Your Schedule??

[BHC]

For some of you with proven methods with successful results, Id like to hear your schedule from 6-8 weeks to 2yrs old.. I know everyone has their own way, this would be a very general schedule over the course of a couple years....

[ultracarry]

Think you will find most read the dog and forget the schedule.

[Sharon]

When I got my first dog , I made a schedule. "Week 4 he will be staunch. Week 5 he will retrieve to hand. By year 2 we will be going to the National.:

Boy did I have a lot to learn. You can have a list of what you want pup to learn, but you can't put a time line on it.

[birddogger]

A good plan works, a schedule doesn't. And as was said, you have to learn to read the dog.

Charlie

[rinker]

I don't know if I am successful enough to comment or not. The weather has some bearing on my schedule as well as the age of the puppy. I usually try to get a puppy whelped as close to January as possible. That first spring and summer are spent getting the puppy to go with me and hunt to the front. I spend a lot of time running the puppy from foot and atv trying to concentrate on keeping the puppy running to the front. During that first spring and summer I do some bird introduction with pigeons but nothing serious. That fall and early winter I introduce the pup to johnny house quail and hopefully some wild birds but I still have no real expectations. By the time that second spring and summer roll around I start to get serious with yard work, whoa, and come. I try to have the pup steady to wing and shot on pigeons by the end of that second summer. That fall the goal is to translate the steady to wing and shot over to johnny house quail and then to wild birds. If I was going to force fetch the dog I would do it the following spring. This schedule is very general and I have deviated greatly from it at times.

[BHC]

lol i meant more for the average dog first few week/months we works on this this and this, then move on this and this typicall after such time, but with certain dogs it may take a couple extra weeks... Then on average after this amount of time we move on to field trials and begin with this and this...

Maybe that cant be answered like I was hoping... lol obviously im a true beginner...

[BHC]

Maybe a better question would be in what order do you teach what and what the pup has to learn before moving on to whatever is next.. with out putting a time frame on anything...

[RayGubernat]

BHC -

Not a schedule, but rather a progression of learned behaviors and demonstrations of "readiness" to proceed to the next task. It is much more of a continuum than a series of discrete steps.

First I socialize the pup and get it to want to be around me because I am where it has fun. Most of this takes place in the yard, especially at first, but it gradually progesses to include walks in the field on a CC. Once the pup is comfortable aron d me and comfortable with the checkcord(Hanging a short(2-3 ft) chekccord off the dog's collar in the yard, I will progress to the wonder lead and do some heel/whoa drills. At first it is mostly to get the pup to stop fighting and biting the wonderlead, but over a span of very short sessions, the pup learns that fighting the wonderlead only causes it problems. Eventually the pup comes with the lead with a minimum of fuss. Then I extend the lesson a bit and start asking for a bit more in terms of performance. In this timeframe I also use a narrow bench(~8" wide by ~30" long) and stroke the dog up and get it to stand quietly on the bench. Some use a barrel for this. I usually do two sessions per day, moringina nd evening. The sessions are usually of very short duratuion(5 -10 minutes) with a bunch of repetitions. I alwasy finsh up with some lovin' time and fun stuff, especially with the younger the pup is.

Initially with a puppy everything is PLAY training. That slowly transforms to training with play and then, when the dog is adult...training with a verbal or physical(pat on the flank) reward.

This process continues until the dog is heeling and whoaing and I can stop the dog, give a hand signal and then walk in front of the dog, simulating a flush, circle the dog and even step over it without the dog moving. As the dog progresses on heel whoa drills, I introduce the come command.

As the dog is getting better and better in the yard, I do an occasional walk in the birdless field, with the checkcord attached, working on the dog responding to me, turning with me and in general, running with one eye on where I am and where I am going. Somewhere during these runs, I will either have a pigeon in a trap planted, or have a bird bag with a couple of pigeons along...often I will do both at the same time. I will toss a pigeon to see what the pup will do. If it chases with gusto, that is great. Eventually that chasing with gusto will become chasing for a short distance and then a few steps and then...often just standing there and watching the bird fly away. I introduce the gun somewhere along here, preferably when the pup is in full, all out chase.

When the dog is standing there watching the bird fly off, or just taking a couple of steps...it is telling me it is ready to proceed with the steadying process. I will do some work with either the wonder lead, or a flat collar or a prong collar and checkcord(depending on what I think the dog needs) in the yard and then proceed to the field with pigeons in remote release traps. Once the dog is steady to wing, I will substitute the e-collar for the training collar and checkcord. From that time until the dog is in its grave, it wears an e-collar during training...just in case I need it.

Once the steadying process is essentially completed, I resume field work with an e-collar on the green broke dog. I want the dog to hunt and handle and when it comes up on a bird, to stop and stand until I get there. Once I arrive, I want the dog to stand for flush and shot and remain high and tight until I take it by the collar and walk off. I work to that goal. Just exactly how very much depends on what kind of curveballs the dog throws back at me. It is a mostly a matter of repetitions and exposing the dog to different situations and temptations. LOTS of repetitions.

I do not show my young dogs a lot of birds when they are very young. First becasue I don't want them to get into any bad habits like chasing and catching and second because I do not have wild birds to train on. I prefer to have the dog reasonably reliable and trustworthy off lead. I can let the dog hunt, explore and experiment much more independently because Ihave a reasonable expectation that the dog will stop and hold the bird until I get there.

The advent of modern tracking devices and of course the e-collar has allowed me to give the green broke dog a high level of freedom to operate, because with tracking devices, I can know what the dog is doing, very nearly in real time, even if it is out of sight and with the e-collar I have a mile long checkcord if I need it.

I continue to work toward the dog hunting the appropriate cover in the approriate way and when it finds a bird to point and hold it for as long as it takes. That part is an ongoing process.

With my pointers, I can get to where the dog is ready to be broke by somewhere from ten to sixteen month old. To get to the stage where the dog is reasonably reliable on its birds and reasonably responsive at turning with me and staying with me in the field, the dog may be from two to three years of age.

I will tell you that these times and benchmarks are what I have experienced with trial bred pointer pups. Your mileage may(and probably will) vary.

I hope this is of some use to you.

RayG

[Francois P vd Walt]

I have had several gsp and not to many achievements, all the dogs matured differantly each one had his own personal best curve ball.

I have to agree having some obedience or able to stop your pup, doing most corrective training in your yard and NOT on birds helps cause you can stop your pup if he moves into potential problem zones. ie you see a deer running he makes visual contact you can stop him before he chases ..... he could be trailing the deer track you saw running away before he gets there, you can say no boy or what ever your command is and if he knows the command he will stop tracking the deer and look for birds. As the pup gets older inforce the commands “kiss“ keep it simple - not to many commands.

Pup must know what is not right to do “no“ what is right “good dog“ and stop,sit or stay wnen he is commanded and move when he gets commanded. He also has to come to you when he is called.

Some advice :
It is easy to handle your dog in normal situations, also train commands when he is excited, never give a commamd if you can not enforce it. Never shoot over your dog the first time you take him hunting, this will save you time in getting him steady, you handle the dog and a friend the gun.

Remember to have FUN !