Its so easy to make training mistakes!!

[stroller 341]

I had the vizsla pup out this morning for his 15 minute walk/training session. I do this in a 5 acre meadow witha few horses in it.

 

At the moment there is patches of long grass and a few rabbits about but they are very shy so i know they wont clap down they just begger off. Still it leaves a lot of scent about and the pup is casting about continually.

 

Janos is coming up 5 months on the 20th and is all legs and ears at the minute. i took the puppy dummy i made him sit and holding his collar i cast the dummy asking him to mark then fetch. he didnt lunge after the cast which i was pleased with and on release he bolted off after the dummy which was out of sght 15 yards away in the long grass. very impressed at the way he hunted continually for at least 2 mins until he found it and at the minute the end of the retrieve is me on my knees wearing a vizsla puppy with a dummy shoved in my face. did this 3 times and each time he loved it and retrieved really well.

 

The problem began as i was zig zagging across the field asking for the very occasional drop which he does very well at a distance of say 5 to 10 metres. i was after a recall and he wasnt ranging out very far so i dropped him and made the stupid mistake of recalling him. the mistake wasnt evident until the next time i asked for a drop he just ran in for a lovely recall!!!!

 

Its not a huge error and easily rectified by getting him to drop at my feet then gradually dropping him farther and farther out but it just shows a moment of not thinking can spoil things so easily.

[3175darren 1,103]

We have all made similar mistakes mate,it is usually our own discipline that screws things up,but at least you know where it went wrong alot of people cant seem to spot that,which causes loads of problems,Dont kick yourself so hard over it,back to stop stage one,and move on 5 months is a good canvas to work with if no one elses problems to cope with,

[skycat 6,174]

Been there done it. I don't know anything about training gun dogs or HPRs, but with the lurchers, I never call them in from a drop until they are quite a bit older, (depending on the temperament and breeding as well). I have one command for the drop: quick pip on the whistle and hold a hand up, or use the word 'stay', then walk to the pup, praise and walk on with it or send it on, or whatever. When they are old enough for that sequence to be well fixed in their heads I'll add the recall in, but I try not to do it too often after the drop in any young dog.