The Bird Dog Podcast
Hosted by Professional Bird Dog Trainer Tyce Erickson. On this podcast we discuss all things Bird Dogs! Everything from dog training, hunting equipment, bird hunting tactics, stories about man's best friend and everything in between. We include discussions on retrieving breeds as well as pointing breeds. We hope to help make you a better bird dog handler and more successful hunter in the field. If you are passionate about Bird Dogs and the world that surrounds them, join us as we share our passion and knowledge with you! Thanks for listening in advance to the The Bird Dog Podcast!
The Bird Dog Podcast
(EP.40) Getting Your Dog Rock Solid Steady. The key to safety and killing more birds.
In this episode I talk about training your dog to be nice and steady. No ones loves a dog that breaks before it's sent, flares birds and is a danger to its self jumping in front of guns or knocking over the blind being out of control. In this episode I share tips on how to steady your dog when self- training or with the help of another person. A steady dog is a beautiful thing and a joy to be around!
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Also, if your looking for some paw balm, shampoo, dog supplements, treats or other awesome healthy products click on the All American Canine link below for their awesome products. This helps us out a little financially to support the show and we really appreciate it. I like the whitening shampoo if you have a white dog in any shape or form. It really makes the white pop and does an awesome job. The paw and nose balm is good stuff for sore feet and pads after you hunt all day. Really everything they make has good quality ingredients in it.
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Thanks for listening everyone and good hunting!
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Bird Dog Podcast. My name is Ty Erickson and I will be, uh, your host today and welcome to the podcast and hope everyone's having a great week. Um, if you're new to the podcast, uh, go ahead and hopefully share it with your friends and everyone out there so we can get the word out and, uh, keep sharing it and keep getting you guys some awesome information. Hopefully it helps you guys out with your training or your hunting. Or anything that has to do with the, the dog world. And, um, and if you guys have any, uh, things you'd like me to talk about or things you'd like to learn about, don't hesitate to hit me up. And I am happy to, uh, look at those and see if we can get them addressed and talk to you and, and get'em answered. So, um, a little background about me is I've had gun dogs ever since I was a little kid. I've been training gun dogs now professionally for the last about 18 years, roughly right there. Um, the years just kind of blend together, and this is what we do. Uh, I love dogs. That's why, um, we do what we do is I'm, I'm passionate about these animals. I'm passionate about hunting with them and using them and seeing them succeed. And so if you're like us, you're, you love these animals and you love to see. Them work and you love to work with them and, and take them hunting or do other cool stuff with your dogs. This is a podcast hopefully that can help you guys out. So appreciate you taking some time, uh, with us today and listening, and hopefully what we talk about today will be, uh, beneficial. So if you guys are looking for an awesome dog, crate or cot, I'm sorry dog, we'll start off with Crate. If you're looking for a great crate, check out gunner.com. They help us out. If you want to get one through us, we can get you a discount on'em. So send us an email to, uh, to us at the Bird Dog podcast@gmail.com and tell us what you're looking for, what you're wanting, and let us help you out with that. So, um, if you're looking for ecos, we run the Garmin Pro five 50. Um, hit us up on there and we can see what we can do with you on getting an eco. Um, generally we run Garmin products. Um, so let us know if we can help you out with that. Also, um, if you're looking for an awesome dog cot, we use the NDA dog beds. Um, so if you go NDA, K-U-R-A-N-D a.com, uh, they haven't really solid the best cot that I've found on the market get the anodized, the aluminum, uh, caught with the heavy duty ballistic vinyl, and those things are. They're pretty dang bulletproof. I wouldn't say they're bulletproof, but they're, they're the toughest ones that I have found. We use them and if you have a dog that over the years, destroys the caught part of it, you just buy a replacement pad, slide it in, take a few screws out, slide it in, boom. You gotta pretty much a brand new one again. So, um, they're really tough. I've been really impressed with them. I think you guys will be happy with them too. And again. If you get these products, it helps us out, um, helps us to continue to, you know, take some time to produce these shows and, and share some knowledge with you guys. So any of these little things helps us out and we'll continue to put those, um, links and stuff on our, in the show notes. And so if you can check those out. And, uh, if you're needing to buy some of that stuff, uh, get it through those links and that helps us. So anyhow, today I wanted to talk about steadiness. And this is gonna be with any, it can transition in transition into the upland field, but it's gonna deal mostly with your retrievers or dogs that you're gonna. Take waterfowl hunting, it can transition again into pointing breeds where you want them steady to wing, shot and fall all the way through. Or you want a dog that's, you know, gonna be steady for you. When it comes to, uh, waterfowl, I had a client I was talking to today and he's like, you know, a lot of podcasts are great. They talk about kind of how to do some certain things, but then they don't talk about. Kind of the things that sometimes will pop up when you're training a dog to do certain things. So we're gonna kind of talk about how to, how some tips and tricks on how we get a dog steady, but then also some