When training dogs for hunting we have two main things to not do:
- One is to not train your dog too young. Some pups with the hunting instinct bred right into them will go right out at six or seven months and show what they’re really made of, but these are rarer than hen’s teeth. Nine out of ten chances if you try to train a young pup you’ll have it all to do over again the when he’s older. Between 1 and 2 years old gives you plenty of time to train a dog. Just around 1 year old is the perfect time.
- The second thing to be careful that you don’t start with a foolish dog. Believe it or not there are dummies among dogs the same as among people. If you start with a brainless idiot of a dog, you could work with him all his life and never teach him anything worth knowing. Even if you should succeed in teaching him anything, he really wouldn’t know how to use it. You may educate him but in the end all you have is an educated brainless, foolish, dingbat. Training a hunting dog takes a whole bunch of time and effort. You’ll save many a headache by picking out a bright specimen with some hunting instinct in him to start with.
There are two systems of training; the play system and the force system, but the force system is actually the only reliable system. This is because because using the play system your dog is never entirely dependable. In other words, what if your dog doesn’t want to play when you need him to perform? Some dogs have been very highly trained by the play system, but if a dog trained under that system if he doesn’t happen to want to work, he won’t work. A dog broken by the force system like a horse broken and taught by the force system, once he’s broken, he’ll always be broken. He does his duty because he feels the direction of an Alpha, which is his masters will power so obedience and proper hunting becomes a habit that he’s as powerless to break.
The force system of training is not like the novice would think it is, where the trainer brutality forces his commands on the dog against the dog’s will. Quite the contrary. In the force system the force is used only where it’s necessary to get the message across to the dog that he has to obey even though he doesn’t feel like it. But often in training a dog by the force system you’ll find a critter that’s eager and anxious to obey that force hardly needs to be used. But once in a while dogs that eventually turn out to be the best hunters in the world, start off stubborn and it’s there that the force system has to come into play.
Play System: Turning the training into a game.
Force System: Using methods like a choker chain.
Ninja Turnips Thoughts and Ideas
A simple definition of The Outdoorsman is just a southern gent!
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