Hormonal Filly
Well-Known Member
So.. wondering if there’s any 'gundog' members on here especially the more experienced to pick their brains. This might not make to much sense to anyone not familiar with the ‘gundog’ world so apologies.
I own a gorgeous Working Cocker Spaniel, who’s 2 1/2 now. My first spaniel and first gundog I’ve trained myself. He is a highly driven fast dog, tons of drive and very head strong. One trainer previously said he has the potential to trial. My boyfriend owns/runs a pheasant shoot so we are lucky in the respect we can use the land as we wish, and my spaniel has picked up since he was 1 1/2 old and did have several runners (my mistake) I originally trained him like a lab, all straight lines and retrieves. Hes like a mini lab and will take blinds better than our lab sometimes in all honesty. The retrieving side of things hes perfect and am happy with that.
The problem was I never done any hunting/quartering training with him, and when he did hunt he’d sometimes chase. I instantly knew this was a problem, so started a year ago to train him to quarter which was a long hard task, he had it in him but would just stand wagging his tail unsure what to do!
Fast forward on a year - he can now quarter lovely, hes got a lovely turn whistle, stop and recall. But hes got older the chasing has got worse. He won’t chase crows, seagulls or duck but only pheasant and partridge, oh and rabbits. I’ve been going to a excellent gundog trainer (award winning) for a year who really really knows her stuff and has helped endlessly with private lessons. We’ve been using pigeons to get him steady to flush and hunting on gamey land, he still tries to chase the pigeons. Shes given endless advice, regarding trying to get flushes close to me as possible but I’ve seen no improvement with the flush and chasing. She even says herself that the stop whistle and recall is 100% UNTIL he flushes something and he’s a completely different dog.
He’ll quarter and be BANG on the whistle, he honestly looks like a trialling dog.. flush something and then BANG, chase. Sometimes not far, sometimes across the field. I have tried ignoring him, really telling him off, getting after him and correcting him by putting him where the stop was blown but it makes 0 difference. He will sit with pheasants all around him, flying all over him and is well used to birds as we feed regularly. Its just when he gets a ‘flush’ we have a issue.
Basically. Has anyone else had a behaviour like this? Have you ever managed to cure it?
I took him out on our land every day for 3 days, just doing some quartering and an odd flush in cover. He only stopped for one flush and chased every other time. I thought doing little and doing it for a few days he’d eventually get it, but nope. Telling him off doesn’t seem to work. I understand he chases as he thinks everything is a pricked bird but he hasn’t picked a pricked bird for over 3 months now as am working so hard to stop this behaviour. I do take him picking up, but he remains sat next to me until the end of the drive where he might get one retrieve which is always a dead bird and nothing live.
Any opinions appreciated. I understand its my error in training him, but a year on and one thing I can’t solve is the chasing.
I own a gorgeous Working Cocker Spaniel, who’s 2 1/2 now. My first spaniel and first gundog I’ve trained myself. He is a highly driven fast dog, tons of drive and very head strong. One trainer previously said he has the potential to trial. My boyfriend owns/runs a pheasant shoot so we are lucky in the respect we can use the land as we wish, and my spaniel has picked up since he was 1 1/2 old and did have several runners (my mistake) I originally trained him like a lab, all straight lines and retrieves. Hes like a mini lab and will take blinds better than our lab sometimes in all honesty. The retrieving side of things hes perfect and am happy with that.
The problem was I never done any hunting/quartering training with him, and when he did hunt he’d sometimes chase. I instantly knew this was a problem, so started a year ago to train him to quarter which was a long hard task, he had it in him but would just stand wagging his tail unsure what to do!
Fast forward on a year - he can now quarter lovely, hes got a lovely turn whistle, stop and recall. But hes got older the chasing has got worse. He won’t chase crows, seagulls or duck but only pheasant and partridge, oh and rabbits. I’ve been going to a excellent gundog trainer (award winning) for a year who really really knows her stuff and has helped endlessly with private lessons. We’ve been using pigeons to get him steady to flush and hunting on gamey land, he still tries to chase the pigeons. Shes given endless advice, regarding trying to get flushes close to me as possible but I’ve seen no improvement with the flush and chasing. She even says herself that the stop whistle and recall is 100% UNTIL he flushes something and he’s a completely different dog.
He’ll quarter and be BANG on the whistle, he honestly looks like a trialling dog.. flush something and then BANG, chase. Sometimes not far, sometimes across the field. I have tried ignoring him, really telling him off, getting after him and correcting him by putting him where the stop was blown but it makes 0 difference. He will sit with pheasants all around him, flying all over him and is well used to birds as we feed regularly. Its just when he gets a ‘flush’ we have a issue.
Basically. Has anyone else had a behaviour like this? Have you ever managed to cure it?
I took him out on our land every day for 3 days, just doing some quartering and an odd flush in cover. He only stopped for one flush and chased every other time. I thought doing little and doing it for a few days he’d eventually get it, but nope. Telling him off doesn’t seem to work. I understand he chases as he thinks everything is a pricked bird but he hasn’t picked a pricked bird for over 3 months now as am working so hard to stop this behaviour. I do take him picking up, but he remains sat next to me until the end of the drive where he might get one retrieve which is always a dead bird and nothing live.
Any opinions appreciated. I understand its my error in training him, but a year on and one thing I can’t solve is the chasing.
We have a lab, shes so laid back and steady its unbelievable. I love working my cocker though as he has SO much drive and enthusiasm compared to the lab. One Saturday he had a few cracking retrieves, one bird 3 labs missed and 2 were trialing labs. They asked me to get him quartering the cover and within seconds he picked up a sent and picked a hen bird from the heaviest cover I've ever seen (had to help him get out) and delivered to hand - he cut his nose and was covered in blood. He can be a cracking dog, its literally just the flushing that gets him over excited and he looses his head. Sweeping after drives and on blinds hes brilliant - better than our lab as he handles so well on the whistle (when his heads in the right place)