In order to understand and identify your dog’s predatory trigger it is highly beneficial to know what breed(s) of dog you have and to know what that breed was bred to do. For example, my Vizslas were bred to locate birds and other small game. Most dogs are not born with impulse control and so it must be taught otherwise they will see a trigger (or what I also call a stimulus) and want to chase after it. The chase part of the predatory motor sequence is only the beginning of the upswing for the undesired portion of the PMS on dopamine, and other feel good hormones. The peak is if they are successful in grab biting. That is when the dopamine and other hormones will start to come down and the dog will start to relax in satisfaction. Depending on what your dog is bred for, prefers on an individual level and personal experience the types of triggers will vary. Some dogs learn to use their eyes heavily to look for that exciting trigger. Some dogs will use their nose to sniff out a critter trail and some will use their ears to listen for a disturbance to bolt after. Many dogs will use all 3 of these approaches but not all at equal levels all of the time. Paying attention to your dog while out on walks (even while on leash) is very important. This is the best and safest way to teach your dog how to be safe and have impulse control around wildlife. So be sure to not be on your phone and if you have to take an important phone call do your best to be in as little of a distracting area as possible while that call takes place (even if you are using Bluetooth or otherwise hands free). So now let’s talk about threshold levels. There are three different thresholds that we should be aware of: under threshold, at threshold and over threshold. You can think of them this way: - Under threshold = green light - At threshold = yellow light - Over threshold = red light Green light threshold, a dog is able to think, be engaged with you enthusiastically and listen to you when you give a command.

My apologies on being late on delivering this post. Yesterday was a busy day and I just plum forgot that it was Friday. I hope you enjoy. The Weimaraner, or Weimar Pointer, appeared in the 19th Century in Germany and their availability was firmly controlled by the Nobels of Weimar. These nobles were devoted sportsman who also hunted big game. They needed a dog that was excellent at tracking, had speed, was courageous and durable. They implemented a breeding program to develop these specific desired traits. Initially the Weimaraner was bred to take down bear and deer but was later shifted to a “fur and feathers” dog and are now one of the Hunt, Point, Retrieve breeds. In 1928, a man named Howard Knight was keen on acquiring a foundation stock of the breed in the New England states. He applied for a membership in the German Club for the breed and the club sent him two sterilized dogs despite his promise to maintain the purity of the breed. It wasn’t until 10 years later that he was sent 3 females and a puppy. Other enthusiasts joined him and in 1942 the Weimaraner Club of America was formed and in turn a breed standard was formed and the breed was recognized by the AKC in 1943 and began participating in field trials in 1948. Due to the wartime in Europe in the 1940s and the German’s not wanting to lose valuable quality dogs the Weimaraner was sent to the United States. The Weimaraner was a status symbol and with their popularity booming this did also lead to poor breeding practices that resulted in less than ideal temperaments and ugly dogs. Thankfully there were committed breed enthusiasts that would breed and maintain the high quality standards for the Weimaraner. The Weimaraner today comes in two different coat colors but only one is recognized for the show ring and for hunting. The options are silver-grey and blue-grey with the blue-grey variety having black noses and lips. Other than coat color the two look identical but are bred for entirely different purposes: the silver-grey is bred for work and the blue-grey is almost exclusively bred for companionship. The blue-grey option is an automatic disqualification for the show ring as well.

Marker training is such a valuable communication tool that we as humans can have with our dogs and it is so easy to train (for most dogs). If you would like a detailed explanation on how to marker train your dog you may look at @Paul Bunker ’s first book. Most dogs will accept treats and this is the easiest way to get repetitions of what you are trying to teach. If your dog is not very treat motivated do not worry most, if not all, of this can also be accomplished with toys just remember you will get less repetitions per session. Once you have a marker trained dog this will make telling your dog that they have done the correct behavior much easier. It is important that your dog clearly understands his marker and that you mark the correct behavior at the right time. If your timing is off once or twice it is fine just make sure that mistakes are kept to a minimum. So how can this skill be used in predation substitution training? If you have watched my classroom videos then you may have seen me use a marker in a couple of the games when my dog performed a certain behavior. This is great practice in a setting that has no distractions that way my dog can understand what I am marking and rewarding and it ensures to me that my dog understands his marker is various context. So, let’s say you are out at a local park or trail and a stimulus catches your dog’s attention. You’ve been playing some counter conditioning games and so you are ready for this moment! Your dog is staring at the stimulus, you are ready with your dog’s treats (and/or toy), your dog does the correct behavior (turns back and looks at you), you mark and…your dog turns back and continues to stare. This is where having an understanding and a plan comes in VERY handy and sometimes that plan has to change on the fly. This may not or may not mean adjusting your current plan or completely having to come up with a new one. In either case I would suggest having 1 goal in mind that you would like to accomplish with your dog.

