| Introduction to Birds - An Interview with David Lauber
David Lauber has more than 7 years of professional spaniel training experience while at Denalisunflo Kennels, where he trained and handled some of the top field trial spaniels in the country. This month, in a discussion with David Lauber, he explains the step-by-step process of introducing a young dog to retrieving and birds.
 If you don't have access to dead pigeons, a pheasant wing will often do the trick.
"David, the other day I read an advertisement for a litter of English Springer Spaniel pups that stated, "All puppies are socialized in the home and introduced to birds before going to their new homes." What are your feelings about introducing pups to birds at a young age?"
David Lauber:
"Well Geoff, I prefer to wait until a dog is 10-11 weeks old before introducing them to retrieving and birds. But it all depends on the dog. You’ll hear me say that a lot. Primarily because one of the most important things a professional trainer does when working with a dog, is to read the dog and react to the situation accordingly. There is not one solution that fits all when it comes to dog training.”
Spaniels Online:
“What advice would you have for readers who get a new puppy and are anxious to introduce a puppy to retrieving and birds?”
David Lauber:
“Building a strong desire to retrieve is a gradual process. We typically work on bring the retrieving attitude out of the dog, before expecting our dogs to retrieve birds. We do our introduction to retrieving in a confined area, like a hallway. We pick a place where the puppy can’t get away from us, but a hallway that is long and narrow encourages them to come straight in to us. We start our young dogs off by retrieving a small rag, tied in a knot, or a glove. At first, we keeping the pup close enough to us, so we can easily encourage them to bring the rag back to us. As time goes on, we would gradually increase the distance of our retrieves, in this confined area, until we have them retrieving the full length of the hall (20 feet or so).”
Spaniels Online:
“What type of problems might occur during this process and how do you overcome them?”
David Lauber:
“Many times we may have a puppy that cares more about sniffing everything in the room, rather than retrieving. In this case, we might put another puppy in the room with this dog. We would try to find the dominant pup in the litter and put it together with the less dominate dog. This approach uses the social order of the pack, established in the whelping box, to get the other dog to retrieve. When the dominant dog goes after the retrieve, the less dominate dog will want to get in on the action and retrieve the rag or glove. Once we have them both retrieving, we go back to training the dogs individually.”
“We continue working in a confined area until the pup is consistent in his retrieve. This may take two – three weeks, depends on the dog. Factors such as the dog’s level of maturity, understanding and desire to please will dictate how long this process takes.”
Spaniels Online:
“How long do you keep these initial sessions?”
David Lauber:
“Again, it depends on the dog. Personally, I never like to do more than 5 retrieves. It’s like the old adage, they say in acting. “Leave the audience wanting more.” Keep it fun. If we put a young dog away wanting more, the dog will soon associate training with a chance to get out of the kennel, run and have some fun. We never let the dog get to the point where he is bored with the spaniel training session. We can usually tell if he is starting to get bored. However, it takes time and experience to learn how to read a dog. He may run out there 3-4 times and bring it right back to us. Then, that one time, when he stands there and looking at us as if to say, “What do you want me to do?” or he begins to playing around with the rag or glove. Well, you guessed it. That was one time too many. The concept of moderation applies to the older dogs as well. If we do too much training, an older dog may get to the point where it’s not fun anymore. Then we have to step back, scratch our heads, and figure out how we’re going to get the enthusiasm back. As a trainer, we have to check our pride at the door because dogs will humble us every chance they get.”
Spaniels Online:
"How long do you continue with the rag or glove until you switch the dog over to a more formal retrieving tool?"
David Lauber:
“Once we have them retrieving the rag or glove in the yard, we move them up to retrieving a 1-inch wooden dowel. The wooden dowel gives them the feeling of something a little heavier and larger in their mouth, which they can’t chew down on. We start the process all over again, in the confined controlled area. That way we establish, from the beginning, that we’re in control. The puppy is not running around, doing what he wants with the dowel. We’re training the dog; he’s not training us.”
Spaniels Online:
“Sounds like we have spent a lot of time developing the desire in the pup to retrieve before introducing him to birds. Is there a reason behind this type of formal structure?”
David Lauber:
“Yes there is. The process I have laid out here, is structured in a way that we building retrieving attitude before introducing a young dog to birds. That way, if we have to make any type of correction it happens long before we get into birds. This promotes a very positive learning experience when finally bring birds into the program. They know what we expect.”
“Also you may have noticed we never start in the field when introducing a new concepts. The same reason applies. Once we have the dog retrieving the wooden dowel to our satisfaction and consistently, we introduce them to birds. However, instead of giving them a live bird, what I like to do, is take a dead pigeon from that morning’s training, and start him retrieving on that. This is a whole new ballgame. We use a dead pigeon instead of a live pigeon because there is less smell to it, and its soft and warm. The first few times the dogs may just run right out there and pick it right up and bring it right back to us until things start sinking in, and they notice that this is something different. Then the puppy stage kicks in. They may want to throw it around, play with it, or chew on it. The main thing we do here is to be patient. Over time the puppy will learn to enjoy bringing the bird back to us. Out of a litter of 6 puppies we may have 3 that will never play with it and bring it right back to us and 3 that we often wonder if they will ever bring that bird back.” | |
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