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Did You Know? Gun dog is a dog trained to find game for the handler/hunter, point the game, and retrieve the game when sent to retrieve by the handler/hunter. For the Vizsla, and other pointing breeds, these scent hunters locate and point birds.
Big running horseback handled field dog is a gun dog that is handled by someone riding a horse rather than someone walking on foot. Generally speaking, a big running dog runs (and hunts) farther out from the horseback handler than a dog being handled by someone on foot. The Vizsla is known as the Gentleman’s Hunting Dog.
Photography by Anna Cooke, taken during the annual “Fun Day” on 300 acres of land in Central Florida, sponsored by the Tampa Bay Area Vizsla Group.
Above - Pete and Monty, Pam Stuart’s two Vizslas, love to run.We watched two champion Vizslas (Jake and Ali, far left and below) spot in a wide open field. The first dog to spot would go “on point.” The second dog, seeing the first dog on point, would "honor" the point by staying back while also going on point. The dogs would not move off their pointing stance until released by their handler.We were told they would stand on point until the cows came home.
There really is no mystery in positive training. 1) Be your dog’s pack leader. 2) Purposely create training scenarios.When your dog does something right, mark it with praise, when he does something wrong, shift into the neutral gear. 3) Consistency is the key - don’t confuse your dog with too many different commands for the same action. 4) Set your dog up for success. 5) Always leave the training session with your dog enthusiastic, and wanting more. 6) Allow the dog to be an active problem solver through self-correction. You may find you have an amazing little problem solver at the other end of the leash who is only too willing and happy to please you.
The positive training principles in Belief and Behavior are well- suited to the soft dog. A soft dog is one that by nature of the breed or of the individual’s temperament and personality, is sensitive, shy or lacks confidence. Positive training techniques work well for the Vizsla; a breed that is very willing to please the handler and does not take well to force-based training or correction.
As Lonnie has observed in his many years working with
dogs,“At some point in the soft dog’s training, he will have to be corrected for something, however small that correction might be. If a soft dog has not learned to accept correction before it is applied in training, there is a huge risk that this already soft dog will take the correction personally, lose confi- dence and shut down.” By utilizing self-correcting techniques, the dog learns inde- pendent of the handler, does not blame the handler for any correction, and will begin to think about its actions and conse- quences. In his experience with training soft dogs, Lonnie has found that it is important to find a middle ground between praise and correction. He calls this the neutral gear. In other
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words, the handler exhibits neutral behavior when the soft dog does not perform the task asked of him: don’t praise, don’t pun- ish. If the dog does not perform the asked behavior, let that moment go and move on.
Only offer praise when the dog performs the desired
behavior. If a soft dog is punished for not performing the task, his lack of confidence is compounded, which could potentially build fear of
failure.This will lead to no performance at all.On the other hand, comforting the soft dog in an attempt to reas- sure him, will only reinforce that lack of confidence. Lonnie has found that with the soft dog, confidence build-
ing grows out of neutral training. The dog realizes that even though he may have done something wrong, the world is not going to end. Dogs are very much in the moment and the window of
opportunity to mark the desired behavior is as short as one to three seconds. This mark can be a verbal cue (“yes!”), a pat on the head, or a click. Remember, comforting a sulking, scared or retreating dog
only rewards that behavior.U THE NEW BARKER 101
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