Advise neede on young cocker

[Collieman]

As above I have a young cocker dog I bought when he was 13 months,he had little or no training
but is a biddable clever dog who quarters naturally in range drops and recalls to the whistle now at 16 months
but if he does flush game which I have been trying to avoid he will ignore whistle and chase for a short distance,
What can I do to stop this before it becomes a habit.

[Stihl 090]

find a trainer with a game pen.

[Alice]

what do you do when he chases?

[engineswede]

As above I have a young cocker dog I bought when he was 13 months,he had little or no training
but is a biddable clever dog who quarters naturally in range drops and recalls to the whistle now at 16 months
but if he does flush game which I have been trying to avoid he will ignore whistle and chase for a short distance,
What can I do to stop this before it becomes a habit.

hi m8. can u sit him n throw dummies at side n behind him? wil he stop to a thrown dummy on the whistle?

cheers. nik

[Rascal]

Well done with him so far he sounds to be coming on well.....

For now try to keep him away from game but not gamey ground but clear the area yourself before working him.

Start putting the stepping stones in there steady to thrown dummy as has already been mentioned. Lob one near him as he's hunting and blow the sit if he's steady to it (if not work on it) don't send him for that one line him up for the blind you've dropped out behind you as you are hunting him... Or send him for a seen into cover away from the distraction dummy and pick that yourself..

You might find a bolting rabbit dummy useful too but don't overdo it and again don't send him for that one but lob a seen into cover away from the direction of the bolting rabbit dummy or a blind or give him a hunt him away from it and collect it later. Mix it up but make sure that he gets a reward of some sort at this age for complying.

A trainer would be able to help too with a pigeon launcher and the like and judge when he's ready to move onto live game. You would find that helpful I think..

Rascal

[Collieman]

Thanks for the advice given , he is steady to a thrown dummy I will try him
with the thrown dummy whilst hunting he has so far only chased 3 pheasants and
a duck flushed out a burn I have reprimanded him for disobeying the stop whistle
by taking him back to where he disobeyed blowing the stop whistle and given his
ear a tug is that correct ?

[Rascal]

That's one way of doing it, I prefer to do it differently I'm not a big fan of running a dog down and tugging a lug TBH..... But that's just me and plenty of people get the desired result using those methods... If a correction is timely enough then he may associate it with breaking the sit but equally he could associate it with game and you could cause other problems when you want him to retrieve game later.

Keep him away from ground nesting birds for now if you can and set up training scenarios where he can "learn" what it is you are asking of him. But with a reward for getting it right and no reward for getting it wrong..Bright dogs don't take long to work it out, use his wanting to do what works for him which is all you are harnessing really. Work at proofing the sit with as many distractions as you can and introduce the drop to shot..

As I said, a good gun dog trainer would have the training aids and the game when he's at that stage to be able to help you with this and that's the route I'd probably go....

Don't be pressured into putting him in a pen until he's mentally ready because that too can cause other problems such as whining and yipping especially with Cockers.

Rascal