Training my dog for scent or retrieving... Or both?

[remps]

So we got a dog last January, beginning of December for the purpose of a family/hunting dog. She is a labernese (lab/Bernese mountain) and thought to have her do some retrieving when I get into bird hunting next year. But after taking her out on walks in the bush, she follows her nose like no tomorrow and constantly finds skulls, tufts of fur, mouse skeletons and as of yesterday a moose antler. My question is then should I hone in on this natural instinct of tracking or stay focused on the fetching? If I try to do both with her will it leave a crappy skill set in both areas or have no affect? Also, heard I shouldn't really start training to rigorously until she is about a year old.

I anyone has any tips, ideas, books/videos to get that would be great. I am up for having her be either a tracker or retriever as either would be useful to me.

Was also thinking of an electric collar as she loves to wander about an ignore my calls for her. Something to grab her attention. Any advice on what ones to look at would also be helpful.

[Getbent]

lots of info in the Hunting dog threads on what you are asking...

[remps]

Thanks, didn't even think to look and see if there was a hunting dog thread area. Posted over there

[Spirit's Master]

Get her to listen to you first. Basic commands are the key. I would think everything else will fall into place.

Pics please. If she's Bernese BIG she'll be able to help carry all your decoys. :)

cwf

[Rob Chipman]

Whether the dog has a crappy skill set in multiple areas depends, I think, more on your training ability than anything else. Labs and Bernese will happily work for you, and they'll do all sorts of jobs from tracking to pulling to agility to retrieving, etc. They can do it all.

I think you can say this for most dogs, but there's no question some are harder to train than others. A Labernese strikes me as pretty good raw material.

I've never trained a hunting dog, and most of my training success has been with Border Collies. You don't need to be an Einstein to train them because they're already pretty damn smart and driven. Labs (at least field Labs) are just as driven. I only know Berners from friends who have them, and again, they strike me as great raw material. Anyway, I'm hoping for a new pup come spring and I'm going to try to train her to track.

A lot of training success comes from capturing a behaviour the dog likes doing and then shaping that. If she likes using her nose and finding stuff, reward it and shape it.

You can train a dog from the minute you get it. You don't need to wait a year. You do need to see the big picture in training. Like they say: to train a dog you first need to know more than the dog. That can be a journey because most of us assume we know more than the dog from the get go, and that isn't always true.

The recall is the first challenge for you. It can be hard, but its about as basic as it gets. If you can't get that nailed down you can get other successes, but they'll be harder. I wouldn't go with the electric collar. I'd start by recognizing that dogs don't do what you want. They do what they want. Your challenge is to make them want to do the same things you want. If the dog would rather run away from you or ignore you than come to you, you have to make coming to you more attractive.

Dogs also learn well through conditioning (Google Pavlov). Make it easy by working on a recall when there are few distractions (start in your basement or living room). Add difficulty slowly, and always be at least 85% sure you're going to be successful. If she's running away to go investigate something that’s more interesting than you while you're yelling at her "Come! Come! Come!" she's going to learn that "Come" means "run away and check out something more interesting". Best case scenario that means you have to go get her and bring her back. Worst case she gets hit by a car. That's why I think recall is so important, as is a down command.

If you can't get the recall happening, teach her a down. Once she learns how to learn (and you learn how to train/teach) it'll start getting much easier.

Last comment: if she doesn't like your training and you don't like training her, you'll never get her to come.

(I couldn't help it).

Have fun. Hard to imagine a more friendly hard working combo than a Labernese. Pics x2

[remps]

Well here is a picture of her, she's 9 months old now.

http://i768.photobucket.com/albums/xx329/rempster/kora2.jpg (http://s768.photobucket.com/user/rempster/media/kora2.jpg.html)

We were pretty excited to get her as was thinking of doing the retrieving and then having her do some pulling the kids on sleds and wagons once she is full grown as well as pulling my ice fishing gear out onto the lake :D. I have no problem taking the time to train her and she has done very well in our sessions. Several people have mentioned how well trained she is already as that is something we jumped on right away. The love of exploring/following her nose is just a new thing in a dog that I haven't had with in our previous dogs so I want to harnass it. Trained in the house and yard, but not in the bush with her coming back so will have to jump on that.

[Rob Chipman]

Yup, my friends' Berners pull carts too, so you should have fun with that. Great looking dog!