Think back to your own ‘training.’ Whether learning to ride a bike or use Facebook, someone was at your side, guiding, praising, correcting and encouraging. Early in the process it took a lot of feedback, positive and negative. Later, not so much.
Depending on the skill and maturity of you the student, the praise might have been effusive, loud and frequent. As you matured, it might have been a subtle nod or single word. Ditto for constructive criticism. Your dog’s unique personality and maturity will dictate how – and how much – praise or discipline he needs to become your best hunting partner
I own two wirehairs; great uncle Buddy and grand nephew Manny. They may look alike and share much of their DNA, but Buddy is a “soft” dog, requiring kid glove treatment, especially when being corrected. The poor guy takes it personally if he’s within earshot when I discipline his nephew. Manny is a hard-headed, runaway freight train of a dog often meriting an iron fist approach. Now that I understand that, we get along just fine.
Food, water, a good scratch … they all work. But ultimately let’s not forget that our partner is a bird dog. It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the best reward is. Without training, our very expensive predator-scavenger-partner would simply swallow that bird, maybe slowing down to deconstruct it first. But with training we can forestall that, still allowing our dog savor the primordial reward of prey in his mouth.
It’s our job to provide this uber-reward. Our dogs, in turn, will run five times as far as we walk, swim icy water, endure cactus spines and sand burrs, shiver in brutal cold and pant in searing heat. When it’s all over they’ll then curl up at our feet and sleep the sleep of the blessed.
I think it’s a fair bargain. It’s also what the rest of this book is about: getting to “fetch.”
Scott Linden Outdoors 
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