Thread: Ridgeback - starting to become almost useful

I have been getting my Ridgeback onto becoming a deer dog. Not because they're great pointers or classic deer dogs but because he's my dog and he might as well be as useful as he can be. It's also entertainment for me, and a bit of pleasant company.

We started out about 6 months old having my mate go 100m ahead and shoot a deer while I stated with the dog to make sure he wasn't freaked out. Then we let him find the animal and rewarded him. Next day we did it again - but just behind the shooter. He figured out that "bang" means "deer" and this is an exciting noise. He's definitely not gun shy.



I've been trying to get him onto deer every month or two, and he's now 13 months and onto #7. He has rushed at a few but got a telling off and last weekend he sort of pointed at the ones he saw - he's figured it out! He was a bit miffed at me as I didn't want to shoot any hinds with fawns so we passed everything up until we found a spiker.