Mind your manners

In Working Certificate and Hunt Tests, the dog is under judgment from the time it leaves the holding blind to the time it returns to the holding blind. This means the walk to the line, while waiting for the birds to go down in the field, while honoring and between marks. You can also be guaranteed that if your dog is whining, barking or digging in the holding blind the judges will not be amused. Poor line manners, not only put a dog into the judge’s bad books, but detract from the dogs’ ability to focus on the job at hand. If you hear someone say the dog had the line manners of a” goat” or that the dog “ate the judges lunch”, you know the dog was out of control.

I’ve found that, sometimes I’m so caught up in getting Reese doing marks or drills that I forget about the importance of line manners. If I allow her to drag me to the line, whine in the blind, cruise the duck pail in training, why would I expect anything different come test day.

It only stands to reason that training sessions aren’t the only place that manners come into play. Poor field or line manners can be traced to poor manners at home. Rushing the door, jumping on people, charging the food bowl or barging out of the crate the minute the door opens, are all signs of little or no self control. If the dog shows little self control in the home environment, how can they be expected to exercise control in the stimulating environment of birds, duck calls and gun shots?

At home I’ve taken a look at the little things that I’ve let slip and have decided to pay closer attention to them. At feeding time Reese is now waiting in a sit for her food bowl to be put down. She is asked to go to her designated spot to lie down when company comes or when I get home, rather then spinning in a frenzy. If she charges the gate or the crate door, I close it. We have gone back to working one of the 1st exercises she learned as a puppy called “Puppy Zen” Puppy zen is puppy self control. In the beginning we just worked at leaving a treat in my hand until invited to take it. It has all kinds of implications for everyday living. So now we are extending it to highly stimulating situations and things of high value, like the duck pail and bumper bag.

We often forget about the basics or the foundation things our dogs learned. When things go wrong in the field, it is a great time to reflect on what’s happening at home.