How I Didn't Listen or Swords Part II....

Bounce developed an issue, mostly through my own fault. You hear stories that planted birds are the devil that steal all the good parts of a dogs soul. They are all true, but you don't have to listen! Working with planted, poor flying birds does not simulate the hunting experience when a dog is left to it's own devices.

Since my last post, back in the Stone Age, Bounce has transformed into a bird nut. She tears through the field thinking birds are the most important thing in the world. What the problem? Aren't bird dogs suppose to be bird crazy? Short answer, bird smart yes, bird crazy nope. Now for the thick of it. Two bigger issues have arisen out of her shedding her pupa.

First, she thinks birds are more important than me, despite the fact that I am trying to help her become a successful hunter, and gives me figurative bird. She is self-hunting, we are not developing into a cohesive unit to search for birds, instead she decided she is better off on her own. This is most problematic if a situation arises where I have to whoa or recall her for safety issues. In the mean time, I am annoyed by this because issuing a command is useless and she will chase sparrows around for an hour straight, and still hasn't figured out getting close doesn't mean she is any closer to catching one.

Second, the deadly combination of self-hunting and working her on my poor flying quail has developed into a toxic concoction where her hunting sublimates into a flush without ever entering into a point. She had a beautiful and intense point, but catching one too many quail has destroyed it. In my frustration, I falsely believed it was because I had them tethered and set a majority of my quail up in a field one morning and came back with her and another dog in the afternoon. The birds flew into the woods, she didn't listen, and she caught one, eventually bringing it back. Epic fail with torrential disappointment!

This blunder decimated my quail stock, but brought me back to a few fundamental points. While you should never give a command you cannot enforce, never put yourself in a position where you cannot enforce a command is also a critical point- she is back on a long lead. Second, the model is flawed, so the rules have to change. The birds are not wild, and stupid. Rather than let the bird tell Bounce that she needs to mind her distance, because it won't fly when it should, this is now my responsibility. And finally, any tool or process has limitations, but if used appropriately it can be a great asset.

Currently, we have gotten Bounce to start to reestablish her point. This was achieved by using my few remaining poor flying quail. Now, while this sounds like I didn't learn a thing and am a big dummy I did consider these other options: Wild birds only (limited access=inconsistent training), Launchers (not worth investing the money to buy, or time to build, what else would they get used for?), Pigeons or other good flying birds (probably a good idea and I am working on it for phase II). In short, already have the quail, and the problem is she is catching them and not pointing.

Even with good flying birds, the first step would involve getting her to point. This was achieved by breaking the hunting process into pieces and focus on what she does after finding the bird. Using a check cord we have worked a tethered bird on thirty feet of yarn. She is worked on to the bird (it doesn't matter if she knows where it is), she is supposed to point, the bird is flushed, Bounce is heeled off about 50 yards and we rinse and repeat until the bird gets tired.

Initially when she broke for the bird, the check cord was used to stop her and she got picked up and returned to where she slowed before pouncing. She quickly started to get the idea and by the third repetition was pointing again. After working on it a couple times she understands her job again and only minor corrections are necessary.

Phase II will address steadying her to flush and backing her off the bird. While we have started this already. She is looking to visually see the bird. Aside from her getting too close and bumping the bird, my guess is this is the root behavior that lead to the pouncing. Steadying to flush and eventually shot is a safety issue for hunting season. Retaining some newer and better flying birds will be helpful in this endeavor. Concurrently we are also adding more elements of the hunt back into the simulated experience will make it more enjoyable for the both of us.

Swords Part I

As I ventured down the road of Vizsla ownership one aspect of Vizslatude I planned to address was hunting. Having never trained a bird dog before, I had joined the NAVHDA, due to the active nature of its members in organizing group training days. I initially envisioned the journey with Bounce as with many other of my hobbies to be one of trial and error. The NAVHDA group that I joined has held clinics opening up a few of the options that lay aheand and the members were very helpful on getting me off on the right foot. Aside from being warm and pleasant people, they helped provide initial bird exposure, taking extra time to help get Bounce from fearful of these crazy feathered things to curious, and even sending me home with a quail for her to continue learning about. The quail was supposed to live for a week, or until bounce did it in, but instead survived the dogs and now has been residing in a bird pen for a few months, with a host to of other tenants moving in.

My experience with NAVHDA also taught me that outside critique helps me identify unforeseen issues, and take advantage of other peoples experience. After talking to another owner that had made the transfer from the ring to the AKC hunt test and field trials, I was pointed to a trainer that seems to have the approach that I was looking for: to training me to train my dog, leaving me active in the process.

A reoccurring theme that I have seen in gun dog training is managing double edged swords. My initial exposure to the concept of double edged swords in training arose from a NAVHDA Versatile Hunting Dog Magazine article on training Pointing vs Tracking, where the two processes have a the same objective thus easily confusing for the dog.

The nature of the Bouncing Fireball's training has been an interesting series of double edged swords. Training as a whole even revealed itself to be a double edged sword. The double edged sword always presents two paths to a common goal. Each path has different obstacles; some detrimental, some trivial. These swords manifested themselves in Bounce's Sensitivity, Range, Bird Exposure, and Structured Training. The nature of Bounces obstacles in training, were promising indicators in addition to barriers to progress.

