Thread: Where to start

We've recently moved to a rural environment with lots of private hunting and I'm interested in training a dog to use when hunting deer. From what I've read on other threads most guys learn how to train from someone else, but does anyone know of a good book or dvd?
Also it seems Labs or Lab X's are good breeds. I got a 3 month old pup for my son which is a Lab/German Shepherd cross. Is it worth training or is the German Shepherd mix a problem?

Can't help you eltoro but glad to see you know a good beer when you see one.

I Trained my pup myself she is by no means the best but all i did was heaps of praise firm comands and take her every where with me she learns something new every time. The key is rain hail shine put the time in. I also keep some skin handy and drag it all over the place and let her find it when she is on to it i made her stop at a wisper and sit shes gettin there but still a way to go. She is as much a family dog as a hunting dog so anything is a bonus.
In my opinion you get out what you put in. Hunting and fishing have a realy good book but sorry i cant remember whats its called its $50 i will find the name of it later and let you know. good luck

Cheers Samba that would be awesome!

Yeah to be honest Rushy I'm not too fussy and will drink anything but grew up on the Waikato's so that's my preference.

Us nelson boys still waiting on a invite lol

Your wading into dangerous territory here of having to, as a new to the task person, sort through the advice offered and work out wht is sound and what is not. A lot of popular "common sense" training advice is ill informed and can set you back a long way. Rather than looking at the specifics of training I prefer to have a few principls in mind when trying to achieve something with my dogs, the first are questions for myself
What do I think I'm teaching and what is the dog actually learning (sometimes the two are worlds apart)
Am I viewing this lesson from my perspective or the dogs
If there was correction, was it interpretted as intended or was it just a confusing growling which added confusion.

after that I adopt the principles of
every command has a release command
Commands are given once and compliance is expected instantly (provided the command is understood) - sometimes people think praise for an almost correct completion of a task is good but that just tells the dog how it did it was good and leads to confusion of what is expected.

Thats about all I'll say on the matter, I think you would be best finding someone with good success in dog training (there are a few off here) not just somebody who caries a stick to beat their dog or a pocket full of schmackos, somebody that knows dog training. Spend time with them and do it right from the start, once a dog knows a certain behaviour it is hard to teach it otherwise and its easy to create a lot of extra work for yourself.

Cheers for that Horihunter, I agree with doing it from the start. There is a local guy that I have been pig hunting with who is competent and more than happy to show me the ropes with training pig dogs so maybe I'll start there. Plus there seems to be plenty of literature on the subject to add a bit of perspective. What do people think of Bill Westwood? Are his books and DVD's any good?
With training dogs for deer stalking purposes there seems to be bugger all info around. I know so fullas on here do it cos they've posted pics and videos. I guess they successfully worked it out themselves or had someone they knew that showed them.

Originally Posted by eltoro

We've recently moved to a rural environment with lots of private hunting and I'm interested in training a dog to use when hunting deer. From what I've read on other threads most guys learn how to train from someone else, but does anyone know of a good book or dvd?
Also it seems Labs or Lab X's are good breeds. I got a 3 month old pup for my son which is a Lab/German Shepherd cross. Is it worth training or is the German Shepherd mix a problem?

My experience living around a Lab/GSD was that they can be of very mixed temperament...the one I knew was aggressive...a Labrador is probably a good start.

Carefull with that. Alot pigdogs I know have zero manners or obedience they simply dont kill stock and smoke pigs.
Im not saying this is the case with the guy you kmow but to many pighunters teach with the way of the fist and when that doesnt work it ends with the way of the gun.

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Yeah I'm sure there's plenty of idiots running around chasing pigs with dogs and pig hunters tend to get a bad rep anyway. Luckily the ones I've hunted with so far have been decent sorts.

that book was Retriever training by Tom Dokken it has some good ideas and principles

Cheers Samba! I've down a bit of research and there's an outfit down south called Hunt South and they breed and train Hungarian Vizsla's for hunting deer. I'm going to probe them for info.

Is that peter chamberlain?

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Training pig dogs and a deer indicating dog are worlds apart. I can't comment on pig dogs, only deer.

Originally Posted by eltoro

With training dogs for deer stalking purposes there seems to be bugger all info around. I know so fullas on here do it cos they've posted pics and videos. I guess they successfully worked it out themselves or had someone they knew that showed them.

After reading these types of posts on NZ forums for years now, the best advice I can offer to anyone keen on starting a deer dog is to find a guy who has one up and running really well, and ask to tag along. I see so many people say they want to train a deer dog without actually knowing how a top dog works. Tagging along might change your mind - you do it for the love of dog work not as a short term solution to a lack of deer