Thinking Outside the Methods Part Two
A Pound of Prevention
I have yet to find a book or educational film on the training of bird dogs that doesn’t put an emphasis on three basic foundational behaviors that must be taught before we stand at the edge of the preserve or chapter training day bird field. If there is someone out there not teaching “whoa”, “go with me”, “come to me” I don’t know about it. Most teach these behaviors as what we often call yard-work. This means it’s taught away from the bird field prior to being employed in hunting or training scenarios where bird work is expected. For reasons I can only speculate at “whoa” tends to get the lion’s share of attention though in my personal opinion its the least necessary to begin hunting effectively.
A quick google search will yield a plethora of techniques for training whoa. Some are gentle, some less so. Some involve “positive pigeons’ and treats, some belly bands and “whoa posts”. “Whoa breaking” is seen by many if not most as THE foundation behavior for any and all pointing dogs. Most good training books will talk bird exposure and natural development, but many will end with a dog being roaded into a bird on a tight check corded and commanded “whoa” once in striking distance. Whether or not they’ve been instructed to do this by a book or a chapter training director, this is what often feels most intuitive to a new handler.
Don’t get me wrong there is no shortage of old wisdom in the ether telling us to let them run, knock, and chase until they make themselves good hunters and staunch bird dogs, but in the modern era the land, time, and birds are not easy to come by so most newcomers end up teaching “come to me”, “go with me”, and “whoa” in the yard or at the local park. Trips to the preserve or the local chapter training days for work in the bird field is a rare treat.
Training days in the bird field are often chaotic. Yard skills evaporate in the face of drive, and new bird dog owners naturally feel a burning need to gain control in these situations a quickly as possible. It’s perfectly natural to grab the transmitter, check cord, whoa post, etc. Maybe we strap a belly band on the dog, who knows, but we want control and we want it now. I won’t waste this entire post on the dangers of pressuring dogs downwind of birds other than to say its common and keeps food on the table of folks like me who make a living attempting to sort out the various forms of “whoa” related fallout. Why hundreds of years of training tradition, books, DVDs, YouTube videos, and what not is this still a common occurrence? I think it can be explained relatively simply by asking ourselves a simple question. What are we trying to accomplish?
Do we want to prevent our dogs from running in on birds or do we want them to prevent themselves from running in on birds?
-If my dog is on point and either begins to creep or lunge in …how do I perceive this?
-Is the dog wrong for breaking position, or is he wrong for taking his bird out?
Regardless of how people answer this question most will punish the act of breaking position. This can be with a verbal “whoa” and correction, or no verbal cue and correction. Either way, if the correction comes before the flush of the bird the correction is for breaking position. If what we’re attempting to do is correct the act of flushing the bird, the we must wait for the act to occur before offering a consequence. This is not just my opinion this is how punishment works in a technical sense, the consequence comes after the behavior. I will save the technique talk for another entry, but understand this…
-Restraint on a collar that the dog is willing to pull against most often triggers opposition reflex (dog pull against opposing force)
-If we restrain a dog in the presence of a high value item we create frustration and increase the value of the item.
-Punishing motion in the face of the bird may either create frustration and conflict, devalue the high value item (bird) to the point where the dog avoids interaction with it. We call this blinking.
-Working duration in position (whoa on point) down wind of a bird creates conflict. Some people are good at dealing in this, those people have lots of experience and have developed a nuanced understanding of how to work around this. Nonetheless it’s not necessary.
When it comes time to staunch and steady up our young but experienced bird dogs, an ounce of cure is worth a pound of prevention.
