This
summer I acquired two new pups. Red was a nicely put together female with lots
of color. Whitey was a big white male. They came from different breeders and
different lines of dogs. Red arrived in June and was nine weeks old. Whitey
arrived in late July and was twelve weeks old. These pups were well bred and
had lots of natural ability, but they both had weak links that revealed how
each pup should be started.
A weak link is the weakest part of a dog’s training, a shortcoming or
hole that needs to be addressed. When I look at pups and determine how best to
develop them, I look at their limitations. Which links need to be made
stronger?
Red was a good case in point. The first time I took her for a run, she
made tight little circles around my feet and whined to be picked up. This
behavior was definitely a flaw. The best thing to do with a pup like this is
ignore the behavior and treat it like “a nothing” (see chapter 16 for more
information). I decided to take her for a run every day until she showed
interest in her surroundings. After about a week with no improvement, we headed
to the bird pens that included a pigeon loft and two johnny houses. I was
curious to see if she would start using her nose. (To be on the safe side, I
try not to show birds to a new pup until she is confident on the ground.) After
another week of circling and whining, she finally dropped her head and sniffed
the ground. A little bit later, she picked up a feather and started carrying it
in her mouth. Aha, I thought. She’s ready.
I got a quail from the johnny house, pulled a couple of wing feathers,
and held it by the feet so it fluttered. She showed no hesitation and tried to
bite the head, so I tossed it on the ground. She became totally focused on the
bird, pouncing on it and chasing it. Eventually, the bird escaped in the cover,
but instead of coming to find me, she returned to where the bird had been
tossed down and hunted this area hard. I remained quiet, and after a while, I
slowly walked away. It was ten minutes before she came looking for me, and
after that, she was a different pup. She had discovered her purpose in life;
she had discovered her nose.
Whitey was a different story. He was bold and very independent. The
first time I took him for a walk, he took off, and while he loved to run, it
was obvious that he was not hunting. Pups like Red that don’t hunt need to
learn to use their noses; independent pups like Whitey need to find birds with us, so they will have a reason to
go with us. I snapped a check-cord (see chapter 9) to his ID collar and let him
drag it so that later, I could hold onto it to keep him with me. After running
him a couple more times with him dragging the check-cord, I showed him a quail.
When I held the bird by its feet and it fluttered, it scared him, but the more
the bird fluttered, the more interested Whitey became, so I tossed it down. He
was definitely unsure, and alternated between investigating it and running
away. I stayed back and remained quiet.
Whitey did not get the bird in his mouth that day, but after a couple
more exposures to quail, he finally dove in and got the bird in his mouth. Once
he did that, I picked up the check-cord and used it to keep him with me. He
proudly pranced around with his new trophy, and I remained quiet as he walked
in front of me, carrying the bird. It took him a couple more exposures to quail
before everything started to click, and soon, he was hunting as well as paying
attention to where I was.
Red and Whitey had different weak links: In Red’s case, she had to
become aware of her surroundings and focus on something other than me. Whitey
was impressive on the ground but didn’t hunt, or care where I was. Both pups
were born with the right tools; they just needed a little help discovering how
to use them. By focusing on their shortcomings, I was able to start them on the
road to becoming the bird dogs they were bred to be.
