Thread: Dog training problems and answers

Originally Posted by el borracho

good info guys-i always hand held the cord.mind if im teaching quartering with whistle i still would hand hold a jerk the cord

This will sound patronising but it's not intended to be, it's just the only way i know how explain the principle properly is start at the beginning.

Knowing a dog struggles to calculate.. i.e. it sees an empty piece of road, it sees a car 50 meters away heading in it's direction. It cannot calculate or rationalize that by the time it gets to the middle of the road the car will be there too. So it gets hit by a car. But, and here's bloody hoping, it survives and recovers. Having had the experience it now knows it exists, but it cannot "imagine" what might happen, it has to experience it.

How does that apply to the long line?

If your dog is wearing a long line it knows it has a long line on, it knows it is attached to a check chain, it knows it is dragging it. If you pick it up, it immediately experiences how you control it and it connects you to the rope and collar. The only real practical lesson in this is teaching it how long a piece of rope is. If you stand on it instead, it does not see how you do it and reacts in the way Pointer has described. So long as you won't overdo do it and proceed intelligently with similarly based methods the dog grows up believing you can reach out and touch it anywhere. You only have to disciplined enough not to show it you can't. In the beginning you have to change direction every time, and the split second the dog feels the rope come tight. In this way the dog relates having to watch your path of travel or risk a correction. and if you peep the turn whistle as you do it they learn to turn in few minutes. Just standing on it yourself and not moving will not communicate much, they need the body language to get it. Later when accustomed to this you can simply, as the dog powers away from you, give the pre-taught stop whistle and stand on the rope and bring the dog to a stop. when it stops and looks back at you hold up your pre-taught hand stop and re-blow the stop whistle letting him know he did the right thing. Let him wait a few seconds and then [I]do not call him in/[I] give a turn whistle and cast him off in the other direction. This puts him under no pressure so there no real negative with the stop. He continues on from the stop still having fun, still under your guidance. He is learning that fun, compliance and a lack of pressure come from happily following your requirements... of course be ready for the time the cocky alter ego turns up, but that's all part of the process. He will connect all the rest in a split second... careful guidance forward gives a great result. I never teach a dog to stop or go into a down while returning to me though, for several reasons... it's intimidating to the dog and carries high pressure with it. because of that it can, in some circumstances, be used as a correction. Because of this it's very easy to achieve. but lastly I can;t think of a single use for it in the real world.

Another point though To each their own but I wouldn't teach quartering on a rope personally. I'd personally go through the handling issues first, exactly like what is being discussed here until you have a really responsive turn whistle. Graduate the dog into hunting environments (Try to ease it into game, ideally the first couple of runs will be on barren ground.) and I'd walk out the pattern, then use the turn whistle and my body language to turn into the next cast etc.... The dog picks up on this very quickly, because at this stage it is a really fun game for the pup.