Welcome to Tilda Tuesday, that special day of the week where the Right Fits goes to the dogs!
I often post about running with my vizsla Matilda. She's one of my favorite running companions and a beloved member of our family. But this breed is actually raised for a whole different reason- hunting!
Thought we don't hunt with Matilda, I still think it's a great
way
to get outdoors, be active, and bond with your pup. With that said, I am excited to share with you today a guest post from a fellow blogger with a vizsla, Katie! Katie blogs at Prairie Ponderings and we connected over our shared love of running and
vizslas.
Katie is here today to share with you how she trained her vizsla Harvey to hunt. I found this post to be really fascinating to read. I hope you do too!
From Katie:
I still remember when Jeff announced to me that he knew what
kind of puppy we’d be getting. At the time, we were engaged, but not living
together, and talking on the phone daily.
He had been rattling on and on without much pause about this
type of dog that I had never heard of before. He was excited to tell me that
these dogs were energetic but snuggly and affectionate, very intelligent, and
were excellent hunters. I could take him running with me if I wanted to, and on
the farm where we’d be living he’d have plenty of free space, and Jeff would
train him as a bird dog. He wasn’t going to be too big, and he was really
clean—with short hair and a habit for licking and cleaning himself…. Jeff kept
going naming all the virtues of this mysterious dog breed I had never heard of
before.
“Wait—what kind of
dog is it?” I had asked.
“A vizsla!”
We picked up Harvey as a puppy from a breeder in Iowa, while
on a trip there to visit my family. This was about four years ago in
September.
Harvey rode all the way home with us as a teeny tiny seven-week old
pup with huge ears, blue eyes, and a cute little pot-belly. We loved him from
the start. He would be our companion, best friend, running buddy, snuggle-man,
and hunting guide from that day on.
As a hunter, Harvey showed his instincts right away, as many vizslas do. Vizslas are actually an incredibly old breed, used by the tribal
Magyar people in Hungary about a thousand years ago or so. They were bred from
the start to hunt, so as a breed they have excellent stamina and athletic
ability (which is also why they make such great companion dogs to runners!)
Within the first few weeks we owned him, Jeff had Harvey on
another road trip and actually ran into a man at a rest area who was on a
hunting excursion with his own dogs. He had a spare pheasant wing and gave it
to Jeff. They laid the wing down on the ground a little ways from the car and
then let Harvey find it. He didn’t exactly point right away, but he definitely
keyed in on the wing and was very interested in it, his instinct driving him.
We knew from that short episode that Harvey had the instinct to smell out
birds.
Since I actually didn’t live with Jeff at the time, or even
in the same town, Jeff was really the one to do most of Harvey’s training as a
puppy. Jeff worked with him on all kinds of training and obedience- things that
all dogs should learn- but also on honing Harvey’s hunting skills. It was only
on my visits to the farm, and after I moved here permanently, that I was more
involved, but Jeff certainly laid the foundation for our success.
Let me be clear that Harvey is not a strict working-only
hunting dog. He is very much our best friend and family dog, too. A person
training a Vizsla, or any breed, for that matter, to be strictly a hunting dog
would go about things much differently than we did. From the start, we wanted
Harvey to be part of our family, to treat him like we would a pet and
companion, but also to be able to work with him to hunt. These are all more
great reasons why we ended up with a Vizsla. To us, Harvey has shown time and
again that he is happiest in three situations: running, hunting, and snuggling
with us.
Thinking back on his formative years of training, Jeff and I
have come up with some tips that worked for us when helping Harvey train
himself as a hunting dog. We believe that the best kind of training feels more
like you’re guiding and encouraging the instincts your dog already has. Here
are a few things to keep in mind if you are thinking of training your dog to
hunt!
Use a Reward System.
Vizslas
are very sensitive dogs and don’t respond well to punishment for doing
something wrong. They are very responsive, however, to being rewarded for doing
the RIGHT thing. Find out what rewards seem to motivate your dog, and use those
when training. For Harvey, he seemed to care most about verbal praise from us
and receiving a treat, so we made sure in training to reward him with both.
Be Consistent.