of the things that you will occasionally see. And so when you see them, hopefully you can help your dog, you know, work through that. So let's say we got a little, we, let's say we got a little Labrador retriever. Um, he is. I dunno, eight months old. Um, you may have forced fetched him. You may not have forced fetched him. Generally with our program, we like to force fetch him before we get'em steady. Um, so we start patterning a really nice retrieve into the dog. So that could be a tip, is force fetch your dog before you formally get'em nice and steady. Um, but you can also steady'em up pretty force fetch. Um. But when, when we have a dog that comes in and drops the bird our feet, we want to be able to have command to be able pick it up and deliver to hand. And so we teach'em to go and come back. So generally when people have a puppy, they're gonna have steadied the dog up already to a certain point. They'll kind of hold them back and then send them to go make the retrieve. And the dogs generally aren't steady all the way when they come to us. So that's our job is to get them steady all the way. And what I mean by steady is when we. When I duck on over a dog, I want to shoot the birds down, and then when I am ready, I want to send the dog to go make the retrieve. We don't want the dog breaking and going out and making the tree as soon as the guns go off, as soon as the birds fall, whatever, just going before they're being sent is just a break. So the problem with breaking is it can flare birds, so the birds are coming in, the dog gets excited. It expects the shots to go off, and so it runs out there Early flares, birds, and. The birds fly off and you don't get shots is just as they're getting ready to come into the decoys and just starting to get in that range so they can flare birds. Uh, two, they can, uh, be dangerous, uh, jumping out out of, you know, if they break out of a blind and run past your guns as they're going off. If you're in a layout blind in a field, you're rising up, the dog comes out right in front of you, the dog can get shot, which could obviously lose its life. Um, and. You don't want that to happen. So it's dangerous for the dog. Um, the dog could run and bump the barrel on the person shooting, which could po cause possibly an issue there. So, um, steadiness, I would say is just a safety factor for the dog and it make, and it makes just better hunting. So, um, when we have a dog hunting, uh, I want that dog to sit there and when we shoot the bird down, we're gonna send the dog on its name. To go make the retrieve. And the reason we use its name is if you're hunting with multiple dogs, you can release one at a time. So, um, so if your dog, all the dogs are trained to just go on, go get it, or whatever it is, then you know, multiple dogs could break ladi da. So, but if you train them to go on their name, uh, you can have a great experience. We just barely got done with the hunt this last week. We had five dogs. And we were in some cover hiding. The birds were coming into the field. We'd shoot the birds down and then we'd just say, we'd start from right to left and we'd say, okay, it's your turn. And when one of my guys would send his dog out to go make the retrieve, and then a couple of my friends, they'd send their dog out to go make the retrieve and we'd literally just take turns, send one dog at a time, get a duck and come back in, deliver to the handler the next guy. We'd release his dog, go out there and get a duck. Come back, deliver to the handler. Next guy, next time, next guy. We had five dogs and all the dogs are steady. Um, we didn't have, I don't think we had any con, we didn't have any breaks and we shot a five man limit in, uh, an hour and a half, and it was just beautiful dog work. So when you have that, it's just fun. Things are safe. It's controlled. Dogs aren't ripping birds out of each other's dogs mouth. And so steadiness is key. And the reason we send the dog on its name is again, for the that purpose. So if your dog right now. Goes on something else, then it's easy to transition. Let's say your dog goes on, get the bird. So you could say, so what you could do to transition that? You could, and let's say your dog's name is Maverick, that's kind of a common name. You could say, um, uh, Maverick, get the bird. Maverick get the bird. And so he might not release on Maverick if he's used to. If he is steady, like let's say he knows to sit and then go on, get the bird or whatever, you would just say his name, get the bird his name, get the bird, his name. And then they just will generally will start going. So if you could just kind of mix it in, kind of blend it real quick, and then you'll be able to just drop the, get the bird and just send him on Maverick. So, um, it's pretty easy to transition if the dog doesn't, you know, you've used something else and you want to transition to his name and then you want to test him. So when you're doing steadiness, you want to say other things. Oh, that was a great shock. Nice shooting guys. Was that a pintail? Was that a mallard? What was that? Oh man, that was awesome. Just talk like you're hunting. You wanna prepare for the hunts, right? And when you're hunting, you're gonna say stuff like that. Good shooting. Man. That was awesome. Kinda laugh. Whatever you do when you're having fun out there hunting through buddies and you want to test the dog too. Jody, Sam Dixie, say all these different names and then Maverick. And if you pause a little bit and then. Maverick, they can, they take some time. Is your, is you're teaching them that. Just pause a second so they can really hear the word maverick. But did you get good? They'll be like Joey, Sam, um, Joe Maverick. Now they'll just, they'll just go, you know, so, but we want that dog to stay steady and not release until on the dog's name. So when we study up a dog, um, there's a few different ways you can do it. I'm gonna kind of give you some tips so you can. What I like to do, I'll just tell you what I like to do, is I like to put'em on a place