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You’re out for a walk with your dog or perhaps just playing in the yard. Suddenly, the dog stops cold. Freezing in place, their nose straightens, their tail lifts out, and they stare intently in one direction. Almost robotically, one front foot lifts slightly off the ground and bends up in a point.
Graceful and precise, this stance isn’t accidental. Why do dogs seem to mimic statues?
In fact, pointing is a longtime instinct. Hunting dogs purposely-bred for generations used the tactic to help owners hunt game and put food on the table.
Although you may not need your dog to find meals, he might strike a pose with a paw folded and suspended in air if he senses something moving.
“If he’s a Pointer, he’s picking up a scent and raising one foot to point in the direction he smells prey,” says Diane Townsend, president of the American Pointer Club. “There’s nothing more natural in this breed than to point.”
When dogs position themselves like this, they’re alerting the owner that a bird or small game is close. By sniffing the air, the dog detects the animal’s scent drifting on wind currents.
Other AKC pointing breeds specifically bred and trained for hunting for generations in Europe or Great Britain will hold the same point position. These include, among others:
Pointing breeds aren’t the only dogs who stop in their tracks and lift a paw when they see a bird, squirrel, or rabbit. Other breeds or mixed-breeds who are driven by a need to spot moving objects often show a variation on the traditional point.
Some dogs freeze in place without lifting his paw, nose, or tail. Others might lock their eyes on a small animal before chasing, capturing, or breaking the prey’s neck to kill it.
Where does this courageous and high-spirited trait come from? A possible reason is that some ancestor in the dog’s heritage was a pointing breed.
“Dogs are known for stopping, pouncing, and eating their prey, but what’s different about a specific hunting breed is its ability to work as a partner with their owner,” says Sharon Fitzpatrick, president of the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of America. “Pointing breeds can search for upland game birds or small prey away from their handler, yet follow instructions when the handler arrives.”
Usually independent thinkers able to find the solution to a problem, pointing breeds work in all types of terrain and weather. According to Townshend, they can be capable of pointing at just 2 months old without ever having to be taught.
Piper, a 4-year-old Vizsla owned by Lynn Brelie-Garel, points and stalks anything that moves.
“She began pointing when she was nearly a year old,” Brelie-Garel says. “Today she’ll stare at lizards, bunnies, and birds. Piper isn’t picky.”
Squirrels drive Sandra Smythe’s 2-year-old Dalmatian, Poppy, bonkers.
“When she’s inside the house, Poppy stands at the sliding glass door and looks in the yard,” says the St. Paul, Minnesota, resident. “If she sees a squirrel, she tears through the doggy door and runs full-speed after it.”
For owners who want to pursue an AKC Master Hunter or Field Trial title with their dogs, some training is required. Many dogs can earn a Junior Hunter title without much training, but advanced skills for hunt tests usually need some sharpening.
Every dog has its own pointing position characteristics. However, handlers must learn how to read a dog’s body language to understand what the dog is communicating.
“If the tail is moving, this might mean the bird is moving,” says Fitzpatrick. “Or, the exact position of the head, whether up or slightly down, can indicate how far the bird might be. Pointing breeds also know the difference between a songbird or a game bird, which helps if the hunter is looking for food.”
Need some help training your dog? While you may not be able to attend in-person training classes during COVID-19, we are here to help you virtually through AKC GoodDog! Helpline. This live telephone service connects you with a professional trainer who will offer unlimited, individualized advice on everything from behavioral issues to CGC prep to getting started in dog sports. https://www.akc.org/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php Get Your Free AKC eBook
While of course I recommend you pick up a copy of the current Bark — which includes great pieces on fear-aggression (Nicholas Dodman), training scent-detection dogs (Cat Warren), complicated pit bulls (Bronwen Dickey), whether our dogs make us more appealing (Karen London), and more — my article, What’s the Point is available online here for all.
In ‘What’s the Point?’ my article in this summer’s issue of The Bark magazine, I review (1) why we care how dogs attend to this gesture, (2) what causes dogs to attend to this gesture (the nature/nurture questions), and (3) what does it mean to be a dog who understands pointing (it doesn’t necessarily mean for them what it means for us).
This little phenomenon—dog attention to our gestures—deserves much more than a passing sentence. How dogs respond to our gestures has attracted considerable attention from research groups around the globe because it seems to be one of the core, underlying features of our relationship with dogs. Pointing has received so much attention that research groups studying dog social cognition could easily be renamed “Pointing Centers.”
