also was passionate about training. It was a great experience, and while we stayed pretty close to the NAVHDA training manual, it was really helpful to have a guiding hand through the process, especially since neither of us had ever done anything of the sort (both of our dogs are our first hunting dogs). I'm an especially hands-on learner. I can read books and watch countless videos, but when it comes to replicating what I saw or read, I'm clueless and unsure of myself.
To summarize the summer, we worked on cleaning up some basic OB, woah trained, whistle trained, collar conditioned, force fetched and began casting and blind retrieves on land and water (never got to finish thanks to the sock incident). I'm glad I had help with the force fetch, especially! Talk about a long, emotional and stressful process. But I'm really happy with the results, and after hunting him this fall, I KNOW all that hard work (4-5 nights a week from June through August) really paid off.
Now with hunting season winding down, I'm beginning to think about training again. Up here, training in the winter is a tough thing, but I imagine some of it is doable even in the snow. The real work , however, will begin in the spring and summer.
That said, how realistic is it to think I can have a dog UT ready by next fall? I realize none of you have even the slightest idea how competent I am as a trainer, nor how far my dog is trained to this point. In some ways, when I think about all that has to be done (the duck search especially, and even steadying to flush and shot) it's a bit overwhelming and seems impossible. Do I have the resources? Is it even plausible to think I can get him ready for UT test in next fall? That remains to be seen, I guess.
And while I know it would be a lot easier sending him off to get professionally trained, I keep coming back to what NAVHDA was originally created for and what its testing system means. It is an organization geared toward helping individuals train their OWN dog, and then test them on their progress, correct? Obviously having perfect scores and testing well can mean big money for breeding (maybe that's why tests have become a bigger deal), but at its roots, the process is still there to judge an individual and the capabilities of his or her hunting dog.
Maybe I'm an idealist, but that mentality kind of reassures me, and gives me some confidence to think I CAN do it on my own.
Now, while I do tend to follow the NAVHDA training book, I have discovered some shortcomings. Namely, it's brief and to the point. There doesn't seem to be a lot of detail, especially for troubleshooting. Thankfully, last summer I had a person with much knowledge to guide me through the rough patches, but I do not want to have to rely on him again as it was a big time investment and he did it pro bono. (I haven't asked him yet about training again, so maybe he'll want to help. But I'd like to plan ahead as if he's not going to be there, just in case it doesn't work out).
I purchased a remote bird launcher that's never held a bird. Remy has been a staunch pointer this fall and I've been more than pleasantly surprised by his abilities. While I'm not 100 percent confident at his staunchness, it does make me think that steadying him to flush and shot won't be such a giant leap in the summer.
I'll openly admit that his OB has lacked as of late. During out training, I was more than confident if I sat him somewhere, he would not budge until called. I know that's going to be a main focus after hunting season, as I fear the staying-in-the-blind-while-shots-are-fired part will be key to his success.
Then there's the proverbial and oft discussed duck search. While North Dakota is home to many a pothole where I can train, I do need to wrangle up a duck at some point to use for training. Like a dummy, I forgot to freeze any whole birds that I shot this fall. But I figure if I can purchase a few shackled farm ducks next spring, we'll be good to go.
I'm not sure if I've actually asked any direct questions. I guess this was more an airing of my thoughts to an online board. Was it a smart idea? I guess we'll see.
If anything, I'd like to hear from folks who've trained their own UT dogs. I'd also really like to come up with a pretty concrete schedule as far as training goes. That's another shortfall with the NAVHDA book: a lot of the timing for training is open to interpretation. I'd love to come up with a plan that includes concrete benchmarks. That way, when Remy accomplishes a task to a certain degree, I know we can move on to the next step.
Or doesn't it work that way?
Anyhoo, that's my ramblings. If it's unclear and sort of misdirected, I apologize. I kind of feel better just having it all out there.
I had plans of sending my GWP (18 months at the moment) to a professional trainer next summer to prepare him for Utility Testing. It was going to cost my wife and I a good chunk of change (money we really didn't have), but we figured if it helped bring out our dog's greatest potential, it would be worth it.
Lo and behold, the dog eats a gal-darn $1,500 tube sock, and now we no longer can financially even consider the professional trainer.
