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I have an 18 month old male that goes absolutely nuts at hunt tests and I really need some advice on how to deal with it......
We got 2 passes in Seasoned this past weekend but I was terrified that the judges would fail him before I even picked up the gun. I could not get him to sit still in the holding blind and at one point he tried to go over and around the blind (it was like he was possessed wanting to get to the line). He sits there and whines and even barked twice when I called him back to heel. The only thing that saved us was that fact that he stayed steady and did pretty solid on all the marks and blinds. However, there is no way we can (or should) move up to Finished with him acting that way.
I know I need to figure out a way to replicate the situation but I just don't have the means to do it 99% of the time. We live in a large suburban area and do almost all our training alone. I belong to 3 HRC clubs in the state but due their distance (atleast an hour and half away) and the over lap in the club's training days I can't attend them on a regular enough basis to give him any consistant exposure (maybe 1 a month at best) and deny him retrieves when he acts that way. I've tried taking him to the local dog parks but they just don't have the same effect.
We spend a lot of time on obedience and like I said he is normal and calm during all our day-to-day training. Hunt tests just seem to overload his brain, he's pretty hard charging and I think the fact that he has to be restrained just compounds the problem.
I know this isn't "normal" because I don't see any of the other dogs acting the way he does. I guess my question is if it's "manageable" and, if so, how do I go about working on it?
I'm pretty new to HRC and would really like to keep going. However, if I can't get this under control there won't be any point because neither one of us will be having any fun. Any advice would be greatly appreaciated.
Thanks,
We got 2 passes in Seasoned this past weekend but I was terrified that the judges would fail him before I even picked up the gun. I could not get him to sit still in the holding blind and at one point he tried to go over and around the blind (it was like he was possessed wanting to get to the line). He sits there and whines and even barked twice when I called him back to heel. The only thing that saved us was that fact that he stayed steady and did pretty solid on all the marks and blinds. However, there is no way we can (or should) move up to Finished with him acting that way.
I know I need to figure out a way to replicate the situation but I just don't have the means to do it 99% of the time. We live in a large suburban area and do almost all our training alone. I belong to 3 HRC clubs in the state but due their distance (atleast an hour and half away) and the over lap in the club's training days I can't attend them on a regular enough basis to give him any consistant exposure (maybe 1 a month at best) and deny him retrieves when he acts that way. I've tried taking him to the local dog parks but they just don't have the same effect.
We spend a lot of time on obedience and like I said he is normal and calm during all our day-to-day training. Hunt tests just seem to overload his brain, he's pretty hard charging and I think the fact that he has to be restrained just compounds the problem.
I know this isn't "normal" because I don't see any of the other dogs acting the way he does. I guess my question is if it's "manageable" and, if so, how do I go about working on it?
I'm pretty new to HRC and would really like to keep going. However, if I can't get this under control there won't be any point because neither one of us will be having any fun. Any advice would be greatly appreaciated.
Thanks,