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cwalt

MH
Posts:180

07/13/2007 10:32 AM
Pointing, in the language of ethologists, is a fixed action pattern. This essentially means that this unitary behavior is a response to certain stimuli, in this case the stimuli are the sight, sound or scent of a bird. Knowing what to call a behavior doesn't explain it so we should consider some of the more important characteristics of pointing. The basis for pointing is that it is an innate (inherited) tendency to do something that is developed through learning. Pointing cannot be taught but it is learned very rapidly by bird dogs and our best approach is to allow that to happen without interference. The most obvious and important feature of pointing is that it is like riding a bicycle, once it is learned it is never forgotten. If you think about pointing in this way you will realize that how you learned to do something is the basic pattern that you will always use in the future. The pattern becomes locked in your memory as a series of interacting events that is quite like the pattern of pointing that becomes locked into the memory of a bird dog. To understand the introduction to scent pointing exercises we have to consider short and long term memory. Short term memory is something like remembering a telephone number just long enough to dial it. Long term memory is the fixation of the event, and its associations, as a more or less permanent memory source. Short term memory disappears almost immediately if it is followed by other events. Long term memory is formed a few minutes after the event if it is held long enough in short term memory. As far as the dog is concerned if it is exposed to a stimulus and it points in response the situation and its associations are embedded in long term memory if nothing else after the event interferes with the fixation in memory. For this reason we set up a single ideal pointing event and let it 'soak in' and then place the dog in a situation where it can think about the event without disturbance. This exposure to a singular event and the corresponding time-out to remember it are the behavioral basis for introducing a dog to pointing. If the event is sight pointing the pattern of sight pointing will become fixed in the dog's long term memory, if the event is scent pointing that will become fixed in the dog's memory. A pointing dog will almost always sight point but scent pointing, being a more complex event with more associations, is what we seek to create. The dog has to learn to use its nose before and during the pointing event. The more complex, but more useful scent pointing event is the most desirable since a fixation on simple sight pointing often leads to crowding that might be tolerated by a pen-reared bird but not by a wild bird. There are many things that can adversely affect a pointing exercise but the most destructive interference is the human voice, and the most destructive distracting voice to a dog is that of the owner/trainer. It is imperative that silence is the absolute rule for the exercises. If there is a significant distraction during the exercise it is necessary to erase the memory of the event from the dog's mind. To erase a memory simply and immediately execute a few minutes of command exercises such as 'heel', 'sit', 'whoa' and so on until the repetition washes the dog's memory clean. Cj

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