The Vizsla Newzsletter (Jun / Jul 1998)
The Starting Point

It had not been a good night. Penny, the regal queen of the household had woke up the Grizzled One and his wife with sounds of heavy retching. Penny was sick. The Grizzled One flew out of bed and found Penny standing in a corner of the living room heaving. When those spasms were over he took the old Matriarch by the collar and gently led her to the deck door and down the ramp to the driveway. Leaving her standing there he quickly went to where her vomit was and inspected it. Hoping to see some kind of gastral contraband, he was disappointed. A heavy white mucous encased glob of food laid on the ground. "Damn " thought t he Grizzled One. "Her used to be pancreas is acting up ". This was a sign that he always dreaded to see because of the acute sickness it brought to his beloved Penny. Penny you see was quite different from most dogs that achieve the exalted status of Dual and Amateur Field Champion Master Hunter.

Penny was acquired to be, at the time, the Ungrizzled One's hunting buddy. For over three years that is what she was. A hunting dog. Track, point, chase, and retrieve with a vengeance. She had a singular intensity in terms of her bird work that the younger Grizzled One, because of ignorance, did not perceive. He and his wife attended a field trial in the down side of Penny's third year and the Grizzled One told his wife, "she can do that ".Not really comprehending all that went into producing a competitive field trial dog .

Win Smit's 2 Vizslas, Amber (Minx Seeks A Red) and
Saffron (Sandor Saffron Showgirl)

Having the old fashioned idea that one does for himself until proved completely incapable, the Grizzled One and his beloved "She Who must be Obeyed" began to "break "Penny to be steady to wing and shot and hopefully ready to compete in field trials. It wasn't that easy. If the Grizzled One knew at that point what he knew now about bird dogs, he would have stopped the process. You can't take a dog that has not run in competition as a young dog; immersed in the field trial environment of horses, other dogs, hordes of strange people, and expect it to achieve. But, as the old saying goes, ignorance is bliss. The Grizzled One and his wife stuck to it. As time went on and field trials were entered the white, yellow, and red ribbons piled up but the coveted blue ribbons were elusive.

When Penny entered her 8th year both glory and disaster. Her first blue ribbon and her first acute illness. She got really sick. So sick that her doctor sent her to the University of Wisconsin . There they discovered that her pancreas had disintegrated and she would have to be on medication and a special diet the rest of her life. The attending specialist however tempered the diagnosis news with more encouraging news. She told the Grizzled One and his wife that the way Penny had handled being probed and prodded by all the examining doctors and kept her "heads up " demeanor indicated that she was a "tough cookie " There was no reason why she could not stay in competition . In fact the doctor said "It would be a crime to let her become a couch potato."

Penny entered her glory years and eventually won all the coveted field titles the AKC awards. The spectre of her ailment was always there though. Any deviation in diet would result in the terrible nausea that meant a hasty trip to the vet. A well meaning offer of what to any other dog would be a treat always ended up at the vet's. A potato chip, a dog biscuit, a morsel from the table. All were virtual poison.

So when Penny woke the Grizzled One up with her vomiting and examination indicated no observable reason for it, there was basis for concern. From past experience the Grizzled One knew that Penny would spend the rest of the night fighting terrible nausea and abdominal spasms with periods of dry retching. Oral medications would be immediately vomited up. When Penny had these bouts of illness she like to lay on the couch in the den next to the Grizzled One. She seemed to need the physical touching. She would lay quietly, sometimes for 20 minutes. Then a wave of nausea or a spasm would hit her and she would slide from the couch to the floor where she would anxiously pace, trying to get away from her misery. At 6:00am the Grizzled One called Penny's vet and told him of her problem. Arrangement was made where the doctor would be at his hospital earlier than his usual opening hour to attend Penny. Over the last 5 years such arrangements had been made on a number of occasions.

Image: Our Spirit (Tiger Lily of Szep-Allat) plays
with a tamarillo skin during a break
in the formal part of a breed show.
Thank goodness for a understanding vet. Dr. Ron had seen Penny through her first and only pregnancy. Had in fact ordered the Grizzled One to bring her into his hospital late on a Friday evening to birth her puppies there under his care. Early. Very early in the morning the Grizzled One and Penny arrived at the hospital and Penny's beloved Dr. Ron was there waiting. The blessed shot of atropine which reduced the terrible abdominal spasms was given and the IV bag was attached to Penny with the all the necessaries she needed to keep going. In fact, Penny was so used to this regime that the IV bag could be attached to her and she had the run of the hospital. Greeting patients, aids, you name it with the IV running into her. She was quite a lady. Since these episodes usually called for 2 or more days in the hospital, the Grizzled One left for home .

