Advice on training a Vizsla that has been re-homed.

Hey Guys, we interested in re-homing a 1 year old female Vizsla who is too much work for a young family and they are looking at re-homing her.

It sounds like the she has had pretty much no training as such apart from being toilet trained etc but the good news is she comes from a good hunting pedigree. It sounds like she hasn't been abused or anything, just a bit time and attention neglected.

Whats your thoughts on taking on a re-homed dog like this ? Will her misspent puppy year running wild always be a burden in training her ? Our aim is that she will be a family pet but also we are very keen for her to be used for deer etc. We have an old / retired GSP so not complete novices.

Cheers, Pete

As long as she hasn't been taught bad hunting habits I doubt there will be much issue

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Originally Posted by Wildman

As long as she hasn't been taught bad hunting habits I doubt there will be much issue

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What do you mean exactly ? smacked on the nose from showing an interest in animals ?

I know nothing about training dogs, but if it is anything like most of the Vizslas some of my mates own, I'd suggest you buy a LOT of alcohol or really good drugs :P

They are an interesting breed.

I have a vizsla that has just turned 6 months old and is the first dog i have trained. They are a handful and require a lot of time but everyday I see him improving. I'm using the deer dog blueprint and so far I'm pretty happy. Apparently it can be used on any age dog.

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Originally Posted by Pete_D

What do you mean exactly ? smacked on the nose from showing an interest in animals ?

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Trail barking/chasing.

Noisy and things like showing you where possums are as opposed to a deer.

I have never trained for hunting, but as long as you can get her to start listening to you, then put down the some basic obedience you should be fine. As mentioned before, it can be quite hard to get some bad habits "unlearned" once they have been established, but it will come down to your determination to persist.

If you do get her make sure your old dog is still above her in the pecking order. You can also use your old dog to help with training the young girl with basic commands. .

be consistant....VERY consistant...get a rock solid no bullshit always obeyed nomatterthefuckwhat SIT and be HARD on that one thing....and it will be a get out of jail card more times than you will care to count....and drum into family that SIT is a one way command.....dog has to be un sat....or her bum stays where put.
go for it other than 12-15 years of fun n games followed by heartbreak you have little to loose....whats the worst you can have???dog that wont hunt,or runs around like a dick...or whines constantly and breaks to chase stuff...that SIT comes in really handy here....I have a deer dog now.she gets my ducks from the water too so I dont have to swim in undies anymore.... if dog does nothing more than walks along quietly with you in the bush and helps you find downed game you are on a win....

Breaking some bad habits may be difficult but it’s definitely achievable with the right persistence. I think the good thing is you are a stranger and basically have a clean slate with the dog. What I mean by this is that the dog has no experience on what it can and cannot expect to do with you so if you set the rules and training right from the start then you start setting up a new life that the dog expects to live by with you.

I have noticed this with friends pets. They give a pointless command and the dog doesn’t listen, the owner doesn’t do anything about it and the dog knows that. I give the dog a sit command and re inforce it. The dog has no choice but to listen to me as that’s the situation I put it in. After a while of doing this with every interaction we have the dog starts learning that it can’t get away with not listening to me as it knows no other experience with me. Still won’t listen to the owner though who has established that error in control / relationship.

I’m am by no means no expert though haha, just some of my very limited experience. Hopefully that makes sense and if you like the dog then I say go for it! One year old is still young.

Thanks guys, some great points to consider. I am going to phone the kennels tomorrow and will let you know. Any more words of wisdom appreciated.

I'm reading a book at the moment by an American GWP breeder who reckons a lot of dogs are ruined by being to hard on them in the first year, as in they run after a bird and owner comes down hard on them for getting out to far but dog thinks he's getting told off for going after bird so decrease prey drive..so apart from basic commands and manners he recommends letting them go for it in first year to develop skills and instinct then putting controls on them after that. Bit different to some ways of thinking but thought might be relevant in this case

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What are you waiting for, I would take her as long, worth a shot. At the very least she will be a great companion

Most young pointers seem to be re-homed before 2 years old as often unsuspecting owners had no idea what the "terrible 2's" are like. They can be a bloody great hanful but persistance is the Key and their greatness grows on you. I would not have any other breed.

Consistentcy is the key.
Vizslas I have met seem quite "soft" so patience and positive reinforcement works really well with them. If yo have an older dog its easier a bit as they learn recall faster by watching the older dog................but also will pick up bad habits of the older dog

I only expect a rock solid recall and stop. Recall is easy Stop (at distance ) not so much.
Mind you I am training a young Pointer for bird hunting, she may be come deer hunting but thats not the aim for her.

