Thread: Deer dog training

Hello all ive got myself a gsp lab x bitch and would love to train her as a deer dog was just wanting any advice, books training schools that could help me out. Shes only 9 weeks old now but just wondering for future cheers

Hey Simon
Good luck on here or other forums re specific training clues.
Normally I find you can get 1 great useful bit of info from about 10 replies to thread.
My only suggestion is book Gundog sense and sensibility
S

Don't rush. Get basic commands rock solid before you take her out.

The three most important commands are Stay, Heel and Go, otherwise you'l lose a lot of deer

Cheers guys ok sweet as how old were your guys pups before you took them out?

Herb Spannagl wrote a series about training dogs, including deer dogs over many years, You may be able to recover that series if you ask around. His advice was gold. He wrote a regular column for one of the hunting mags.
otherwise, there is a lot of good stuff if you look in the right places on the net, especially german versatile dog training sites.

The stop, heel and stay, and not breaking to shot are critical, but even more critical is your own ability to understand what your dog is telling you.

best of luck. it is a long term training exercise for both dog and handler and will last the life of the dog.

I just happened to have it saved.
Here ’tis...

Versatile Hunting Dog Test ASSN (NZ)

Someone have a printer at work that could print that off and post to me please

Thanks guys good read!

that article is a good read and im guessing Herb Spannagl knows a thing or to but hes only out lined what a "companion" dog should do and thats heel (as he said at the end) its a good starting point

a real deer dog should "Road You In" to deer from 20 to 100 meters away and this is not done in the heeling position , its done when the dogs out front and walking you to the deer on point.. or a type of walk up like a eye dog huntaway would,,, its not a heel ,, there is alot of difference between a companion dog and a real deer dog in my view

you could teach it in the field but you will lose quite a few deer or you could teach it on placed birds ect pointing training ,
but it depends on what you want, and what you call trained

There is a dude in the nelson area who posted some excellent info on deer dogs on the other forum he had a lot to offer but got the shits with the twats over there. I'm pretty sure his name was Eric. Ask about the hunting circles in nelson, you maybe able to track him down.

The 2 deer dogs I had were both GWPs, My approach was to keep them in on a rope until they were soild and let their instincts lead them, there were plenty of errors early on but we got there.

yeah i suppose i was one of those twats.

but they won't learn shit about pointing and roading on the end of a rope, the old saying it takes birds to make a bird dog is also true for a deer dog.
expect to bump or lose a few

Yeah, even when they are good, you still bump one for every few you get (mainly because the dog has a human standing next to it to stuff it up). You come out with a better than balanced ledger though. Especially when you count the ones that you shoot and are difficult to find.

My advice too is that if you aren't a good hunter without a dog, you won't be a good hunter with one. They aren't a magical deer magnet especially if you are not taking time to understand what they are telling you.

I know that came out all rather negative - it's just cos I'm jealous that I have a pot licker I've put a shitload of time into but half way through his life I discovered hunting and now will ride it out hunting dog less until I have to bury the fella :-) he's fucking useless at being quiet when in the bush.


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Cheers guys yea well thats right dougie im only a young fella not very good a deer hunting anyway but if i could train my pup so that when i go for walks she can come with me would be awesome and if somehow managed to train her to start tracking or pointing deer would be awesome but if not never mind but she will hopefully see me hunt some more deer in years to come