NCMTNHunter
Senior Member
I posted on here about a month ago that I was going to start trying to steady my dog up to wing, shot, and fall. I’ve never taken a dog that far before but I thought it would be fun for my kids to be able to do some put and take type hunts and I thought it would make a good extra layer of safety for the dog. Plus I just thought it would make for some fun training in the off season. I recruited my daughter to do the flushing and cap popping so I could focus on the dog and what she needs. My 8 year old son wanted a job too so I let him run the camera and film our lessons.
Izzie turned 2 in March and came out of this hunting season steady to flush and sometimes steady to shot. Prior to this next level of steadiness training I did a bunch whoa training to get her to stop on command and stop to continuous pressure from the collar.
For each lesson I set out 2 quail in different locations. I’m using tip up releases to keep the birds in place. These three lessons took place over about a month.
Lesson 1
This first lesson Izzie was a little extra amped up. I had shot some birds for her to retrieve a few days before and she was ready to roll. As you can see in the video I had to use the check chord and e-collar at the same time to stop her both before and after the shot.
Lesson 2
Lesson 2 showed a small amount of improvement, which is all you can really hope for. Izzie flinched a little at the flush but stood on her own. She did however start to go at the shot but I was able to stop her with the collar only.
Lesson 3
Now we are getting somewhere. Even though she flinched at the shot she stood on her own with no communication from me. If she does this good next time I am going to knock one down and let her retrieve it. While she is a long ways from being broke we are at least headed in the right direction.
Izzie turned 2 in March and came out of this hunting season steady to flush and sometimes steady to shot. Prior to this next level of steadiness training I did a bunch whoa training to get her to stop on command and stop to continuous pressure from the collar.
For each lesson I set out 2 quail in different locations. I’m using tip up releases to keep the birds in place. These three lessons took place over about a month.
Lesson 1
This first lesson Izzie was a little extra amped up. I had shot some birds for her to retrieve a few days before and she was ready to roll. As you can see in the video I had to use the check chord and e-collar at the same time to stop her both before and after the shot.
Lesson 2
Lesson 2 showed a small amount of improvement, which is all you can really hope for. Izzie flinched a little at the flush but stood on her own. She did however start to go at the shot but I was able to stop her with the collar only.
Lesson 3
Now we are getting somewhere. Even though she flinched at the shot she stood on her own with no communication from me. If she does this good next time I am going to knock one down and let her retrieve it. While she is a long ways from being broke we are at least headed in the right direction.
