tips for training a GWP

wexgun

hey all,
I have an almost 5 month old GWP dog pup. I have him retrieving a small dummy and he comes back to me when whistled. I hope to work him on all types of game, fur and feather and track a deer trail. I would like to get him to sit and stay on the whistle but most importantly I want to make sure he's a good hunter. Anyone got any tips for me?

mallards

I've very little direct experience of the wire hair but I use other gundog forums for advice. On them they say if your GWP is to be used for deer and small game then it's best to concentrate on deer for the first year as they tend to lean towards hunting small game. If you do most of your training on small game you will have difficulty getting them to concentrate on deer.

Mallards.

jwshooter

for GWP to be used for deer work .the first thing they learn is the 3 Ss ,stop , sit, stay.

when you stop they stop and sit .

there is NO grey areas in there training ,if you let them do some thing once and they like it they will remember that and want to do it again.

when your pup is walking at heal ,stopping sitting and staying you can bring it to the field.

10 to 20 minutes a day is plenty to train your pup as they get older you can extend this .

a GWP can be slow to train this is because they have many jobs to learn unlike a springer that has two flush and retrieve .

training your pup should be fun for the dog as they will enjoy it and learn faster .
when they piss you off stop training and put them back into the kennel.

pullandbang

I've shot over other people's GWP's but haven't trained them. They work similar to GSP's and I have two of those. To be honest, there's not a huge amount of training in them for use over birds. Obedience is the big thing, they must stop and come back when told.

I'd disagree with JW on the three S's - there is really only two - Stop & Sit. Once the dog is sitting, there is now need to teach him to "Stay" because he shouldn't move until he's told.

Like the GSP's, they do need a bit of work on the retrieving though the Wire Haired do make better water dogs than the Short Haired.

You can't really train them to hunt - that is their natural instinct. What you can do is train them to quarter open ground in a controlled manner. Keep them moving left to right across in front of you as you move into the wind. For that you have to work on hand signals which you do against a wall with the dummy.

I've never shot deer so I can't comment on how dogs are supposed to work with them.

jwshooter

but you did comment ! , stop ,sit stay .

the stay part is all important for deer work ,if your on open hill and had have to belly crawl nose to the ground to get a shot your dog staying where its put is the difference of getting animal or not .

the dog might have to stay for a half hour or more out of your sight and not move when shots are fired.

once i get down for a shot my dogs sit they dont have to be told ,i can shoot several times and never have to look at them .

training a dog to track deer is a job in its self , there is several types of trailing hot or cold ,blood or adrenaline.
the dog may be showed the difference .

this is done is many ways laying blood trails ,draging skins, but mostly on live animals in the field .

a bird dog is one thing ,a deer dog a hole new ball game .