I was hired a few years ago to train a young female pointer. She was about a year old when the husband took her out with his friends and their dogs to go bird hunting. The outcome was less than ideal. She ran all over the place, never found and pointed a bird, she wouldn’t Come when called, never retrieved a bird, and it took him nearly 45 minutes to get her back into the truck because she was afraid of being in a crate. His friends told him to get an electric collar.
When I met her, there were other issues. She had figured out how to open the front door. She didn’t like walking on tile floors, so she would go from carpeted area to carpeted area. If you tried to play Fetch with her in the yard, she would do it a couple of times, then drop the toy, run around the yard, grab leaves off the bushes and carry them around as she ran in wide circles around you. She would not Sit or Lay down on any floor or on cement. In addition, the husband was angry with the dog since he was the one that had to chase her down if she got out the front door, and that took him about 45 minutes every time to get her.
I went to work to unravel each of these issues, starting with her sensitivity to being on hard surfaces and working out her Fetch. Next, we worked on the obedience exercises, including getting her to go willingly into her crate.
About 2/3 of the way through the lessons, the wife left town with the kids for the weekend and left the dog home with her husband. While she was gone, the dog flipped open the front door handle and ran around the neighborhood, which angered the husband. So, when I saw the dog on Monday, she was wearing an electric collar. I told the wife to return it and get a refund. It wouldn’t be necessary, plus I never want a student thinking they need to deal out payback to a dog out of anger.
I eventually had this dog working well in the home and the back yard. Then in the front driveway. Then at the neighborhood park. I remember the day when the wife told me her husband was going to take the dog hunting in 2 weeks. I told her that was fine, but to show her husband all the exercises we did so the dog would do for him what the dog would do for her.
He took the dog hunting with his buddies. Same location, same type of bird hunting. When I saw her after that weekend, she said the dog was perfect. She hunted up all the birds, willingly obeyed all commands. Only small detail, she did shake 2 birds she returned to the owner’s hand in the field. At that point, I told her that she had completed Basic Obedience, and it was time to wrap up the lessons.
We never did have the husband use an electric collar (I must totally trust a student before I will consent to them using one on their dog, and the use must be justified). We never trained with birds, only toys. The dog was obedient on and off leash, in public, and in the field.
I can’t take all the credit, because the wife did most of the homework, and the dog was bred to do bird hunting. This dog just needed some sorting out and acquisition of the basic skills.
I have trained a lot of dogs over the years that were then used for some practical purpose beyond just being a pet. But the foundation of all of that is mastery of the basics. That’s all I had to do here, plus some behavioral work to overcome some insecurities and lack of focus.