Any experience with, How To Have the Best Trained Gun Dog

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Frank
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Any experience with, How To Have the Best Trained Gun Dog

Post by Frank » Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:23 am

Anyone have experience with Joan Bailey's second book, How to Have the Best Trained Gun Dog. I have the first one, How to Help Gun Dogs Train Themselves, and i thought it was prity good. I was wandering if anybody has trained a dog using the second and how it turned out, or any comment about if the book is any good in general.

Also wandered if anybody would comment about positive reinforcement vs treats.

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Sharon
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Re: Any experience with, How To Have the Best Trained Gun Dog

Post by Sharon » Sun Oct 08, 2017 2:53 pm

I've used treats for puppies until compliance with the command becomes a habit. I don't want to be carrying a bag of treats around in the woods , so they are weaned off treats very quickly. ( My satisfaction with their behaviour becomes the treat. :) ) Timing and consistency is EVERYTHING when using praise or treats.
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Timewise65
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Re: Any experience with, How To Have the Best Trained Gun Dog

Post by Timewise65 » Mon Oct 09, 2017 7:50 am

I have always used treats coupled with attention reward to teach basic obedience. That formal process should begin around 12 weeks. After basic obedience (Heal, Sit, Down, Here, Give, Whoa, Kennel) is established, I stop with treats and concentrate on giving the pup attention for work well done.

I have read many books and most offer good advice and techniques, but most are not meant to be a complete training program. I primarily work with retrievers, so the programs I would use will not fit you hunting methodology. I do know that to fully train a gun dog you should have a comprehensive program that you follow. I have seen many on here post the names of good programs for pointers and flushers, I just do not recall the names of those programs.....

I also believe that if you do not have experience in training, the use of a pro is your best bet to help you along. Or even to train your dog as they train you how to train. But both of these options are costly, and many cannot afford it. But if you can, it is your best bet to get the 'best' result possible. This is not to say that a new trainer, if he/she follows a standard training program and understands basic training, he or she can fully train a fine gun dog!

Good Luck

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