board. So a place board would be any little raised stand you can take. I have some six by six, uh, or they're about, I'd probably say they're. Let's just say they're two feet by two feet, somewhere around there. Um, and, and you could go three feet by three feet, whatever. You don't wanna go too big, so there's too much room, but something the dog can get up off the ground and comfortably sit on. And I just use some two by sixes for the walls so they're only, you know, five and a half inches tall, whatever, six inches tall. And then. In the box and you have some two by fours across the top, and it's just a little raised box that the dog gets up on. Well, dogs are very place oriented, so when they have an object that they have to leave, it's, it's more obvious for the animal when they step off the box. But when your dogs. Sitting on the ground and then just goes to make the retrieve. There's nothing that separates that. So the dog, when it's on something like a place board or a place box, something that's raised up off the ground, that's obvious for them not to leave, that's gonna help steady up that dog a lot faster. Hopefully, when you've done your treat training, you've worked on the place command, you know, you've said, Hey, hey, place took the dog over the little box. He jumps up on there, you give him a treat, and he goes, oh, if I get on place, I get a treat. And so it becomes a positive thing. And then when we start holding that dog back and start doing some re retreats, we'll have it place and then you can have it sit and then you throw, you know, a, a dummy out there, a bumper, and then you release the dog to go get the bumper when it comes back to help place. You can work on heel if you want, but it comes back to that location and delivers to hand. So, um. That's kind of the basics of it, but we want the dog to understand what place means if, if possible, that's gonna help, um, speed up your training. So typically when I start working on a dog, that's, I want the dog steady, I'm through the obedience and I'm through the force fetch so the dog knows here and knows to come back to me so I can pattern a good retrieve. It knows sit. Um, it has an idea that sit means sit. We don't use a verbal stay, so if I'm just walking around, I tell the dog, sit. It should stay sitting. If I want the dog to come to me, it'll come to me with the hear command. If I wanted to walk at my side, it heel, it'll walk it heel a walking heel. It'll lay down, it'll place, it'll kennel, it'll go inside something. We use a kennel command for that place on top. And, and, uh, and there's a front to side heel. So as it's coming towards me, I'll put my hand at my side til it heel, it'll flip around its rear end, and then sit at my side. And so I have control of the animal's body when it comes to obedience standpoint. So when the dog does go get something, I can say, come back to me.'cause it knows that it should come back to me.'cause it, I've trained the obedience on it. And then if you force fetch the dog, then you have control that animal's mouth. So you can actually tell the dog to pick up a bird off the ground to pick up a bumper off the ground. So now with those, that basic foundation. We have control of the animal's mouth through the force fetch or the trained retrieve, whatever you want to call it. And then we have the obedience, which controls the dog's body. So between the control of those two things, we pretty much have the animal under control. We can control his mouth, so picking up stuff, delivering the hand. If he has hard mouth, soft mouth, we can control that. And then we have the body, which we can, the obedience, which we can control the body. So. When we start getting the dog steady in our training, that's typically when they're, we're doing the formal training. Now when they're puppies and stuff like that, it's different, but we, more of our program, our training program is, um. Is more six months of age and up. So, and I'm gonna just put a plug in here too. If you're looking for help with training, our company name is Utah Bird Dog Training. And if you look at Utah bird dog training.com or on Instagram, you can find us there. Um, if you're looking for puppies filled bread, golden retrievers, um, you can find us on Instagram there. And also our website's, that same name where we breed really high-end golden hunting, golden retrievers, and also we breed laboratory retrievers pointing labs. Um, and that one is Utah pointing labs.com. So if you're looking for a a, a Golden Retriever or a Labrador retriever, we check us out. Or if you're looking, if you're like, man, I'm too busy, I don't have time, I'm just gonna send my dog to those guys. You guys do all the work and then we train you up how to reinforce all the training and you just take the dog hunting and have fun with it. So, but if you're a DIY guy, this, this can help you out. So anyways, we get control of the dog's body, we get control of the dog's mouth and, and when they're puppies, you can start working on steadiness. We, there's, I mean, I, I don't wanna get too much into it, but we start, we throw the retrieves for the dog. We start using its name and those little things. So when we hit the formal training, what we're talking about right now. If the dog already kind of has concepts, okay. But, um, so we're kind of skipping forward and talking about steadiness. So let's say your dog has good obedience. It's been through the force fetch. Now we want this dog to be solid when it comes to hunting dog. So I'm gonna get the dog on the play sport. And what I don't want to do, this is what some people do. They throw a bumper out there, or they th a bird or whatever it is. They're telling the dog, sit, sit, whatever it may be, and the dog breaks to go get the bird early. Well, if they have a shot collar on and some people zap'em zz and they zap'em for breaking and correct'em, well, the dog just went to leave to go get something that's really fun. He got zapped and maybe you were able to stop him. Maybe he runs all the way