Gundog Training Forum

Having problems getting my 9 month old bitch to respond to my turn whistle while quartering. My garden has a very thick hedge so I was thinking of planting a bird in it and giving her the turn whistle on to the bird, I'll get a flush and hopefully she will connect the turn whistle to game therfore getting a better response to the turn whistle.?

No problem, it’ll work for awhile until the gap of actually finding something after each cast becomes greater. Then either cold or hot scent will once again begin to silence the turn whistle.

So, to keep behavior reliably consistent there should be a reliable reward and a downside. In the case of a ‘turn’, it should be the reward of being able to hunt on unimpeded and find game. The other factor is that the dog understands that the ‘turn’ is nonnegotiable.

If you are also having problems with a reliable ‘stop’, refer to the above. Same principles, just different behavior.

How did you train the turn whistle in the first place?

By quartering myself and Getting her to follow, she discovered snip at about 6 months old so she decided that all the action was well out from me, I want to get her thinking differently on that, And that the game is to be found closer to me. Stopping a young dog is relatively easy, but can be a lot harder with game in front of her.

She is still young and might benefit from going back a few steps. When training I make use of natural markers such as trees or holly bushes in the hedge, and as I walk across the field I keep the dog working within that narrow channel. As the dog passes in front of me I’ll stop her and either put something out and send her for it, or I’ll have sneakily put one out when she wasn’t looking. If I can get a reward out without her looking then no need to stop her. The reward comes from working in close proximity to you. The channel might only be 20m wide.

If you have access to ground with game on that is great but I’d look to address the basic controls first.

Very good, that's exactly what I done I went back to basics, And what I am trying to do is build a stronger bond with the pup with long walks, short retrieves mixed in with quartering work will hopefully help also.