I did some wheelin and dealin this weekend and traded my radial arm saw for a Knight .50 cal muzzleloader. I thought the saw was just what I needed it would cut boards as well as rip full sheets of plywood. but I got tired of carrying full sheets of plywood to the garage and decided is was easier to set up 2 sawhorses and do the cutting on site. So this saw set in my garage and I never used it. So I put up for sale at about 1/2 price and could not sell it so this guy offered me the gun and I took it. I figured I could sell the gun if I didn't like it easier than I could sell the saw. The gun is really nice it has already been converted to 209 primer, has a laminated wood stock and a Simmons 1 X 4 power scope and is a stainless steel barrel. A really nice looking gun.
Last night Waldo, Morgan's pup, got his first round of shots and wormed again. He is doing well and will be flying to Conneticut on Monday March 21.
I started this blog so people could possibly learn a little bit about English Pointers and possibly some training tips so after quite a few months I am finally going to try add a few training tips and techniques and will add pictures when I can.
What I am going to talk about today is what I call a style board. It is a 2X8 mounted to 2 barrels. I use plastic barrels because they are round on the bottom and are not a stable base. This unstable condition has a reason it teaches the dog to stand and not move the dog will learn as long as it stand stock still the board will not rock and if they move the board will move. Since this board is mounted on the 2 barrels it takes the dog out of it's comfort zone and puts you in control. In the beginning you just want to work on the dog standing still on the board and you can work on style as you go. I use treats also when the dog stand still and doesn't move you can put your hand under its stomach and steady the dog and give them a treat and priase the heck out of them because eventually the praise will take the place of the treat. Here is a picture or the set up I use.
When the dogs learns to stand and learns as long as they stand still you can then start to work on style and once they learn to stand with style you can then overlay other commands such as whoa once they will stand to whoa you can start to transfer this back to the ground. This will also help with style when she gets on birds and sarts to point she will under stand when you style her up on point that tail will go straight up and the head will do the same. I put a board on the ground and get them used to being back on the ground but yet they are comfortable because they are still attentive becasue of the familiar feeling of being on the board. Then you can start to take them on a lead and stop and say whoa and start working on this but this is another whole blog. Here is a picture of Patch I have been working with her on the board for about 4 days now and she is comfortable on the board and I am starting on working on her standing with style.
As you can see Patch will stand and I am working on her holding her head and tail up. If her attentions strays which can happen with a young dog I will give here a "hup" and get her attention back to me and back on task. This will not come the first time or 2 it will take many days and remember the 3 most important words in training reption, repition, repition. Sooner or later the "light bulb" will go off and they will completely understand what you want and then it will come easier to them and they want to please you it is really number one in their mind is to please you becasue you are the Alpha dog.
And when things do come together it can be amazing here is a picture of Spice she is 2 years old and knows how to play this game. And this picture is nothing but pure pointer style.
If you want to see more pictures of me working with these dogs here is a link to my facebook photo album.
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44328&id=100001292875644&l=ae847c27c6
I hope to add a training tip on each blog from here on out. I may start to try to video some short segments. But for now I will try pictures and try explaining in words. I hope you enjoy it and let me know if there is anything I can do to improve this.
Jim
"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face."
--Ben Williams
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