Question: I am tuning my two-year-old German Short-haired Pointer up for hunting season. My question to you is, what is the proper way to punish my dog for unwanted behavior such as chasing birds or not holding point?
Greg G., Jackson.
Answer: After talking with Greg, we decided he was the one who needed the punishment. I instructed him to put his electric collar on his own neck and administer a high-level charge to himself whenever he did not follow my orders. I then gave him orders in a mixture of French, English and German languages. When he could not understand what I was saying, I told him to shock himself and see if that made things more clear. Of course, it did not. Commands can be reinforced with a training collar once they have been learned by the dog. Greg's dog would not stop on the ‘whoa' command in any environment, let alone in the highly-charged environment of game birds and shotguns. Whoa-break your dog before you get to the bird field, then, only use the e. collar after you have given the command at least twice while the dog is chasing. Your timing has to be perfect or don't even try this exercise, and the correct level of intensity must be determined before doing this around birds. The two commands then the stimulation must all be done before the dog travels more than twenty-five yards from the place he was pointing. If he stops, praise him. Do not continue stimulating him with the collar if he is beyond the twenty-five-yard mark. Go to the dog, leash him and tell him loud and clear to ‘whoa those birds.' Then repeat the exercise one more time before stopping for the day.
I highly recommend first using a check cord on young dogs. Restrain them while saying “whoa” when the concept of holding to flushing birds is introduced. This is true with flushing dogs. Punishment-based training will ruin many good dogs and will not be effective in re-channeling this dog's energy to productive behavior.
Charlie Linblade
Mighigan Wing Shooters Hunt Club
Michigan Pheasant Hunting
Michigan Bird Dog Training
