We recently went out to see “Remy’s teacher,” as my young daughter has started to call our professional gun dog trainer, Gary Ruppel. You see, Remy is our dog, and she refers to our bird dog trainer, as our dog’s “teacher.” Once I thought about it, she is more right than she knows, by characterizing him as a “teacher of bird dogs.” That’s really what he is, not a trainer, and it only took a 6-year old girl to point it out to me.
“Trainers,” whether they are for the professional athlete with two or four legs, are usually thought of as the macho guys who tell you to “bench one more rep, give me one more lap, give me 10 push-ups, come on, give me more,” or the usual stereotype of a dog trainer with a plethora of whips, ropes, and electric shock collars in his bag of tricks to get more out of dog or to rein him into complying with our demands.
Gary’s approach is pretty much the opposite of that approach. His approach is something that the late, Bill Tarrant, wrote a lot about in the last few of his many books about bird dogs and bird dog training. I met Bill at a clinic that Mike Gould and Gary Ruppel were putting on, and Bill had been invited by them to attend and give a little introduction. He was a charismatic guy, well on in his years, and he spoke very mystically about Gary and Mike, and said they were “dog whisperers,” and mind you this was before the Robert Redford movie came out creating a new household word of “horse whisperer.” Bill found out that I was a young lawyer and suggested that I carry on the torch for him, writing about the miracles that Gary and Mike were creating. He must have suggested that to others as well, as Mike was much more close with him, and wrote several books after Bill’s passing, all of which are excellent.
My second Brittany was out of Jim deBobs Super Starr and Tequila’s Joker.
We got into a lot of quail and Remy really shined today. We have been working him a lot at home on retrieving and conditioning to the whistle. He got introduced to the starter pistol today, with no reaction, which was great and he got really excited about finding and chasing the quail. Gary thinks we’ll be able to hunt him already by the end of this season. He seems to be following right along in Bodhi’s footsteps, so I hope he that he will become another great bird dog.
And, as for what to feed your pup, we like Purina Pro Plan Performance and here is why.
Books and Articles Featuring Our Legendary Bird Dog Trainer Gary Ruppel and His Kiowa Creek Kennels
Gary Ruppel of Kiowa, Colorado, has been helping me train my bird dogs for 20 years at his Kiowa Creek Kennels and before that at some local gun clubs. I remember calling him when I got my first 8-week old Brittany puppy from a famous field trial lines, and the field trailer had asked to bring him back for summer camp when he was four months old. I asked Gary, “When should I come out and start training with you, in two months?” I’ll never forget Gary saying, “You are already four months late, I start training them in the womb, bring him out tomorrow.”
Gary says that he starts training in the womb, like mother’s read to their unborn children. He first bonds with the bitch, which is the foundation of all of his training. “If the dog doesn’t do it because he loves you, you’ll never really get the full potential out of that dog. You can do all the old methods of force breaking and whatever else you can think of, but a dog that it is doing something out of fear, rather than love, will never be performing at full potential.” He says, “My pups already have heard all of the whistle commands when they are born, as they have head them in the womb.”
Books Featuring Gary Ruppel
Training the Versatile Retreiver to Hunt Upland Birds
By Bill Tarrant
Bill Tarrant has authored the first book designed to show the retriever enthusiast how to train his dog to hunt upland birds. Bill got together with the four top retriever trainers in America today: Mike Gould, shooting Labs; Gary Ruppel, pointing Labs; Butch Goodwin, Chesapeakes; and Jim Charlton, Golden Retrievers. Together they spent a week training and hunting the various breeds on upland birds. Each night they sat for hours talking a comparing training techniques. The result is this unique book. These five esteemed trainers give you the tools and techniques you need to train your dog to be a more effective hunting companion. you will be training the natural way, without a shock collar. There are also specific chapters on how to train and hunt your dog on pheasants, quail, chuckars, ruffed grouse, sharptails, huns, and prairie chickens. 224 pages.
Plateaus of Destiny by Mike Gould (Jan 20, 1999)
In this wonderful collection of short stories, Mike Gould takes us from the high montane of Colorado to the canyons of Idaho. It is a book by a master storyteller, someone who still practices the fading art of spinning a yarn by the campfire. Mike writes about a good mountain horse, lightning storms, dogs on point, coveys of blue grouse, an old favorite rifle, and gives a tongue-in-cheek account of how to poach a buck. He also tells us of wondrous things, spiritual things, times of deep despair and the grand majesty of nature. This is a wonderful book that will inspire you and lift your soul.
He Loved the Dog: The Bill Tarrant Story [Paperback]
Mike Gould (Author)
Nonfiction. Bill Tarrant, who passed away in November, 1998, was the dog’s best friend. Bill Tarrant’s personal mission was to promote a new paradigm for treating and training dogs: humanely and thoughtfully. Through his powerful gift of writing, Mr. Tarrant educated people that brutality had no place in dog training. In this new book, Mike Gould honors his friend and continues his legacy. Mr. Tarrant was the author of twelve dog and training books, and was the shooting dog editor for “Field & Stream” magazine for twenty-three years. He was the winner of 27 national writing awards. For his book “The Magic of Dogs,” he received a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Other noteworthy books include:
“Hey Pup, Fetch It Up”
First published in 1979, Bill Tarrant was well ahead of his time; he’s been using praise & reward training methods long before the expression “operant” became vogue.
