Recently,
I was talking to Maurice Lindley about a dog I was teaching to be
steady-to-wing-and-shot.
“I think Chalk has turned the corner,” I said.
“What did he do to make you think that?” Maurice
asked.
“He’s calmer,” I replied.
“Good,” he said. “A calm dog is what you look for. A
fresh-broke dog should go from being bug-eyed and intense to calm and composed
in the presence of game. If you watch a young dog on point, every fiber and
nerve is on high alert and poised to pounce. Then, as more training takes
place, you notice the dog’s composure changes when he is pointing. He becomes
more confident in his job, and confident that you know your job, too. The
intensity is still there, but something has changed. To me, the dog just looks
different.”
Maurice was describing exactly what I was seeing in
Chalk. For the first time since the steadying process began, Chalk was becoming
calmer around his game. Earlier in the summer, he was pointing and pouncing on
pigeons still on the ground, or pointing and chasing them once they flew. The
times he stood steady, either his whole body was vibrating with intensity, or
his tail was moving in a quick ticking motion. On occasion, he pointed and
lifted a front paw as if he wanted to take a step but knew better. For most of
the summer, he followed a pattern of two steps forward and one step back,
acting broke for a couple of workouts and then returning to pouncing or chasing
again. The one thing I had not seen in him was a calm demeanor. Now, for the
first time, I was seeing it.
Well-bred bird dogs can lose their minds when they are
worked on birds; they can become totally focused on finding them, tuning
everything else out. They are hunting for themselves. As dogs become calmer
around game, they begin to accept training, and their attitudes change. They
pay attention better. Dogs that once dragged you around the training field stop
pulling as hard on the check-cord. They start coming to you and going with you
when you ask, and the amount of e-collar you need to use to correct them
becomes less.
While Chalk was nowhere close to being broke, he was
getting calmer. Each dog goes through training differently. Some take longer
than others, and good trainers learn to adjust to each dog, progressing only as
fast as the dog can go. It takes time to build a good foundation, but once it
is built, it will be solid, with no gaps or holes to go back and fix. Looking
for the dog to become calm around his game is an early clue that he is giving
in to training and wants to be broke. When you reach this stage, training gets
easier.
A word of caution if you think your dog is turning the
corner: Be observant. A dog that is
becoming calm may resemble a concerned dog that is developing a problem. For
example, a dog’s energy level may drop as he becomes calm, but it can also drop
from too much pressure. There’s a fine line between calm and concerned. A calm
dog is confident and maintains his intensity on point. A concerned dog loses
his intensity on point. He is less enthusiastic about working in the training
field, and may listen to you almost too well. Often, he is more comfortable
walking at your side than walking in front of you, pulling on the check-cord.
Anytime you see these types of changes, be aware that you may have a problem.
Dogs don’t become calm around game overnight; it takes
time. A dog has to go from wanting to find birds for himself to wanting to find
them for you, and this process goes against his predatory nature and need to
survive. In Chalk’s case, he had spent many weeks in the training field working
on pigeons before I noticed he was becoming calmer. He still had a long way to
go, and once he moved to quail, he would go through the whole process again,
but hopefully training would be easier during this next phase. Seeing Chalk
turn the corner was an exciting moment; I knew he was on his way to becoming a
finished dog.
