training

[budharley 945]

Hi when starting a young dog how do you go about teaching it to return strait to you the minute the lamps switched off

[Sorley x 32]

before you go out with the lamp the dogs recall needs to be spot on. Take dog out in area where no game land get him used to going off with lamp on and then coming back as soon as lamp is turned off. Don't worry if he don't get it first time, it is a whole different world out there when the suns gone down.

 

good luck.

[grendel 0]

Hi Bud - you'll probably get better responses from more experienced lampers than me but my own pup was already retrieving well during the day, in the house, in the garden etc. I use a standard dummy but put on some reflective "eyes" on it (iron on reflective tape) and would just throw it out into the garden, light it up with a surefire torch and as soon as he grabbed it switched the torch off and he'd retrieve as normal. We progressed to a park near me where I could throw the dummy further and put my clulite on it - also I would run dragging a plastic bag on a string which my wife would try and keep in the beam (heart attack stuff if you're as unfit as me!). Basically just keeping the sessions superfun and short.

Having said that in reality when he's all excited and hasn't caught anything he would happily freelance in the dark. I am reluctant to draw any attention to what we're doing by shouting/whistling him back so if he does go off and hunt on his own I just start walking back to the car and he quickly comes back so I just fuss over him for coming back and call it a night. We only go out on a Friday or Saturday night so I can't expect him to be retrieving perfectly with so little shine time. Plus he's only 14 months old so we've both got plenty of time to get more experience.