Our goal is to provide you with a hunting dog for your
needs. Whether you want a Hunting dog and/or Hunt Test
dog the foundation is essential for may years.
The
minimum age to start the gun dog program is 6 months of
age.
There are 3 main stages of the hunting dog
program.
Stage 1- Obedience/Field
Obedience
The first stage is obedience,
field obedience, and exposing your dog to birds, gun
sounds, water, cover and building up your dog's retrieve
with all the above.
Obedience is essential whether
it's around the house or in the hunting field. We start
off by teaching your dog the commands "Here" and "Sit".
The command "Here" combines your "come" and "heel"
commands. We instill everything on-lead as well as
off-lead with the use of the E-Collar.
While your dog is learning the
obedience, we are building their retrieve. We understand
that many people do not have access and time show their
dogs everything, so depending on the dog we will start
to show them and develop the field work. We will show
them birds, gun sounds, water, cover,
etc.
Once we feel they understand the obedience,
we will instill the obedience in the field. Once they
pick up a bird/bumper they will come back and heel to
your left side and sit down. They will walk beside you
as you move around. This process normally takes 2
months.
Stage 2 - Mouth Work
The mouth work or force fetch is the 2nd stage.
We teach your dog to bring the bird/bumper all the way
back and deliver to hand. This command is important
because it teaches your dog not to eat, chew, or play
with the bird while out in the field. We start by
teaching them to hold a bumper and then instilling in
them not to drop the bumper/bird until you take it from
them. We want them to pick up the birds and bring them
back to deliver them to hand. From the first step of
teaching them to hold to retrieving back in the field
with the field obedience and mouth work takes about 6
weeks; however this timeframe varies from dog to dog.
Stage 3 - Steadiness and putting it all
together.
The last stage is showing marking
drills and teaching steadiness. We will start of by
teaching them to look out for the bumpers/birds with the
use of launchers in the field/water. We then go into the
steadiness stage. Steadiness (or steady to shot) is when
a dog only leaves for a retrieve when you say their
name. After we teach the steadiness, we instill the
steadiness with the field/water retrieves and various
scenarios. The last state is where we put all the stages
together and provide the foundation for a hunting dog.
This stage takes about 6 weeks, but varies from dog to
dog.
At Cross Creek Kennel we understand that
not all dogs are the same and not all breeds are the
same. Each learn differently and we understand that each
dog learns at a different pace. Because of this normally
the gun dog program takes about 5 to 6 months.
The cost is $700
a month and includes the boarding,
training, dog food, birds, and
shells.
We require your dog to be up-to-date on their vaccinations.
We require:
Rabies, DHP-CPV (or equivalent ), Bordetella (KC)
Please bring Heartworm Medication & any flea medication.
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