10 Mistakes in Gun Dog Training and How Not to Make Them - Part 2

Read the first 5 mistakes to avoid with hunting dog training in the first article in this series.

Not Adapting to the Dog

No two dogs are exactly the same. Like kids, they all learn differently, have different strengths and have that free-will thing that can leave you grinding your teeth in frustration. What worked a treat on the last dog might not get through to your current dog, and that’s alright. What’s not alright is to keep trying to force the same techniques. You're only going to frustrate yourself and your dog. Try making minor adjustments to play to each dog’s strengths.

Correcting the Wrong Behaviour

This might seem like a deadset obvious thing to steer clear of, but it's trickier than you reckon. Dogs don't reckon the way we do, and as you've probably clocked, they don't yak in English. That's why it's real important to nip dodgy behaviour in the bud right when it happens. A doggo needs to be set straight within 1.5-3 seconds of playing up. If you dilly-dally, he's gonna link whatever he's up to at that point with what he's being told off for. Like, if you tell your pooch to park it and he stuffs around, you gotta correct him straight away. If you stuff around and he gets a chance to start sitting down and then gets told off...well, you've just told him he's gonna cop it for sitting down. Not a ripper lesson to forget.

Letting Your Dog Train You

In the same vein as not rewarding or correcting the wrong behaviours, this also seems like an easy one to dodge. After all, you're the trainer, right? But dogs can be sneaky little buggers. When your dog drops a dummy at your feet and excitedly yaps for you to give it a toss, it can be a very proud moment. You're so chuffed about their enthusiasm you chuck it to reward them for their drive. What you've actually done is told them you work for them. You should lob dummies for your dog, but your dog should know that you're in charge of when the dummy or the birds will drop.

Not Paying Attention During Sessions

If you've got teenagers, you know there aren't many things more frustrating than trying to have a chat while someone's got their head down in text messages. That's exactly how your dog's gonna feel if you're doing a million other things when you're supposed to be training. We've all got hectic lives, but when it comes to training, you've gotta set aside that 15 minutes for just you and your doggo. Distractions can cause you to miss inappropriate behaviours, or fail to reward the good ones. Your pup will pick up if you're not fully engaged, and that'll distract them too, which makes for a pretty unproductive training sesh.

Thinking Your Job is Done

You've done it! Your dog's been successful in the field, seems to listen 100% of the time. You officially have a trained dog. You're done here, right? Wrong. Like life, training's an ongoing journey. Even the most well-trained dog will make mistakes and it's your job to be there to help them learn from it. Your dog still needs to be out with you working on training, continually improving and having a good time doing it.