John Hayes

POINTING BREEDS
This tip is from John Hayes of Kirby Mountain Sporting Dogs, 240 Locust Ridge Rd. East Burke, VT 05832, (802) 626-5282, website www.kirbymountainsportingdogs.com, email dogs4u@vtlink.net. John has been training all sporting breeds professionally for 15 years, but specializes in training pointing breeds for grouse hunting. He participates in both field trials and hunting tests for pointing breeds. He also judges both venues. He breeds Brittanys, English springer spaniels, Labradors and Chesapeakes.

THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTROL COMMAND

For Pointing Breed Dogs: Here!
We all know great hunting spots near roads," John said. "But if your dog won't obey the Here command reliably, you'd be playing Russian roulette if you turned him loose in any of those spots."

John pointed out that the Here command is equally important during non-hunting time, when prompt obedience can prevent a dog fight, a traffic accident or any other day to day mishap.

John likes to start training a puppy to obey the Here command at about eight weeks of age, as soon as the pup's comfortable wearing a strap collar with a lead attached. While walking the youngster, whenever the pup nears the end of the lead, John commands Here and gives a series of little tugs on the lead to start the pup moving toward him. Then, if the pup again heads off in another direction, John repeats the command and the tugs until the pup reaches him. Then John praises him.

After sufficient repetitions of this, the little guy figures out that he can avoid the discomfort of the tugs by running promptly to John when he hears the word Here. This first phase of Here training is deceptively quick and easy, misleading many beginners to think their pups are fully trained at this point. Not so, says John.

"I frequently get a call from a recent puppy buyer," he said, "raving about how well trained the pup is after only a few weeks. Then about five or six months later I get S.O.S calls from the same guy wanting to know why the youngster's blowing him off all the time."

John explains that a small puppy needs and wants his new owner, so delights in running to him on command. But as he matures, he becomes more and more bold, which is good and highly desirable in a pointing dog, although it can turn him into something like a rebellious teenager. Then, too, the ease with which the little puppy learned to obey this command often deceives the new puppy owner into thinking he no longer needs to work on it.

"The three most important things in dog training," John said, "are repetition, repetition and repetition. If you don't work on the Here command frequently as the youngster matures, he'll never become reliable. You have to use longer and longer check cords and you have to introduce all sorts of distractions. As a pro, I keep raising the bar with distractions until the dog is what I call 'bomb-proof'."

John recommends reinforcing the Here command with the e-collar (with the lowest stimulation level to which the dog reacts) when the pup is about 16 weeks old. Initially he puts the e-collar on the dog along with the strap collar attached to a 20-foot check cord. He begins walking away from the dog and as soon as he feels tension in the checkcord, he nicks the dog several times with the e-collar, but says nothing. If necessary, he also tugs on the check cord to get the dog to follow him. When the check cord again goes slack, John discontinues the nicks.

After a few repetitions of this command-less check cord work, John begins to use the Here command, which he reinforces with the several nicks whenever necessary. If, after starting toward John, the youngster again veers off, John repeats the series of nicks until the dog again comes toward him. That way, he can "insist" that the dog come all the way to him every time.

John recommends that the dog wear the e-collar almost constantly (except at night), at least for the first two years. That way, you'll be able to reinforce the Here command whenever necessary. Thereafter, when you command Here, your dog probably won't even think of disobeying. But if he backslides, use the e-collar regularly again for a while.

"Think of dog training as a journey," John said, "not as a destination."