teenage springer

[ramona]

Hello

I knew this day would come, when your teenage springer has suddenly become very independent.
here is the usual scenario:
we go out and train a couple of retrieves and walk to heel. She finishes this great, I want to keep it short and fun. then I let her off to hunt some ground, and depending on how much scent it is, she listens or just goes however far she likes.. I have caught myself yelling a lot to get her back to me, (sausage also helps) but as soon as i cast her again she is off in her own world. (this is the same for all commands, I can stop her on the whistle, but she would go straight back into her hunting world as soon as I cast her) I usually try to move her in the direction I am going by changing directions, but she will still go too far. I think the problem is I am not very 'exciting' to be around, she doesn't like retrieving, and does it only because I ask her to do it. therefore throwing dummies or tennis balls around me would be no use. Additionally, there is very little game around, and the ground is heavily scented with deer, even our parking lot is too distracting for her.
So, should I keep her on lead until she gets older? It doesn't seem sensible to let her learn bad habits. How would you deal with a springer that has a good nose and little willingness to be around you? Rabbit pen?

Ramona

[neilly1690]

keep her on the lead .. work on recall needs to be 100%....dont let her free hunting ...rabbit pen wont work imo if she not 100% recall whistle etc ...try and get a bit of ground to take her too ..parks dont work imo ..to much crap and pee smells ...try cold game maybe if you can get it ..dont give up make it fun ..

[ramona]

keep her on the lead .. work on recall needs to be 100%....dont let her free hunting ...rabbit pen wont work imo if she not 100% recall whistle etc ...try and get a bit of ground to take her too ..parks dont work imo ..to much crap and pee smells ...try cold game maybe if you can get it ..dont give up make it fun ..

Thanks Neilly, I will try out your advice and see if I can find someone to supply me with cold game.

[Naj]

Do you not do any hunting/quartering training with this dog? Or do you just want her as a no-slip retriever? You seem to have trained her to go off self-hunting after you've done your little bit of mandatory training.

Naj

[ramona]

Do you not do any hunting/quartering training with this dog? Or do you just want her as a no-slip retriever? You seem to have trained her to go off self-hunting after you've done your little bit of mandatory training.

Naj

hmm.. I will try to explain what my plan is. I want her to hunt the ground - and retrieve - and hunt for retrieves. since I had to put a lot of work into her retrieving and still is, it is difficult to combine hunting and retrieving. if its scent, she wont still wont retrieve - so im not training retrieving other than in the backyard.
Im trying to quarter her, and it works on heavily scented (and slightly unfamiliar) ground. but she easily slips into her free-hunt if she is familiar with where she is, I would say that she has run away on purpose a few times - 1 -5 min lapses. Of course I try to turn her before this happens, when I cast her, i intend to train her - not just let her run off.

Ramona

[neilly1690]

try her on a training lead .. instill basic obidience in her ...key to everything imo ..i find they canbe good enclosed in a yard/garden ..but differiant outside ...keep it fun ..keep calm ...dont give up ..what age is she ...try keep her close and if you think she going to break get her on lead ...

[ramona]

You are probably right, I have to go back at the basics. But a good idea the training lead - I will try it today!
She is 9 months, we just moved to a very rural area and opposed to city life it is a lot more scent here which made her forget about everything

[neilly1690]

rural should be good ...get your self some perrimision on a farmers land do you shoot ...i take my youngest pup 6mths up over the fields on my permission and train her their...but only bits and pieces at 9mths dont be to hard on yourself if this is your first ....as i said basic obidience ..fun...and a strong bond is a must ..i have friends who take their 18week old onto the lough etc ...you get a dog to do what you want/need ...if rough shooting a good standard required ..beating etc more and well if trailing good luck ..lol..at 6mths i only really going to start pushing her now .in fact had her out last night with a ball and starter pistol ..just to see her reaction to shot ..not that it really sounds like a shotgun ..but little steps ..lol..working on steadyness ...

[dogwalker]

I would think about finding a good gun dog trainer who runs courses and signing up for set of lessons.

[Naj]

Sorry, I meant that any free-hunting/running off 'training' was accidental, not purposely trained in.

If the dog has suddenly switched from relatively sterile ground to highly scented ground then it's understandable that the distraction levels are too high for the current level of training. But persevere & the dog will get used to working in such high levels of distraction & they will soon become background noise to it. It would help to try to train/exercise it in areas where you know it will be less distracting & then build from there. I tend to shy away from restricting a spaniel to lead training when things are getting out of hand because this teaches it what to do when on the lead, but the problem is really what happens when it is off-lead. So I would continue training in less distracting areas & then build the level of distraction in synch with your increasing levels of control. I would happily let the dog trail a light training line if this helped over the intervening period. I mentioned hunting because I like to do most of my training with spaniels while I am hunting them. So they get very little free-running exercise but a lot of exercise while quartering. This means that you are suddenly very exciting to be around because you are central to their most enjoyable activity, but only if the dog carries it out under your terms. If retrieving is a problem while hunting I would continue that separately & then gradually incorporate it into the hunting under less distracting conditions. And in any event it often helps with young spaniels to give them a good hunt first & then do the retrieving after they have blown off a bit of steam. She's very young yet, in the middle of an inquisitive stage of development & has suddenly landed in the middle of all this exciting scent so it's perhaps not surprising that she is distracted. But it's no use standing there yelling if she breaks on you. Keep her close & the moment you sense she is about to pull away on you, presumably because she ignores a turn whistle, get out after her & stop her. Make some noise while you are doing so if it helps distract her but stop her (traditionally you would punish the dog at this point) however you can from self-rewarding. Then take her back to where she broke from, leave her a moment to cool down & then cast her off again with the turn whistle & be ready to do it again & again until the dog gets the message. If she still manages to get away from you then leave it & welcome her back happily when she eventually returns & contrive things so that you catch her the next time around, even if it means heading out to her in anticipation every time you blow the turn or stop whistle. I know others like to go back to strict obedience drills but if you can hunt a spaniel over scented ground successfully then you should have little difficulty in transferring that control, by degrees, to greater distances.

Naj