Ohio Turkey Dogs

How to train a dog to sit: "Run the dog, get him all wound up, then put him in your lap, hold tight until the dog submits, then 1 minute later the dog squirms again, hold him until he submits, keep doing that until you feel the dog sigh, then you know he's broke. Then do it with a bag or something on the floor. Put a small piece of camo over it's head so it doesn't see or hear as good. When the dog starts vibrating you know a turkey is close." Brett Berry, Bristolville OH 4/25/21

Gary Flynn is Past-President of the Ohio Search Dog Association. With his Belgian Malinois Tascha, he searched the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York September 2001 to save everyone they could and find the rest.
Gary has spent a lifetime with Search and Rescue dogs. He's jumped out of airplanes with his dogs and knows as much about training dogs as anyone (to NAPWDA stds.). After Tascha died recently at 16, he decided his next dog would be for fun this time, for another passion of his, turkey hunting. Gary's new puppy is a German Shorthair he named Sophie. We're glad to have him as a member and look forward to his input. Gary's email below contains a lot of tips on choosing and training a pup. They're in bold, to make them easy to find.

Search and Rescue dog Tascha (Gary Flynn)

"I started reading your book and really enjoy how you’ve blended the process of training a turkey dog with anecdotal stories. Not a lot of folks can make that work; you have. It’s makes your book a very pleasant read. Nice job! I was hoping to finish the book all the way through last night, but this little Pointer I picked up simply will not stop! What a nice girl… I’ve never had Pointers, but I’ve had my hands on enough working dogs that I know what I like in a pup from which I have high occupational expectations. And so far, so good!
Sophie is very confident in any environment and not at all bothered by loud noises. I sat her water bowl on the deck by the pool edge while my boys were in the pool and had them slapping the top of the water with the pool 'noodles' resulting in a 'cracking' sound similar to that of a .22 short. She never so much as twitched. In fact, when she raised her head from her water bowl and seen Ty (my 14 year old son) smack the top of the water with the noodle again; she ran over to the swim platform and stepped into the pool, and stood in about 6” of water on the first step of the pool stairs, barking and wagging her tail.

Gary Flynn's German Shorthair Turkey Dog Sophie

I had Ty stop slapping the water and swim over and praise her. Happy puppy, loves 'her boy' Ty - jumped back on the deck, ran over, got her bone and ran around the yard for a couple laps. Definitely nothing wrong with a little self-reward after all that, so I permitted it. I typically don’t allow for self-reward, but seeing how she was rewarding herself in 'prey' and it was after praise from Ty, I seen no harm in it. Indifferent to loud startling noises – Check. Undeterred by water – Check. Not bad building blocks for a pup that’s not even 10-weeks old, ya think?
Sophie exhibits a very high level of independence. She remains aware of where I am, but isn’t clingy or afraid to leave my side even in strange or new environments. I have the luxury of being able to expose her to near any environment imaginable, be it the office, friend’s homes, other animals outside of our own, etc. She appears as comfortable as when she’s at home, but very self-aware and still not at all hesitant to go off on her own.
She’s a very, very busy pup that will try to engage other dogs in a typical social appropriate manner. Of course, most adult dogs are more than willing to play with her, but will also let her know when she’s becoming obnoxious. She takes correction from the adult dogs well, after a few growls of course, then will simply find something else to occupy her time until she can make the puppy sneak attack work for her, again, and again…then again… She’s a pup, definitely gets an 'A' for effort!

All of her recall work is done with a leash. She is never given the command to come without a leash attached to her collar. I am a big proponent of never give the dog the ability to ignore a command, and they’ll never know that ignoring the command is an option. However, the leash is also just randomly attached during the course of the day while she’s playing or just hanging out. I do this so that there is no correlation between the leash and being under control and have found this to be very, very useful in moving forward to offline obedience. Which, here again, really is the goal.
If you sit on the floor, ground, deck, stairs, whatever…(and she’s had a chance to burn off some steam) she wants to sit with you. No, my apologies, she wants to lay in your lap and be snuggled. So what I do, and have the whole family doing, is pet her to relax her, then coax her to the left side and keep her calm. Don’t get her excited, this is a time to relax and be a lady. I have a small cut piece of camo netting that is just a 2’x2’ rough-cut square off a old deer blind. And if anybody sees the dog laying like that with another family member, they calmly get that person the net so it can be placed over the pup. We’ll even do it if she’s taking a puppy nap; just go over, sit so that she’s on the left side, and cover her with the netting so that she wakes up with it on her. I actually think she’s starting to anticipate the net.
Housebreaking is going fantastic. She’s had one accident in the house, and that was the day we brought her home. She just get’s put out at regular intervals, after she eats, drinks or wakes-up. Here again, the best way I’ve found to prevent an unwanted behavior is just to do your best to not let it occur in the first place.
Now, with all of that said… we are really enjoying this puppy! And as you can see, everybody in the house is participating. Yes, she’s going to be my hunting buddy, but she’s also a welcomed member of our household. She has the sweetest personality and just the nicest turn. She wants to be a good girl, but well… she’s a pup, and the two don’t always go hand-in-hand. So, rest assured she learned what no means. Haha
I can’t say how she’ll turn out, but I like everything I’m seeing so far. So if I don’t screw her up and she continues to develop as her current behavior indicates she will, then maybe, just maybe, I’ll have a decent turkey dog." Gary Flynn - Vermillion, Ohio 7/22/2011

The best Appalachian turkey dog is in Ohio today

A Boy and his Appalachian turkey hunting dog

"Here's a few more pictures of Sophie, this time doing some field work with my 10 y.o., plus an article on evaluating pups I thought our fellow members might enjoy." Gary Flynn 440-759-7137
(Note from Jon: It's hard to present long articles properly on web pages like here. Gary's 'Choosing A Puppy' article is extensive and a very good read, so if you're interested, please call Gary, or send him an email and he'll gladly email you the complete version. Also: notice how Sophie always has a leash on, like Gary explained above).

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