to the bird and then you just stop zapping him. But what can happen is when that dog is zapped, now he's hit a wall of electricity when he is left the play for to go get a bird. So in his head, when you go to send him the next time. He might be nervous to actually go. Now you have a dog that doesn't want to go because he is nervous'cause he just hit a wall of electricity and got zapped. So I never like to zap my dog when it breaks. Um, when it gets a controlled break, um, that's just gonna, I want that when I, when the dog is sitting and I send it to go on its name, I always want that to be open. I want it to be explosive. I do not zap them for breaking. Um, it just creates more issues. Dog gets nervous to go, and then maybe now it doesn't go. Now you're gonna have to force it to go through actually using electricity to make it go. And so it can just create problems. So let's talk about how to, a tip to study it. So if your dog breaks and he is understanding the concept, let's say he pretty much has it down, but he just gets excited and breaks. We'll bring, if he breaks and gets the bird, what I'll usually do is I'll run out there to him like, no, you know, just like, just let him know I'm disappointed. And usually through the tone of your voice, you can let him know. And I may. Grab the bird out of his mouth, like, I'm really unhappy. Just like, that's mine. Don't mess around with that. And the dog's like, oh crap, dad's mad. I shouldn't have done that. But it's just verbal and just like, and just using my, um, my body to show the dog, tell the dog basically I'm un I'm unhappy that he broke. And when I bring him back, I'll tell him, sit. I'll put him back on the play stand. I'll tell him Sit. And at that point then I'll give him a nick with the eco, give him a little zap. Sit. It's kind of like giving a little spanking. Don't move your bum. And so the, and so it's sit, zap, and it's like, okay, little spanking on the rear end. Don't move your bum. And usually that's all you need. And so then when he is steady, then you can send him and he's, and it's always open. It's explosive, it's fun, and it's not like, oh crap, I'm gonna get zapped as soon as I leave the play boarder. I leave my owner's side early. So you create a good attitude of the dog being able to drive. And so it's kind of indirect pressure, so you're just sitting zap. So it's just like, sit, spanking, don't move your bum, you know? And as the birds are coming in, a young dog, you might have to sit there and be like, sit. Just kind of remind them and maybe you give'em a little nick, little spanking on the rear and don't move your bum sit, you know? And then the bird comes in, boom, boom. And then you send'em to go make the retrieve. But one of my favorite ways to get a dog steady instead of sitting'em and then throw something and the dog's pulling and pulling and pulling, and then it sits still, and then you send it to go retrieve, which that's important. Let's talk about that. So when you. Throw a bird in the air or a bumper. Let's say you got the dog in the play stand. You're holding it by the collar. Or what I like to do is have a little lead on it, like a little short lead so you can put some slack into the collar.'cause when you have your hand up under that dog's collar, it fills that pressure being pulled back a little bit on its collar. And so when you take your hand out out of its collar, well it can differentiate there. That fills that pressure come out. So then it's like, oh, I got freedom. I can break and go get the call, go get the. Go get the bird where if you have a little rope or a little short lead on there. You can have your hand down by the dog, but you can take that slack out where it's hooked to the leash. When you tell the dog sit, it feels like it's naked because that slack is loose there. But if the dog does try to break early and we're teaching it the concept or patterning in the steadiness to the dog. Boom. It hits the end of that little 12 inch lead, lead or whatever length it is. And one, the dog's not rewarding itself, but you can stop it and then reheal it, make it sit, and then send it. Now the key is, is what you want to reward the dog for its behavior previous to making the retrieve. So if your dog's all crazy and getting all excited and you throw the bumper out there and he is all excited and trying to get away from you, and then he goes. Well, essentially he is rewarding that behavior. If he acts crazy and he can pull away, eventually he is like, I'll, I'll get out of this, and then he'll just go make the retrieve where if you hold the dog until he calms himself and he's calm. Then you release him. He is like, oh, if I'm calm, I get the reward. The reward is the retrieve or the bird or whatever he wants. He's a retriever, right? Like that's what they should live for. So if you have a dog with half decent genetics and it loves to retrieve, that's what he wants. And so it's no different than a treat. It's like if you sit and have a little piece of meat and as soon as you sit, I mark that behavior with some food. He's like, oh, if I do that behavior, I get some food. It's like. The retrieve is the food. So if I sit calmly and I sit there until released on my name, now I get the reward of the retrieve. I get the food where if a dog is sent early, be as he is not acting. Calm or he is acting crazy and you send him, well, you're rewarding that behavior. It's like telling a dog to sit and he doesn't sit, but you still give him the treat. You're awarding that previous behavior to sending him to go make the retrieve. So you wanna remember, dogs are very, you, you wanna work with what they want. And when he wants the bird, you wanna reward him with that when the dog does what you want. So. Um, so that's something you can do is hold the dog back on a short lead. So it takes a slack out, the dog's on the play board. So it's combination of not leaving a a place until you know he's released and he knows he needs to return to that spot too. And, and then when the dog is steady releasing