As suggested by @Paul Bunker The English Pointer is also referred to as Pointer and is a gundog from, you guessed it, England. It is believed that the English Pointer may have originated from the Old Spanish Pointer, which were larger and heavier than the modern Pointer. In a book titled “The True Pointer and His Ancient Heritage” writers W. Enos Phillips and William Arkwright theorized that the Pointer is one of the oldest breeds and makes a statement based on a 3,000 year old Egyptian tomb in Thebes that has an image of what looks to be a hunting dog with “…a tail or this particular construction” which he, Phillips, points out is similar to the “…proper specimen of today”. It should also be noted that William Arkwright also has some writings with A.F. Hochwalt about the English Pointer where Arkwright states “The brachs that point (bracchi da ferma) should be spotted and dappled with bright tawny, and have large ears, long muzzle, black nose, feet spurred (spronati), hind legs well bent, and tail fine. To make use of them with the gun, it is necessary that these dogs be steady on point, nor ever flush the game that they have found, so that the sportsman, by carefully circling round his dog with arquebus before the game is sprung, may obtain a shot” (Arkwright, p.53) **I did mention Brachs/Braques in my GSP entry** Then there is Danny Seymour, Judges’ Education Chair of the American Pointer Club, who states that the original Pointer was the Spanish Pointer and existed throughout the European continent. This breed arrived in England around 1650 and before the invention of firearms they were used to locate hares for Greyhounds to further pursue. It is thought that the English Pointer were Spanish Pointers crossed with Foxhound, Greyhound and Bloodhound. In the mid-1800s dog shows were really starting to take off and with that came finding the best of the best within a breed. Due to this efforts were made to refine the breed and part of that refinement was having the breed seek odor in the air rather than on the ground. The slight dished muzzle that is a notable physical characteristic of the breed is commonly called the Arkwright head.

Probably one my favorite things about dog training is that dogs will always show you that you are never done learning about how to train dogs. It could be a new dog, a dog you see on the internet or even your own dog but they can humble you pretty quick. A dog will also tell you, and those around you, when you have trained them “wrong”. I say this because sometimes we have good intentions and we think we have a good plan on what we would like for our dog to learn and then…that is not what happens in practice. An example that comes to mind is something that I was curious about with one of my own dogs, Csili (Chili) my 4 year old Hungarian Vizsla, who currently has a thing for birds (as she so instinctually is expected to). Currently I am working on her not chasing birds so part of my plan is to make the ground productive. At first I would toss out her toy for your basic hunt drills where I would hold her and toss the toy. This was fine at first since she needed to learn to hunt on the ground with her nose and not her eyes. Quickly after she started I would toss the toy out to where she didn’t see and most of the time it went according to plan. When it didn’t go according to plan is when I saw a connection between her spotting the toy flying through the air, she immediately darts to it, retrieves toy and self-rewards for the chain of: see something fly and run and grab it. I knew I had to be quick and get the toy first whenever I messed up. If I failed to retrieve the toy in time I would grab the toy, have it immediately “go dead” and wait for her to release it. I wanted to make it as boring and lame as possible NOT NEGATIVE! I did not fight her for it nor did I jerk it out of her mouth. I essentially made it lame so she wouldn’t have that continuous of dopamine after practicing, what is for me, an undesirable chain of behavior. Now this is also a behavior I could use to my advantage as a reward. Clearly this is something she enjoys but I don’t want her going off and doing it on her own. She is very much the dog that will go find her own fun if left to it which can be a good and bad thing. So how could I use this undesirable behavior to my advantage? Context and timing.