Once
you have your reward figured out, be consistent and use it EVERY TIME, or at
least as often as you can, when your dog does what you want. This was
especially important when training Harvey on the mechanics of his point. He
would sometimes pick up the wrong paw or not pick up any paw at all, but he
learned that he’d only get his reward when he picked up his front paw. Now,
it’s not an issue, and he uses consistent body language each time he points,
thanks to consistent reward and training early on.
No Time Off.
You,
as the human, need to be vigilant in watching for hunting-specific behaviors in
everyday situations. It’s super important not to pull a hunting dog off-scent, especially when they’re
learning. Sometimes this means that you will walk in circles in public areas, looking
silly, to follow your dog for what ultimately might be Bunny #762 in your local
park. I’ve been there. For example, we wanted Harvey to learn for himself what
scents he was interested in, and reward him when he was on the correct scent of
a game bird. There were numerous times we’d be out for a walk and he’d start
following his nose somewhere. If it ended up being a bunny or a songbird or a
squirrel, that’s fine. Once we saw that he knew what he had been trailing, we’d
lead him back on course, with no praise or reward. Only if he ended up on-scent
for a game bird would he reward him. Again, you can’t take time off from
training him on scents, even if it may be inconvenient for you, and stick to
consistently rewarding the behaviors you want to encourage. This is how Harvey
ultimately refined his knowledge of what he cared about in a hunting situation-
and what was just for fun or play-time.
Verbal Commands.
We trained Harvey on a few basic commands and phrases for hunting, again using
reward system and consistency. The phrase we use most often is “Get the bird/Where’s the bird?”
meaning we want him to try and find a scent to track. When Harvey hears this,
he knows it’s time to hunt. We also use “Leave
it!” to mean we want him to drop or leave alone whatever he is interested
in. This is for when we shoot a bird and it falls and Harvey helps us find the
body. Harvey’s not a retriever, so he tends to find the bird and wants very
badly to shake it in his mouth, destroying the meat, etc. A stern “Leave it!” means
exactly what it sounds like.
The third phrase we use most often is, “Far Enough!” This is used when Harvey
is getting too far out ahead of us when hunting. We need him to be close so
that if he does point and flush a bird before we’re ready, we’re close enough
to take a shot.
Visual Commands. We
don’t use a ton of visual commands with Harvey, but we did train him to follow
a point or directional indication from us. We point or wave one direction or
another to show him where we’d like him to start hunting. This usually
accompanies the verbal command of “Where’s
the bird?” Ideally, you want your hunting dog to sort of zig-zag left to
right, right to left in front of you, until he gets on scent. The pointing and
hand directions helped immensely with this.
The Right Tools.
We
did use some hunting-specific “toys” and training aids for Harvey, too. We used
AKC-issued bird replica stuffies, some actual bird wings and bird scent drops,
a bird dummy, and also a 50 foot lead rope. Jeff spent some time hiding scented
dummies and objects and turning Harvey loose to find them, earning a reward for
a successful point. The objects were also great for training him on the “Leave it!” command. The most useful tool was probably the rope,
actually, in training Harvey on what distance we ideally wanted him to be at as
he hunted ahead of us.
Experience.
As
with anything else, the most useful aspect of training with Harvey was practice
and experience. We have a naturally full population of game birds where we
live, so any time of year we can expect to encounter some while out on a walk
or a run. Using all the tips listed above, we’d encourage Harvey’s instincts
whenever we could when outside with him, but also took him on plenty of
dedicated hunting outings. Even short hikes in the grass of an hour or less
were great training tools for him.
Whether you’re planning on training your Vizsla or other dog
to hunt is up to you. I never anticipated I’d be interested in hunting
before we got this dog, but there’s something so special and rewarding about
watching him work. Harvey loves to hunt—it’s a manifestation of all of his
instinct, breeding, and training, in one exercise. If you do get a chance to
try hunting with your dog, I wouldn’t pass it up. You might be surprised how well
he or she does, even with no training at all, and you may even find another
hobby. Hunting is a wonderful way to spend time with family and friends and
your beloved dog outdoors.
But perhaps the best thing about hunting, is coming home
with a tired, but satisfied and happy Vizsla who wants nothing more than
snuggles on the couch!
Thank you so much Katie for sharing such a fascinating post about hunting with your vizsla!
Go check out Katie's blog
HERE and for more posts specifically about hunting, check these out:
Do you hunt with your dog? Any other tips you'd like to add?
