Drahthaar Training – Wasser (1) – Wasserschußfest
Posted September 10th, 2009 4 Comments
This is a short video of Kimmax Ayscha in training on the water tests for her HZP at the International Hegewald 2009. Ayscha is 15 months old in this video, about 3 weeks before the Hegewald.
The ‘Wasserschussfest prufung’ or shot soundness in water test, is a one of the most simple yet harshest tests in an HZP.
A duck is thrown as far as possible into the water in plain sight of the waiting dog. Normally this is done by one of the judges (but I was on my own so had to play all the parts !!). As the dog swims out the handler must shoot (safely !!) over the dog towards the duck. The dog must not turn back or leave the retrieve or it is assessed as gun shy in the water. The dog should carry on swimming towards the duck without any further help from the handler.
The final part of the test is when the dog comes into the handler. Now carriage and presentation of game are once again paramount. As usual, the handler may not speak until the dog has sat and the judge has allowed the handler to command the dog to release the duck. If the dog leaves the retrieve or the handler has to command it then it will be heavily penalised or fail the test.
This is a tough test on a young dog, mainly because of its age (which is between 12 months and 2 years old). Train this too soon and you risk upsetting a young dog and causing a problem but without practice a dog can be taken by surprise.
As a handler you obviously want to shoot well away from the dog, however if you shoot too far away a good dog may be distracted and swim towards the shot, not the retrieve or you may be asked by the judge to shoot again. We often train our dogs to swim to the shot on water.
Failure of this test not only ends the water test section but also fails the dog from the entire HZP regardless of its performance on everything else. As I said, a harsh test on a young dog – but demonstrates the importance of the right attitude and temperament in the dog.
jenny gibbs responds:
Posted: November 6th, 2009 at 1:09 pm →
Hi, very interesting your videos and impressive for such a ayoung dog. Our GWP has excellent nose but we are concentrating on the basics, i.e. returning fast every time we whistle!!! She is doing very well so far, hasnt had a season though yet, but we are in no hurry. We have two hungarian w/h viszlas, the theory her enthusiasm facing cover etc will encourage them too. lThey are coming on well too, but laid back. Reason for emailing is that a training collar you had on? Have met Karen at a Ch.Show, our GWP was no match and she won the class deservingly. Beautiful bitch and had such presence.
Peter McCullough responds:
Posted: November 6th, 2009 at 1:58 pm →
Hi, Good to hear from you. The collar is just a standard ‘blaze orange’ collar – it is not any form of ‘training’ or ‘e-collar’. I would certainly not recommend using an e-collar for basic training, especially in water.
I have no problem with using e-collars but they are a specialist tool and must be used very carefully. They are generally used only to train dogs that could chase livestock (for which they can be shot) or persistently chase furred game (which could and unfortunately all too often does get them run over). I consider them a life saver in those circumstances but should not be used for anything else.
If you have to use a training collar, they should only be used under instruction by someone who knows what they are doing and preferably have a ‘vibrate’ or ‘beep/hawk scream’ mode where they simply make a noise or vibrate like a mobile phone rather than shock. The best ones have a variable setting plus also a ‘nick’ or ‘continuous’ mode where you can ensure the lowest possible setting can be used to effect a response. As soon as the dog makes the mental connection, the vibrate/beep mode should be all that is needed and the goal is to do without the collar as soon as possible.
In fact one of our dogs is being used as the control example in the current government research on e-collars. They needed a trained bitch who had never been trained with an e-collar. You can often tell dogs that have been heavily trained using a training collar as their responses are just too immediate.
German Drahthaar responds:
Posted: March 15th, 2010 at 5:18 am →
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Drahthaar Dog responds:
Posted: March 17th, 2010 at 2:09 pm →
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