the dog to go make the retrieve. So something I've found that works really good at steadiness. When you're retrieving by yourself is utilize your play board. So have the dog place and then you walk, you know, maybe 20 or so feet out in front of the dog. It doesn't really matter that much. You don't want to go crazy far. But um, maybe go out 20 feet and grab your bumper. Tell the dog sit, which is means sit. We use a sit. Means sit. We don't go sit. Stay, stay, stay. Just sit. You can say, place sit and the dog stays sitting there. You take your bumper. So the dog can see it and you throw it up just right in front of you, just, you don't have to throw it real high in the air, just throw it up. The dog sees it. Well, immediately the dog might try to break and get the bumper. So do you let the dog get the bumper? Absolutely not. You don't want it to reward that behavior for breaking. So you hurry and you pick up the bumper and the dog does not get the reward, and he sees you get the reward. He is like, oh. He got it. And you tell him, no place sit. Put him back on his board. Tell him sit you throw the bumper again. If he, he might try to break again, no place sit and as you throw it in the air, you can be like, sit, sit, sit. You just do a little toss right out in front of you. You don't want to throw it so far that the dog can beat you to it. That's the key is you do not wanna reward the dog unless he does what you want, but you're out in front so you can see when he breaks and you're there to pick up the bird before he can get it. If he does break. So then what? You have the dog? No. Here place sit. Have the dog sit. Sit it, throw it. If he stays sitting, sit you send the dog and he goes and makes the retrieve. And then you walk back, where you walk back to the place board here, place he'll sit, deliver the bird to hand, and then you walk out front again. Sit. You throw the bird. If he stays sitting. You wait a little bit longer and then you send him to go make the retrieve. If he gets excited and breaks you hurry and pick up the retrieve. So he thinks in his head, me breaking and moving towards the bumper loses the reward. That's what we're trying to get in his head is if your movement of your body going early before hearing your name loses the reward, and you do not get rewarded with the retrieve and he wants that. Right. So he is like, he's trying to figure out how do I get that? So in the beginning, it's just a split second. You don't even need'em wait way long. But you might have Sit, sit, you, throw it, sit. Good, sit, Maverick, and then they go. And then you add that a little longer. Throw it. Sit. Sit. Good. Sit. Maverick and then they go and you just extend that time. It's baby steps, right? You don't expect this dog to sit there for minutes and minutes and minutes'cause you're, you're, or second long, a long time'cause you're one, you're you, you don't want the dog to lose the focus and lose. The desire and drive.'cause if you sit there and like sit, you make the dog sit there and you throw it out there and you make'em wait a whole minute, they might just like get bored and like, okay, whatever. I just give up and like even forget what they're doing. So it's that fine line of keeping the focus on it, but getting what you're demanding out of the dog when they're young dog. So in the beginning you're send'em a little early, but then you're gonna make'em hold a little longer, a little longer, a little longer, a little longer. And then. And then the dog, it's cool. It starts clicking. They're like, oh, if I sit here, I get the reward. If I sit here, I get the reward. If I break, you pick it up and I don't get anything. And so self-training on steadiness, just getting out in front of the dog and utilizing the play board to anchor them in a spot works amazing. Compared to like having the dog at your side. And then when you step away from the dog and throw it, he's like, I'm gone. Like he knows like you're not there and you don't have that control on him. And so they, they're like, I know he is not holding my neck so he is just gonna go. So I love studying a dog using that reward-based program where using a place box so they can place on there. So you have'em kind of anchored'cause they know they shouldn't leave that spot. But then. Picking up the bird or the bumper before they get the retrieve and then rewarding them when they do sit there long enough. So, um, so that it's, and it works, act actually really well. Once the dog understands the concept, they reward base animals just like a treat. Like, Hey, you sit, I give you a treat. They like want to sit'cause they want to get the retrieve, they want to get the, the bird. And so, um. So it's just, it works really good. Instead of like, I'm gonna sit my dog and I throw it out there and I'll sudden it breaks and I just zap the heck out of it. Now you've like just created problems. So the cool thing is the dogs, the other way about it, like I talked about the correct way, is the dog's working for something. So you're using reward training, but then also you're using control. So you're telling'em like, Hey, you gotta sit. And then when the dog's sitting, tell it. Good, good job when it breaks, no. And then you just use that re the reward of the retrieve to control'em. So, um, I'm trying to think of some things commonly, I would say that's what a lot of people when it comes to steadiness. Okay. Let's say your dog. Okay. Let's kind of backtrack a little bit. Let's say your dog's starting to get steady. You can throw, uh. Bumper out in front of you and it sends it to go make or retrieve. Well, now let's transition to a bird. So now you stand out in front of the dog, 20 feet, start adding a little quack, quacks, ack, quack.'cause remember, you're gonna train for the hunts, right? So you're gonna wanna start in the beginning. You're just gonna want to use sit, play, sit, sit. You don't want to add a bunch of different lingo. As the dog gets better, then you start adding a duck call. Quack, quack, quack, quack. Then you can