Awesome guys, some really useful advice and thanks for taking the time to comment. I will keep you posted. :thumbsup:

I disagree...sit and stay CAN BE diferent commands...but sit is sit untill you are told otherwise so stay is redundant......if you need stay to MAKE the dog continue sitting,your sit isnt rock solid.
sit can mean arse on ground...and stay lie down and wait......BOTH mean dont go anywhere untill told to.

Agree with micky duck.
Having a stop/sit is vital.
I got a weimaraner at 18 months that had run loose with another dog.
She was bought up with kids so did have manners around people.
Run it on a long lead and teach stop/sit and you are in control.
Best heading dog I had was 12 months old when I got her so age isnt to much of an issue.
Some dogs get started to early.
My father farmed his pups out to his sister in Dunedin then got them back with manners and not started too early.

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

I disagree...sit and stay CAN BE diferent commands...but sit is sit untill you are told otherwise so stay is redundant......if you need stay to MAKE the dog continue sitting,your sit isnt rock solid.
sit can mean arse on ground...and stay lie down and wait......BOTH mean dont go anywhere untill told to.

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Stop is something I have not trained my dogs for in the past but with new pup will do so
Stop command (to me) on a bird dog means stop (including when on point) and wait there till I come get you and release you. Also handy anywhere else you may need to stop your dog from inadvertanly coming to harm.
Once of the worst things with my current pointers is they both have a tendancey to chase after the first shot. I don't like this personally but was my fault / poor training.
Sit to me is neither here nor their as most of my dogs seem to pick that up as we go anyway.

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Originally Posted by mimms2

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_T9qiGCq5sk

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And he did it sober :D

I don't see any point in splitting hairs about what command you use for the dog to sit and/or stay. You can use anything you like as long as the dog knows what you mean and you are consistent with it. No dogs don't speak English, but sounds are very important to the dog which picks up tone and intonation and associates that sound to what you want it to do. You don't need to use language, just tones and sounds, but as long as they are consistent.
I also think the "leave it" command is very useful to teach them, as you can use it for anything to let the dog know you don't want it to engage with whatever the new or bad thing is ( dog, car, dead possum, rat bait etc..).
All roads lead to Rome as long as you are consistent and establish the dogs' position in your pack ( or bubble as we seem to be using lately :) ). Of course since you have an older dogs already, I'm sure you are sorted on the basic obedience stuff :thumbsup:

the best way to get a deer dog with a bird dog pup is to wait out the growing years, sounds like you have a head start.... as she will be a family pet more than a hunting for most of the year just work on that for the time being, slowing build in the obedience and heel work.

lol yeah Muzza, I've seen kids that have suffered from parents not being consistent. They are usually little shitbags

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

I disagree...sit and stay CAN BE diferent commands...but sit is sit untill you are told otherwise so stay is redundant......if you need stay to MAKE the dog continue sitting,your sit isnt rock solid.
sit can mean arse on ground...and stay lie down and wait......BOTH mean dont go anywhere untill told to.

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i use stay, down or platz, if you have a running bird dog the stop is built off it......sit like recall are the first steps, teaching a decent stay and the start of 'whoa' training come in as you get the relationship going

Deer dog training blueprint is top notch. Highly recommended.

Doesn't just teach you how to teach commands. It teaches you how to have a dog that understands how to behave in the human world. Oh, and how to train your dog to be a deer hunting machine.

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Originally Posted by Edunn

Deer dog training blueprint is top notch. Highly recommended.

Doesn't just teach you how to teach commands. It teaches you how to have a dog that understands how to behave in the human world. Oh, and how to train your dog to be a deer hunting machine.

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Yea that has come up a lot so will have to check it out. Do you subscribe ? for $27 per month that doesn't seem too bad.

Here's Bella, we've had her just on a week now and shes doing good. Lots of bad habits from her old uncontrolled days but between us and our old GSP shes on boot camp. Cheers

Nice looking Hound.
Good luck with the training.
It a frustrating journey at times but well worth it when you start knocking over a few deer.

Stunning looking dog/bitch

I got a GSP bitch back in the 80's
She was 13 months old
Possum killer - rabbit chaser and no training to speak of
She turned into the best dog I had/have ever owned.
Possum problem took some serious and painful correction (for both of us:-( - but it worked

At the end of the day - it comes down to the nature of the dog
Bitches are much more biddable and easy to correct than males
Good luck - she look great but as you well know they need work
Mine was 355 days a year in bush/camp doing skins and venison
She became a bit of a legend in the area

Nice looking girl :)
I can see by how attentive she is to the bag of num nums that treats might be the way to go for breaking some of the bad habits. In the past I have used a treat word to get their attention back, just as it looks like they are about to give me the "finger" and go do what they want. I don't give them a treat but once they are paying attention to me I make sure they hear my "come" or "leave it" command. It can be a constant battle.
Good luck :)

Thanks Guys,.....the 'nums nums' :D is goat biltong being made at the time of the photo and wow that got her attention.