Primarily directed to training retrievers, Tarrant’s method & style is so honest – almost anyone wishing to train any breed will find the book useful and enlightening … If there is one consistent message that comes through Tarrant’s book, it is – NEVER HURT THE DOG!
Perhaps what makes this different from many others – is it becomes patently obvious even after a few pages that Tarrant is not teaching anything he has not tested & tried, he is himself unafraid watch, learn and try different methods.
Consisting of 20 chapters, the author takes the reader from how to choose a pup to training the first fetch, from how to transport a dog to emergency first aid, from housetraining a puppy to teaching the dog to force fetch. When & how to introduce a dog to water? … How to train for a soft mouth? … Gun-shyness, what to do? … Tarrant deals with all and more …
The book lays out training methods & schedules and offers potential solutions to difficulties & problems that may be encountered. Tarrant has developed his own training methods and procedure – some of which are rather novel. For example, he advocates using puppies to teach each other the beginnings of how to `stay’ and to give to the lead.
Each topic is explained in-depth; each stage of training dealt with in detail.
Written with wonderful humour, the book is filled with anecdotes and stories collected from a lifetime of training & living with dogs, the book is both entertaining and educational. More than just a training manual, the book teaches us how to better appreciate our dogs, respect the individual spirit within each animal and have better understanding of our canine friend.
A wonderful read.
Gun Dog Training
By Bill Tarrant
Bill Tarrant was the author of ten books on dogs and was a columnist for Field & Stream magazine from 1973 until his death in 1998. He was named Writer of the Year by the Outdoor Writers Association of America, the Purina Corporation, and the Dog Writers Association of America, the latter honoring him with the award twice. He also received the Orvis Award for Distinguished Outdoor Literature. Gary Ruppel and Mike Gould are featured as some of “Today’s Top Trainers” in the book.
Instinctive Shooting: The Making of a Master Gunner [Now Published in Hardcover]
By Buz Fawcett
Learn to point and shoot like a pro.
Here, point and shoot.” These words from his father propelled Buz Fawcett’s shooting success as a child, gaining him a number of High Gun awards at local trap clubs by the time he was fourteen. Because of his success, his father awarded him his grandfather’s Model 1912 Winchester, which he mastered, even though it “kicked the whey” out of him.
However, his amazing shooting abilities as a kid didn’t follow him into adulthood. Fawcett entered into what he calls his “Dark Ages” of shooting after accepting an associate editor position at Sports Afield in New York City, where he had to read and edit what other gunmen were writing about shooting techniques. Eventually, he took a position as editor of Guns & Ammo magazine, located in California. He soon found himself in a position where he could shoot as much as he liked.
After a number of years and extensive research into shooting methods, Fawcett rediscovered his talents through a technique called “Instinctive Shooting.” This research and a lot of practice finally led to teaching a workshop on instinctive shooting to help others become adept at this miraculous “point and shoot” method. Instinctive Shooting is Fawcett’s guide for other gunmen, describing exactly how and what needs to be done to achieve the ultimate shooting instincts. Practical and hands-on, the book covers such topics as determining your dominant eye, achieving proper shotgun fit, how to correct point and shoot, selecting equipment, practice regimens, mounting, and much more.
150 color Illustrations. http://www.amazon.com/Instinctive-Shooting-Making-Master-Gunner/dp/1620877023
Magazine and Newspaper Articles featuring Gary Ruppel
The Pointing Retreiver – featuring Gary Ruppel
The New Dog Men II – featuring Gary Ruppel
Gary Ruppel assorted magazine articles in B&W
Golden Retreiver – The Denver Post – Featuring Gary Ruppel
Meyers Trainers Philosophy Applies to Dogs and Humans – featuring Gary Ruppel
I am also asked what books I like on wing-shooting and side-by-side shooting, which include all of those above, together all the books by Bill Tarrant , Ben O Williams, and Robert Wehle.By Sporting Road|February 22nd, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews, Dog Training|Comments Offon Books and Articles Featuring Our Legendary Bird Dog Trainer Gary Ruppel and His Kiowa Creek Kennels
Advice Echo’d by Others As Well…
Jason Carter over at Project Upland recently wrote a great article, “Resetting Your Bird Dog in Training – The Recovery Process in which he writes about a training session not going the way you wanted and you reach the point where you say, “That’s it. I’m sending my dog away to be trained!”
He talks about going back to take the “pressure off.” It’s those times where we need to reset the brain for both the trainer and the dog. (Read The Five Mental States of Bird Dogs in Training) It’s where all of that time pairing, or bonding, with your dog as a pup pays off! Find some success and have a love fest moment with your dog, telling them everything is alright, repairing and preparing the brain for the next lesson.
