New dog

I agree Don, Im not a trainer but this is what I found out about both my brittneys, especially Zach the hardest hunting of the two and he was a male. I found out the most important thing was to be able to give a command and that he understood it and listened to what I said and that was done in the field. Number two thing on my list was hunt your dog regularly, if three times a week with atleast two full days from sunrise to sunset is possible do it if you can. Its amazing with enough practice hunting in the field what a dog does hunting, not only for the owner but for himself too and they do it naturally. They learn everything they can on scents and what to do and Zach learned it by himself. The more you hunt the dog the better he will become and he’ll do it naturally, its all in thier blood. Zach was amazing, he would act a certain way if it was a dry day that didn’t hold scent well or the birds and rabbits werent moving much. On a day when they were moving good and the humidity was high enough to hold the scent to the ground it was amazing what he would do and do that in the stationwagon when we pulled up along side the road befor he got out. If it was slow he wouldn’t do much but still wanted out. If it was going to b good he’d be going nuts whining and barking wanting to get out. He was my barometer telling me when we pulled up to a spot weather it was going to be good hunting in that area or not and he was always right. It developed only by hunting him alot, sometimes 3 days in a row and 4 to 5 times a week. The more you hunt him the more you’ll be able to read him and whats going on with the birds and whatever your going for. Hunt him alot and he’ll always listen to you and do what hes supposed to do, hunting dogs are amazing, especially good ones that hunt hard. I remember areas as we walked that looked good and Id yell to Zach and he’d automatically turn around and look for hand signels and go where I told him to go. The more you hunt him the more he’ll listen and pretty soon you will depend on him and he will depend on you for the right spots and the nice thing is they do it all naturally. Good hunting dogs are like your shooting hand and gun. Good luck with him and he does look like a good dog.

Good imput Mossydan! I just hit a few highlights to get started. Getting back to my “phase 3 system”, anytime I am training or going to start training- I am thinkiing in 3’s.
I look at the whole training picture. What do we want to accomplish? 1. obidience 2. retrieving 3. birds and guns.
I then break down each command into 3 phases, as stated in my earlier post. 1.The dog is (trying) something new 2. (Appy) what has been learned 3.(comply) on the first time the command is given. Lets take an example of the command to sit. We are teaching the dog what the command means. We will do this over and over for however long it takes. 2. once we are sure the dogs understands, we will apply and practice. here is where we get the dog to understand, “hey I get rewarded for doing it right or repremanded for wrong”. Next is#3 “comply”. When the dog has figured out how be rewarded and how to avoid repremand, he now will be expected to do so on the first command. I will get into some detail about this at a later time.
Alot of training books and articles say, “Don’t move onto anything new until the command you are doing is complete”. Does that mean if the dog takes 6 months to learn how to sit, I have to wait that long before I do anything else? Not in the first phase of training. You can be teaching the dog to sit, play retrieving games and introduce him to birds all at the same time. Remember, don’t expect the dog to do anything but play and chase birds at this point. We just want him to have fun in the field. After the dog has been introduced to birds and guns, I then go back and start the second phase of obidience training. This is the point where I do not move on until he has mastered the task at hand.
Patience and practice are the keys here. If you work short sesion of obidience in the yard, doing it time after time- when you get your dog back to the field, he will obey your commands.

Good imput Mossydan! I just hit a few highlights to get started. Getting back to my “phase 3 system”, anytime I am training or going to start training- I am thinkiing in 3’s.
I look at the whole training picture. What do we want to accomplish? 1. obidience 2. retrieving 3. birds and guns.
I then break down each command into 3 phases, as stated in my earlier post. 1.The dog is (trying) something new 2. (Appy) what has been learned 3.(comply) on the first time the command is given. Lets take an example of the command to sit. We are teaching the dog what the command means. We will do this over and over for however long it takes. 2. once we are sure the dogs understands, we will apply and practice. here is where we get the dog to understand, “hey I get rewarded for doing it right or repremanded for wrong”. Next is#3 “comply”. When the dog has figured out how be rewarded and how to avoid repremand, he now will be expected to do so on the first command. I will get into some detail about this at a later time.
Alot of training books and articles say, “Don’t move onto anything new until the command you are doing is complete”. Does that mean if the dog takes 6 months to learn how to sit, I have to wait that long before I do anything else? Not in the first phase of training. You can be teaching the dog to sit, play retrieving games and introduce him to birds all at the same time. Remember, don’t expect the dog to do anything but play and chase birds at this point. We just want him to have fun in the field. After the dog has been introduced to birds and guns, I then go back and start the second phase of obidience training. This is the point where I do not move on until he has mastered the task at hand.
Patience and practice are the keys here. If you work short sesion of obidience in the yard, doing it time after time- when you get your dog back to the field, he will obey your commands.