FF During Season????

[GONEHUNTIN']

Willie, dunno what you deleted above, but no matter - just wanted to say that is a lovely hold of a black goose by your GSP pup for "early posterity." And your thinking about sorting the pup's retrieve ahead of the season mirrors mine.

MG

Kind of a strange post by Kiger, don't ya think?

[crackerd]

Nah, thinking he's got what has worked for him at the crux of his post - and wanting to know if anybody else is simpatico with that approach.

Funny thing that works for me, anyway, is putting something (game) in their gob that's simply too big for them to "commit" hardmouthing on. But you also would surely know that modern-day retriever field trialers who are going to put their pup with a pro (or who are going to do the basics themselves[!]) might not even give it any bird exposure at all before it goes away at 6 months. Got one of those - latter - in one of my training groups now, and I'm pretty amazed by the "abstinence diet" of birds because the pup (6 months) hasn't yet been FF'd.

MG

[Willie T]

Crackered, thank you for the kind words. He is a slick coated Pudelpointer that looks a lot like a GSP. I spoke with Bob Farris about the possibility of a slick coated Pudelpointer being suited to Texas weather and he was able to oblige me.

GH, I am still waiting for Kiger to drop the other shoe and tell us all what he is trying to get at. So yeah, kinda odd to me too...
Willie

[Kiger2]

OK,
Heres the deal. Theres no reason at all not to FF during season. We dont FF in the field, we FF in the yard.

Dogs are place oriented . What we do on a training table has to be transferred to the field. We can do 2 or 3 sessions one day, then go hunt the next. Then go back and train. We just do not enforce anything in the field that hasnt been fully proofed in the yard. The dog wont care. He doesnt care because he does not associate training at home with hunting. Its totally different things.

Doesnt matter what stage youre at. Pup will pick up right where he left off. Ive been FF a lab for months. He belongs to my sons sister in law. Its taking months because hes only here when it works for both of us. Due to vacations, hunting, dogs in heat etc..... He has been gone for weeks. When he gets here, I put the collar on and walk towards the table and he runs and jumps up and we pick up right where we left off. Theres nothing confusing. He knows the drill.

I have done this with other dogs.

I just believe its nonsense to take a dog hunting that is munching on birds. Doesnt take long to fix. But if you have to hunt the dog, at least get FF going so the dogs not getting bad mouth habits conditioned.

Bruce, Lets say your right about the stress of FF . What difference does it make when its done?

I think the vast majority of not FF during season is due to how how hard the trainers used to be on dogs. So they just advised against it, nobody really ever tried it, they just hear and read that you shouldnt.

Before you ignite the keyboard. Take a day or two and just think about it. Why cant it be possible?