Effective handling starts with getting your dog to obey your commands.
Full Disclosure: Sometimes I lose my temper and scream at my dogs. I dont own perfect dogs, and as numerous people who know me will be only too happy to testify, Im not perfect, either. Advertisement
But I think Ive managed to learn a few things from the encyclopedic catalog of mistakes Ive made over the years and the mistakes Ive watched other people make.
Handling a pointing dog effectively (directing him in the field in a way that enhances his training and natural hunting ability) isnt that difficult, but youd never know it from watching the average bird hunter. Advertisement
Standard procedure: if the dog doesnt do what he wants, he screams at it. It makes the handler feel like hes helping or taking control, and sometimes screaming does work. But the problem is, many people continue to scream at their dogs, making things worse. I know from experience.
To keep things simple, lets say you havent yet trained your pointing dog to whoa. If he decides to bust a covey in the field, will yelling at him to whoa make him stop? No. OK, lets say he busts another covey, and this time you yell at him a little louder. Will he whoa? No. One more time. Your dog busts yet another covey and this time you take off the gloves and scream at him for five minutes. Think hell finally understand? No.
So the first requirement of handling your pointing dog effectively is to train it effectively. Your dog cant obey a command in the field that he doesnt know (or knows but doesnt completely understand). There are plenty of good ways to train a dog, but the one common denominator is that the lessons learned during scheduled off-season training sessions are adhered to and reinforced in the field. I know, its tough. Youd rather shoot birds. So would I. And I know what youre thinking. It would be so much easier if my dog would just do what I want it to do. Brother, you wont get an argument from me. But thats simply not the way it usually works. On a real hunt, as opposed to a training session, dogs almost always choose to ignore what theyve learned if they think they can get away with it. Thats just the way theyre wired. Advertisement
If you want, you can give your pup the benefit of the doubt. It probably wont work, but you can try. The next time hes working a bird and all amped up and excited, give him one of the commands he knows—for instance, the “whoa” command.
Hell ignore you. So what do you do then? The first infraction is a freebie. But the next time he ignores you, correct him on the spot.
You wont make him bird shy, because if youve done a thorough job of training him over the summer, hell know exactly why hes being corrected, and hell learn one of the most important lessons he needs to know, that the commands hes been trained to perform apply on hunts, too.
Theres another reason continually yelling at your dog is counterproductive. Again, well use me as an example. I was a headstrong kid. The more my parents screamed at me, the more I tuned them out. Yada, yada, yada.
Didnt make the slightest bit of difference that whatever it was they were screaming about was probably right (I didnt figure that out until well into my adult years, but there you go). I knew just how far I could push them until I got reprimanded. So does your dog. If you customarily yell at your dog six times before you correct him for disobeying a command, hell learn at warp speed that he doesnt have to pay attention to anything you say until youve said it six times. But if you tell him once (twice tops) and then enforce the command with a correction, hell get the idea, and quickly. Think of it! Youve just saved yourself several seconds of useless yelling.
In the same way that constantly yelling at your dog teaches him to ignore you, constantly talking to him while youre hunting does the same thing. People who continually talk and whistle at their dogs drive everyone around them nuts. Ive noticed that this is more common among those who are involved with, or know people who are involved with, field trials of just about any kind.
Dont get me wrong. I like and respect field trialers; theyre my kind of people. They breed great dogs, and those breedings filter down to the hunting dogs I buy. But why they seem compelled to continually talk to their dogs while theyre hunting, as opposed to trialing, is something youll have to get them to explain to you. I dont get it.
Finally, one of the hardest things to learn about effective handling, and an area of my own handling that I continually work on, is learning to determine when your dog is making a mistake he may benefit from, and when hes simply giving you, so to speak, the paw. Inexperienced dogs and puppies make a lot of mistakes.
Punishing them or screaming at them for making an honest mistake wont teach them a thing. But allowing them to make that mistake allows them to learn.
Although there are exceptions, most dogs want to do the right thing. If your young dog pushes a bird a little too hard and bumps it, will yelling at him or correcting him make him more cautious? Nope. Thats something he has to figure out on his own. Yeah, its no fun when a perfect opportunity for a shot flies away, but dogs arent any more perfect than their owners.
