Train Your DogGibson's Back Story

“The best way to learn to train a dog is to let a dog that’s smarter than you are train you.” ~ Robert Rourke

– See more at: http://sportingclassicsdaily.presspublisher.org/issue

A little over 3 years ago now my family brought home an Australian Shepherd pup. To be a companion to our female dog Koda, a Lab/Aussie cross.

We had recently lost our puggle Milo and as his was a sudden passing it left our family saddened as can be expected. It was especially hard on my wife as Milo was her dog.  She never had a dog of her own growing up.

The house became to quiet for my wife so she and the kid’s brought home this Australian Shepherd pup.

I liked him right away and did some research on their history. I found out that they are an all-round ranch and farm dog, as good at bringing in cattle and killing barn rats as they are at playing ball or Frisbee. We both also have a connection to the central Pyrenees mountains.

Two characteristics about Australian Shepherds really caught my eye.

1. They want to be by you all the time and are happiest when working with you.
2. They are described as having an ‘off switch’.

So I set out training him with what I knew about dog training at the time.

Let me say, at first, I thought it would be fun to train for agility sports and maybe some weekend hobby sheep trials.

Hunting was not on the radar at first and so I ended up wasting his first three months in two ways.

1. What I knew about dog training was basically… nothing.
2. What I knew about sheepdog training was less than nothing.

It all became very obvious to me one day when I was training Gibson in the yard and we were doing some simple stuff but things just were not going the way I had hoped. So I stopped…

I watched him very closely and could see he wanted to do what I was asking him to do but he looked confused. So I stopped…

I thought to myself “he is watching me and is confused, I must be confused.” So I stopped…

I looked at what I was doing and sure enough I was confused.

So I stopped.. again. Called the dog in and quit for the day.

I was honest with myself about my ability to train a dog and came to the realization that I didn’t know anything. I took what I had in my brain and threw it in the trash. I got rid of everything that I thought I knew and went to find someone to teach me so I could know the way I ought to know.

Because he was a sheepdog I started with the sheepdog experts and their books and one fun book. I highly recommend these books..

• ‘All About Aussies’ by Jeanne Joy Hartnagle-Taylor
• ‘Stockdog Savvy’ by  Jeanne Joy Hartnagle-Taylor and Ty Taylor
• ‘Sheepdog Training’ an All Breed Approach by Mari Taggart
• ‘Teach Your Dog 100 English Words’ by Michele Welton
• There was one other sheepdog resource that helped me to get to know the dog I had and his capabilities workingaussiesource.com

Gibson was born at the beginning of July so by October he was big enough to go on some walks. It was pheasant season so I thought I would take him out and see how he did. I still wasn’t planning on hunting him much, I was still reading the sheep dog information planning on doing trialing and agility, just with a new mindset and new training techniques.

Our first time out was on public land that held a few Fish and Game Club birds that had been released recently. I have hunted there before years earlier and was hoping we could catch one in the lighter brush so he could get at it. He was still just a pup but everything was going good, he was sniffing around and not running off.

I saw a pheasant up ahead of us and starting working Gibson in the brush where the bird had been in hopes he would get the scent and get interested. As we got closer I could see he was smelling the bird but did not know what the smell was attached to.

I was working on the left, ahead of the dog, watching him and the pheasant. We must have been getting close enough because I saw the bird hunch down like he was going to take off. Gibson was still foot tracking the bird with his nose down about twenty yards back, so I yelled “Bird!” and ground swatted the pheasant.

He didn’t mind the gun going off, that’s good! When I called him up he got right on the bird when he saw it, that’s good! He began biting and playing with it, all good! (disclaimer.. don’t shoot pheasants on the ground around a dog.. you will eventually shoot the dog, not good!)

So I thought as we trained to herd barnyard fowl and sheep for trialing we could transfer that over to some pheasant and grouse hunting in the fall.