Home:

 

The power of ritual.

-General thoughts

 

Bonding and general environmental exposure.

-Carry the puppy everywhere but have a plan.

-Nature walks

 

Controlling food and using it to manipulate behavior.

-Reward based games

-Engagement

 

Follow this link to Horizon Retrievers Patreon for useful gundog development content Horizon Retrievers Patreon

 

Field: 

 

The first six months 

 

(Important note) There are no timelines, just milestones

 

1.     Make a predator

-MAKE A MONSTER

-Build drive

-Build chase

-Drag a check cord

2. Make a hunter

-The importance of incidental contact

-Bird placement

-Same spot then progress to random placement

-Don’t drag them around from bird to bird

-Length of course and number of birds

-The importance of blank walks

3. Gunfire exposure

-Start conservative

-Rehab the gun-shy before it begins

 

 

 

 

The next six months

 

1. Make a bird dog

-Taming the monster

-Collar Conditioning

-Too much info for one podcast

-Slowly add structure

-Intro to the training lab, gear, and dance (West Method)

Gear:

Check cord, pinch collar, e-collar, launcher

-Let the birds teach them (more allusive over time)

-Good birds in the right cover

-Good birds are healthy and spooky

-Launcher work

-Launcher intro

-Creating caution

-Conceptualizing staunchness

-Proofing staunchness on the launcher

-Why I train on loose birds in the woods

-Escape 

-Visual stimulation

-Allows for post flush work

 

2: Go hunting

-Thoughts on preserves

-How to set a course

-The importance of wild birds

-accessiblity

-Next with Stump