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Warren, Warren, Warren,

I like your enthusiasm, but I think that you are getting ahead of yourself. Your dog Q is a young dog. My sense is that she is not reliable with the basic understanding of the sit/stay and down/stay. Be excellent in the basics and it will pay off when you are ready for the advanced routines.

Also, keep in mind, what might be a good exercise for other dogs, might not be good for your dog. Tailor your exercieses for the establishment of success and rewards for good behaviour for your dog, at her stage in development.

Teach first, then punishments and corrections for infractions will be more meaningful to your dog.....not just be an booty whuppin for wanting to fetch a duck.

Can Q do a basic sit-stay or down-stay handler out of sight for 5 minutes? If not go back to leash work and guide her more to be patient without the intense distractions.

Suggestions:

Slow down on the introduction of distractions and proofing of the sit-stays.

Use a platform for teaching Q to stay.

Put her back on a leash when you introduce handler distractions, other dogs, honoring, guns, shot flyers, chickens, cats, so that you can control and correct her immediately if she breaks.

Be patient.

Denlan

Before we give all sorts of advice maybe we should fond out if there is a problem.

Warren,
Are you looking for a drill to increase your dogs steadiness or are you having a steadying problem?

Drakeshead wrote:Before we give all sorts of advice maybe we should fond out if there is a problem.

Warren,
Are you looking for a drill to increase your dogs steadiness or are you having a steadying problem?

O, you should see this Dog. She's wild...........wild i tell ya . It's prolly because she's chocolate Warren. I think you should go get one of these new Calico breed labs, That way each color should be offset by the other colors and so on and so forth

Your original question was...."would it hurt to take a dog to a skeet shoot?"......and I replied that I thought it would be ok as long as you had the safety stuff covered......but like others on here, I don't see a lot to be gained other than spending a day with the dog.

If I went and shot skeet, Ace would go with me....but he goes with me if I run up to walmart by myself. I see little or no training value in it.

the only problem was steading if a gun was present. she will sit and steady no prob if no gun. and even when there is a gun after first time or two she calms down and is steady. yes i was looking for a steady drill with the gun.

I do not see anything negative in this training method. However, in the video it is a controlled training situation. It is in a field not a skeet or sporting clays range and there are only a couple of shooters that are training other dogs. This is also a training situation not a free for all skeet or sporting clays shoot see who is a better shot.....The shooters are concentrating more on what the dog is doing than on actually shooting...This really is an obedience drill with distractions, more than anything. Sit/Stay with the added bonus of honoring if more than one dog is training. Shooting stops and corrections are made for infractions. And as Bill said there is nothing to retrieve if the dog breaks. There are also retreives involved at certain stages if the dog or dogs are steady to the shooting. In my personal opinion which is not worth much. This kind of training teaches a dog to relax around gun fire. Meaning it is not necessarily going to get a retrieve after every shot. When I am actually hunting I miss alot more than I hit... My humble observation...

The way this is often setup out at Wildrose the clays are being fired from the laucher toward the handler and dog. The dogs learn very quickly to track the clay/follow the gun. Thay have to be steady to get the reward of a retrieve, often a bumper is thrown after 5 or 6 clays have been thrown and shot at, it is usually followed by a few more clays. If the dog is steady he is sent. It mimicks a bird hunt pretty well. At Wildrose they do this after the dog has been well introduced to gunfire. I don't see any problem with taking a dog to the skeet range, if they have been properly intoduced to gunfire and are steady. I take mine shoting sproting clays all the time.

I think i was misunderstood. I didn't meen taking my dog to a skeet range or skeet shoot. I was going to set up a skeet thrower and train with it. Thanks agian for the input I have just about decided to try it.

No Balls

Warren, don't complicate it, make the dog sit, or no retrieve. Heeling stick. Sit, smack, sit. Obedience. Or if CC'd, sit, nick, sit.

Have someone shoot in the field first, then move the gun closer a little at a time. If dog gets up, or breaks, take a couple of steps backwards, reheal the dog, sit, smack sit, and while you are doing this the thrower picks up the bumper/bird. Do not allow the dog to retrieve until he sits. Period.

Here's a couple of good steadying articles:

http://www.northernflight.com/steadiness.htm

http://www.ducks.org/Hunting/RetrieverT ... PartI.html

the reason i have no balls is cause your wife hit me there lastnight with a tennisball.

So........... let me get this straight.........

yall accept the term - Gunshy .......gunshyness
but never heard feathershyness.........

Right !!

who said anything about gunshyness? Get back on your meds.....