Sensitivity
First, Bounce was, and still is, sensitive to new things. This has resulted in her needing some extra effort so she does not become skiddish and shut down when everyday things encroach her comfort zone. More importantly, her sensitivity needs to be mitigated such that she is not overwhelmed in hunting situations. Simultaneously, her sensitivity is an asset. She is very perceptive and picks up quickly on changes and details, resulting in fast learning. So my objective with her sensitivity is to boost her confidence, rather than to desensitize her.

Range
Second, Bounce's range is another divide. As a result from Bounce's sensitivity, she had once taken off after being spooked by the sudden appearance of a mountain biker. It took me a good 5 hours to find her; I quickly invested in a Garmin Astro. Since acquiring the Astro, her range has increased. Initially, I assumed her added range was due to her gaining confidence and taking interest in seeking birds. Upon starting to work with a trainer recently, who views the GPS as a crutch, he pointed out it interferes with my lack of presence when she has gone "too far", she will range further, since I am able to follow her and not reinforce her need to keep track of me. Now, I am more conscientious regarding when her range becomes excessive to stop and wait her out.

Bird Exposure
Third, pen raised vs no birds. I get that wild birds are the best teacher, like driving a real car is a better experience that learning to drive in a simulator. Moreover, pen raised quail, due to their own inexperience, and limited flight conditioning, are asking to get caught. Once again we reached a crux.

Bounce had been chasing a grouse around one of our hikes, bumping into it three times this spring. Initially, she didn't event know what it was, but has since gotten really excited. In order to let the grouse get stupider and Bounce to be less frustrated, we have been avoiding the grouse for a while and started working some not-so flight conditioned quail from my small bird pen. Bounce would go crazy every time I brought a bird out, tearing about the field. Gradually she was finding the birds faster and faster when I planted them, yet found less and less as we were out in the wild.

Once again, the trainer picked up on something right away, even after Bounce had been off birds for two weeks. While I watered her in the shade, he set out a couple chukkar. Immediately upon release, Bounce took off tracking the foot scent of the trainer right into the first bird. She proceeded to follow his foot scent to the second bird, but Bounce was in for a surprise, wisely, the trainer had thrown the dizzied bird into a bush several feet away from the end of his scent, and as she hit the end of his scent and didn't find a thing. She was persistent and looped around until she caught bird scent and eventually located the bird.

Elimination Round...

So, I cannot really complain, because potty training Bounce was a breeze. I got up twice a night during the first week (more because I am neurotic than she needed to...). Then pretty much once a night for the second week, aka 10 weeks old. Now in the third week she has had two full nights of sleep where, I have not taken her out after I went to sleep.

I admire how strong her bladder is. She has had one daytime accident this week (my fault for not taking her out, since I didn't understand what she was barking about). I try and keep her on a schedule. Going out approximately every two hours or when she lets me know that she is needing to go out, usually because I have gotten caught up with my own work. I am very fortunate she has great bladder control, but I am wondering if house breaking is really that hard?

Puppy in the Mirror

Time to reflect on Bounce. She has enabled me to do so much, but gotten in the way of everything planned. I was really hoping to have a dog that would only push me in a positive direction. Well we have moved in positive directions, but many sacrifices have been made, namely this blog. Here is a short synopsis of everything missed in the first three weeks I have had her (Weeks 8-10):

Week 8
Picked up Bounce. After not needing to go to the bathroom before leaving her liter, she peed her crate and proceeded to ride the rest of the way home shotgun in laps without an issue, peeing outside for the rest of the trip. Upon getting home, she peed and pooped on the floor. Bounce objects to peeing outside, mostly because it is cold. Then things took a turn for the better, she ate, played fetch with her new toy Kong (retrieving to lap), and slept getting me up to take her out when necessary with minimal whining.

We took our first trip to the vet, where she exhibited her innate ability to do the Vizsla reverse, perpetually trying to back off the examination table. She was very sweet at the vet, licking the vet as her heart beat was checked. Unfortunately after I left the vet called to inform me that her stool sample came back positive for coccidia and round worms. The next day we put her on meds for both.

Week 9
Bounce has adjusted to peeing in the snow after I shoveled her some grass patches. She has learned her name and to sit. She loves to run around the house treating the furniture as agility equipment. She doesn't understand why she cannot always sit in a lap... Trying to get her used to falling asleep in a bed. She recovered from an intimidating dog encounter, a random German Shepard, with a nice one, Hurley. Hurley is a big English Golden, who was kind enough to let bounce walk all over him; but bounce definitely needs work on dog manners. Actually, she needs work on manners in general...

Bounce was lent a SnuggleSafe. It is a heating pack that after 6 minutes in the microwave at high, will stay warm for 6 hours. It has helped her stay quiet in the kennel, and gives her something warm to bunch against under her bedding.

Week 10
Bounce finished up her meds. She has done worse with sleeping in crates, and I crumbled and started letting her into bed. She has not had an accident all week! She Played with Miles and Porter, Lab and Mutt, and had a lot of fun chasing and being chased. They helped her with her dog manners. Now on to the people manners...

That is the quick version. Now I can start to write a couple entries on more interesting topics: Training Blunders and Puppy Games!