throw the bird, and then you can release the dog. Once the dog gets really good, you can go quack, quack, quack, boom. And you can take your shotgun or you can take, if the dog's already been properly introduced to gunfire, you can take a gun or a shotgun simulator. Quack, quack, quack. Boom. Now the dog gets all excited. He breaks you hurry and scoop up the bumper, or you hurry and scoop up the bird. And he's like, oh, crap. Yeah, that's right. I gotta sit through that. That's, that's pretty exciting. See, take him back. No place. Quack. Quack, quack. Boom. Bird goes down. You're out in front, you release the dog, he goes and makes the tree. He is like, oh, I, I get the reward if I sit through the quack and the gunfire and all that. And once your dog's nice and steady and you can do that, you can quack, quack. Boom. Here comes some ducks. Guys. Get ready off the left side. Here comes some mallards. Quack, quack. Boom, boom, boom. You throw the bird out, dog stays steady. He's like, okay, I get this game. I stay here. Now you release me to go pick it up. I get it. Like I, and it's a team thing, right? He is like, okay, if I get, and, but he is also kind of working for himself'cause he's kind of selfish. He wants to retrieve, right? So, but he realizes how things step into play well. From there you slowly work in towards the dog. So instead of just kind of doing a little rainbow out in front of you, you're out there 20 feet or so. Now you're working around the dog in sessions and you start throwing. The birder bumper out in front of you. Quack, quack, quack, boom. And so you're trusting the dog because he showed to you through training that he understands how to be steady. And you want to work in now to where you can be next to the dog's side. You can quack, quack, you can throw a bumper, you can throw a duck, whatever it is, or have someone thrown bang, bang right over the dog. You can release the dog to go pick up the retrieve. Now, if you wanna be really. Careful on this, or let's say if you're not self-training, let's say you have a partner, it's even gonna be easier for you. The part I just talked about is if you're training by yourself. You're trying to get the dog steady by yourself and you'll start out in front, and then you'll work your way around where the dog is showing tr um, understanding and trust. And then you can throw that bumper and shoot. The dog is going to stay steady. If he does break again, I do not zap him with the collar. If they break, I'm gonna tell the dog no. So it knows it broke. No. Here come back to me. No, here reheal the dog. Put it back on the stand and then I'm gonna walk out there and pick up the bird myself. So I'm gonna just start, and that's something you can do is denial. So as you work in, you throw a bumper out there. This is before maybe you bring even all that gunfire and duck call. You've maybe done out in front the duck call and gunfire and now you bring it into his side. Before you do that, you throw some bumpers out there. You tell the dog, sit, leave it. You walk out there, you pick up the bumper, you bring, come back to the dog's side. Sit mark, throw a bumper out there. Leave it. You walk out there, you pick it up, come back, sit, mark, throw it out there. Dog's nice and calm, Maverick. You release him to go out there to pick it up. He's like, oh, not every bird is mine. And if I stay steady and calm, then I get rewarded. Now, you don't want to do a lot of denials in the beginning'cause we want that dog. Like if you're calm and steady, then you go, but then we want to test the dog.'cause then they start going, oh, I'm kind of calm and steady. I might go early. And if you do some denials, you mix up the retrieving, throw some out there, you pick'em up, you throw some out there, you send him, he goes, okay, every retrieve is not mine. That gets thrown down or that gets thrown. For me, it's only if the owner releases me on his name. And when you do denials, the dogs start actually, they kind of calm themselves. They're just like, okay, I'll just kind of sit here until it's my turn. To go and denials will help also with honoring work when another dog works goes out and gets it. Oh, I guess that one's not mine. He didn't send me on his name. So you're kind of doing like honoring almost between yourself and the animal.'cause you're like, sit, leave it, you throw it out. There you go. Pick it up. Sit mark. Send the dog, go get it. Throw another one. Sit mark, leave it and go out there. Get it. And so you can kind of play games, almost like honoring work with your dog. So let's say you got a buddy and you're helping train your dogs together and you wanna steady up your dogs, that's even better. Put the short lead on the dog. Have your buddy throw. Um, actually don't even put, sorry. Don't put the short lead on your dog. That's a way you can do it. But just have the dog sit there and just verbally talk to your dog. Sit. Sit and let your buddy control your dog. Sit. He blows a duck Call. Quack quack, throws a duck out in front of him. The dog breaks. Hurry, your buddy hurry and picks up the duck. You call the dog back to you. Put him on the stand. Sit, mark. Sit, sit, sit. Buddy throws the bird out there, dog stays calm. Boom. You send him. He goes out, gets the retrieve. Oh, if I do that, I get the retrieve. Sweet. You can bring the dog back. Sit mark. Sit. Throws the bird out there, dog breaks immediately your buddy steps up and we want that dog to see the buddy pick up the bird. Dog runs out there, tries to grab the bird, buddy picks it up beforehand. Doesn't self reward. Comes back. Dog stays steady. Steady buddy throws the or dog. Sit. Mark buddy throws the bird. Dog stays steady. Boom, you send'em out there on his name to go make the retrieve and they start just like, if a dog has retrieved desire, he is going to want to stay steady because he knows he gets the bird. So, um, what I see is in training, we get these dogs steady and we teach'em through these concepts. The reward-based, reward-based, still plus control. Like, hey, sit