Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Pheasant Hunting--Lab problem

My Lab Jeter has a tendency to get to far ahead of me while pheasant hunting....Any sugestions on how to break him of habit....He will be 4 in Feb...He started this last season...My own fault for not correcting him......Thanks

Use a shock collar sparingly and then praise him and give him a treat when he comes back.

You either put your lab on a long rope or on an E-collar. You must condition the dog to the collar and then train him to the collar to be effective.

Free advise...the E-collar is a training tool...leave your temper at home.


Doc

and that fact cannot be stressed enough... a temper let loose with an E-collar will ruin a dog quickly...
if you and your dog aren't buddies don't use it...
if you feel the need to use it to "get even" or "play catch-up" it's game over for that dog...

Ranging too far is a basic obedience problem, not a hunting problem. The dog needs to stop/come when you command under any circumstance. While hunting, "too far" will always change according to the cover. Sometimes 40-yards will be too close and 20-feet will be too far. The only way the dog will know is if you tell him, and he will have to obey when you do.

E-collars are a great way to extend your influence, but as others have stated use it wisely. It's also best to do collar training where you know there aren't any pheasants around. I use a Tritronics G3 that has a separate 'tone' button and taught my dog to 'come' when toned. That saves my voice and cuts down on whistle use, and allows for a stealthier approach on nervous birds.

I have a shock collar...I guess I will try it...I feel bad about it but maybe its time.....So I guess when he gets out to far I jolt him.......I will see what happens....I will set on low and go from there.......Thanks

if your collar has a beep or vib, use that as a warning. my lab did the same thing, but after a bit of a learing curve, he became one hell of a good pheasant dog. I have a draht and hunt with setters and pointers and my lab once trained would put him and I on pace with the best.....before he had range figured out, it was just excersising my frustration.

be cautious and work slow...it will net you many years of fun ahead.

let you dog wear the new collor for a week or two or longer if possible. Make sure the collar prongs do not bite into the skin.

Phase 1: redo yard work with a long lead re-teaching sit from the heal position and from the remote sit position. I teach the sit with a whistle so your command will be verbal sit, then a wistle blast, then repeat the verbal sit. Its done this way so your dog will associate the wistle with the sit command. Do this for 15 minutes for a week. You will know your dog is leaning the wistle command when you remove the verbal sit command and just use the whistle. After a week of this yard work when using the wistle command only use must keep walking.....your dog must sit even though you have kept walking. If the dog does not sit IT HAS NOT LEARNED the drill....continue for another week.

ONCE YOU DOG UNDERSTANDS add electic stimutation to the wistle command. The ammount of electic stimulation is determined by what each individual dog can tolerate. My rule of thumb is if the dogs YELPS....I back off one full power.

Phase two: Teach the "HERE" command from an extended remote sit with voice "HERE" and a tug on the long rope. Use the whistle come in command if that suits you or once the dog is collar conditioned to the sit command you can use the verbal "HERE" command and a electric collar "NICK" and repeat the "Here" command.

The action of the dog sitting is indirect pressure which stops the dog from what ever they were doing and re-directs their attention back to you. Now you have control again.

A collar Nick or Burn (as it is referred too) with out a verbal command for the dog to do something is MEANINGLESS. The dog must UNDERSTAND the correction.

Doc

Doc

Whistle break him to come. Whistle when he gets out too far. If he doesn't respond, assuming he knows what a bump means, bump him.
Also, I would spend time hunting him alone. If he gets out too far, change your direction 90*+. He should want to stay with you. If not, bump, assuming etc.

Don't feel bad about the ecollar unless you are trying to fry him. Fry yourself first and find the lowest level that gets his attention.

I don't think there is anything here disagreeing with DE. Also, I like the tone if the collar has one, but it's worthless unless he knows what it means, as is the "bump."
Good luck.

I've got an energetic Weim that I first leash-trained and basic obedience trained. I then added in the e-collar, also the TriTronics G3 with the tone. I started with tone immediately followed by a light nick. I had the setting very low and she is a "soft" dog. I haven't had to nick her since the first two days she had the collar, either in town walking or running with me, or in the field. I also have he whistle-trained to my lip-whistle, which is louder than any commercial one I've found. Don't be hard on the dog. If you use the e-collar as a control tool, you'll destroy your dog. Lucy now knows that when she hears her e-collar jingle that she gets to go for a walk, go for a run, or go hunting. All of which makes her go nuts for two seconds, then sit her behind wiggling on the floor until she gets the collar. If the dog is afraid of the collar it will be useless.

Listen to the advice above. You shouldn't feel bad about using an e collar unless you are using it wrong. First like they said above, have the dog wear the collar for a while without even turning it on. My dog gets his on whenever we go for a walk, hunt, training etc and he looks forward to it. When you are ready to start training put the collar on the lowest possible setting. If it is a newer collar your dog might not even notice or react to the low setting (some of the old collars had change out collar points to adjust the level and I wouldn't use one of those). Just have the dog out doing whatever dog things he wants and nick the lowest setting. Watch the dog for a reaction. Keep turning the setting up until when you nick it the dog notices and shows some type of "what was that" reaction, not an obvious pain reaction. There should be no pain at this point. If you need to, turn it up a very small amount from that setting, it kind of depends on your dog. Some need only the smallest setting and some need it up higher, especially if they are distracted. Make sure you understand the collar isnt magic, the dog has to have been given a command and know what he is spposed to do. You cant just strap on a collar and start shocking and expect it to do anything except mess up a dog. Think of it as a pinch or a long leash that gives you more reach but doesn't teach the dog anything by itself.

I have seen more good dogs ruined with an e-collar... A shock collar has never trained a dog... The dog must know that is doing something wrong... If not, it would be like me yelling at you in greek then kicking you... You are not going to know what is going on... Chances are you will try to kick my butt or try to get away... You have no clue to why I am kicking you... The dog is the same way....

With that said an e-collar is one of the best tools that you should have in your dog training arsenal after the dog is trained..

Do yourself and the dog a favor ... Go to a decent pro to have your problems worked out...

i bought a e-collar, it has a vibrate and six shock setting the pup is 3 1/2 month old he wheres the collar all the time, we have had it on him for about a month, I work with him every day and so far we have be vibrated twice and shocked once (trying to hump the cat) he always gets lots of praise when he does good and so far he might be the best dog I've had. Next challange is to get him to quit licking my ears while i sleep

Not a bad problem. It could be worse.

Easier to bring them in, than to make them go out.

Go slow and make sure she knows the rules explicitely before using the collar. When you are positive she knows the command and chooses to ignore is the time to make her think it is not a wise choice.

Planting birds and allowing her to only find them at your desired range can also turn on some lights.

The good ones always want to bend the rules. It all comes together when the triangle of bird, dog and gun finally registers.

Good luck.