HeviShot Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 About 2 months ago a stray choc lab/pointer dog showed up at my house.He is gorgeous dark choc with a small white star on his chest.He has been fixed and he looked like he was just out of the vet office when I found him.Well to make a long story short.He will retrieve all day long in the back yard,but when you take him to the field he wants no part of it.I shot a ringneck dove down in front of his nose and he went and got under my truck.He lacks the fire that you see in most dogs like this.I would guess he is about 6 to 8 months old.Any suggestions or help will be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 Re: Need some DOG advice was it the gun shot that sent him under the truck? That might have been the first time he's experienced a gun shot. If so it sounds like he has a case of gun shy. If it was the bird that scared him and you think he might make a decent bird dog then go buy some pigeons and pull the flight feathers out and have fun. Let him chase the pigeon and play with it. If you think it is gun shy let me know and I'll give you some tips on trying to correct it. todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ronin Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 Re: Need some DOG advice Go get a pheasant wing, quail, etc. and play fetch with that for a couple of weeks. At the same time, make loud noises during the game and at dinner time. I use pots and pans, later switch to my air gun without a pellet. Your doing two things here: scent discrimination on the bird wing coupled with noise aversion training. I wouldn't go back to the field until you get both of those down first. Actually, it would be prudent to move on to small rifle fire then shotgun training after that. The whole idea is to get your dog immune to loud, surprising noises. Better yet, have them react with interest when they hear the noise. The bird part is realtively easy. The hard part is dealing with noise phobias. The latter can be very hard to break. We start our noise training for police dogs at about 10 weeks of age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeviShot Posted January 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2006 Re: Need some DOG advice What about the very non aggresive behavior? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ronin Posted January 2, 2006 Report Share Posted January 2, 2006 Re: Need some DOG advice Playing fetch with a wing might bring his drive up and train for scent discrimination. The other thing to do is add a reward to the retrieve in training. If his favorite toy is a ball, give him the ball immediately when he drops the wing. If he is a chow hound, give him a scooby snack as soon as he drops the wing. Whatever it is, include the reward training with the wing training. My experiencence with drive shy dogs is that when they seem to shut down a little, it's time to bring out their motivator. Toys and food almost always foot the bill here. There is one other reward I didn't discuss and that is praise. Some dogs don't necessarily take to food or toys but thrive on praise. If your dog is this type, get real excited when he brings the wing back making all kinds of noise and racket simultaneously petting and praising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 Re: Need some DOG advice [ QUOTE ] What about the very non aggresive behavior? [/ QUOTE ] get a couple pigeons---pull out the flight feathers and let the dog have fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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