On the way home from the hospital the Grizzled One decided that this morning would be a good time to polish up his youngest dog's honouring manners. Honouring, or backing as it many times referred to, is a bird dog behaviour that is a thing of beauty to behold. Hunters, that take their dogs out with their buddies and end up with the dogs spilling over each other to get the bird that is being worked have only to see a honouring situation and they are entranced. Honouring means simply that when a bird dog (or a flushing dog) comes across its brace mate standing on point (or tracking a bird) it immediately comes to a halt and stands until the bird is produced, shot, and retrieved and does nothing until ordered to do so. This is done without verbal orders, it is done because the dog knows it is the proper etiquette. To suddenly come across one's dog backing your buddy's dog who is standing on gorgeous point is a moment that makes the bird dog hunter's heart sing. Whether the bird is brought down or not is inconsequential. The dog's bird manners makes the day. The Grizzled One's task would be easier because Tanner was already steady to wing and shot. This meant that he could use her already learned skill of stop to flush to apply to backing. When he got back to the house he first had to fortify himself with several cups of his beloved "she who must be obeyed's" coffee, which washed down a sizable stack of her sourdough pancakes.

Thus fortified, he packed his gear, birds, Tanner and her ever reliable and steady Dad, Rowdy Roy. As pheasant hunting hours at Bong Recreational Area do not end until 2 PM (when dog training can commence) the Grizzled One headed to an area close to his home that the developers had not yet despoiled. Upon arriving there the Grizzled One let Tanner and her daddy, Rowdy, out to generally romp over the area. This was done with a purpose. Once bird dog has undergone some field training involving birds, they learn that if they follow the scent tracks of their owner/handler they will be led right to the planted birds that will be used in the training exercises. By letting the dogs romp in the training area beforehand, and the handler walking in erratic patterns throughout the area, this tracking can be avoided and the training dog's work will be more "natural".

After letting Rowdy and Tanner have their "fun time " for a while the Grizzled One crated them in the van and took out the tools of the morning's lesson; radio controlled bird launchers, a pointing dog silhouette, and a bag of homing pigeons. Using the topography of the area as a guide (which the dogs would follow in their training hunt) the Grizzled One put down a radio controlled launcher with a homing pigeon in it in a place that would be upwind of the direction that he was sure Tanner would take in her training hunt. This was crucial. After walking a ways from that first planted bird launcher, the Grizzled One found a shrub standing in such a way that Tanner would not see the pointing dog silhouette until she was right on top of it and that located in such a way that it would be upwind of her. There he also placed the 2nd bird launcher with a pigeon in it. He went a short ways and planted the 3rd pigeon in a launcher and this was located in such a way that it would be hopefully downwind of where he thought Tanner would be at that point on her training run.

What all this is about is creating a scenario in which the training dog is given the optimum of having a successful experience. The trainer always strives to be able to orchestrate the most favourable situations that help to insure positive experiences. Since dogs learn by repetition, the most positive repetitions reinforce and the learning takes hold. Therefore the trainer attempts to orchestrate the training scenario to achieve the most positive experiences.

Taking Tanner out of her crate in the van, the Grizzled One put a flash collar on her and walked her on lead to the place he had decided to cast off from. He put Tanner on the stay command and unleashed her. He placed his whistle (used to get or turn never come) in his mouth and gave a loud singular blast on it. The "get " signal. Tanner sped off looking for game. As the Grizzled One had figured it. The way the land was laid out caused Tanner to follow a course which led to where the first pigeon was planted. Being upwind Tanner was not aware the bird was there and just as she came to the thicket mass where the launcher was hidden, the Grizzled One thumbed the release button on the transmitter controlling the launcher and the pigeon was catapulted into the air almost in front of the running Tanner.

