Positive Reinforcement-A Foundational Building Block to Steadiness with your Small Munsterlander Puppy
- Jeff Mizenko
- Mar 15
- 13 min read
Updated: May 14
There a numerous ways to approach developing steadiness in your Small Munsterlander companion. Most methods today involve the use of an electronic collar in North America. The approach we've been using with Cedars Point Glitzy Spitz has been primarily centered around positive reinforcement and a clicker based reward system. Positive reinforcement, versus negative reinforcement or a collar as primary means. We're also providing negative feedback verbally when we're not achieving the targeted result, but our hope is that with an appropriate progression centered around her learning we will be able to keep the negative verbal reprimands to a minimum. Depending on how Glitzy responds to the methods we will adjust accordingly.
A bit of history on the use of the barrel:
We paused the initial progression to work towards excellence on the barrel rather than keep moving every day to a new step in the progression. These foundational training days were not posted in the blog. This shift in focus took shape after talking with Dale Hubbard with Perfection Bird Dog who initially inspired us to approach steadiness with this positive reinforcement clicker based training. Dale lives in the South East and graciously took our first call and suggested a weekly telephone/video coaching approach to the process. Dale uses solely positive reinforcement to develop steadiness and retrieving in his personal dogs and the ones he's training for clients. He's been professionally training pointing dogs for years. We conference with him once a week. We share video, he reviews and then we have discussion about the method and he gives us ways to improve our delivery. This last weekend we attended a Black Hills NAVHDA Foundation Clinic targeting Conditioned Retrieve and Steadiness led by Kyle Hough. We've used his method successfully on our other dogs. We even discussed this method with Dale before attendance. This forced us to pause training for a few days as we stayed out in Wyoming for the clinic. The positive reinforcement progression for steadiness was picked up after attending the Kyle Hough clinic 4/7. We will need to pause our delivery again this coming weekend to tie Soda in Wisconsin with Tito. This may bleed into next week too. We are considering bringing the barrel with us as a potential option to remain consistent with the delivery. We knew this was going to impact Glitzy's development, but in some ways we believe taking a few days off over the last weekend has allowed her to process learning more effectively with some time off. She had a really good session today, which was day 5 of the video progression.
What's discussed/trained:
Foundational Conditioning Prerequisites Needed Prior to Our Teaching Progression
Back Yard Barrel with Pigeon Day 4-Repeat Session of Day 3-Video 4
Proof Before Moving to Field-Back Yard Barrel with Pigeon in Kick Cage and Behind Staged Blinds in Launchers that are Flushed-Glitzy is Placed On the Ground for this Proof-Day 6-Advanced Steadiness to Flush Addition of Live Fire 22 Rounds-Video 6
This blogs focus was built around an entirely different teaching progression than the one below initially. We adjusted it almost daily and ended up with the following final teaching progression:
Basement Intro to Whoa command with clicker using place board
Back Yard Intro to Whoa command with clicker on placeboard and then on ground-not shown
Back Yard Barrel Intro Day 1-Video 1
Back Yard Barrel Day 2-Adding Distance and Duration-Video 2
Back Yard Barrel with Pigeon in Kick Cage Day 3-Addition of Half Hitch to Flank of Glitzy-Video 3
Back Yard Barrel with Wing Tied Pigeon Day 4-Addition of Half Hitch to Flank of Glitzy-Video 4
Back Yard Barrel with Pigeon in Kick Cage and Behind Staged Blinds in launchers that are flushed Day 5-Advanced Steady to Flush with Half Hitch Including Live Fire 22 Rounds-Video 5
Proofing Barrel Work Steady to Flush in the Back Yard with Half Hitch on Ground-Limited Live Fire Based on Observations in Yard Day 6-Videos Day 7
Field Intro with Pigeon in Launchers Steady to Flush-There are three videos for Glitzy's progression on Day 8. Yetta was thrown in late in the game.
By the time we hit the field, which will be a ways out, our hope is that Glitzy will understand what we're looking for before evaluating her there. Steadiness in the yard must be proofed before we move to the field. Hopefully she will apply yard competency in the field and not test things there by breaking. Sometimes both dogs and trainers need to make mistakes before we can achieve their end. Actually mistakes are required...
