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Location: western NY, usa
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 143
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Originally Posted by
Brierley
How far had she got on the run?
I only ask because, if I've got it right, she failed the initial command and started a run out after the bird.
She had got close enough to a road for you to be worried that she'd chase on under the wheels of a truck so she must have been in full chase-mode by that stage?
You then repeated the sit command?
I may have got this wrong, of course, but if not, then I don't understand this part:
The sequence of events had moved on. She had by-passed a command and gone into work mode. She obeyed your second command with a repeated command reinforced with a shock.
I seriously doubt that she knew the shock was because she failed the first command. She more likely obeyed the second command and shock, but would have in no way associated it with the initial command - too much had gone on in the interim
Let me be a little more detailed: she was trained to stop/sit on the whistle and knew it well, it is also used in handling to blinds. In the case of sit to flush, the flush
itself actually becomes the command - or cue it you would rather - to sit. She failed to sit when the bird flushed, which was her first chance to be right, and one chance is all they get to respond to a
thoroughly trained command (I'm sure you can see the reason I teach that, given the circumstances of this incident). I hit the sit whistle (command) and backed it up with the collar, which is the standard correction sequence, immediately after she failed, at that point she was maybe 15-20 yards from me (did I mention she was
fast??) and was indeed in full "work mode"; she was
always in full work mode. It all happened very quickly, and very little "happened in the interim".
I am fully aware of the influence of work mode, including the impact of the adrenalin surge, and of one sense blocking the others; this is why I expend a great deal of time and effort teaching the dogs that they must always keep one ear on me. I am also aware of the fact that some conditions make it difficult to hear the whistle (not the case here), and I use a different whistle in those conditions.
This was a fully-trained 8 year old dog, and was quite consistent in her responses; she had a mental lapse, as they all do at some point (
much like us); this one very well could have killed her. The collar is not the only aversive I use, but in a situation like this it was very useful in preventing a catastrophe.
Now, riddle me this: First, if she truly did not understand the correction, how would you have expected her to behave for the rest of the hunt (keeping in mind my account)? Second, how would you have gotten her stopped?