Our main emphasis at Deep Fork
Retrievers is on training quality gun dogs. However,
whether a dog is ran in competition or used as a hunting
companion, the basic training program is the same. We
believe the key to successful training is to view it as
a developmental process. This process starts when the
puppy is weaned and proceeds through maturation. Our
training style develops all of the skills necessary for
your dog to become a top-notch hunting retriever.
First, we teach the young dog everything we are going to train it to do
- making sure that it has been properly exposed to its work, its drive
has been built into a frenzy, it understands the common field scenarios
of training, aggressively attacks the water, and has a strong love of
birds, but most importantly, we teach a dog how to learn.
Our
program progresses with collar conditioning. The dog is
taught how to turn off the mild pressure of a training
collar by responding to words associated with the
motions of the retrieve - coming towards the handler,
going away, and sitting when and where it’s told. These
are the primary movements of the dog’s work with the end
result being control of the dog’s body.
The next stage is force
breaking, necessary for retrieval to hand. Force
breaking achieves control of the dog’s head. Control
of the whole dog is achieved only by combining the
disciplines of both collar conditioning and force
breaking. With this training, a dog understands that
retrieving has become his job.
We can now take the dog back
to the field, a place he has learned to love, and
overlay the control we have gained through collar
conditioning and force breaking. By incorporating
realistic hunting scenarios into the curriculum, we can
fine-tune its marking skills. During the marking
process, the dog is taught how to swing off the end of
the gun barrel to facilitate accurate marking and remain
steady under all conditions. It is also taught how to
trail wounded birds and to dive for cripples. These
skills make the dog not only a top-notch hunting
retriever, but a true conservation tool!
A Word About Training Techniques
Today,
most competent trainers use electronic training collars,
as do we. However, there is a wide variance between
trainers in how this training tool is used as a point of
contact. We know a dog doesn't think; it remembers with
contrasting feelings of pleasantness and
unpleasantness. Our goal is to maintain a dog's
positive attitude towards working. Understanding how
the dog's mind works, our training involves giving the
dog comparisons which it either anticipates with
pleasure or tries to avoid. The proper timing of
pressure turns the experience of an unpleasant event
into a pleasant one when the dog responds successfully
to commands. Because the dog remembers, it soon learns
to avoid pressure and quick obedience to commands
becomes an incentive unto itself. Using this
methodology, a dog's attitude remains positive, without
fear, and the end result is an eager, well-mannered
retriever that is a pleasure to hunt with.
