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Old May 23, 2012, 04:12 PM   #35
Hansam
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Join Date: February 21, 2012
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 763
Quote:
Recently acquire a new Springer, "TIZZY" [6-1/2 yr old] and she has the squirrels in a tizzy. Great tracker on walks and a good sight hunter, can't wait for September this year.
You RECENTLY acquired a new springer who is 6 1/2 yrs old and you're going to use her for hunting already? Being a trainer I'd have to ask if you know what kind of training she was given prior to your becoming her new owner. How was she hunted? What habits had she picked up with her previous owner? How effective was the training she was given (if any)? Has that training been maintained or has she been allowed to "unlearn" much of it? Are you going to put her through any hunt training before you hunt her this Sept?

The reason I ask is concern for the quality of your hunt. All too often I hear horror stories about people who buy adult dogs who are "great hunters" or "have great noses" and/or "have great hunting drive" only to find that the dogs are or were poorly trained and as a result their hunt was ruined. The dogs either bolted and flushed birds too far away to be in gun range, didn't listen in the field, failed to effectively track and flush game because they'd never been taught to do so, failed to retrieve so downed game was lost - take any one of the above, any combination thereof or ALL of them.

Personally I've had to retrain several adult dogs like this and while they never reach the full potential they might have had since the training took place so late in their life and there are habits that they learned that must be broken before they can learn what they need to know etc.

In any case its a good idea to really know the dog and decide if she needs to get trained/retrained before your hunt in Sept. If you get her into training now its not too late and by Sept. you might have yourself a really good hunter.
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