Gun Dog Forum

My wife and I are adopting a 4 year old GSP. We've never trained a hunter before. And she's never been hunted before nor trained for it. Initially we're going to be focusing on general obedience and exercise. I hope to be able to start training her to hunt after the first few months have gone well and she's adjusted to her new home. Has anyone taken a show dog and trained it to woah and retrieve? Anything we should start doing immediately so I don't let her get into bad habits? Her pedigree has some JH titles and one TD title in it so I am hoping she's got the gene's for it.

Go to Pheasant Fest in a couple of weeks, attend the dog training seminars. You'll want to start her just like a puppy. Lots of bird contact. Lots and lots! The Perfect Start DVD is a good one. Attending a clinic - even better.

Kind of a loaded question. How 'bout a show breed in her show years



and a decade later



in her "still showing 'em" twilight years?

Almost any dog can be trained to whoa - and to flush. Retrieving may be an uphill battle with a four-year-old but never hurts to try if you're invested in the dog, and who knows but you may turn on the dog's dormant instincts?

MG

This one went all the way to the greatest Show on Earth on the hallowed green baize at Crufts!
After a new career change in all them things that Gun dogs do !...
The handler put in the work and the work paid off
Pound for pound, It would do what Crackerd's veteran has shown.

RoostersMom wrote:Go to Pheasant Fest in a couple of weeks, attend the dog training seminars...

If you do get a chance to stop down at the Fest, stop by booth 440 and see me. I'd love to talk and recommend some people who can help you. We will be in booth 440 for the NBHA.

Hi all. It's been a crazy couple of months and this is the first chance for me to catch up here. I want to apologize to the users who suggested the Pheasant Fest. I usually pick a random city when setting up accounts and I did not realize that it was going to show on my profile. I am not in Milwaukee, WI but am actually in Northern Virginia. Again, sorry for the confusion.

Well so far so good. Here she is the day we got her. She needed a bath and some nails clipped but otherwise was in good shape. At first she wasn't used to the exercise so she would sleep a lot. We have gotten her fixed which we were required to do and that took out about 2 weeks of outdoor exercise. Now she's extremely energetic and loves to play ALL the time. Long walks in the morning and at night plus a few miles of running and then some fun with toys and she's good to go for the day.



Here she is just two weeks ago during the snow we got. She has a very high prey drive and she'll stalk birds and squirrels until she just gives up and wants to chase them. When she wants to go after one and we don't let her she makes this half wine half bark noise and if you weren't able to see what was happening you'd swear we were cutting off her leg or something. The neighbors must think we are abusive owners sometimes.



The first week I had her retrieving toys and dropping them at my feet waiting for me to throw them. But she definitely has a brain like "Momento" (the movie). She'll pick something up real quick, but then like 20 minutes later and she'll look at you with this "I have no idea what you want" face. I haven't gotten her to do this again. She now retrieves the toy and runs around till I snag her. She's a big counter surfer and anything that's in a bag she thinks she's entitled to. It's a long road trying to break her of these habits.



We finally got all her shots and registration stuff out of the way and we are scheduled to start a 7 week obedience training class in April. I'm looking into the Perfect Start DVD and other training tools. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again everyone.

sounds great and have fun!

Carla
P.S. she's a cutie

Since you are in Virginia, try looking up Martha GreenLee she could give you some real insite on what to expect; plus I believe Maurice and Jonesy are putting on a clinic there around the 12 of April ; it would be money well spent and time well spent!