Gundog Training Forum

Hi all, I've had some great advice if here recently so I thought I'd ask a couple more questions and see if all is good?
Been out this afternoon with my 1yr old sprocker, this is only our second outing for real game, today I was out for crows and pigeons, shot my first crow, after making sure it was stone dead I sent her for the retrieve and she brought it back to hand fine, the issue I'm having is she whines quite allot and seems to ramp it up after a shot is fired, I tried to put it to the back of my mind but it was quite annoying, I hear that it is almost impossible to fix a dog from whining but are there any good ways of coping with it? Will she get better the more exposure she gets? Am I doing something a little wrong? Anyone gone through this with good / bad results? thanks, Dan

Too much too soon, however whatever you now do will be too little too late!

Thanks for that.

Sorry but once they start and it sounds like yours has its almost if not totally impossible to undo.

She's a little young to be shot over and it may be her immaturity that's adding to the noise, an excited young dog confined to a hide with a gun going off is asking a little too much.

I would remove her from temptation and hopefully as she matures a little it may get better, but you'll generally find that most will agree once its in them it's in them.

Hope that helps.

No worries, she has been a bit whiney from day one, I never knowingly encouraged it and think she probably would have been like this even if I had given it another 6 months or so, she's only for rough shooting with me and is very keen to please so I'll keep positive and focus on the things she's good at.

As I only want her for rough shooting it will be something I can deal with, I take your point on the little too young to be confined to hide shot over but it felt like the right thing to do in terms of she was well trained for what I wanted to do with her.

Cheers

my boy was similar, would put a squeak in nearly every time i cast him off to hunt. for a trial dog i was not best pleased.
my first test i was outed (sept last year) though both judges where in agreement that out of all the runners, novice and opens that my dog was the best they had seen all day. but that didn't help me much though i got an honorable mention at the end!!

but as time has gone by, he now rarely squeaks and i am happy camper, but i have had some serious input from a top pro to get me through what seemed a life time of problems and copious amounts of shooting too. if your in a hide than that's not ideal, and careful training will be a must otherwise, yes she may become a full time howler!!
you may also find that sending her straight after the shot helps, as there is no excitement time as such, but yes as noted perhaps too much too soon for her age.

Can't disagree with what Simon's said unfortunately, it's very likely that she'll always whine now to some degree. The ramping up after the shot is in anticipation/frustration of the retrieve I would imagine.I would stop taking her out for a while as rather than calming it down more exposure may just push the excitement levels up further and further as the association between shot and retrieve gets stronger and stronger.

In the meantime, you could try to work on her ability to control her excitement levels/dissociate shot with an inevitable retrieve?

Question, is she sitting on her own or do you have a leash on?

Helene

30 odd years ago I had cocker that was a singer in the hide, classic beginners mistake taking the dog out to early, rough shooting he was fine not a peep out of him at any time but settle in a hide and he would start, if the pigeon were coming in fast he would be quiet but any lull in the action and he would start up again, I got used to it he was the best pigeon dog I ever had he new his job inside out.

Hi Helene, no she's not on a lead, I just sit her and she waits there whining! Ha,

I didn't have her in a hide though it's good to know that could make it even worse, we were just by the side of the field waiting, she's fine when walking about.

That's good to hear Jeff that she was you best ever dog, fingers crossed she turns out good, she is my first gun dog and she's come allong well I think, I've watched and read so much stuff but there always seems to be a new hurdle to jump just round that corner, maybe it's just one of those things I'll just learn to cope with.

I'm going to continue with her training cautiously and just wait and see I guess.

Cheers