In some ways, I'm kind of happy it happened. I really want to Utility Test him at some point, and didn't really know how I felt about the possibility of "buying a title." I mean, I trained him myself to a perfect score Prize I in Natural Ability, and the pride in my dog and myself was unbelievable. Would I feel as proud if I let someone else do all the work while I benefited? I'm not sure...
As mentioned, as luck (if you can call it that) would have it, it's no longer a viable option regardless, so it's a moot point.
Before and after NA, my breeder met once a week with myself and one other guy who also was passionate about training. It was a great experience, and while we stayed pretty close to the NAVHDA training manual, it was really helpful to have a guiding hand through the process, especially since neither of us had ever done anything of the sort (both of our dogs are our first hunting dogs). I'm an especially hands-on learner. I can read books and watch countless videos, but when it comes to replicating what I saw or read, I'm clueless and unsure of myself.
To summarize the summer, we worked on cleaning up some basic OB, woah trained, whistle trained, collar conditioned, force fetched and began casting and blind retrieves on land and water (never got to finish thanks to the sock incident). I'm glad I had help with the force fetch, especially! Talk about a long, emotional and stressful process. But I'm really happy with the results, and after hunting him this fall, I KNOW all that hard work (4-5 nights a week from June through August) really paid off.
Now with hunting season winding down, I'm beginning to think about training again. Up here, training in the winter is a tough thing, but I imagine some of it is doable even in the snow. The real work , however, will begin in the spring and summer.
That said, how realistic is it to think I can have a dog UT ready by next fall? I realize none of you have even the slightest idea how competent I am as a trainer, nor how far my dog is trained to this point. In some ways, when I think about all that has to be done (the duck search especially, and even steadying to flush and shot) it's a bit overwhelming and seems impossible. Do I have the resources? Is it even plausible to think I can get him ready for UT test in next fall? That remains to be seen, I guess.
And while I know it would be a lot easier sending him off to get professionally trained, I keep coming back to what NAVHDA was originally created for and what its testing system means. It is an organization geared toward helping individuals train their OWN dog, and then test them on their progress, correct? Obviously having perfect scores and testing well can mean big money for breeding (maybe that's why tests have become a bigger deal), but at its roots, the process is still there to judge an individual and the capabilities of his or her hunting dog.
Maybe I'm an idealist, but that mentality kind of reassures me, and gives me some confidence to think I CAN do it on my own.
Now, while I do tend to follow the NAVHDA training book, I have discovered some shortcomings. Namely, it's brief and to the point. There doesn't seem to be a lot of detail, especially for troubleshooting. Thankfully, last summer I had a person with much knowledge to guide me through the rough patches, but I do not want to have to rely on him again as it was a big time investment and he did it pro bono. (I haven't asked him yet about training again, so maybe he'll want to help. But I'd like to plan ahead as if he's not going to be there, just in case it doesn't work out).
I purchased a remote bird launcher that's never held a bird. Remy has been a staunch pointer this fall and I've been more than pleasantly surprised by his abilities. While I'm not 100 percent confident at his staunchness, it does make me think that steadying him to flush and shot won't be such a giant leap in the summer.
I'll openly admit that his OB has lacked as of late. During out training, I was more than confident if I sat him somewhere, he would not budge until called. I know that's going to be a main focus after hunting season, as I fear the staying-in-the-blind-while-shots-are-fired part will be key to his success.
Then there's the proverbial and oft discussed duck search. While North Dakota is home to many a pothole where I can train, I do need to wrangle up a duck at some point to use for training. Like a dummy, I forgot to freeze any whole birds that I shot this fall. But I figure if I can purchase a few shackled farm ducks next spring, we'll be good to go.
I'm not sure if I've actually asked any direct questions. I guess this was more an airing of my thoughts to an online board. Was it a smart idea? I guess we'll see.
If anything, I'd like to hear from folks who've trained their own UT dogs. I'd also really like to come up with a pretty concrete schedule as far as training goes. That's another shortfall with the NAVHDA book: a lot of the timing for training is open to interpretation. I'd love to come up with a plan that includes concrete benchmarks. That way, when Remy accomplishes a task to a certain degree, I know we can move on to the next step.
Or doesn't it work that way?
Anyhoo, that's my ramblings. If it's unclear and sort of misdirected, I apologize. I kind of feel better just having it all out there.