Puppies and Handling

POINTING DOG POINTERS 

By Bob and Jody Iler

We want our young pointing dog puppies to have their head in the field. In fact, in the early stages of training, as we introduce our pups to birds and fire up their enthusiasm to hunt, we want our pups eagerly pulling us to the field! We can’t stress enough the importance of letting your pup have fun while learning to find, point and chase birds in those early weeks of training.

Understanding your pup’s temperament and watching her reactions are important in determining when to start your handling work. We had one young German shorthair pup at our kennel that walked sedately to the field from our dog cart and stayed by our side when we reached the field. At six months, he’d had a regimen of obedience training which hindered his motivation to run about the field and learn to explore and hunt. Another pup could have the same obedience work instilled and it might not affect his excitement in the field. This is why it’s key to learn to read your dog and train accordingly.

Letting puppies be puppies has always been our motto. There’s plenty of time to put obedience or “yard work” into them. Most pups come to our kennel for training at the approximate age of six months. When owners bring their new pups home, they often call and are eager to know what sort of training they should do before they bring them in for our started dog program. We always say, “Love them up, spend time and have fun with them, and let us do our job when you bring them to the kennel.”

That’s not to say, of course, that you shouldn’t teach your pup to come when called, walk decently on a lead, and learn the basics of crate training and house manners. But formal obedience, in many cases, should wait until the “bird dog” part of pup’s makeup has been awakened and the fire in her fanned. We can always put control into the pup later, but too much control early on can intimidate pups, especially the soft or timid ones that need special encouragement and more time to develop a sense of fun and independence.

Obviously, bold, “tough” pups will let us know when it’s time to begin handling work. They will pull us to the field and take off like a shot, hunting with zest and drive. They may also begin to ignore us and become hard to catch! They are letting us know it’s time to begin handling work.

Normally, from the get-go, we always use our checkcord when introducing pups to birds in the field. For soft pups, we use a lightweight one and let them drag the cord. For very soft pups, we may have to remove the checkcord at first to build their confidence, and put it back on as they become more independent. They need to become used to the checkcord and run about the field without being intimidated by it—hunting with enthusiasm—before we start handling work.

For handling work, we won’t be using birds in the field. Our goal is to make the pup aware of what direction we are going, and to teach him to change direction as we do. To do this, we need a large field where we can walk in a “zig-zag” (quartering) pattern, back and forth. As we head in one direction, we will whistle to get our dog’s attention as we pop the checkcord and head in that direction. Changing our direction again, we will whistle, pop the cord, and head the opposite way, always moving forward.

Soon the pup will begin to watch us and start moving in the direction we do as we whistle and use the checkcord for emphasis, if needed. Once we have the pup looking at us when we whistle and pop the checkcord, we begin to add a hand signal at the same time: a sweeping motion with our arm, indicating the new direction we are taking. It’s surprising how quickly a pup will take to the hand signal. Our goal is to use less and less voice and whistle as time progresses, with the pup naturally starting to watch us and change direction when we do.

Some pups “check back” naturally. If your pup is one of these, all the better. Pointing dogs are bred to cover the birdy objectives and they won’t always hunt in a mechanical zig-zag fashion. This exercise simply teaches pup to get out with you, cover the ground, and follow your lead as you hunt together. It begins to establish you as a team, with you as the leader. Down the road, as your pup develops and becomes experienced in hunting, you’ll often have to defer to his nose when it sometimes seems as though he is ignoring you. You may want to go in another direction, but your pointing dog will tell you differently, by his manner of working the air currents and by his cracking tail! As partners, you’ll each need to read the other! But for now, it’s enough to be able to control your pup’s direction by whistle, checkcord, and hand signal.

Developing a pointing dog is an art, and training a pup to handle properly can be a challenge in the best of circumstances. Can you imagine what it must be like to teach a deaf puppy to handle?

Jody’s brother John in Pennsylvania is developing his English setter pup Pearl, born without eardrums, and now five months old. In the couple of months since we first introduced Pearl, John’s goal has been to bond with her to the point where she shadows him when they are together, watching his every move, building and strengthening that invisible but absolutely crucial connection between them.

For all of the innumerable times when we would use our voice to praise our pups, John has used his hands and body language to show Pearl his love and praise—with stroking, hugging, petting, and lots of treats to let her know that she is doing what he is “asking” her to do.

Since Pearlis out of superb pointing dog parents, John’s main concern, in developing her as a bird dog, is her safety. Through this bonding process, he has fostered Pearl’s dependency on him in order to begin the next phase: handling work. And though we usually stress “bird work first, then handling,”—in Pearl’s case, the handling has to come first to ensure her safety as she grows and becomes more independent. A happy, enthusiastic pup,Pearl is proving to be a smart pupil, and her handling work is only strengthening the bond between the two.

Since the voice and the whistle are of no help to John in his handling training with Pearl, he relies on Pearl’s natural tendency to check on his whereabouts, combined with checkcord work and hand signals to teach her to watch and change direction with him, even as she ranges out. Pearl watches John so well that she will now handle without a checkcord and has also learned to come to John when he gives the recall hand signal. When he introduces Pearl to birds, John has laid the foundation work of control to help keep her safe while she does what she was born to do.

Back in 1999, in the sixth anniversary issue of The Pointing Dog Journal, our article, “The Silent Method,” was published. Born out of necessity, John and Pearl have taken that philosophy and given it new and special meaning.

Pointing Dog Pointers features monthly training tips by Bob and Jody Iler, who own Green Valley Kennels in Dubuque, Iowa. Bob and Jody have trained pointing dogs for over 35 years and have written many articles for Pointing Dog Journal.