Springer Puppy: When to start working on distance?

[sean english]

My puppy does not get too far. But when we go off leash on our daily walks, since she is getting comfortable in the area (walking it everyday), she sometimes wants to get ahead of us a little too far. Should that be a concern that it might turn into a "ranging too far" problem? When I call her or blow the whistle, she is pretty good at running back. But just sometimes gets too far. My wife says "You dont have control over your dog". But again her idea of a dog walk is that dog walks in her shadow, not understanding that this dog has a "job" and that is to find birds for me in the hunting season. She has to be bold and more adventurous than our little chiwawa mix. (never mind the spelling)
I took Chelsea out on hike to a different, new area. She did not know the area and did not wonder off too far.
Today, on our daily walk, she got maybe 100 yards away (heading back to the truck) My wife and I started to walk back and hide. After the pup found out she is all alone, started to run back towards us. I think that is a good lesson for "losing sight of us".
What do you think? Should I be anal (for a lack of better word) about she getting too far or its ok? Might this get out of hand?

[deseeker]

You have a flushing dog that needs to quarter back and forth in front of you. I'd take the dog to a low cover(1 foot high grass) open field and change directions alot trying to get him to quarter in front of you. Once he starts going back and forth it usually keeps them closer to you as they work back and forth(not just straight forward, which usually allows them to get farther ahead). I had springers before I had britts. You need to work flushing dogs inside of your gun range(40 yards or what ever your comfortable with).(IMO)

[Neil]

Yes, keep her close. I have never been a fan of hiding, teach the dog to "here" and enforce it.

[buckeyebowman]

You have a flushing dog that needs to quarter back and forth in front of you. I'd take the dog to a low cover(1 foot high grass) open field and change directions alot trying to get him to quarter in front of you. Once he starts going back and forth it usually keeps them closer to you as they work back and forth(not just straight forward, which usually allows them to get farther ahead). I had springers before I had britts. You need to work flushing dogs inside of your gun range(40 yards or what ever your comfortable with).(IMO)

I completely agree. When I got my first Springer (many years ago) I didn't have the first clue about "training" a bird dog, but I'd had dogs all my life, and they'd always minded me very well. At first I took "Bogey" out to the field to just walk around. The first time the pup wanted to walk behind me so I could break trail for him. I soon realized how small a 12 week old pup looks in chest high weeds! Realizing my mistake I took him to a strip of mowed grass that ran alongside the weed field. He still stayed very close at first, but over time extended his range and quartered back and forth in front me very naturally. Once he was consistently working about 40 yards out, I decided to introduce him to some heavier cover. Not saying this will be the case with your dog, but it seemed to "lock in" that range for mine. Deseeker's point about a flushing breed is right on. Many times, depending on the cover, Bogey would work closer to me than 40 yards. This was certainly not a bad thing, because when he got a snoot full of hot pheasant scent I needed to have my track shoes on!

[Neil]

Even when I could, I never ran with a shotgun NEVER! It is unsafe. Train the dog to stay within range ( and 40 yards is not in range), teach it to come, to hup, and enjoy.

[SpringerDude]

First of all, what is the age of your pup? 3-4 mths?

When did your pup start ranging out to the 100 yd distance? on the way back to the truck?
My dogs have always back trailed me to the truck and I don't worry about the dog getting out away from me in that situation. However, if you can whistle the pup back to you, then do so and praise her. BUT if you are continually whistling her back, she will start to ignore you. Use it sparingly. I wouldn't try to enforce distance right now or you can cause other issues. However, I would try to set up situations where pup succeeds at doing the right thing. The culvert idea would be a good scenario. Working pup into the wind will also help keep pup moving side to side instead of up the field.

Pup knows when you are just out for a walk. Put your brush pants on and get off the trail. This will help tremendously in getting pup to watch you and work with you.

at intervals, toss a bumper for pup to mark and retrieve. Not often but some. That will help keep pup checking in on you. Another idea is to toss a bumper to one side when pup is headed the opposite way. (can't see it) Then let pup work to the downwind side of the bumper and then find the bumper. If pup only finds things close to you, then you are becoming the hero. This will help with range.

Set it up right and you don't have to get onto pup very often. Fuss at pup a lot and pup will soon be tuning you out completely.

I have a 10mth old pup coming along now. She is hunting hard and ranging well. If she doesn't cover the ground then we are going to miss birds. You will not get a chance to shoot at every bird your pup puts up in the field. But if pup doesn't range some distance from you, there will be birds you will never flush. There is a trade off. This pup will do a memory blind out to 200 yds, but she doesn't hunt out to 200 yds. Pup will learn what you are wanting and will adjust to work with you.

[TheRiley]

I would not let her "venture off" on daily walks. She needs to know the difference between work, play, and exercise. When I walk my springer I have her heel..on leash or off. My wife and I usually walk our dogs together she handles the Bernese mountain dog and I handle the springer. Both of them heel while we are on the "walk"...once we get to an open area or park where they can play we then release them to go run around. I usually just say "go play" as the command for play time...When it's hunting time I give her a "get on" and or "find the birds". She has gotten to the point now that I don't really even have to cast verbally because she makes the connection when she sees the gun.

Your recall/here command is incredibly important. For me...the dog must drop what it's doing and come straight back on command...anything short of that is unacceptable and will require more repetitions.

What worked well with my springer is to call her back once she gets out of range...every time(this of course requires the strong understanding of the here command). She will quickly figure out that once she gets to that distance you will stop her and she will stay closer. This usually doesn't take a lot of effort if she quarters well. It may be in your best interest to just work on quartering more and the distance thing will fix itself. Springerdude's tip is an excellent one.