Somedays it just all goes right! Gundog training! Happy post!

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Thistle

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We have a 9 month Springer, working bred and I'm training him as a gundog, hopefully will be used to pick up if he is good enough. He is my first working gundog, although I've trained many pet dogs to a reasonable level of obedience.

Most days it's like working with an ADHD child who lives mainly on a diet of Haribo. When he is focused he is fabulous, very quick to learn and respond, it's just getting and maintaining the focus that is the challenge.

Since he was about 4 months old I have been having a 1 - 1 session with a local Spaniel trainer. Firstly about once every 3 weeks as he was so young, just to keep me on the right lines and now once a fortnight, with me being given homework and telephone/online support in between.

Today he was a total star. We have been working on hunting in a local densely wooded area that is private land, part of a large shooting estate but this area is no longer shot.

Very dense cover, sometimes boggy, sometimes brambles and lots of ditches, fallen trees and branches. Also various game there. Today he flushed a pheasant, yes he did run on, but didn't really chase and very quickly stopped and recalled.

I have been doing a lot of work with dummies thrown close to me to keep him in my 'bubble' and not ploughing on doing his own thing. Today he stayed much closer, stopping on the whistle and reading my hand signals, always quickly returning with some challenging 'blind' retrieves. Fab on his marked retrieves too.

It's great when the trainer says 'I never have to worry about losing a dummy when I'm working with Beans, it doesn't matter where they go he has such good drive and a great nose he'll always find them.'

Now if someone could persuade the little monkey to walk nicely on a lead I would be very happy.

Tomorrow I'll probably be pulling my hair out and despairing of him being a teenager, so I thought I make the most of it while I can.
 
And not one picture. Come on!!

The satisfaction when they get it right is huge. I did cold game training with my lot last year and the confusion on their faces when they zoomed past the pheasant looking for a ball was hilarious! They got it right very quickly. Clever breed.
 
Thistle said:
We have a 9 month Springer, working bred and I'm training him as a gundog,
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can you show me your gundog ???
 
cinnamontoast said:
And not one picture. Come on!!

The satisfaction when they get it right is huge. I did cold game training with my lot last year and the confusion on their faces when they zoomed past the pheasant looking for a ball was hilarious! They got it right very quickly. Clever breed.
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I'm using rabbit covered balls and dummies when working in challenging conditions, we also have a dummy with pheasant wings cable tied to it, but it's in a sock for now as he wants to play with the feathers. Shooting starts all round us in 2 weeks so he's seeing plenty of birds and certainly will be used to gunshot by the end of January.

Gamekeeper has promised me some feathered birds to practice with, guess I'll have to put the in tights until he matures a bit more though.
 
Oh well done Thistle, gives you a great thrill when they get it right. As you know I am a Flatcoat person and have always done a lot of obedience and a bit of competing. However I did get a chance before I moved up here to do some gundog training, I loved it and so did my dog. I did find the Spaniels in my class intelligent but very hyper!!
Sadly couldn't make your facebook link work.

And Hey, on a different subject do send my best wishes to Ross if he still comes to you.
 
Sounds like he's coming on well - don't forget to wing tie the birds when they come out of the tights to start with. My year old is doing his first days work this weekend :) How is yours bred?
 
What a smashing dog thistle! I love these working dog posts as they are so interesting,even the terminology is new to me.eg "cold game"..,,what does that mean?
 
Cold game means not freshly shot. Usually stored in the freezer fully feathered and brought out to use for training but not fit for human consumption.
All the dogs in the photo are ours, The lab, Hera is 10.5 years old has had a few health scares and very nasty lumps removed in the past. The Staffy, Lily is 8 and a rescue from Battersea. They were just being caught up and put back on the lead when I took the photo. Lily usually runs free with the others unless there are other dogs very close, she dislikes being jumped on by strange dogs and gets a bit narky and very growly vocal. We find other owners get upst because she is a Staffy so just pop he on a lead for a short time.
 
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Lovely dog - are you planning on working the pup? When you do take the birds out of the tights I meant to use a rubber band to make a neat parcel, lots of wings and flappy bits can be distracting for a pup. Mine is mostly Kidnais/Buccleuch bred and has been doing really well, culminating in placing second in a novice test by just one point from the winner in the same week he turned a year old. They're so enthusiastic about life!
 
Yes, he will work, OH shoots and is involved in a local syndicate as well as going on bigger days elsewhere. We live right in the middle of a friendly farm shoot so I have lots of help and input from others!

I'll start taking him to say hello at elevenses which they have on our drive and may let him pick an easy bird or two towards the end of the season if he is doing well.
Thanks for the advice about tidying the birds up, it'll stop him trying to play with them.

Had a worrying afternoon today. He had a reaction to something (not sure what, we have builders here and all outside time is closely supervised at the moment) could have been a piece of fallen fruit with a wasp maybe. Lots of vomiting, terrible diarrhoea, raised temperature and awful barking cough, struggling to breathe. Rushed him to vets where he had a barrage of drugs and he's back to his normal happy self. It's worrying when a springer lies flat out on the vets floor and is unwilling to move.

I was in the middle of preparing food as we had guests for supper this evening, which I had to cancel as the food didn't get finished!

Husband is very grumpy with me (extremely angry!) as it was his friends who were coming, not like it's my fault, it's his dog!
 
Poor dog, hope he is soon back to normal. OH will have to man up and deal. :-)
We have one day going spare here if you know of anyone, Boxing Day. Just one gun I mean, not the whole day. Safe shots please, my son is beating!
 
cinnamontoast said:
Scary! Is he ok now? Sorry, but dogs are far more important than dinner guests! The only people I'd have round would understand that perfectly!
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I'm sure the people who were coming would understand, they recently lost their middle aged healthy Labrador. last thing they needed to spend the evening with a poorly dog. Although he seems fine now, just a little tired, had half rations for tea and has kept it down. It was really scary, like he had been poisoned, totally emptied his gut, raised temp, cold gums and lips that were abnormal colour together with a raised temp, horrid cough and general floppiness. I have now frozen multiple portions of lamb tagine and eaten lots of prawns for supper.

Clodagh, I'll ask him when I feel like talking to him again!
 
I know wat u mean about when training goes right..i rescued a segugio italiano and she was wild when we first got her but with hard work and continuity of training things are slowly stinking in. Admittedly i dont do gun dog training but i do obience which i am planning to enter bronze award and i started agilty 3 months ago and she is startin to jump a tiny course with a tunnel. I find her attention does go when there is an amazing scent has beeen found but slowly she is coming round to the idea of listening...:)
 
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