So this is my 2 year old second season hunting. Today was a really good day with birds working right in front of him. The first part of the morning he was fine but the more birds came in the more excited he got. Then he started whinning and want to move a lot on me when birds came he. He is normally a steady dog. How do I keep him from doing this when he is steady while doing drills and while a few birds are working? But when there is a lot of action he looses it. Or will age and more hunt time get it out of him?
A couple things you could try. Make your training as realistic as possible. Use real birds, live is better. Calling and gun fire the whole nine yards. Hold your dog to a high standard. Take your dog hunting leave your gun in the truck. Let your buddies hunt and you concentrate on the dog only. Hold him to a high standard. With young dogs this is especially important because they will learn that the standard is lower when your hunting if you don't keep him honest in the field. Join a local retriever training club or go to a local sporting dog event. Good people who know and love dog training. My first lab was great. Great marker, handled great on land and water, good nose and quartered nice for upland hunting. His only downfall was he was vocal. He whined whenever birds started working. He would get really vocal if we dropped bird and let them lay to work another flock before retrieving them. It was pretty bad.
Thanks a lot. My dog is very vocal as well. He drives me crazy with it. I'm going to have to try what you said to do. Its just so hard because he don't get like that unless there is birds landing 20 yards in front of him.
I feel your pain. At least if you can keep them physically steady it will make up for the fact that they are vocally unsteady. Good luck!
Thanks. I know he just has a lot of drove to do what he loves to do. But it drives me absolutely crazy. And I hate having a dog like that in the boat with my hunting partners.
I totally understand. Hopefully your dog will grow out of it, mine never did. I will say aside from his vocalizing he was the best dog I ever owned. I hope it works out for you.
