Question for the dog trainers.

[Blake Williamson]

If you don't read the rant the question is at the bottom.

My father in law has took a pup that was a little under 6 months old to a so called "PROFESSINAL TRAINER" I also took my pup (At the age of 6 months) to this very same trainer and left him a month and was considering leaving him for 6 months and after the first month it had seem as if my pup had went backwards instead of progressing and with the fact that I had tried to see my pup after the first two weeks as he had said was kind of mandatory visitation type thing where he would show me what all he has done with him and whatever else and he seem to never be able to set a date that I could come see him on that second week on the third week he had told me to come and I drove 3 hrs. to go see him he wasn't there. He called me back and told me to come the next day which was on a Sunday I went over there and my pup had dirreaha and passing blood with it. He had assured me that there wasn't anything wrong with him and I QUOTE "PUPS PASS BLOOD A GOOD BIT" and that if he wasn't better he would take him to the vet on Tuesday and he said that my pup wasn't picking up on things real well and was slow learning which was hard for me to believe considering that when he was dropped off he was already pretty good on the OB. Well after all that which its more to that story and on the 4th week I was out of town and wife wife had went with my in laws to see thier pup well she saw mine and called me and told me he looked awful like he had not been fed in weeks. So I told her to load him up and bring him home and get him to the vet so she did and he was ate up with worms. Which two weeks before we had took him over there he had just been dewormed and checked out by the vet. Well after that the guy called me back and ask me if I was going to bring him back and I told him nicely no I would finish him myself. My pup is now 9 months old and has been on 3 hunts and hasn't missed a beat. He has got to pick up but 7 birds which I know isn't a lot but it's been slow for me this year.

Well my in-laws went and picked their pup up last week after she failed a hunt test. The guy said that it was just bad luck that he had 2 other dogs that fail. He had said that the bird she was supose to pick up fell in a spot where 10 other birds had fell already and she ran past it and never found it. Well yesterday my father in law wanted to take the pup hunting witch she will be a yr. old on Jan 12 on her first hunt. He shot a mallard hen that fell 15 yards from him in some knee hight grass the dog had no interest in picking the birds up. He walked her over to the bird and bird took off running and made it into the water and she just had no care in the world about this bird what so ever. She just watched it!!! Now this trainer said she was field ready when he picked her up. I'm not here to bash the man's name bc I've never had no dealings with a dog trainer untile now and this maybe how things are done in the trainer world I don't know. We knocked down 3 more woodies and she never would pick the birds up just swim by them and keep on swimming. She will not have anything to do with a duck. Even in the yard she will not.

My question here is this how do you get a dog to do a transition to live birds? She does good with a bumper but will not pick up a duck at all. I have never had this problem with any of my dogsand he is wanting me to work with her.

[blgros1]

Blake I'm no trainer at all as my dog is with Chuck McCall now but I believe one of the reasons for "force fetching" a dog is to transition them from bumpers to birds while on the table. But maybe someone with experience will chime in.

[simplepeddler]

live pigeons........

[Jay Dufour]

My flowchart for bird handling and delivering....after FF
obedience on lead with frozen teal or pigeon
obedience with frozen mallard
obedience with live mallard in drawstring sack,beak taped shut
obedience with shackled mallard
obedience with hooded mallard
hooded mallard thrown as a flier
delivery out of water,teach delivery before shaking
on every step the bird will be thrown as a mark for the pup.
Sorry you had a bad experience with a so called trainer .

[kris Schaumburg]

blake this may be completely rudementery for a year old dog, but since you have no idea what she's been exposed to, perhaps its not. My introduction to birds always starts with a wing rubberbanded to the same bumper they have been retrieving. First day she would get some regular old throws where hopefully she starts to associate scent with the mark. Progressing to utilizing scent to find the blinds.

[claimsadj]

Sounds like the dog needs to be treated like a puppy and reintroduced to birds. Try and make it fun for the dog.

[EvanG]

[99beers]

Typical plug.

[EvanG]

[simplepeddler]