ESPN Hunting

Dogs are not big on verbal communication. Whatever you may think, your dog understands very little of what you say. When my wife comes home to find her golden has dug up the new plants she scolds him and he leaves the room sulking.

"Why are you wasting your breath on him?" I ask knowing that Max has difficulty remembering what he did ten seconds ago.

"He knows what I'm talking about," she says wagging her finger at him. But Max doesn't have the slightest idea. She could be swearing the Oath of Allegiance for all he cares. Max simply reads her body language, a skill in which all dogs excel and he knows whatever she's saying is not good.

If you want to put this to the test next time your dog misbehaves and annoys you gesticulate in an irritated manner and shout, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." You will see your dog cower just as if you had scolded him (that's if he's not laughing).

It must be stressed however that dogs are not easily fooled. Their ability to read your genuine mood is uncanny and feigning annoyance is a waste of time. Pretending to be firm and resolute just won't work. Somewhere in your dog's make up is a built in polygraph that's impossible to beat. It's been handed down from his ancestors and honed by thousands of years of sharp-eyed observation.

It's no good preaching one thing but practicing something else, it won't wash. If you determine that your dog can come into the kitchen but no other room, he'll know if you mean it. Older dogs can read your intentions before you know them yourself. Set out the rules, keep them simple and be consistent at all times. Your dog will respect you for it.

Pictures

Pictures are very important to your dog. He gains much of his learning from the illustrations he sees before him. When my young dogs go training they jump up into the truck with me standing on the right hand side holding the door open. I call each of them by name and give the command, "Inside." One by one they load up.

Last week, for reasons I can't remember, I stood on the left hand side of the truck and went through the same routine but none of them moved. The command remained the same but they were unsure until I realized that I had inadvertently changed the picture. I switched sides and they jumped in without hesitation. Associating a picture with a command helps their learning process enormously.

Raising your right hand when you give the command to 'sit' creates a recognizable picture and repetition helps them understand. Later, in the field you will be creating different pictures to help them grasp more complicated concepts.

Pitch and tone

Your dog interprets your tone of voice much better than he understands your words. If you growl at him in a deep voice and tell him 'No' he will pick up the meaning much quicker. When you want to confirm that he is doing the right thing say, 'Good boy' in a high-pitched voice. Dogs like this high tone and will work to hear you use it. Be consistent at all times. Don't suddenly change 'No' to 'Bad boy', or you will confuse him.

Recently I heard a handler say to his errant young dog:

"Y'all ought to be ashamed of yerself. It ain't no good being sorry. Fer two pins I'd whip your ass."

God knows what his dog was thinking? All he needed was a firm 'No.'

You will never hear your retriever laughing but he knows what it means. Dogs haven't observed us for centuries without realizing that laughter indicates approval. So don't snigger at your dog's antics unless you want to encourage a repeat performance.

Should you find your young pup has chewed your gun slip to ribbons do not laugh, in fact, don't even smile. He'll take it as a clear sign of consent and the state may run out of gun slips before you can cure him.

Pleasure versus displeasure

About Vic Barlow

ESPNOutdoors.com Vic Barlow has been breeding training and hunting retrievers since he was a child. He now specializes in training dogs for American-style hunting and splits his time between his home in Cheshire England and Wildrose Kennels in Mississippi, which Vic regards as his second home. For more information on Vic's training and breeding programs, please visit his website at www.vicbarlow.com. Be sure to check back with ESPNOutdoors.com regularly, as Vic will be running excerpts from his book, "British Training for American Retrievers." Vic will also be answering questions posed by users of ESPN-Outdoors.com and readers of his book. If you have a question about training retrievers, email Vic and he may answer your question in a column.

Dogs learn by the contrast of pleasure and displeasure caused by their own actions. A young pup that is rewarded with a slice of hotdog sausage for responding to the recall whistle will soon compare this to the scolding he receives when he ignores it.

Do not make a big fuss of your dog for doing nothing. Make him work for your approval. It's a powerful tool that you can use in training throughout his entire life. You want him to place a high value on your relationship and you can only do this by restricting your petting and praise to times when he has completed a difficult task. If you are constantly fussing him your approval will mean nothing. He will know that he can gain it any time without effort.

With a young pup you need to lead him into doing the right thing. If you ask him to 'sit' hold his head up with the leash so that he's naturally inclined to lower his bottom. The moment it touches the floor tell him, 'Good boy' in a high-pitched voice.

As he matures and moves into formal training he must be made to do the right thing and experience displeasure if he chooses to disobey. (We will talk about praise and pressure in the future)

Be careful not to inadvertently reward or re-enforce 'inappropriate behavior'. If your pup runs off with your slipper do not make the mistake of chasing after him. It will only show him how much pleasure is to be had by running away with a retrieve object. Later on it could be a duck.

That's why retriever training is so time consuming. It's not because of the duration of each session it's due to the number of repetitions required in so many different locations. You may think that your dog knows when you hold your right hand out and say 'over' he should go right but that's not how he reads it.

From his standpoint he sees you holding out your right hand against the background of a white fence. When you move to new ground the picture changes. He now sees you, right arm extended, framed by a hillside. What's that supposed to mean to him?

Perhaps at the next location when you extend your right arm you will be stood in front of a tree creating yet another new picture? After many repetitions he will finally work out that the one consistent communication is the extension of your right hand and the command 'over.' Then, and only then, will he truly understand.

This column was excerpted from Vic Barlow's book, "British Training for American Retrievers."
Click here to purchase a copy.