Gundog people

We’re just doing a little informal walk around T’s shoot, had a lovely rough day over the pointers yesterday.
All without 3 legged Erik unfortunately but he’s going to join us in the pub afterwards today 😁

Have a fab day everyone! @druid im jealous of your extension, but also pretty ready for the end of the season 😂 it’s been fabulous but busy!
 
EllieBeast said:
We’re just doing a little informal walk around T’s shoot, had a lovely rough day over the pointers yesterday.
All without 3 legged Erik unfortunately but he’s going to join us in the pub afterwards today 😁

Have a fab day everyone! @druid im jealous of your extension, but also pretty ready for the end of the season 😂 it’s been fabulous but busy!
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Our season doesn't start until Nov 1 for pheasants so it works out about the same days as yours but ours fits much better with their breeding season.

Hope Erik is OK!
 
druid said:
Our season doesn't start until Nov 1 for pheasants so it works out about the same days as yours but ours fits much better with their breeding season.

Hope Erik is OK!
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Ah ok I didn’t realise you started later too.
Erik’s just got a split pad, it happened last Saturday out picking up, flinty Norfolk fields! Shame he’s missing the last couple of days but he’s healing well and is an excellent patient 😊
 
EllieBeast said:
Ah ok I didn’t realise you started later too.
Erik’s just got a split pad, it happened last Saturday out picking up, flinty Norfolk fields! Shame he’s missing the last couple of days but he’s healing well and is an excellent patient 😊
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Glad he's healing well!
 
Out on our last day. Beaters Day down on the fringes of Dartmoor.
I’m really sad, I hate the end of the season. I wish it tailed off rather than 6 days one week and nothing the next.
The girls have been fabulous. Scout was fabulous on about 3 days and a PITA on his others!
 

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Think I mentioned it in my Purdey thread a week or so ago rather than here - we’ve been beating (without dog) on a small local shoot this season and they persuaded us to finally bring Purdey along for the last day.

I’m absolutely blown away. She LOVED it so much and seeing her light up and all that instinct and training kick in was incredible. A slight twitchy moment when we thought she might have gone freelance after a muntjac but she recalled off it almost straight away and just got stuck back into what she was meant to be doing.

She’s now curled up fast asleep with her monkey toy and Mr. L watching the rugby 🥰


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So Scout got removed from the roster in January. He is completely wild, like a mad thing. I have no recall. It’s awful.
So I suspect it’s a permanent retirement although I will be having a meeting with my trainer soon and see what he thinks. But S is such a lovely, biddable dog day to day I am looking for other ideas.
How to keep him calmer?
Chemical castration? Any point?
Calming supplements? Do any work?
At home he never gets overexcited, in fact he has to be woken up to do a retrieve.
His recall and stop whistle are immediate and faultless.
Out shooting he just runs like a mad thing, not even hunting, he goes straight over birds.
Any ideas? I know I’ve had ongoing conversations either a few already but this is throwing it open to the room.
 
Clodagh said:
So Scout got removed from the roster in January. He is completely wild, like a mad thing. I have no recall. It’s awful.
So I suspect it’s a permanent retirement although I will be having a meeting with my trainer soon and see what he thinks. But S is such a lovely, biddable dog day to day I am looking for other ideas.
How to keep him calmer?
Chemical castration? Any point?
Calming supplements? Do any work?
At home he never gets overexcited, in fact he has to be woken up to do a retrieve.
His recall and stop whistle are immediate and faultless.
Out shooting he just runs like a mad thing, not even hunting, he goes straight over birds.
Any ideas? I know I’ve had ongoing conversations either a few already but this is throwing it open to the room.
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Sounds like his recall and stop weren't proofed in a shooting situation to start with? See what trainer says but it sounds like he needs to go back to basics and build up solid foundations with shot/game again
 
druid said:
Sounds like his recall and stop weren't proofed in a shooting situation to start with? See what trainer says but it sounds like he needs to go back to basics and build up solid foundations with shot/game again
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He used to have good recall and stop out, he’s always been rangey and I do see I’ve not been on that enough. I can’t quite get my head round why it’s all gone so wrong after 2 seasons.
And the blind running is awful, like a bolting horse.
 
BallyRoanBaubles said:
Nothing much useful to add clodagh but hope you get him sorted 🤞🏽 could he be a bit nervous of something and that's why he's running blind?
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Me beating him? 🤣. I would have done if I could have caught him. 😁. (Not really, he’s far too boney).

It could be overstimulation I think. But not sure how to not get that.
 
Clodagh said:
It could be overstimulation I think. But not sure how to not get that.
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I know nothing about gundog training, so take this with a pinch of salt, but it sounds to me like you need to be working on his recall/stop in a bigger variety of environments, so you can retrain the behaviours in increasingly arousing contexts. And is it just the recall/stop or is his impulse control generally poor when he's out shooting? Because that might be something else to work on.
 
