# Sticky  Gonehuntings method of teaching using a heeling stick



## Bobm

As one of the new hunting dog forum Moderators Its my goal to put useful training advice on here for all to easily get to and Gone hunting has lots of it to offer.
Gonehunting explained this to me he says it greatly speeds up training of these commands because of the ability to show the dog his proper position after given a command, and it makes so much sense I thought why didn't I know this.

so heres his description of his method
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The stick is used for heel, sit, down, fetch, and back. As far as i'm concerned, the best uses are heel, sit, and down.

*For sit.*

Walk the dog at heel, stick at your right side. Stop, pull back on the lead, command "sit". As you do, place your right hand behind your back and rotate your palm to the left, so the palm faces down. Tap his butt with the stick. You do it this way because it you were to do it by swinging the stick around the front of your knees, you'd flare the dog or make it crouch. You get instantaneous sits with this method. Let the dog try to beat the stick. Comand "sit" or blow one blast of the whistle and if that wiggly little but is not instantly on the ground, tap with the heeling stick. If the dog start squirting off to the side, then come from the front with the heeling stick and tap his outside rear flank, commanding "sit". This brings him back in line with your body position and give you a nice sit.

*Heel.*

Walk the dog at heel, stick in right hand, angled 45 degrees down and across your knees. This gives the dog a visual barrier to see, allowing him to understand exactly where the safe and desired heeling position it. If the dog tries to forge ahead, tap him lightly on the chest, pull back on the lead, and command "heel". If he applies the brakes and drag's behind, agian reach behind you, tap his butt repeatidly, pull forward on the lead, and command "heel". With just a lead and choker, the dog has no idea for a while what you actually want. The stick gives him a visual clue and barrier he can not pass. It is the absolute fastest and easiest way to teach a dog to heel.

*Down *is fairly obvious. After you have taught the dog to down by applying pressure on the lead and choker, simply reinforce it when he does not instantly comply by placing the stick over his back. He will immediately down. If not, tap him on the back.

*For "fetch", *the stick is substituted for the ear pinch after the dog has been through the pinch. It is the preliminary for learning the "back" command and back enroute to a pile. I don't want to get into that here, because some, including myself, no longer use the stick on back. It has now been replaced by the variable intensity collar. That being said, if I still field trialed, I'd still stick fetch to a pile.

Now *please, please*, note that nowhere here am I advocating "beating" a dog! It's tap, tap, tap, not whack, whack, whack. Hope this helps everyone to understand it's proper use. I am certainly not saying it's the only way to train, just an alternate to consider.


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## Bobm

After wondering about the heeling stick to a pile for training retrievers I asked Gone hunting to explain it also. This method is no longer used because of the variable intensity capabilities of modern E collars but I found it interesting reading so heres Gone huntings description of that technique.

QUote

Stick fetch is a continuation of the ear pinch and was thought paramount to forcing en route to a pile. It introduced a dog to another stimulus on the way to a pile before the collar was actually introduced to it. It is started when you are forcing on the ear and the dog is picking up off the ground. Now we start all over again with fetch. The bumper is held in front of the dog, the heeling stick held in the left hand, the command "fetch" given and a stinging crack applied with the heeling stick to the dog's rear flank. You keep up a steady sting of the flank until the dog fetch's the object. A dog may not jump for an ear pinch, he may not jump for a toe hitch, but he will jump for a stick fetch. If he doesn't you keep tapping harder and harder until he does. When you put that dowel or bumper in front of a stick fetched dog, he will tear your arm out of the socket to get it. Never get mad, never beat the dog, it is a controlled and escalated tap on the flank. Now go to the ground. Again it's "fetch", tap, and guide with the lead until the dog picks it up. Don't let the dog squirrel out from your side, even if you have to put a flank strap on him and have another person tension it to keep him straight. When he is doing this, throw the dummy a few feet out and same routine, "fetch", tap, and the retrieve. You'll know you have him when you say "fetch" and the dog tucks his butt under him and just hauls tail for the bumper. We used to like the stick fetch because it kept our hands and face away from the dog and saved on sore backs because we weren't bending over to fetch the dog to the ground.

Now we progress to a pile. The dog is always kept on a lead for control. We now will "double rope" the dog to make it easier for him to understand the pile. Put another person at the pile with a rope leading back to your rope. Hook his rope to the eye of your snap. Throw a bumper to the pile. Command "fetch" and tap the rear. If dog doesn't go, command "fetch" again, tap the flank, and have the other person tension his rope and start the dog to the pile. We're only talking about 10' here. We are trying to make it as easy on the dog as possible, guiding him through each sequence. When he has this down pat at 10', when we say "fetch", he tucks his butt and hauls for the pile, picks up and immediately splins to return to our side, we are ready to force-en-route. See the advantage to doing it like this? We have control of the dog every foot of the way. He can't make a mistake and get in trouble and it stops us from becoming frustrated.

For force-en-route, we remove the assistant's rope. The assistant stands back to back with us. He has a 4' buggy whip in his right hand. It is held across his body, right to left. We command the dog to fetch. The dog launches and the assistant immediately swings the whip to his right and slaps the dog on the flank. At the exact instant the whip contacts the dog, we command strongly, "fetch". This causes him to hit 2nd gear on the way to a pile. When he is doing this well, we'll move back to 30'. The assistant is still there with a whip in case we get a no-go. Now we switch to a marble. When the dog launches and is 15' out, sting him in the butt with a marble and command "fetch". Now he learns he is not safe at any distance. When he has this down, we overlay all this with the collar and start again. It is also at this time that we substiture "BACK" for "fetch".

Now everyone is sitting there scratching their head and saying, but with the modern ecollar, why do this? I no longer do, but I'm a died in the wool collar guy. If you are not a collar man, you do this to prevent no-goes. Remember also that this was developed in the 60's and 70's when collars were not variable intensity, they were thunder bolts from heck. You had to go through a preparatory program so the dog knew how to escape the correction of the collar. He was taught under pressure step by step so there was little chance of failure left. That's why this was all done; to make it easier on the dog during collar breaking or to end no goes on manual dog's. You can train them one way, or you can train them the other, but when you say "BACK" they better get the heck out of Dodge. The most helpless feeling in the world is to tell a dog "dead, bird, BACK" at a field trial and have him look up into your eyes with his big, sorrowful brown eyes and say "Who, me boss?". You'll win no ribbon if they go nowhere.
END QUOTE

Makes you appreciate a modern ecollar doesnt it. :lol:


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