Once steadiness has been proofed in yard and we're steady to flush in the field we will add the addition of steady to wing (flush) and shot. This won't be until after her NA test and until we condition or back-chain the retrieve. Otherwise we be out of progression. For the steadiness to shot part of the progression we will start in the field with no barrel, unless one is needed. All steadiness efforts will include the concept of the three D's-distance (first), duration (second) and distraction (third). Hopefully you will see this employed in all video footage as we progress. If not, we haven't done our job preparing her for the increase in difficulty and distractions as we progress.
You didn't see this as part of our early progression to the foundational command of "whoa" conditioning in the basement, but it was a virtually distraction free environment. We just proofed distance there. Then we went to the yard and asked for her four feet to be steady on the board and ground. Same concept as applied between yard and field. We proofed this with duration and then distance-even asking Glitzy to retrieve a blind bumper which she did amazingly on. Our first video however starts with the barrel introduction. Our main focus there is to ensure the barrel is a positive learning platform-first video.
Why the barrel..., you might ask? When we take things off the ground learning is enhanced, our back is saved and the pup is more prone-out of its element, to focus on the task at hand more diligently. Same concept applies to place board. It's the same reason handlers use training tables for steadiness, teaching heal, and conditioned retrieve. It enhances the learning environment.
We will not be finishing the progression to wing shot and fall in this blog. The reason for this is that Glitzy Spitz is being prepared for her run in the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association's (NAVHDA's) Natural Ability (NA) test, where no birds are actually dispatched during the test. We're focusing on the steadiness to wing and shot, as these two disciplines are assessed in the NA test. Shot is assessed completely aside of bird presence, but it does enter into the assessment picture. Following her testing we will work towards finishing her steadiness to shot and fall prior to her second season of hunting. We will also be address her retrieve. This will likely happen before completing the steadiness progression too as mentioned earlier. It becomes part of steady to wing, shot and fall process as the retrieve now becomes the ultimate reward or positive reinforcement. If she's not reliably retrieving negative associations with the retrieve can become an issue or the norm. If they become the norm they also become harder to fix later.
Disclaimer: Cedars Point Kennel is not presenting this material as a professional trainer. We are far from this in our process. In fact, this is the first dog that we've trained in any steadiness progression without the use of a training collar as the primary or negative reinforcement method. We're attempting it different with Glitzy. We will be learning and adjusting the progression to meet her where she's at as we move through the process. We are also not a seasoned videographer/speaker. Even finding the words to explain the barrel conditioning process gave us grief the first day. Use of the barrel and the language associated with it is not part of our muscle memory as of yet. We hope that by learning as we go you to will be doing the same. Maybe we'll both learn what not to do. We shall see...
Foundational Conditioning Prerequisites Needed Prior to Our Teaching Progression:
Before jumping into these lessons we'd suggest your pup be competently demonstrating the following disciplines:
Basic Obedience foundations recommended prior to this steadiness teaching progression:
Sit-your call-some pointing trainers don't teach sit before whoa breaking
Stay
Come/Recall
Heal conditioning
Crate conditioning
Exposure to operant/clicker based reward conditioning, ie., powering up the clicker
Place board conditioning
Foundational awareness of "whoa" meaning-stand still
Pup should be collar conditioned-if negative reinforcement is needed you'll have somewhere to fall back to this way
Exposure to field search
Exposure to birds-maybe the pup has been hunted over during its first season
Gun conditioning=Dog is not gun shy
Tools and Equipment Needed for Teaching Progression:
Cedars Point Kennel used remnant carpet left over from the original construction of their home to bungee to our barrel. The barrel used in this progression was also used as a Johnny house for chukar several years ago. We are "throw away" adverse people-despite the message constantly being taught by our society. We lost $400 worth of recalling chukar several years ago when our neighborhood's youth flushed all of our chukar out of our two johnny houses which we had positioned remotely on our gracious neighbors land. Honestly, we haven't felt the need or desire to restocked the houses since obtaining pigeon and building a coop for them. We had food and water tubes in the houses that were a major chore to maintain, especially during the winter. Having to walk out into the field weekly with both water and food to restock the houses, especially during the winter when the water would freeze was a major undertaking. We felt almost relieved when the birds were released. We also had coyote, skunk and racoon that made attempts to get into the houses, so all said the addition of pigeon and a coop was a step up over recall houses with chukar, especially during South Dakota's cold winters.
