Myths A Bad Start To Dog Training

Take One: You’re afield on a crisp fall day, shotgun over your shoulder, quail tucked into the pocket of your blaze-orange vest, basking in one of life’s finer moments with a well-trained dog at your side.

Take Two: You’re afield on a rainy fall day, your shotgun is growing heavier by the second, no birds are in your vest and you’ve just spent the last hour trying to find your expensive, well-pedigreed bird dog, which is hidden behind a bush hunting field mice.

If Take Two mirrors your life and Take One sounds like pure fiction, don’t blame the dog.

Instead, put that ego aside and drop the Lassie Syndrome - except for rare instances of divine intervention, good hunting dogs are good because they were trained by someone who knew what they were doing and cared enough about the dog to spend the time doing it.

But according to an article in Gun Dog magazine, all too often good intentions turn into “a life sentence in the back yard punctuated by an autumn of running and shouting and cursing.”

The solution? A good place to start is discarding old myths.

“It’s an old wive’s tale - or some macho thing - that says you have to keep hunting dogs outside, that they should never be part of the family,” said Dave Byer, a professional dog trainer from Rathdrum, Idaho, and owner of Trail’s Inn Kennel. “It’s very important for the dog to bond with you if you want it to work for you.”

A smart second step is hiring someone like Byer to help you train your dog.

For about 23 years, Byer has trained pointing, retrieving and flushing dogs. For 30 years, he’s provided general training to dogs of all kinds.

He even trained his German shepherd, Conrad, to fetch a Volkswagen micro-bus (no kidding!), scale ladders and display emotions like happy and sad on command with hopes of getting the dog into a movie.

Byer said successful dog training is based on common sense and compassion.

“The key is getting into the dog’s head, thinking like a dog, not like a person,” Byer said. “And a kind word must be said.”

Positive reinforcement is Byer’s philosophy. The tactic proved successful over and over on a recent afternoon.

Byer’s clients that day were Maggie, a female chocolate Labrador retriever; Casey, a male springer spaniel, and Tigger, a male yellow lab. Byer also worked with his own dog, Ronda, a female German short-haired pointer.

The training session began with Maggie, an extremely “birdy” dog that is gun shy. In under 20 minutes, Byer had the dog comfortably retrieving a dead bird while he fired blanks.

His secret? Make retrieving the bird so much fun and lavish so much praise on the dog that loud noises - a clap of the hands, two pieces of wood smacked together or the sound of a gun - are associated with good experiences.

“The worst thing you can do is take your dog to the shooting range and expect it to just get used to the sound of a gun,” Byer said.

Casey the spaniel, who is also gun shy, went through the same exercise. Like Maggie, by the end of the exercise he was having so much fun retrieving the bird he forgot he was afraid of loud noises.

With Tigger, Byer reinforced basic obedience commands - healing on the leash, coming when called - then ended the training with a fun session of retrieving the bird.

For Ronda, Byer tossed the bird, set two live birds and finessed her point.

Through it all, he cooed steadily to the dogs, letting each know how much it had pleased him and reinforcing how wonderful it is to be a working bird dog.

“A person that says they know it all doesn’t know anything at all. They are closing doors,” Byer said. “Dog training uses a lot of imagination. It’s like a painting.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: About Dogs appears the first Sunday of each month. Mary Sagal is a member of the Dog Writers’ Association of America. She lives in rural Spokane County with her husband and their mixed-breed and Siberian husky dogs.