Decoy dog breed

Tony,

I'll bet it has to do with all of that snow you guys got this last year. lol.. That is pretty weird though, for them to still be bleeding so late.

Duanne, offers alot of insight to this post as well. Breeding is one of the biggest factors in alot of dogs.

Devin,
Thanks for that post. That is probly the most honest and straitforward one that I have seen. I can only HOPE that my dog will turn out as good as some of your dogs and the dogs of other guys out there.

I think, and I might be totally off base here, that the more time that you spend time out with your dog that he/she will start to figure it out.

I go out and sit in field with Tug and talk to him and started using commands with him out there and watching his reactions. I would release my shorthair with the "hunt em up" command and then I would tell Tug "where's he at?" to have him start using his eyes to locate the other dog. Once located, he locks on him. The dog starts to circle as Tug stands up and as he comes closer I tell Tug "sic em" Tug then starts off after him barking and trailing him the whole time. When he gets out there a little ways, I start to lip squek him back, and he does come back to that sound. Whenever Tug and Gus are outside fighting and wrestling Tug instincts kick in, he goes for the ears, nose and throat everytime. Even when my kids were dragging the coyote hide those were the spots that he went for. He won't chase the tail he heads em like an mean old bull cow dog.

I got the lip squeking idea from watching Mike Grainger and bubba, I would hear Mike using the lip squek as bubba was coming back to him. The significance of the lip squek to Tug is that I have a treat for him and a pat on the head and rubbing him up telling him how good of a dog he is. Whenever I feed Tug I always start lip squeking, boy does he come running. I am getting ready to introduce him to the shock collar with the tone button while using the lip squek at the same time. I am then going to take him out of his "comfort zone" and put this into effect, and see his reactions.

Guys, please feel free to tell me what you think as far as they way I am introducing him to these commands to him. You can either PM me or just write it down on this post.

Thanks,

gonzaga
 
I think you are spot on with the commands you are using. I trained Gunner on a "ki-yi" as the return call, as a lipsqueak doesn't have the volume and there are many times you want to use it on a stand and don't need the dog climbing in your lap. From there, I mixed the ki-yi with the tone on the collar (once I got a collar that had tone). Now, all I use is tone. It's way, way, way easier.

In fact, I trained Mouse, our greyhound/saluki/stag cross to come back on tone...in one afternoon. I plan on trying her out on some decoy stands. She has the burning desire and experience of catching coyotes, but needed broke to come back to me, even in the heat of a race.

Having another dog for Tug to play and wrestle with is huge in his development. Gunner (and my other young dogs) grew up playing and wrestling with our pitbull. She plays very rough. It doesn't take long for a dog to figure out that the neck is the one place to bite and not get bit themselves, even if in play.

Tony
 
Im my opinion I would for sure get Tug to return to the tone on the collar. I trained my pup to return to a mouse squeeker. I am now getting her to come back to the tone. I am hard headed and had to try it my way even though I had been warned about not having her trained to a collar. I called in a pair in some thick cover. One dog and coyote went one way and the other dog and coyote went the other. I toned the one dog and he and the coyote showed back. I about wore out my mouse squeeker and had to wait for the other dog to come back without the coyote. She totally blew the coyote out of the ocuntry. I dont think she was ignoring me but just couldnt hear the squeaker. I am new to this and still learning but his is what I have expirenced. I agree with the playing with the other dog like Tony stated. This is were I teach mine the enough command also.
 
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