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Originally Posted by mimms2

Well that's just it it. SIT means arse on the ground, STAY means don't move.
If they're lying down and you don't have a seperate sit/stay, should they stand up then sit then stay? What if they're on point, and you want to sneak off in another direction, do they need to sit to stay?

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yes...IF YOU HAVENT TOLD THEM TO MOVE.......they dont move.....or your sit is only a pause,and we all know how that one plays out,pause becomes a semi pause then just a slow down when the heat is on. arse on ground or stationary isnt an issue if you only have to one command..its irrelevant,you have stopped dog,its handbrake is on untill released...
on this NEVER blow stop command to end a dogfight,you dog will be savaged .

The point is obviously in reference to other dogs starting a fight that are not under control lol.

lol oh for the sake of 1 little R :)

You......I'm getting savaged
your......the dog is getting it.

Now gentlemen.........as ewe were :D

yes indeed..my bad.....many years ago travelling down country road the hippy communes german shepherd came out,across road and tore into my heading dog.....he was doing ok untill I foolishly put stop whistle on him to try to stop fight...he got a hell of a beating before I could stop it....have kicked myself for that ever since...shouldve just shot the plurry G.S. and to hell with the consequences....

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Originally Posted by ebf

I know nothing about training dogs, but if it is anything like most of the Vizslas some of my mates own, I'd suggest you buy a LOT of alcohol or really good drugs :P

They are an interesting breed.

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I shot the guri bastard I got
dangerously ill mannered
vicious when it couldn't get its own way.
even the only credible breeder I talked to said they aint good duck dogs.
I think theyre a breed for that one in a thousand dog men

I’ve got a 12 year old Vizsla sitting on the deck down stairs, wonderful dogs, amazing hunters and incredible pets. In a way I think your mate has done you a favour, as they’re a pain in the arse for a year or so. But they do require a shit tonne of exercise, which is good, because us humans do to!

The most important thing with getting a dog into hunting is normal control, the ‘here’, ‘sit’ and ‘stay’ stuff. The actual hunting thing is instinctive and comes with practice and praise.

I’m bloody tempted to do the ‘deer dog blue print’ thing on my next dog, I’ve never heart a bad thing about it; apart from the odd complaint about the price.

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Originally Posted by craigc

I’ve got a 12 year old Vizsla sitting on the deck down stairs, wonderful dogs, amazing hunters and incredible pets. In a way I think your mate has done you a favour, as they’re a pain in the arse for a year or so. But they do require a shit tonne of exercise, which is good, because us humans do to!

The most important thing with getting a dog into hunting is normal control, the ‘here’, ‘sit’ and ‘stay’ stuff. The actual hunting thing is instinctive and comes with practice and praise.

I’m bloody tempted to do the ‘deer dog blue print’ thing on my next dog, I’ve never heart a bad thing about it; apart from the odd complaint about the price.

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That's interesting mate, talking to others and reading about them, they are still very immature until 18 months - 2 years old. Ours is about 14 months and whilst she looks fully grown still acts like a dump puppy for sure. Jumps up, mouths you etc. We've signed up the monthly 'deer dog blue print' and checking it out seems very good. The strange thing about her is going for a walk in the bush she is so well behaved, very natural, calm, keen as but doesnt run wild. Get her home and she goes bonkers again, absolutely crazy and doesn't listen. So clearly shes learnt that at home is where I fuck about and don't listen.

we had a golden retriever huntaway cross...took him THREE YEARS before his brain enguaged.... pleased you are having some sucess....re jumping up...the very best method Ive seen and used to cure it is to step gently on back foot when ever she does it....not a stomp,not needed,just put your foot/toes on hers..she will back down immediately....

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

we had a golden retriever huntaway cross...took him THREE YEARS before his brain enguaged.... pleased you are having some sucess....re jumping up...the very best method Ive seen and used to cure it is to step gently on back foot when ever she does it....not a stomp,not needed,just put your foot/toes on hers..she will back down immediately....

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Cool, I was just about to ask re this....my 4 month old vizsla/heading dog has started jumping up....will try your suggestion

Another good method to cure the dog of jumping up, is to knee them in the chest as they jump up. After 3 or 4 times they will get the idea. Best to associate the action with a phrase like "no jumping", then when they go to do it to someone else you can tell them, and they will know what it means and not do the action :)