Is it over

[Stihl 090]

i had a similar problem the other week, in when i wanted to do a few retrieves with two dead pheasant close to each other just to reiterate the leave command. as i sent my boy, he made a slight noise. i stopped him within about 5ft on the stop whistle. left him there and went and picked the birds myself, collected the dog went home. no reward. has been out since then and not had a problem..

[Rascal]

How old is she and how long has she been doing it?

Rascal

[Dan outdoors]

She's 19 months, she's been doing it since she was very young, when I first took her for a training session with a pro trainer she did it then and I was told that was a fault of hers but as I only want her for pigeon shooting if I could cope with it it didn't matter as I was not doing field trails, I would love to fix it as she's a great dog but I don't have a huge amount of patience..
Thanks

[allan450]

it will slowly get to you more and more.iv a gsp bitch and when she sees the lead she starts from the back door to the front and it drives me mental.Thats the only time she does it.sitting for ducks or anything else not a peep.she is 3.if it gets worse she will have to go.i like my kennels with quite dogs.i had a hard going yipping cocker but he had to go.it was driving me mental

[Rascal]

I doubt then that you will be able to stop her especially if she's been rewarded for it for a good while. With time and patience you might be able to lessen it using something along the lines of the quiet drill but once there it's going to be difficult to eradicate totally. At least you are not too restricted season wise with pigeons to work on it...Your shooting will need to take second place for a good long while though..Has it got worse or has your tolerance simply reduced?

If I wanted a dog for solely pigeon shooting one of the flushing breeds wouldn't be my first choice....Most are very capable but I always feel that you are pushing a round peg into a square hole..Not that it sounds as if it would make any difference in her case.

Can't answer your rehoming question, only you know if that is the right thing for you to do...

Rascal

[Dan outdoors]

Yes it's got worse rascal, my aim was to try and ignore it but it's just spoilt my shooting, going over allot of ideas in my head about what to do, I feel like I'm supposed to have a gun dog, I love the training and the bond with the dog as a extension of myself when out training, we will see, thanks everyone for your comments, realy appreciate it. Dan

[Dan outdoors]

Just as a last question if I kept her for beating and got a lab from good parentidge am I asking for trouble with regard to her imparting the vocals?? She's quiet the vast majority of the time in normal life, thanks

[RedWC]

I have a noisy dog - sometimes. My oldest cocker can get wound up like a clock on a shoot day, if I am beating I sit him in our place in the line and leave him there, I walk a few yards away to his right and he never makes a sound if he is on his own, however if I stand beside him he "wheeks and squeaks" - I only found this out by accident as he was driving me nuts and I had walked away to calm myself down - silence. He also gets a tad excited when marking birds down and not being allowed to go for them - I use the "quiet" command ( this is used at home for all our dogs if they are barking) and this works perfectly well, so not cured by I can keep him quiet. When I am shooting he never ever utters a sound

[Merlin]

My Flatcoat is an awful whiner when sitting waiting, when expecting to go and get in the car, when he hears me get up in the morning and is waiting for me to come downstairs etc etc...

Not a sound when he's out and very rarely barks - only when he gets spooked..

I bought an anti-bark collar, the spray type, it works for whining as well as barking.
Life is a lot more pleasant..


If you don't want to get rid of the dog and can work around the collar it may be worth a try...

Good luck..

[Gundogguy]

Thanks wullie, that might be what I will do at this rate.
My girlfriend googled this up, is it worth trying?



The Quiet Drill

This was shared with me from a Mike Lardy seminar and I adapted it while trying to "cure" a habitual whiner. This is a shaping drill that gives you a tool to gradually modify behavior over time. I stopped all other field work for months while working on this.


Start with a single thrower in the field. Sit dog at your side. Have thrower shoot and throw a bird and dog will likely whine. If he does say QUIET and have thrower pick up the bird. Repeat several times and pick up bird each time. After several throws where he whines and gets denied next have thrower not shoot and just toss a bumper. Likely dog will not whine and I'll give a soft GOOD DOG and send for bumper. Next go back to gunshot and bird and denials for whining and then do the unattractive bumper and let him get it.

Hopefully after a session or two of this he'll be quiet for the shot and dead bird. Next its time to amp it up a bit. Add props like a shotgun and get some denials and after a few go back to the bumper or bird without shotgun so he can be successful and get a retyrieve. Add duck calls. Add another dog. Add shot flyers.......each time after 3 or 4 failures where he's denied the retrieve drop back a notch or two in excitement so he can be successful and get rewarded with a retrieve.

Next do the above in a new location. And another that is more field like and possibly with a group of people.

The last place to go will be hunting or to a test or trial. For the rest of this dogs career you have to be prepared to deny the retrieve for noise no matter where you are. It doesn't matter if its a hunt of a lifetime or a trial you drove 10 hours to run, you can't reward his noise with a bird once the new standard is established. To do so will essentially un do all the work you have done for months.

Raider was a talented young dog that just couldn't control himself. I picked him up in 2 finished tests and a master test and decided that one way or another we would fix this problem. This decision was made in April and after 6 months of this process he ran his first and only FT. He didn't make a peep. When he picked up the last bird of the trial in the 4th series and got a JAM I then realized that these were the first birds he had ever retrieved in competition because I had picked him up in every other event without him getting a bird. Shortly after that he died in a freak accident while he was still 2 years old but he taught me a lot about dealing with involuntary habits in high dogs. Since then I've used this process to deal with noise, creeping , and even spinning.

Like I said there's no quick fix but it can be controlled.

Bill

Right-on! Takes great resolve of the handler to over come some these annoying quirks. But denial of the pleasure that the dog receives from us or the activity is the best way. Bill says he learned this from Mike Lardy, I learned this same from Evan Graham!