A picture of the house design, the press board loft, the recall funnel tube access holes at the top of the houses is provided if you want to go down that path. In retrospect, we see this as a better warm weather state alternative to teaching steadiness. We'd recommend quail over chukar though. They are much heartier. The top of the barrel was cut out and replaced with hardware cloth-which became the bottom of the Johnny House. Your looking at it from the bottom to the top in the picture below. The food and water tubes were 4" PVC pipes zip tied in place with access covers at the top and water nipples and a custom made food dispenser at the bottom. We also had a hinged door for the loft, to facilitate flushing the birds out, and a recall funnel door cover to protect the recall tube from being accessed by predators over night-another reason we needed to go out each day. There was also a loft window which was covered in hardware cloth to aid cross ventilation-as much as it's cold in winter it's hot in the summer. The houses were both placed in the shade of trees. The design worked flawlessly. A picture is provided below as food for thought for those interested. As you can see again, we're into recycling....:
Steadiness Progression Equipment List:
55 gallon plastic barrel
Carpet to place on barrel to provide traction for dog and make the barrel more comfortable to stand on-some purposely leave barrel as is with no carpet
Base to support the barrel and keep it stable-we used salvage lumber for this base
Bricks to put base on so that the barrel doesn't hit the ground
Check cord or lead to half hitch the pup should they break their steadiness from barrel or ground
Climbing chalk bag for treat bag
High value treats-we used dried liver for this progression
Kick cage for pigeon
Homing pigeon
Coup for pigeon to recall to. You could use feral birds but they fly away and can't be reused=expensive
Clicker
Bungees to secure carpet
22 caliber pistol and blanks
Bird launchers
Switch grass blinds-optional
Tripod if you want to video your progression. This was highly valuable for us!
Back Yard Barrel Intro Day 1-Video 1
Our first tips to you and self after watching our own video: talk less, allow Glitzy to learn more on her own. Second, be less concerned about her eyes-focus more on her enjoying the barrel and her feet. Third, treat more.
Inspirational Quote for Day 1
"I regard it as the foremost task of education to insure the survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self denial, and above all, compassion."
Kurt Hahn
Day two on the barrel. Short and sweet.
Note to self and you. We had treat back in view. This isn't valuable to dog. So eventually we moved it to our rear. We also had a bit of weight tension on the half hitch. We loosed this up later as it was counter productive.
Inspirational quote of Day 2:
“LOVE, TRUST, DEVOTION…To find it look no further than into a dog’s eyes”
Steve Reider
Back Yard Barrel with Pigeon in Kick Cage Intro Steady to Flush-Day 3-Addition of Half Hitch to Flank of Glitzy-Video 3
Inspirational quote of Day 3:
"Repetition builds success and consistency speeds it up."
– Unknown
Back Yard Barrel with Pigeon Day 4-Repeat Session of Day 3-Video 4
Couple of notes about this learning session:
Birds were placed closer to her than in previous session to increase difficulty.
Duration of initial steadiness with no bird was extended for longer period of time as was the time she was asked to stand her birds.
Jack pot clicked and treated Glitzy after second bird flush due to the fact that she didn't leave the barrel. This continued too, until adding more difficulty by throwing birds in front of her.
Notice how she jumps up on the barrel after first thrown bird almost as to say sorry, I messed up..., or lets go again.
On second thrown bird, she sees it this time, so less of a challenge. The first bird was brought up on the opposite side of my body and she didn't see it adding a means to mistake and half hitch correction. She doesn't leave the barrel on the second thrown bird and we finish on that note.
Note release after putting her back on ground, nothing in the world is free-sit, and then...., free.
What's wrong with the teaching progression on this day? See if you can figure it out yourself. Post in comments and I will confirm or learn something new maybe....? It's pretty significant. A good example of not being able to see the trees through the forest.
