Specifics are a professional
gun dog trainers bread
and butter. Thus, we are inclined to dwell on them at great lengths.
In emphasizing problems, what caused them and the techniques
available to correct them we often ignore the generalities that
should precede the specifics.
Why, how and what to do when training a hunting dog are most
operable within a framework of general rules; a philosophy, if
you will, that outlines an overall approach in getting the job
done.
Those who read the stuff my typewriter has turned out, in an
effort to help sportsmen develop pleasurable sporting dogs since
the 1940s, know I deal mostly with specifics, practically and
pragmatically. But more than a touch of theory or philosophy
lies behind that. Therefore, I offer you seven positive rules
that apply to all dogs be they retrievers, flushers, pointers,
trailers or coach potatoes.
1. Tell your dog. Don't ask him.
2. Be consistent.
3. Give a command only when you are prepared to enforce it.
4. Punish only when your dog understands what the punishment
is for.
5. But do punish when your dog has learned a command but defies
you. |
6. Praise lavishly when your dog does right.
7. Never fool your dog.
Since those rules were first published in HUNTING DOG KNOW HOW,
( a book on training all types of gun dogs I wrote back in 1965)
in some irreverent quarters they've been dubbed "Duffey's
Seven Commandments." Theology not being my bag, such was
never intended. They are seven positive rules to follow that
will implement and make easier the application of the specific
techniques by which dogs of the sporting breeds can be developed
into useful gunning companions; the degree dependent upon what
ancestral genes have given each dog and the skill and diligence
of the individual trainer.
When you tell a dog something, snap it out incisively. There
are times when you can't help yelling at him. Go ahead and do
it. If it doesn't get his attention any better than a firm verbal
command, at least it will make you feel better and your  |
 dog won't be confused...
as he will be if you ask or beg him to do something. He may think
the softly delivered entreaty is praise for disobedience.
Contradiction will get you a mixed up dog. That's why consistency
is so important. Don't punish a dog for something one day, then
let him get away with it the next. There's no deviation. It's
either right or wrong.
Dogs in training are like children. They'll push you as far as
they can get away with it. So upon giving the command see that
it is obeyed. If you're not in a position to enforce that command,
or prepared to mete out discipline for refusal, keep your mouth
shut and your whistle out of it.
Patience is for saints, although the word is often invoked as
a desirable virtue in a dog trainer. Some adults (wives) have
asked me "how can you be so patient with kids and dogs but
impatient with adults?" The answer is that I don't expect
much from a child or a puppy; but once a human or canine has
been exposed to learning and matured, unreasonableness or faulty
performance is difficult to suffer. |
