Ryder and Stan at the World Championships
Marley Sporting Dog Supplies spent the weekend of October 23 – 25, 2009 at the Bird Dog Challenge World Championships and did not do as well as we wanted. It came down to a lack of preparation with the dogs and their endurance level. I needed to do more work on their endurance and get their heads right for the game. Just because the dogs did well the last time they ran does not mean they will be able to do it again after a full 6 month layoff.
So, what could I as a trainer have done different? Well, the first thing that I would do different would be to train a little harder on their cardio-vascular system and then work to build their endurance by doing 15 minute hunts without birds in the field. That would help them work hard enough to get their endurance level up. Once their endurance level has been built up, I will then work to increase their speed by planting 10 birds in the field to see how fast they can find all ten.
Finally, basic training cannot be forgotten because of the need to have complete control and work the dog in order to put them in the best position to win. The issues from the weekend include Ryder not hunting like he should and Bella just running out of gas. Neither problem leads to a good outcome. Vince Lombardi is quoted as saying, “Perfect Practice makes Perfect Execution.” We needed the perfect execution this weekend to advance.
For the past three months, I have been training a two-year old Labrador Retriever named Goose. Goose has been kenneled for most of his life, and his owner has not had much time to spend with him. Thus, Goose had no manners and thought the world revolved around him. When I first met Goose and started training him, we would have a session where everything went great, and then another session where he was constantly trying to dominate me by peeing on my leg. Since he had been left alone for so long, he thought he was the alpha dog and that everything was subordinate to him. He tried the leg pee once too often and wound up on his back with me breathing down his neck. I only had to do this one more time and he was cured of trying to pee anywhere except where I gave him explicit permission. This trait and the fact that this dog did not seem happy made the initial obedience training difficult, and I thought this dog might be a lost cause. I couldn’t get any reaction that he was happy about working.