UA The Check Cord ALEC SPARKS
POINTING
DOGS
ALEC SPARKS has been training
dogs professionally for over 22
years. He can be reached at
http://www.snowboundkennels.com or on
Facebook at Snowbound Kennels.All Point, No Bird
“U
nproductive” and “false” points are not
uncommon with some dogs, but why was the
point unproductive or false in the first place?
If a dog has a habit of unproductive
points, you need to figure out the reason
and address it through training. Other times a dog just
needs more experience learning to sort out what’s a real
bird and what’s not.
The unproductive point might not have even been
unproductive. Perhaps the dog actually winded the bird
in such close proximity it ran out. Stuff happens, and
we shouldn’t expect all contacts to be successful. My
foundation rule with most training scenarios: Don’t
correct (or punish) a dog if you don’t know exactly what
happened. In many cases correcting (or punishing) a dog
when it’s doing its best
is the cause of many
undesirable behaviors,
such as false pointing.
Another possibility
is that point was
established at a good
distance, but the dog
closed (crept) to the
point the bird moved
off. The bird could have
just barely vacated so recently, enough scent remains to
fool many dogs. Did your approach move the bird off?
Clearly some dogs have better scenting abilities
than others. Watch multiple dogs work the same planted
birds during the course of training; that’s very apparent.
I’ve been told countless times over the years that “only
the dog” can decide when to go on point because we
don’t know what it’s actually smelling. The only part of
that I actually agree with is, “We don’t know what it’s
smelling.”
I totally believe you can train dogs to point when
they first encounter solid scent, and I’ve done so with
countless dogs. A great many point beautifully, but they
want to do it at such a range it’s likely to overpressure the
birds into moving off. This can be successfully addressed
in thoughtful training, but unfortunately, ill-conceived or
improperly implemented training/corrections or punishment
ruins many perfectly fine dogs. Unfortunately, poor training
can, in fact, lead to false pointing.
My definition of a false point is when the dog is
pointing, but no bird is there. Sometimes this can just be a
mistake. Other dogs just seem to love to point and will do it,as far as I can tell, randomly.
Much of the time, false
pointing is a man-made issue.
I generally ignore a
dog that wants to false point
and offer some words of
encouragement to continue to
hunt. I don’t stop walking, and
I don’t make a flushing effort.
If the dog continues to point
or quickly reestablishes a false point, I just keep walking. “If
you want to stand there, it’s fine by me, but I’m not stopping,”
is the message I want to convey. I find the majority of dogs
will move on rather than be left standing there alone. I have
had to walk as far as a few hundred yards to get one dog to
decide she better get going because I wasn’t waiting!
Dogs might be false pointing because there is nothing to
point. If that’s the case, get them on more birds.
Man-made false pointing can be inadvertently developed
from overpressuring the dog around birds. Just because
your last dog, your other dog or your buddy’s dog could
handle your pressure or level X of your collar well doesn’t
mean another dog can. Some dogs can handle a heavy
correction without missing a beat while others might
develop unwanted behaviors from hearing a stern voice or
being approached in a threatening manner. Don’t blame the
sensitive dog; become a better trainer.
The pressure that might create false pointing usually
comes from trying to improve the dog’s manners around
birds in the form of being staunch or steady to wing/shot/
fall. Conceptually simple, addressing those behaviors can
take a high level of training skill to accomplish with many
dogs. That’s one reason a fair number of people rely on
whatever degree of natural bird handling ability the dog
has. I hear all the time, “You can’t use a remote collar
around birds or you’ll create problems.” More accurate
would be, “A lot of people can’t. ...”
Frequently, people try to fix problems created by
pressure with more pressure. If I have a false pointing dog
come in with what I attribute to a man-made issue, the
absolute last thing I’m going to do is actively try to “fix it.”
My usual Rx is to just let the dog hunt and point, asking
nothing other than basic control, and letting them relax
and hopefully realize nothing they perceive as bad is going
to happen. Let them get some enjoyment out of it. All too
often, we’re focused on our enjoyment, not the dog’s.
As with everything, understanding the problem is the
first step in overcoming it.Much of the time, false
pointing is a man-made
issue.