Over excited German Shorthaired Pointer

Question
Hi

We adopted a 3 year old, spayed GSP bitch around 6 weeks ago.  The previous owners stopped being able to be at home enough for her & so decided to rehome her.

We're working on her poor recall & lead walking and making some progress there, however we have a big problem with her if she sees rowing boats and noisy kites.  We live next to a busy rowing river so this makes it very difficult to walk her from home which is frustrating to say the least.  As keen rowers we want to be able to take her to regattas...

Because of the recall issue we have to walk her on the lead at the moment.  When she sees rowing boats she pulls in a manic way towards the boats, cries, barks, circles and generally goes nuts.  A similar thing happens with noisy kites.  

Its difficult to tell if its fear, excitement or a combination - the ears start up when she first hears the boat but sometimes they go down, sometimes she hides behind my knees but most of the time she pulls towards the boats.  Other times she jumps up on me/us.  We think it may be worse when both my partner and I are there.  We can usually distract her by doing some basic training with her, but not once she's started doing the manic thing.  

We've tried being firm with her and trying to carry on walking with her on a short lead & using the lead to check her but this is ineffective by the time she's really pulling and she's a big dog so its difficult to keep moving.  If we stop she just continues with the manic thing.

We think that another contributing factor is how busy the paths in the area get - there are cyclists, other dogs (off lead), runners and rowers - all her senses become heightened - this gets worse as it gets to dusk and she's very twitchy if we walk her at night.

We wonder if we should spend time sitting at the front of the house with her on a lead to get her accustomed to how busy the area is?  How should we stop her becoming manic on walks?

Thanks in advance
Kate.

Answer
I think sitting in front is a great idea.  Using treats and praise, reward her for calm behavior-starting BEFORE she gets worked up.  Pointers tend to use their nose more than eyes, so it is not surprising she gets a bit more nervous at dusk when it is difficult to see.

I would also recommend a very energetic outlet for her-flyball, tracking, hunting or agility or all great options for this breed.  If these do not work I suggest finding a trainer/behaviorist in your area to help you with correct reward timing and some other techniques that are in response to her body language.