Even experienced, seasoned pointing dogs bump birds, because bird behavior simply isnt predictable. A young dog, or an older dog who hasnt been hunted much, needs to learn what his personal boundaries are.
He needs to learn to use his own judgment about how close he can get to a bird before he points it, not yours; he needs to learn how far he should range to effectively hunt birds in the terrain hes hunting; and he needs to do these and other things without a lot of pointless chatter from you, which just distracts him from the job at hand.
So, am I saying you should never yell at or talk to your dog? Nope. If you keep your chatter and yelling to a minimum, it will have that much more impact when it really matters. For instance, when hes about to run onto a busy highway and your command “whoa,” barked at the top of your lungs, stops him in his tracks.
Or, not least, when hes made a perfect point, you make the shot, and he delivers the warm bird to your hand. Thats when telling him what a good boy he is will make him want to please you that much more.
One thing is for sure — if you cant stop your dog, then you cant handle. Check out these great tips for training your dog to stop, turn, sit, and look to you for direction.
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Pointing Birds: Upland Bird Dog Training – Part 1
You’re out for a walk with your dog or perhaps just playing in the yard. Suddenly, the dog stops cold. Freezing in place, their nose straightens, their tail lifts out, and they stare intently in one direction. Almost robotically, one front foot lifts slightly off the ground and bends up in a point.
In fact, pointing is a longtime instinct. Hunting dogs purposely-bred for generations used the tactic to help owners hunt game and put food on the table.
Although you may not need your dog to find meals, he might strike a pose with a paw folded and suspended in air if he senses something moving.
“If he’s a Pointer, he’s picking up a scent and raising one foot to point in the direction he smells prey,” says Diane Townsend, president of the American Pointer Club. “There’s nothing more natural in this breed than to point.”
When dogs position themselves like this, they’re alerting the owner that a bird or small game is close. By sniffing the air, the dog detects the animal’s scent drifting on wind currents.
Other AKC pointing breeds specifically bred and trained for hunting for generations in Europe or Great Britain will hold the same point position. These include, among others:
Pointing breeds aren’t the only dogs who stop in their tracks and lift a paw when they see a bird, squirrel, or rabbit. Other breeds or mixed-breeds who are driven by a need to spot moving objects often show a variation on the traditional point.
Some dogs freeze in place without lifting his paw, nose, or tail. Others might lock their eyes on a small animal before chasing, capturing, or breaking the prey’s neck to kill it.
Where does this courageous and high-spirited trait come from? A possible reason is that some ancestor in the dog’s heritage was a pointing breed.
“Dogs are known for stopping, pouncing, and eating their prey, but what’s different about a specific hunting breed is its ability to work as a partner with their owner,” says Sharon Fitzpatrick, president of the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of America. “Pointing breeds can search for upland game birds or small prey away from their handler, yet follow instructions when the handler arrives.”
Usually independent thinkers able to find the solution to a problem, pointing breeds work in all types of terrain and weather. According to Townshend, they can be capable of pointing at just 2 months old without ever having to be taught.
“She began pointing when she was nearly a year old,” Brelie-Garel says. “Today she’ll stare at lizards, bunnies, and birds. Piper isn’t picky.”
“When she’s inside the house, Poppy stands at the sliding glass door and looks in the yard,” says the St. Paul, Minnesota, resident. “If she sees a squirrel, she tears through the doggy door and runs full-speed after it.”
For owners who want to pursue an AKC Master Hunter or Field Trial title with their dogs, some training is required. Many dogs can earn a Junior Hunter title without much training, but advanced skills for hunt tests usually need some sharpening.
Every dog has its own pointing position characteristics. However, handlers must learn how to read a dog’s body language to understand what the dog is communicating.
“If the tail is moving, this might mean the bird is moving,” says Fitzpatrick. “Or, the exact position of the head, whether up or slightly down, can indicate how far the bird might be. Pointing breeds also know the difference between a songbird or a game bird, which helps if the hunter is looking for food.”
Need some help training your dog? While you may not be able to attend in-person training classes during COVID-19, we are here to help you virtually through AKC GoodDog! Helpline. This live telephone service connects you with a professional trainer who will offer unlimited, individualized advice on everything from behavioral issues to CGC prep to getting started in dog sports. https://www.akc.org/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php Get Your Free AKC eBook