The Connection Between Obedience Training and Gun Dog Skills in Positive Gun Dog Training

Posted on September 10th, 2020 by FetchMasters in Uncategorized

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In the traditional gun dog training world, a lot of emphasis is put on creating high-drive hunting dogs. Dogs are allowed to run wild off leash and chase birds, which is fundamentally exciting and self-rewarding. For most dogs, this sort of activity tends towards a frenzied demeanor when they are off leash in a field environment.

As you know, dogs with a frenzied demeanor often are difficult to control. But in the traditional training world, this is remedied by doing obedience training after the dog has developed a certain wildness in the field and reigning in that frenzied behavior with a shock collar. In the end, this usually produces a good gun dog, as it results in a dog that is both crazy about birds and under control … at least when it is wearing the shock collar.

However, in positive gun dog training — at least as it is done by FetchMasters — the approach is a little different. It is more akin to raising a child, where you extend freedom to the child as its maturity level warrants that freedom. It is difficult, although certainly not impossible, to reign in a frenzied dog personality with positive training. Because of this, we sequence our training a bit differently in positive gun dog training.

Instead of creating a crazed dog an then attempting to reign it in, we train along three parallel paths.

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