Beginning the Steadiness Process

This is Deva, our new 4 month old Pointer pup. This is her first steadiness session on the checkcord and the beginning of her steadiness training. Before this, as per the flowchart, she learned how to hunt and find birds, she handles well in the field, likes the gun and has a nice "here" command on the checkcord.

The most important thing to watch here is the checkcord work. Once she finds a bird and decelerates, (gets careful and stealthy), I don’t want to have the checkcord tight. Watch the checkcords shadow. A loose checkcord means she is choosing to be careful. If I have to constantly restrain her, she isn’t learning anything.

You’ll see here, we are introducing the Flush/Stop cue. She is allowed to flush the birds but only on my verbal "alright".

At this stage, the shooter does the retrieve. Dogs see retrieving as chasing birds. I don’t want to confuse her here. Retrieving comes last in the training process, after steadiness. You’ll notice in the video, she does not realize the shooter is going to do the retrieve, bringing her bird back and giving it to her. 3 birds later, she understood the teamwork and stood, solid as a rock.

The collar she is wearing is a GPS collar. No e-collars, commands or hand signals are used.