|
A big running dog is rarely useful in cover or
forest unless some special measures are taken. A signal coloured coat, a
beeper collar or a radio direction finder (RDF) is needed to keep track of the
dog. The beeper collar starts beeping only when the dogs has been motionless for
a number of pre-set seconds and the RDF changes sound when the dog is on point.
I would not say that such a dog is non-cooperative just because its apprehension
of contact is different from the handlers. It is just hot and bold but most of
the time it perfectly well is in contact with its handler. Its just the handler
that lacks contact with the dog due to a much more inferior ability to hear,
see and scent the dog. Unless we had the technical means to detect the
direction to the dog we would only have its possible sagacity to trust.
Trained very wisely many big running dogs will
start to "report" a find to the handler, should the handler not find the dog. It
comes back from the find and in one way or another will try to signal to
the handler about its find. Many handlers do not understand when the young dog
reports for the first time. If the dog is not rewarded for its effort to
try to tell the handler to "follow me" it will soon stop to try. In order to
develop reporting dogs the handler must have a very good relation to the young
dog and be very sensitive to its body language. If the handler understands the
dogs signal and follows it to the find..... well I have no words to describe the
fortune he or she has secured!
Just because a dog is big running it does not have
to be non-cooperative. It might or might not have a lot of sagacity but the
average hunter may never be able to tell for sure since he or she does not have
the needed contact with the dog, nor the sensitivity to read its body
language.
Since the combination of a hunter with the ability
to create a "perfect" contact with the sagacious dog is rather rare, hence
we do not have too many of those dogs that report. There has never been any
study done that could tell how many potentional "reporters" there
possibly are among our birddogs, had they been treated right from the beginning.
Hence it is impossible to tell the percentage of really sagacious and
cooperative dogs in the population. We are generally too tempted to control the
dog with obedience to let them blossom to their full potential. Hence we say
that the big runners are non-cooperative. They may be but we do not actually
never know for sure. The ability to report is wasted for ever unless rewarded
the first few times the dog attempts to do it.
Says the one who has done all possible and then
some impossible faults with dogs, namely:
Torsti
Borta Med Vindens Kennel "Ask not what your dog can do for you. Ask
what you can do for your dog." www.rospigan.net |