Here's a link to a great clinic that's happening at the NAVHDA of the Black Hills Chapter the beginning of April. Foundational skills for all NAVHDA test including Conditioned Retrieve. Kyle Hough is a dog whisperer. We've attended a number of his clinics and they've been the best money we've ever spent with respect to developing our dogs. We actually used his methods for steadiness training on all our breeding dogs. The whoa post is new and it doesn't involve a collar so we wanted to see how Glitzy at a young age responded to the technique and positive reinforcement method.
Inspirational quote of Day 4:
"We learn through the exploration and reflection of the discoveries and experiences in life; the more exposure we get, the more knowledge we will gain."
Unknown
Back Yard Barrel with Pigeon in Kick Cage and Behind Staged Blinds in Launchers that are Flushed Day 5-Advanced Steadiness to Flush Addition of Live Fire 22 Rounds-Video 5
Inspirational quote of Day 5:
Positive reinforcement is always, by definition, decided by the receiver, not the 'giver.'"
Patricia McConnell
Proof Before Moving to Field-Back Yard Barrel with Pigeon in Kick Cage and Behind Staged Blinds in Launchers that are Flushed Day 6 Glitzy is Placed On the Ground for this Proof-Advanced Steadiness to Flush Addition of Live Fire 22 Rounds-Video 6
Inspirational quote of Day 6:
“Patience, consistency and kindness are key to successful dog training.”
Unknown
Proofing Barrel Work Steady to Flush in the Back Yard with Half Hitch on Ground-Limited Live Fire Based on Observations in Yard Day 6-Videos Day 7
Inspirational quote of Day 7:
“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”
B.F. Skinner
Field Intro with Pigeon in Launchers Steady to Flush Day 8-Intro Steady to Flush in the Field with No Tie Out-No Live Fire Based on Observations in Yard Day 6-There are three videos for Glitzy's progression on Day 8. Yetta was thrown in late in the game.
What follows is a three bird progression with Glitzy and a two bird progression with Yetta. The third bird with Yetta also resulted in solid steadiness to wing, we just failed to start the video..., oops!
This three video progression proofs that positive reinforcement as a foundational building block for steadiness works and quickly. If you recall, we ran Glitzy on a six bird progression in the Blog Post Beyond Basic Obedience-Drawing Out Pointing Instinct in Your Small Munsterlander Puppy link here. She had no steadiness whatsoever. After roughly two weeks on the barrel and one day proofing it on the ground in the backyard she showed today staunch steadiness, less a turkey vulture who had great timing for an uncharacteristic distraction. She did stand to flush on the second turkey vulture combo..., regardless. I'm sold on these efforts and have a couple of videos of Yetta just below that tell another tale.
These two videos proof results of two days on the barrel and a day of table work where we revisting the foundation of whoa with birds and where no birds were used in between barrel days. She really took to the barrel tools and applied them well. She stood both of these contacts and a third where we forgot to start video for almost a minute each. Love these results!!! Handler error on second release. Should have been "heal" immediately to prevent delayed chase. She listened though....!
Inspirational quote of Day 8:
“What we see changes what we know. What we know changes what we see.”
Jean Piaget
In Closing:
This learning for our dogs and ourselves was inspiring. We'd love to ask you to inspire us too. These blogs are time consuming, fun, educational, and geared towards beginning handlers, breeders, wild game munchkins and keeping everyone current with Cedars Point Kennel. But for us to keep them coming and fresh we'd love to see your active involvement too. Please join us, comment, request content and rate. We need others to inspire our process and make it more complete! Come now..., hunt 'em up with us.
Jeff Mizenko
Cedars Point Kennel
Summerset, SD
425 241-7788
Jeff Mizenko is the owner of Cedars Point Kennel in Summerset, SD. He's a late onset hunter, developing trainer, husband, and breeder of high drive Small Munsterlanders. He loves adventure and acquiring new life experiences.
Jeff this is truly fantastic work, and Glitzy’s progression is incredible. Her field points are amazing and such a wonderful sight for a dog her age. Positive Reinforcement is a proven method of training and to get back to basics by using a reward based training method is incredible to see. And the proof is in the pudding they say and to see Glitzy’s progression each day was so rewarding. Her field point was so exciting to see and I’m so happy for her and you. Your training methods are proven effective as these videos show. It’s great to see you always adapting in bettering your methods by trying new ways to produce gold standard hunting dogs. Congrats my friend,…