Reducing Range

[ewilliams]

I have a one year old Vizsla. From the beginning, we encouraged him to be independent and to range out from us. I read that it was easier to bring a dog in to hunt closer than to force him out to hunt further away. He's now quartering great while training with birds and he's curious and loves to bust brush. We've trained recall and heel with the e-collar and have just about 100% compliance. There are times while training "hunting" that I'd like to bring him in closer, but not to come all the way back to my side. Is there a command for this? How would you go about training for it? Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Trekmoor]

I'd use an abbreviated form of the recall whistle. My dogs are trained that several quick "pips" on the whistle means recall. Once the pup understands this I begin to give just two pips and as the pup turns to return I slightly angle my body while giving an arm signal off to the side opposite to where the pup is. Most pups are only too keen to happily accept that they are not being completely recalled and cross my front in order to hunt on my other side.

A "turn" whistle will turn a dog at any distance you want and you then decide the distance you want. I think you will find that once you have "set" the distance you want by turning the dog on the whistle a few times the dog will then do it's own turning without you needing to continually whistle for a turn.

Your vizsla sounds like a good un .....best wishes with him.

Bill T.

[shags]

Didn't exactly train for it, but if I stop/stand still and call my dogs they come all the way in, but If I call them in while moving, they come to my general area.
On second thought, I guess the way they figured that out is that when they were recalling for closer range, I'd release them with an "OK, all right" before they got all the way in, and in training I did my little 'birds in here" whistle to keep them close.

[gonehuntin']

To my dog's, two blasts of the whistle means NO. So, if they are out to far, I would blow two tweets and they'd come in and shorten up. Everytime they hit the outer limit of the range I want, two tweets. When they know that I transition them to two beeps of the collar to hunt as noiselessly as possible.

So when they are learning, it would be two tweets meaning NO, then three meaning come. Nothing to it.

[polmaise]

The cover depends on how far and how close and more often the game that the dog can scent on . So it's not a text book distance that's required (imo) , more 'Reading the dog and the ground and the game/quarry that is being hunted' .
How You go about teaching that to your dog may be different.

[setterpoint]

i worked with my dogs with the beeper i dont use it to hunt with i use the garmin astro for that but i put the e collar with the beeper on them if they stay gone to long or range father than i like i hit the locate button they know that means to check in with me .i started training this way when the dogs out in an open field when i hit the locate button i turn and change dirrection first i blow the whistel then hit the button after a while you can drop the whis. and just use the locate button .some may not like to use this way of hunting but it has worked out great for me

[Meskousing]

I'm not a particularly experienced trainer, but here is what worked for me with my flusher:
First, we went for walks in a short grass field with his long lead on. Just before he got to the end of the lead, I'd say "Let's go." You can pick your own command, though. I'd also change directions and tug on the lead. The idea was to let him know we're changing directions and that he's too far away. Over time, he learned that running in one direction for a few seconds meant that it was time to check back in and change directions. I also started working in a whistle. I use a drawn out tweeeeeeEEEEEt. I'd like to think that it's easier for a dog to discern that compared to one versus two versus three whistle blasts. I could be wrong, though.
Then, we transitioned to the e-collar. Same drill, but without the lead. I started with the verbal "Let's go" followed by nicks on the collar. Then, we transitioned to the whistle. Now, if he's getting out too far, I can give him a few nicks and he knows he needs to change directions. I'm not a doggie psychologist, but to me it seems that he realizes that he ran too far in one direction and now knows it's time to get closer to the boss.
Also, when he comes in closer I never stop him to 'handle' him. Which is different than how I handle him on retrieving. When quartering, I point from my side like I'm shooting a finger gun from my hip in the direction I want him to go. I also give a "Get in." Which is different than an 'Over' in retrieving. Dogs are masters of body language so I think this helps him differentiate on what I want.

[Steve007]

See this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-B ... +dog+james

[gundogguy]

I do not think reducing range as such is what you are looking for. But rather handing the dog where you want to hunt. There may a multitude of reasons for this ability to handle.

[bonasa]

What species of birds and what kind of terrain do you hunt? Its easier on both, you and the dog to develop a closer range than it is to train one. Training a closer working range requires pressure and bird finding ability may suffer. With that being said, developing a closer range would be to have the dog into a lot of birds close to you. It would help if they were your primary gamebird. An artificial way to overcome this would be to plant birds close together and close to you, this will make the dog begin to choke up and hunt close to you. You could bend the dog with an e-collar/whistle or voice command but I have witnessed dogs brought up this way takes their mind off finding birds and more on looking for you so it doesn't stray to far. A better way of bending, would be to toot your whistle for a command to turn, and throw a pigeon. That method will get them to turn and be cognizant of you but wont necessarily translate over to a range restriction, but will ingrain a turn command.

Best results might be to have the dog into a lot of your primary quarry close to your person and finds close together in your most frequented type of terrain. Call the dog in and leave whenever they are hunting (not running) how you desire.