The Importance of the Basics when Training Gun Dogs
Everything your kindergarten teacher told you about learning the basics was right. You have to learn to crawl before you can walk, you have to learn to read before you can write: pick any cliché about learning the basics you want to, but they were all right. It is a fact that you have to master the basics before you can hope to achieve anything. This is also true in gun dog training. The steps to ending up with a well polished hunting dog who impresses all of your friends with his perfect points, steady retrieves and bird finding abilities all begin at the very bottom with the basics. So it is necessary to learn the basics of being a gun dog first, and then build upon these steps until your dog becomes a master hunter. Failure to master the basics is probably the number one reason for later training or hunting failures, and helps create the training problems that are so hard to fix later down the road.
Successful gun dog training begins with yard work as a puppy. Once your puppy has settled into his new home with his new family, it is time to begin the basics through yard work. The single most important command your pup and future hunting companion needs to learn is the ‘whoa’ command. Nothing can be accomplished without ‘whoa’. It means stop now. Not stop in a few steps or whenever- it means stop right this instant. Whoa is instrumental towards steadiness on point, stillness in the blind and backing just to name a few of the hundreds of uses. It also helps keep pup safe. Beginning the whoa training command in the yard and reinforcing it until it is essentially part of every fiber of pup’s brain is the most important basic step to build all of your hunting training on. The other basic commands of heel, kennel and come are also very important. Not only do these commands have further applications in field, but by working and mastering these commands with pup, you will develop a working baseline partnership where you are in command and pup follows. A good hunting partnership will eventually demand you as the commanding leader in the field and the dog using his naturally developed talents with advice from you to locate the game. The younger the puppy learns these commands, the earlier he will decipher how to learn from you during training. Once pup figures out the repetition of whoa equaling stop and come meaning run back to master, it will be easier for him to grasp commands like ‘retrieve’ and ‘hunt’ down the road. It will provide the steps for is young brain to grow upon.
Once you have realized the importance of mastering the basic commands and training structure of yard training to teach the puppy how to learn, the next and probably equally important step is to follow through with a consistent training regimen. Dogs need consistency. It will allow your hunting dog to learn faster and to learn better if you are consistent with training techniques and commands. Whatever type of gun dog you are training; pointer, flusher or retriever, or the method of training you choose to use, picking a method and remaining consistent will increase your odds of producing a successful gun dog.
The third important basic of yard training for your young gun dog puppy is play and praise. Once you have absorbed 100% the importance of the basics and the consistency needed to teach them, it is also important to remember that you are in fact teaching a puppy, one of nature’s most restless and unfocused creatures. That is where the importance of play and praise comes in. Assuming that you have done your research and picked a well bred puppy, then your new dog already has the built in tools of smell and drive he needs to hunt. Learning the commands makes him a more successful hunter and allows you be the beneficiary of the hunt as well. But he is a puppy and by making learning the basics fun and enjoyable for him, he will want to learn and want to become a good hunter. Play and praise also helps bond him with you. Play and praise makes gun dog training fun and rewarding for both you and pup. So loving praise will make him eager to learn the commands in order to receive the attention he wants, and play will help keep him focused and alert. It is usually recommended by most trainers to both begin and end all puppy training sessions with play time. This allows pup to release some energy first and become focused during training and teaches him to remember hunting and training sessions are fun, enjoyable activities that he should want to do.
By understanding these three basic underlying factors and applying them to your training regimen early and consistently, you will exponentially increase the odds of producing a successful hunting dog. Remembering what you learned in kindergarten and starting from the bottom by mastering the basics will create the best foundation pup could ever want. By keeping it consistent and fun, pup will take off from this foundation on a rocket of learning and become a fantastic hunting dog before you know it.
These training techniques can be applied to all gun dog breeds including pointers, flushers, retrievers, waterdogs and trackers. In fact these underlying points can be used for any breed of puppy, whether you want to train for hunting, obedience or just staying off the couch.
