Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Advanced Training Tip - Off the ground finds
The current series of training tips is focusing on "Raising Pup". Setting him up for life as a companion and retriever/flusher. This young age in a pups life is critical to how he will turn out as an adult. Be sure and mark your calendars for our upcoming seminar - "Raising Pup". Visit our seminars page for more informations: www.yoconariverboykins.com/events.html
For the dogs already beyond this stage, I do not want to leave you out so I am going to be inserting some advanced training tips along the way. These are various scenarios I have picked up, that will replicate and prepare you for various scenarios afield, that you and your retriever or flusher might encounter on a days hunt.
The first of these tips, I learned while training at Wildrose Kennels. Off the ground finds, land and water. While you may not see this everytime you hunt, having this in your dogs arsenal, will pay dividends when he stumbles across this. Whether you are in the woods hunting grouse or in flooded timber on a Mississippi Delta duck hunt, off the ground finds are a distinct possibility. Training for them will just make your Boykin Spaniel a more well rounded dog when hunting.
Off The Ground Find Land: While training at Wildrose Kennels here in Oxford, Mike could not sleep one night and had this hair brained idea. We had just had a bunch of trees cut or pruned all around the kennels. So when the guys got to work, Mike had them hauling piles of brush down into the field below the bird pen to construct a brush pile. Then, he had them haul the rest of it into the woods nearby. Everyone thought he had lost it, what was he up to this time. What he had done, was put together two distinct piles that served similar, but different purposes. The first pile which was located in the field was going to be used for off the ground finds. It was constructed so that the dogs could actually climb up on it.
In order to show the dog what we were expecting of them, we would stand about ten feet off from the pile and toss a bumper up onto the leading edge of the pile, then send the dog from right there. Doing this up close shows the dog exactly what we are expecting of him, plus with the bumper on the leading edge, the dog could keep at least two feet on solid ground. Next we would do the same thing but turn and heel the dog out about 30 yards and send them for the bumper. Over the course of training, we would gradually work the bumper so it was higher and higher up on top of the pile and eventually we could run it as a pattern blind and have the dog "Hunt Dead" on the pile.
The second pile, which was located in the woods was built in contrast to the one in the field. This one was constructed so that when you tossed the bumper up onto it, it would fall down through the pile and land on the ground in the middle of the pile. Sometimes, it would hang up and be suspended one or two feet off the ground, which just added challenge to it for the dog. The primary focus though, was to teach the dog to drive into the thick cover of the brush pile for the bumper. Teaching this, we used the same method as we did with the first pile in the middle of the field, gradually adding difficulty in it for the dog.
I have talked with different hunters that have trained for this, and it has paid dividends for them. I personally have had the benefit of this training paying off for me and my dogs as well.
Now, off the ground finds on water are pretty much the same, just the dog is going to have to swim out to the pile. The pile does not have to be 100 yards out in the middle of a 100 acre lake. Construct this in the upper or lower end of a pond, where at most, the dog might have a 20 yard swim to the pile. Remember, the dog most likely is already doing other training that teaches him distances, here this is conceptual training. The concept of off the ground finds. So the first time a dog goes to the pile on water, since the pile is a psycological barrier for him, he might swim circles around it, so I like to use my canvas bumpers with duck wings taped to it for scenting purposes.
To better explain this, I will turn you over to DU TV and Mike Stewart of Wildrose Kennels for a short video clip of Mike and Drake training for off the ground finds on water.
So keep checking back for more advanced training tips, to make your Boykin Spaniel a better hunter.
For the dogs already beyond this stage, I do not want to leave you out so I am going to be inserting some advanced training tips along the way. These are various scenarios I have picked up, that will replicate and prepare you for various scenarios afield, that you and your retriever or flusher might encounter on a days hunt.
The first of these tips, I learned while training at Wildrose Kennels. Off the ground finds, land and water. While you may not see this everytime you hunt, having this in your dogs arsenal, will pay dividends when he stumbles across this. Whether you are in the woods hunting grouse or in flooded timber on a Mississippi Delta duck hunt, off the ground finds are a distinct possibility. Training for them will just make your Boykin Spaniel a more well rounded dog when hunting.
Off The Ground Find Land: While training at Wildrose Kennels here in Oxford, Mike could not sleep one night and had this hair brained idea. We had just had a bunch of trees cut or pruned all around the kennels. So when the guys got to work, Mike had them hauling piles of brush down into the field below the bird pen to construct a brush pile. Then, he had them haul the rest of it into the woods nearby. Everyone thought he had lost it, what was he up to this time. What he had done, was put together two distinct piles that served similar, but different purposes. The first pile which was located in the field was going to be used for off the ground finds. It was constructed so that the dogs could actually climb up on it.
In order to show the dog what we were expecting of them, we would stand about ten feet off from the pile and toss a bumper up onto the leading edge of the pile, then send the dog from right there. Doing this up close shows the dog exactly what we are expecting of him, plus with the bumper on the leading edge, the dog could keep at least two feet on solid ground. Next we would do the same thing but turn and heel the dog out about 30 yards and send them for the bumper. Over the course of training, we would gradually work the bumper so it was higher and higher up on top of the pile and eventually we could run it as a pattern blind and have the dog "Hunt Dead" on the pile.
The second pile, which was located in the woods was built in contrast to the one in the field. This one was constructed so that when you tossed the bumper up onto it, it would fall down through the pile and land on the ground in the middle of the pile. Sometimes, it would hang up and be suspended one or two feet off the ground, which just added challenge to it for the dog. The primary focus though, was to teach the dog to drive into the thick cover of the brush pile for the bumper. Teaching this, we used the same method as we did with the first pile in the middle of the field, gradually adding difficulty in it for the dog.
I have talked with different hunters that have trained for this, and it has paid dividends for them. I personally have had the benefit of this training paying off for me and my dogs as well.
Now, off the ground finds on water are pretty much the same, just the dog is going to have to swim out to the pile. The pile does not have to be 100 yards out in the middle of a 100 acre lake. Construct this in the upper or lower end of a pond, where at most, the dog might have a 20 yard swim to the pile. Remember, the dog most likely is already doing other training that teaches him distances, here this is conceptual training. The concept of off the ground finds. So the first time a dog goes to the pile on water, since the pile is a psycological barrier for him, he might swim circles around it, so I like to use my canvas bumpers with duck wings taped to it for scenting purposes.
To better explain this, I will turn you over to DU TV and Mike Stewart of Wildrose Kennels for a short video clip of Mike and Drake training for off the ground finds on water.
So keep checking back for more advanced training tips, to make your Boykin Spaniel a better hunter.
# posted by Clay Black @ 3:47 AM 
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