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| chasing the bird and associating the gun
with birds, excitement, and fun. It goes without saying that
you should be extremely careful as you shoot. If your helper
is doing the shooting, he or she should be knowledgeable about
gun handling and safety. Our method of gun development may seem painstaking and slow, but it will prevent any problems before they begin. Step by step ensures that an ounce of prevention will replace the pound of cure. Believe us, it will take a lot longer to "fix" a gun-shy dog, and sometimes the dog can never be brought back around. There are many other methods of developing pup to the gun. You may have read or heard of the "chain gang" method. This involves putting young dogs on tie-outs while watching another dog being worked in the field. The theory is that the pups' excitement intensifies as they watch, waiting for their turn, while hearing the shots in the distance as the other dogs work birds. This is a method that often works well, but for the average hunter training his dog, it may be difficult to duplicate since he isn't working with several dogs only his own. Retriever trainers often focus on gun development while the pup is retrieving. Many people bang pots and pans or shoot cap pistols while young pups are eating, so that they associate noise with pleasant experiences this is a good foundation for laying the groundwork at an early age, but it is just a prelude to real gun development. A few key points should be made here. Puppies are not born gun-shy; they are made gun-shy, often by their well-intentioned owners. Some dogs are more sensitive, and this means to noise as well as to other things in their small worlds. Exposure to noise at various early stages of pup's development should always be done with caution and observance of the pup's reactions, and never while the pup has nothing pleasant to associate the noise with. You may be wondering why we aren't focusing on whether the pup is pointing or retrieving while developing her to the gun. Some pups will point at eight weeks of age, some will take longermuch longer. When pointer pups don't point right away, we normally do not want them to catch birds. However, in the first month of pup's started dog development covered in the last issue one of the methods used to excite young pups and make them bird-crazy is to let them catch birds on occasion in the beginning. The same holds true when we are developing a shy, soft pup to the gun. We want her mind on the birds, and catching one on occasion will only whet her appetite and keep her mind on fun and excitement. If she's not pointing yet and jumping in on the bird we'll keep her from grabbing the bird with our checkcord as we flush and shoot. Once we have our puppy bird-crazy, hunting, and developed to the gun, then we can focus on bringing out her point. At this stage, if pup is a natural retriever, that's great! But if she's not retrieving, and/or busting birds and not pointing these issues will be addressed in future columns. Next up yard work and field handling for your started dog. For now, you have a sure-fire way pardon the pun to develop your young pup to the gun! Bob and Jody Iler are from Green Valley Kennel of Dubuque, IA They can be reached for subscriber questions at bobandjody@juno.com. and will address those questions in upcoming issues. |
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