http://www.clickertraining.com/files/PosGunDog_Chapter_One.pdf

Someone on here (who doesn't like me) is interested in training positive only for her (gun) dog.

I thought I'd post this for her and everyone else who may be interested.

I don't own the book,never read it,but it did come highly recomended.

Santa may bring it to me.

Please excuse my ignorance, i'm not really well versed on gundog training or hunting etc Is an ecollar and electric shock collar or a vibrating collar?  I'm just curious about the things people use for negative association etc when training. 

 An ecollar is an electronic training collar.  It can have a combo of stimulation, beep, and vibration or not. There are lot's of varieties to choose from depending on what you want to use it for.  Here is a link that shows the many varieties and there are even discussions on here about which ones are the best and why.

www.gundogsupply.com/dog-training-collars-buyers-guide.html

I personally own a TriTronics Pro that has stimulation and beeper and allows me to put up to three dogs on one transmitter.  I use mine primarily for the final reinforcement with my recall. Since I hike allot in the back country of Colorado I have to have a reliable recall that I can depend on even if there is a herd of elk, a bear, or some other forest critter around that may be interesting to the dogs.  

I started by shaping the whoa in my basement. I laid down a doormat, and when Ozzy walked on the doormat I rewarded with a yes and a treat. Once he understood that's where he got a reward he started offering it. Once he started offering it, I added the cue whoa. Kept building off of that til he understood the cue whoa, then removed the mat and started asking for it. Once that was understood, I started asking for the whoa and then moving around him and having him hold it longer. Then added distractions such as tossing toys, bumpers, etc. Then we moved to outside, and later added in dead birds. We got to the point of working in live birds on a tether, but that's where the wheels kind of fell off and I stopped working as much on it because we were getting more focused on retrieve work. This winter we're going back to whoa training.....I'll probably back up a few steps to re-solidify and work back up to live birds.

When we started on live birds, I did use a checkcord so he couldn't self reward. While many pure positive trainers consider that pressure, well, most positive trainers haven't worked bird dogs and positive training hasn't really grown in the bird dog world as it has in all other dog sports, so there's a lot to be learned. I don't consider stopping a dog with a checkcord to be a physical punishment. Pressure in certain instances as this is helpful and probably necessary. In my opinion, pressure is different from physical punishments or corrections. An example of pressure: I ask a dog to sit, he doesn't, I lean towards him or take a step towards him, and he sits. Punishment (again my opinion and my personal beliefs) is more than pressure, something applied in a negative manner against the dog that causes some kind of discomfort or fear or even pain in some cases, ranging from yelling or using a harsh tone to physical punishment. Might be just semantics, but that's the difference to me and some pressure to encourage a behavior or to help direct a behavior is ok for me and something I'm comfortable with.

You'll probably ask what I've done when Ozzy broke a whoa. In the early stages he got no reward or dismissal if he moved off the mat. Once he understood the cue, pretty much the same thing. When I introduced the toys, bumpers, he did not get the retrieve if he moved. If he held, he got sent for a retrieve as a reward.

I'll agree to disagree on the physical punishment.

HAHAHA!

Yes it is very strange how household laundry and cleaning equipment give nasty static shocks, particularly to men  strange thing is, my other half manages to use the hoover without being shocked when cleaning his beloved car