Rick wrote:assateague wrote:He told you to train by building on successes rather than training through corrections.
Yup.
When I was in my 20's I got a 7 week old Chessie pup from a man in town who knew the breed well. He taught me that they love to learn if the lessons are fun. He used what he called "positive reinforcement"......what Rick refers to as building on successes.
Took his advice (and some of his on hands help in the beginning). The instant "Luke" began to resist or fuck up he was kenneled. No reprimand, no scolding, just "funs over" get in the kennel. All that was ever required to control him was my stern voice and ending the lessons. Eventually he learned to love the lessons and they became longer and longer.
I am by no means a dog trainer and only learned what little I knew from a few older men in our camp but by the time he was two years old he was a retrieving machine. When we had large groups of men knocking down 8-10 broadbill at a time, I would just let him go to work. He would swim straight past 4 or 5 dead birds to chase cripples knowing he could get the dead birds later. Occasionally I would use the whistle to give him a line to a bird he couldn't see but that was it.
Guess I was lucky and his DNA made up for my lack of training knowledge but over the next few years I was offered some serious cash to part with him, which I never did. Had 14 great years with that guy.
"Duty - Honor - Country".