Because she was so intent on the airborne bird just feet in front of her nose, Tanner kept her forward motion going (not good, she was supposed to freeze in place) and the Grizzled One had to bellow a "stay " command that she immediately reacted to and froze. The Grizzled One fired a round from his blank revolver and came up to Tanner and heeled her off in a direction that was different from that which the released pigeon had taken.

The problem was that this direction would take Tanner downwind of the next planted bird by the pointing dog silhouette and she would end up pointing the bird instead of backing the pointing dog, which was the purpose of the whole exercise. This exercise requires exquisite timing. The whole thing really hinges on the dog's already learned behaviour of stop to flush. It works this way. The instant the working dog catches sight (and I mean instant) of the pointing dog silhouette the trainer must launch the pigeon from the launcher. Since the dog is trained to stop to flush, it stops. It also sees the pointing dog silhouette and hopefully puts together in its mind that when it comes across a dog standing on point there is a bird nearby, it must stop. Praise the dog if it did right, repeat the scenario as needed and the behaviour is learned.

The third bird is the "reward" bird. That is after being released from a successful backing situation the training dog is allowed to find, point, have the bird released and a shot fired. Tanner is praised, cast off, called back in, leashed, walked back to the van watered and crated. A new course is laid out and the same procedure followed. The glitch in her first lesson was smoothed out and by her fourth run Tanner was flawless. The time for the acid test had arrived.

Image: What to do when your bean bag gets used by a human?
Ochre (Abody Ochre of Debreccan) simply uses Rob McKee
while Hura (the GSP) watches from her bean bag!

Time to go home. It had been a good morning. But not having the involvement of the training session crowd out other thoughts brought the Grizzled One's thoughts back to his Penny and her situation. Arriving back home the Grizzled One went through the rituals of tending to his working dogs, stowing training gear away and going to the pigeon coop to count the number of birds that were sitting on top of the coop. The number jibbed with the number of birds used that morning so the Grizzled One opened the coop flight door and let the rest of the of the flock out. He hadn't fed them yet that day so he knew there would be plenty of birds in the coop when Ed and Benji would show up late in the afternoon. He walked towards the house watching Rowdy and his daughter play all the way back.

Entering the house he asked his beloved where King was. King usually roared when cars and people were afoot but had been quiet on this occasion. "Hope he's feeling all right " thought the Grizzled One. He really did not need two ill dogs at the same time. "He's teed off at you. He went into his crate right after you left and he has been there ever since. " The Grizzled One went to the crate area and there was King Conan lying in his crate with his large front feet regally crossed and dangling over the lip of the crate door, looking right into his eyes. "How you doing buddy? " asked the Grizzled One and immediately a drumbeat caused by King's tail whacking the side of his crate ensued. "Lets go get some lunch bubba! " and with that the big pointer bounded out of his crate and launched himself at the old hunter and gently grabbed his bearded chin and gave it a King tweak. An affection showing behaviour the dog had had since he was a puppy.

She who must be obeyed laid out the Grizzled One's favourite lunch, chicken soup and crackers and he launched a major frontal assault on it with his King sitting, hopefully, next to his chair. "Has Ron called about Penny? " he asked. "No and that is good news in itself. He will call when he has something to tell you " his wife replied. "What are your plans for this afternoon? " "Well I was going to change the oil in the van but I think I detect a note in your voice that says you want me to go with you someplace. I really don't have anything specific until later this afternoon when Ed runs his pup over and we continue working with him."

His beloved explained to him that a particular couch she was interested in for the den was on sale and she wanted him to go with her to look at it. The old hunter liked his old couch in the den. It was comfortable with the easy predictability of reception of tired bones that years of use create in a favourite piece of sitting furniture. A new couch would be a interloper, a unknown factor

But beloved had her heart set on looking at it and how could he refuse. The trip to inspect the new couch went well. That is, the couple mutually agreed that it was not exactly what they had in mind for their den. The old couch had been granted another reprieve. Not a bad afternoon.

Upon arriving back at his home, the Grizzled One busied himself lining up the gear that would be used on the puppy and snagging pigeons in the coop that would used for the training session. You can't train bird dogs without birds. He figured that today he would use three launchers laid out in a kind of a course that would always put the Shorthair pup downwind of the caged birds. That was crucial to the training program.

He suddenly heard his wife call to him to come to the house. He quickly walked to the house and his wife met him on the deck with a cordless telephone.

"Its Ron. There is a problem with Penny. " .....................