your bum down. They may come back. If we have a dog that's really high drive, we'll tell'em, sit, we'll give'em a little nick and then we'll still use. The reward base part, kind of mix it together to get that dog steady. But what I see a lot of people slack on is they don't expect steadiness and they go duck hunting. They're too much caught up in the hunt. Ducks come in, the dog's sitting there, bang, bang, bang, and the dog is on his way to make the retrieve. You should immediately stop the dog. No, here. And then if you can stop it from day one, it's gonna help you. You're gonna win. It's gonna go a long ways because the dog breaks. And again, just like we've talked about, he rewards himself. Well, it's more fun for him to break and go get the bird, the guys, the handlers lot times like, oh man, that was so awesome. My dog got my bird. That was so cool. And he saw it go down and he got it and like you're like, you're pumped up. But you've let the dog slack, you've let the dog's reward on that, and ideally you just say no here. And the dog, if you're aware of your dog and he breaks and you wanna watch your animal when you start shooting over him, no, here, reheal him. Have him sit, and then you either you send him, you give him a try, okay? You send him to go get it. Or even better, you walk out there, you pick up the bird and you don't reward him. And maybe you do a practice one, then you bring that bird back. Quack. Quack, throw the duck out there, shoot a shot, dog, stay steady. Boom. You send him out there to go get it. He's like, oh, even when we're hunting, I gotta play that game we've been working on in the yard. And so the dog, I'll send it glued together real quick in the field, the neck, next duck comes in.'cause he wants to get that duck comes in, boom, boom, boom. But bird falls in the decoys, dog stays sitting there and he's like, okay, I'm ready. You send him, you know you don't make him sit too long. He's still an excited young dog. You release him to go. He is because he did stay steady and we want to reward that. Well, he goes on and gets that retrieve. Now you're making that dog. Now you have the makings of a nice, steady dog. And it should, what it should do is surprise you if your dog breaks. That's what we want, that you're, if you worked on steadiness through dogs, so it's like, holy crap. Like he just broke no here. And let's say your dog gets to the bird, not the end of the if. And you try to say no here, and you try to get him, control him, turn him around, and he doesn't turn around in time Well. When he comes back, just kind of I'll tell him the whole time. No, no. Like, like use your tone of voice. Let him on. Like when he comes back to you with the bird, like pull it out of his mouth. I'll kinda like, like grab it and like that's my No. And then I'll tell him place and I'll put him on his stand. And then I'll do maybe a couple warmups again, shoot, throw, shoot, throw, or just even throw, he stays steady release and he's like, okay, I just got kind of excited and caught up in the moment. You know? And you just generally only have a few of those. And then the dogs are generally pretty dang steady'cause they understand the game. If you've done your homework in the yard, and again, all this. Is out of the field. If you haven't got your dog steady in the yard where you can call and shoot over him and blow your dog calls and all that stuff, and he's doing that in your training grounds, you're gonna have a heck of a time trying to reinforce that in the field.'cause essentially you're training in the field and we want to train in the yard or the training area and reinforcing the field, not train in the field train. Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce in the field, train in the yard. So, um. And you're just gonna have an awesome experience. And if you're, if you, if the dog's not understanding the concept and you go and try to take it hunting well, don't have realistic expectations, your dog's probably probably going to mess up. So you may need to, excuse me, you may need to hold the dog back, the lead, or something like that. So it's not self-rewarding. These, it's not re rewarding these behaviors you don't want. So, um, occasionally, or. One thing I do like also, and you sometimes will see this, but I would say not as much with the reward base. Um. Steadiness training is when you're holding the dog back with a, and these are some tips you may see when you're holding the dog back on a short lead and you're holding it at its side with the lead trying to control it, breaking. What dogs will do sometimes is they'll actually bug or they won't look at the bird so they'll look left or right. It's like, it's like a self-control thing.'cause they go, if I look forward like he's gonna send me. And so like, it's kind of like. You're telling'em sit. They don't wanna look forward.'cause as soon as they go look forward, they want to break. And so you need to kind of get'em to relax, like hold them back long enough. If you are using a little short lead and try to get that focus where the dog is looking and when he's looking, then you send him so he kind of can look and like control the anxiety of like, okay, I'm looking at it, I'm so excited. Like, but you gotta let'em look at it. When he looks and is focused, then you release him. If the dog is bugging, looking left or right, like to kind of control, he knows he's under control, but to try to control himself and then you send him, well, he might just look left or right because you're awarding him for that behavior. So it can be a little challenging a little patient for you because like, come on buddy, like look forward, you know? Then you can send'em. The thing I do like about if you are just using a place board or a place spot plus the steadiness. You usually don't have that.'cause they don't, they're, they're choosing to hold themselves back to get the reward not being forced to be held back. And so they actually generally are gonna focus better, um, using that program compared to