Shooting / Beating

[ihatework]

I am wondering if any of you who go out shooting or beating have any advice.

I have a 2 1/2 year old lab who I take out on a small local shoot.

He is outstanding at picking up but rubbish at beating! Where possible we go on picking up duty but there are times when we need to go into cover with the beaters.

Outside of the shooting environment he is very well behaved, comes to call, will stay etc. But he gets so over excited when shooting that as soon as he hears the guns go off he completely breaks cover and runs into the open to try and retrieve any hypothetical pheasant

So all of last year when beating he was confined to the lead, which wasn't much fun for either him or me!

Any training tips? I always have food but chasing pheasants is far more exciting ....

 

[Ravenwood]

Have to say you don't see that many labs beating - its usually left to the spaniels!!!

Once they get into the habit of running forward (my mind has gone blank - can't think of the proper term!!!) its very difficult to stop.

But he is still very young yet so if you could practise your stop whistle, again and again it might help, but I know what its like, once your out there they get a bit excited and above themselves! He may well improve with age anyway but you don't want to ruin the drive everytime!

Its quite an acomplished art to have a dog that will beat and pick up as such different jobs are required.

Try going right back to basics in between shoots and see if that helps.

 

[piebaldsparkle]

LOL my brother just saw this as a good excuse to get another dog!!! He kept his Lab for picking up and got a ESS for beating (though to be fair she will pick up too).

 

[kirstyhen]

Does he run in on normal retrieves at all? The only thing I can think of is do lots of sitting him, throwing things all around him but not getting him to retrieve anything. Make him wait whilst you pick everything up and walk back to him, then that is the training session over. But if he isn't likely to try it on whilst training then that wouldn't be much use!!!

You could try using a starting pisol during the training, to emulate the beating field.

All my Mum's cockers pick up and beat successfully, so it can be done!

But recently the old senile one has started to live up to the undertaking name, and like to bury his retrieves!

 

[Scranny_Ann]

well IMO (in the nicest possible way

)you are asking a lot of your dog. Especially being so young. I have a 8yo ESS and she is a complete all rounder i.e. picking up and beating BUT there are downsides to using her for both.

To use a dog in the beating line you ideally need a steady dog to work closely infront of you and to be hot on the stop whistle so that when a flush of birds show the line comes to a halt ... otherwise a bolting dog could mean a ruined drive!!

(it's not a nice feeling trust me!

)

On the other hand to pick up you are asking your dog to sit, pay attention, mark down seen birds and work away from you at a long distance for a good length of time on either seen or blind retreives....like RV said such contrasting skills for the dog.

I tend to leave the dog behind if i'm required to beat as it does confuse them ... i have a young lab atm and if there's one thing i've learnt ... months of training can be undone in a second and takes months to fix ... you could try working on your stop whistle as RV said but asking a young dog to work so close in the line could bring you big problems when picking up. i.e. She will not want to work away from you as a distance when on blind retrieves. Which is soooo frustrating!!

How about buying a springer?!

(you know you want to!!

xx

 

[ihatework]

LOL ! You are all so right in that it is a lot to ask of him to do both jobs.
Being my first dog I didn't know if there was something obvious I was missing.
Thankfully it is a small friendly shoot and he was bred by the landowners so the do tend to forgive him

.
I will continue to work on my stop command, and keep him on lead if we have to beat (which is only around 1 drive a shoot). Thankfully he is a complete natural at picking up and hasn't required much in the way of training for that.

 

[Scranny_Ann]

do you ever get the Shooting Gazette? If you buy this months there is an excellent and very handy page about young labs (think its page 124 & 125)... if you read it you will see exactly what i mean about building up a young dogs condifence enough to be able to work well and correctly whilst picking up. I would type it on here but its way too long!! (or am i just lazy?!

) x