Question: I have a year-old Vizsla and am trying to field train my dog myself. I've taught him the whoa command and I have him handling very well in the field. He obeys perfectly and will not chase a flushed bird. My problem is that he doesn't like the sound of gunfire and he flinches when I shoot. Sometimes he'll refuse to hunt if he sees the gun. Where have I gone wrong and what should I do?

Jim K., Milan.

Answer: I believe you have put the cart before the horse. When I looked at Jim's dog in the field, it became obvious what his problem was. First, Jim had owned and hunted Labs for years. Most of his hunting was for waterfowl and entailed strict control of the dog at all times. Waterfowl training with the Labs starts early and requires tight control. Also, gun sensitivity is less pronounced in retrievers than with pointing dogs. This dog was not at ease in the field, was constantly looking to Jim for direction, and wasn't particularly excited about birds.

This type of early restrictive training will work with some lines of pointing dogs, usually the high-spirited, wide-ranging type that need to be brought under control before you lose them. I've found that most pointing dogs will find this early restrictive training method detrimental to their bird desire and drive to find game.

My method for the early training, a stage I call ‘introduction and encouragement,' is to used good-flying birds and allow the young dog to have some fun. I want enough cover to allow the bird a chance to escape and stop the chase by the young dog as it loses site of the bird. We'll do this for the first several days of training to get the young dog focused on birds and searching for them.

After a couple of days of this, we'll fire a small-gauge gun, one shot only, and attempt to kill the bird with the young dog in full pursuit, thus connecting the gun with capturing the bird. Once we've determined that the young dog is okay with gunfire, we move to the whoa training away from birds. When the dog will whoa faily well away from birds, we then put the dog back into the field with birds and attempt to whoa the dog on birds. Don't whoa the dog before he points, and if he bumps the bird, yell ‘whoa' at him to make the connect. Don't shoot unpointed birds this time. Remember to praise the dog if he points the bird, and to whoa him while he's pointing. Also, be careful with any young dog when shooting. Don't shoot more than once at each bird, and never right over the dog. Stay back about fifteen to twenty yards when shooting. If, after this, the dog will not point birds, you a check cord to restrain him near birds while saying whoa.

I own high-spirited, wide-ranging English Setters and I use this method often. I've found that the more sensitive the dog, which mine are not, the more important it is to use this method. Let your dog be a puppy when it's young and allow it time to mature into more advanced training. You are seeing why many waterfowl dogs don't make good upland dogs.

Charlie Linblade

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