being held back because they're like, oh, I want it, I see it. Okay. I break. Oh, I don't get it. Okay, I'm gonna look at it. Okay. I go now, I go. So I like the studying'em up that way.'cause I just feel like the focus, the desire, the drive, um, they understand the game. Basically where you're playing, that's pretty much what it is. You're playing game. You said you're bummed down, you get the board, you get the treat, and they start learning that out. But you need something like a play sport to teach'em. So they go back to a spot. They don't leave that spot. If they stay on that spot and they do what you ask'em, then they get the reward. Okay, once your dog's nice and steady on there, then of course we gotta take him off the board. But now they understand the concept. So instead of taking the dog to a whole new location in the beginning and, and something I would recommend is training in the same spot until your dog gets the concept. Well, now the dog's on the place board. He gets the concept. Now just move him to the side or move him forward a little to that play sports. So he is still in the general proximity. He hasn't moved a whole new location and. When you move a whole new location, it kind of almost restarts in the dog's mind. So step the dog off the side a little bit and quack, quack, quack. Same area. Boom, throw, shoot. If he's steady, he goes and gets the bird cool. Now you got a dog that's off the stand. He's not requiring a play stand to be steady. And then from there, now let's say the next day, okay, he's doing really good in this area. I can work him on the stand off the stand. Let's grab our stand and go to a new area in the training yard. Dog goes back on the stand, quack, quack, quack. Boom. Dog stays steady, you release him. He's like, oh, I know this game with this stand here. I gotta sit here to get the bird, blah, blah, blah. You take him off the stand and what happens? It goes a lot faster. You maybe just do a quick little tuneup, one or two retrieves on the stand. You pull him off the retrieve, one or two retrieves. He's steady. Then the next day, let's go try. Let's go to a new spot. Well, that time maybe do the play stand and one retrieve or two retrieves. Again, just really quick review. Then you take the stand completely out of the picture. He stays steady and you're shooting, sending him to retrieve. When he is sitting his bum on the ground and he goes and gets the birds and you're just off to the races, and now the next day you take'em out to a field and you don't take a stand and you just let'em sit on the ground and then you. Throw a bumper and you shoot and he stays steady and you send him, and then you transition from there into the field where you go hunting. Now he just goes into new places, wherever he goes, goes to Canada, goes to Idaho, goes to Utah, wherever he is going, he's just steady. And we have a nice steady dog. And if you put in that groundwork. It is so fun. It's so cool. When you shoot, come up, a volley comes up, birds come in, five, six guns go off, 10 guns, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Your dog's just sitting there waiting to go pick up or retrieve, and maybe it's not his turn. It's your buddy's dog, and he's trained at the same level. Okay? All right, Lisa, your dog. His dog goes out and gets that one duck. Oh, there's two or three other ones down. Now it's your turn. Send your dog out there. Now it's your buddy's dog turn, or there's a double. You send both of'em out there to go pick up a bird at the same time. The dogs honor each other's retrieves. They don't tear birds out of each other's mouths, and it's just a beautiful, you have beautiful dog work, so, um. That's gonna be it for this podcast. I got a lot going on, so I wanted to get one out today on Steadiness with Retrievers. Hopefully you could glean some information from what I've been talking about here and it kind of makes sense and, uh. And you can use this in your training program. I think if you use it, you'll really see how it works and it's pretty dang cool. So demand excellence from your dog. Demand your dog to be steady. And if you'd have a dog that you've let Slack and he's not steady, then go back, do denials with him. Just start from kind of how I talked about in the podcast, put him on a play spot, throw the bumpers out in front, or the bird, if he breaks you, pick it up and just get him. Re getting the reward by doing what you ask. So. Again, when you train, you want to train for the hunts. And so that's the line I'm gonna say a lot is you train for the hunt. So when you're training, you want a dog that's steady in the hunts. You want to train for that, train with that end goal in mind, and you'll have, um, a phenomenal dog in the future that you can be proud of. That is steady, that's safe. And they can see the birds fall. Um, obviously I didn't even talk about that. That's a benefit. They can mark the different birds falling and so they can see where they're at as a steady retriever does that too. So good luck everyone in your training. Hopefully you have a great day and, uh, don't slack. Get out there every day, Monday through Friday, at least Monday through Thursday. Hit that training. If you can go every day, that's awesome, but you don't need crazy long training sessions. You just need sessions where you're gonna get progression in the training session, review, build, review, build, review, build until you have that retriever you know of your dreams or that retriever that you want. So. Um, and on a positive no, and on some thumb bumpers, some help ups, you know, just have a good time. So the dog's like, man, I love training. That was so much fun. And you're gonna have a dog that's confident you're gonna have a dog that loves what it does, and you're gonna use some of these techniques or training tips to be able to help bring out those natural desires and good behaviors in your animal. So, good luck continent, everyone's, hopefully everyone's getting a lot of birds this fall, and we will see you in the next show.