Clodagh said:
So Scout got removed from the roster in January. He is completely wild, like a mad thing. I have no recall. It’s awful.
So I suspect it’s a permanent retirement although I will be having a meeting with my trainer soon and see what he thinks. But S is such a lovely, biddable dog day to day I am looking for other ideas.
How to keep him calmer?
Chemical castration? Any point?
Calming supplements? Do any work?
At home he never gets overexcited, in fact he has to be woken up to do a retrieve.
His recall and stop whistle are immediate and faultless.
Out shooting he just runs like a mad thing, not even hunting, he goes straight over birds.
Any ideas? I know I’ve had ongoing conversations either a few already but this is throwing it open to the room.
Click to expand...

Did his behaviour change coincide with the beagle being in season? Could that have made his brain temporarily fall out?
Or is it more drastic than that?

I really hope you get it sorted, he sounds like such a lovely lad! I’m sure Mr K will have plenty of ideas 😊
 
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EllieBeast said:
Did his behaviour change coincide with the beagle being in season? Could that have made his brain temporarily fall out?
Or is it more drastic than that?

I really hope you get it sorted, he sounds like such a lovely lad! I’m sure Mr S will have plenty of ideas 😊
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It had been coming on already but yes you are almost certainly right that it didn’t help.
If S can tame an HPR I’m sure he can find the key to Scout!
 
Clodagh said:
It had been coming on already but yes you are almost certainly right that it didn’t help.
If S can tame an HPR I’m sure he can find the key to Scout!
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Without a doubt 😊 don’t lose hope! Plenty of dogs end up slightly feral by the end of a busy season. It may just have been a perfect storm of circumstances that led to him being worse than usual this time round.

Keeping everything crossed but you’ve got the right help on hand 😁
 
stangs said:
I know nothing about gundog training, so take this with a pinch of salt, but it sounds to me like need to be working on his recall/stop in a bigger variety of environments, so you can retrain the behaviours in increasingly arousing contexts. And is it just the recall/stop or is his impulse control generally poor when he's out shooting? Because that might be something else to work on.
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The difficulty is there’s nowhere like the shooting field. I’m not disagreeing with you at all but we no longer have our own shoot so I don’t get any ‘boring’ options. And he thinks even walking to the car is cartwheel time if I’m wearing shooting clothes. Everywhere else exciting, crowded beaches, large training environments he would be up for best behaviour medals. It’s very frustrating!
 
The behaviour needs to be reproofed on a shoot setting. That might mean a long line on a day you are working or it might mean paying for some walk up/ shot over training days to start the process. See what S says
 
Certainly worth a few paid shoot over days. I have a spanner with a similar issue, we are going to a simulated shoot day, if he;s still a twat he's off to a pro for residential as I have niether the knowledge nor patience to deal with it. He'll probably end up being my hiking companion in the end.
 
I’m sorry for such a belated reply. I’m not catching up very quick after cage rest.
I’m feeling very unmotivated about him at the moment (ambivalent maybe). I don’t like working him. I will try, mainly because my girls will struggle next season if only 3 available. I also know I need to show some enthusiasm or between us we may as well save money and stay at home.
I’m going to try chemical castration, it might calm him a bit or it might not but it’s worth a go.
I’ll keep you updated. S is back here early March so will see him then.
 
maisie06 said:
Certainly worth a few paid shoot over days. I have a spanner with a similar issue, we are going to a simulated shoot day, if he;s still a twat he's off to a pro for residential as I have niether the knowledge nor patience to deal with it. He'll probably end up being my hiking companion in the end.
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Scout is the best hiking companion… but I have plenty of those who also work. If my husband didn’t love him so much I’d castrate and rehome.

That’s Scout… not my husband 😆
 
druid said:
If you don't like him or working him then sell him/rehome him.
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I absolutely would. But OH loves him. Current temporary decision is OH will take over his bills. I would prefer him to go, he is a lovely pet, absolutely obedient and good fun. Not much fun for him all winter for the next ten years watching me load up the others.
I do like him as a dog but I’ve got too many now to collect non workers.
 
I have had some great days with him. He has done some incredible retrieves. He would do ANYTHING to get his bird. Maybe he’s just too ‘hot’ for my rather lovey handling style.
I keep a shoot diary and if I look back through it there’s about 90% ‘Scout was awful’ to 10% ‘Scout was great’.
 
druid said:
If OH wants to pay for him then that's fair enough that he keeps him.

Will you replace him with a pup?
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Yes. Which takes us up to 7 which is a ridiculous number of dogs. Our house isn’t that big. But whatever. We’ll cope. Luckily OH never wants to go away.
I have booked in with Steve for the 11th March.
 
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