Here are a few examples of how to help your dog
regulate their emotions and reset their nervous system.
- Touch – In our training we can’t lose sight of the power of touch. If it’s a light soothing tap on the side or a full on ground rolling love fest, touch is a very natural, clear and a healing communication pathway that expedites recovery back to a calm state.
- Movement – Predictable movements and routines are visual silent commands to the dog that they pick up very quickly. If it’s your body positioning on your recall or movement patterns to release, all dogs study, learn and anticipate your movement habits every minute of the day. Use this to your advantage in your training.
- Tone – Connecting positive tone to pleasure is essential in the pairing process. If it be through connecting a “Good girl!” to bait or an “Atta boy!” followed by a tummy rub and play session, positive tones repair and help bring your dog back to balance quickly and easily.
- Time – Don’t expect your dog to process information like another. Dogs are individuals and may need more time and repetition to learn a skill. Often today’s lesson is tomorrow’s learning. Take a break, put your dog away until calmer states are restored. Often the lesson had already been conceptualized by the dog.
The ‘pairing process’ is essential for a number of reasons we often think of as intangibles but really are well established in this very process. Simply, this is the bonding you do with your dog; it’s the process in which he/she learns to trust you. Pairing uses Classical Conditioning to establish a relationship between the dog and handler, the same as the bell and food in Pavlov’s Theory. When we choose to play, pet, walk, and hang out with our dogs outside of training sessions, we are pairing with them, we are creating and strengthening a relationship. Dogs are far better at this than we are. They learn the most subtle nuances in our behavior: the way we walk, talk, stand and breathe are observed by them and are used in the pairing process.
The falsetto or high-pitch voice and friendly body gestures we use when no one is watching does wonders for improving responsiveness, even in our adult dogs. When we play, hug, and touch our dogs we are communicating with them. We’re telling them that they are safe and have nothing to worry about. When a dog is stressed, a friendly, high-pitch voice can soothe them and activate its upper nervous system or sympathetic system that allows self regulation.
Our visual cues are also very important. Though we all want our dogs to listen they rely far more on visual cues than verbal. Adding patterns of repetitive movements into your lessons reinforces desired behaviors and stimulates the portion of the brain that encourages learning. We need to be cognizant that dogs are perpetually studying our body language, even the most subtle. They notice the slightest forward shift of your weight on the send, the way you adjust your hat when you’re upset or the way you shift to one side a moment before asking them to release the bird. Your every twitch is under scrutiny so use it to your advantage.
As such, if you are stressed or angry they’ll know it, too! For those that test their dogs, you might remember the dog that showed up on your first test day that you never saw before in your training? Likely they caught the vibe that you were putting out and moved into an alarmed state where the dog spends more time reacting to your emotions and less time responding to your cues. The mind drifts from the task at hand and focuses more on its surroundings and potential dangers.
When a handler is emotionally charged the dog’s state of mind shifts out of the calm or alert part of their brain and enters the fight, flight or freeze mindset. Depending on many variables, at this point the dog’s mindset moves to alarm, fear or even terror. These variables become a direct link to their unpleasant experiences in their past. The dog will be unable to process any information. If training were to continue in this state, you would risk rewiring or reconditioning the dog. They would learn to misread your cues creating a confused, frightened and mistrusting dog and a further-frustrated handler. A dog that mistrusts will spend more time processing towards fight or flight than learning from you. It’s better to put the lead down and be done for a few hours, or even the day, than to teach your dog to be fearful of you.
An exponentially more damaging scenario is early puppy traumatic experiences. Puppies that are exposed to excessive pressure or trauma may exhibit toxic stress or more intense social behavior such as excitability, nervousness or chronic stress. Their ability to respond to calming gestures as adults is severely impaired by these experiences. Dogs that have experienced unfair training will require substantially more of your time repairing the damage.
Fear makes your dog dumb . . . enough said.
We all need to recognize and appreciate that
when we use punishment to maintain the absence of a behavior, the behavior is
absent only as long as the punishment is present. A perfect example is the bark
collar. It extinguishes barking when in use though does not change the behavior
when not in use. Punishment doesn’t teach, it just shows your dog what not to
do. We need to remember that infusing lots of reinforcement in our training is
just good teaching practice and perpetuates pairing and in turn helps to
motivate your dog to want to perform for you.
As a trainer, there is nothing more enjoyable to see than a dog and its handler seamlessly working together in such a way that leaves us with no doubt they share a strong bond for one another and exhibit an undeniable affinity for the hunt. The dog who has been largely imprinted through positive reinforcement will consistently be an honest and reliable hunting companion. Disregarding your dog’s mental state is a common mistake many trainers make. A great dog trainer can train towards the character of the dog and away from issues. They know what the dog can handle and are vigilant of their dog’s mental state. They are able to recognize when they can pressure their dog and how to reset them to get them back to that calm, trainable state. They know how to heal emotions and how to motivate and reinforce in a way that is meaningful to the dog.
