Shropshire Gundog Training Day

Our trainer Stewart North was invited with 5 other gun dog trainers Phil Garton, Casper Jonsen, Tim Brain, June Evans, Glyn Evans by Christine Gray to Shropshire Gundog Society Training Day at Becks Bird Farm, Ellerdine Heath, near Telford. The day started at 6.30am when Phil Garton another trainer from Leicestershire kindly offered to drive.

We arrived at 8.30am to be greeted by Christine Gray who is so well organised !

The barn set out for the admin and catering, Christine had organised a proper loo for the Ladies !

The trainers were showed the various training grounds for Puppies, Beginners, Novice and Open Gundogs.

Numbers had been limited to 7, but the day was so popular most trainers had 8 dogs in each class!

Our trainer was given the task of training 8 Open gundogs:

Peter & Labrador Retriever Diesel
Roz & Labrador Retriever Gibbs
Barry & Labrador Retriever Holly
John & Flat Coated Retriever Finbarr
Julia & Labrador Retriever fly
Anthony & Labrador Retriever Pepper
David & Labrador Retriever Lottie
Denise & Labrador Retriever Blaze

After a brief introduction it transpired that not all the gun dogs had qualified as Open Gundogs, only 4 of the gun dogs had won a novice working test and one of those had won under different ownership and 2 of the gun dogs had been placed in the open class as the novice classes had been oversubscribe!

So from a training point of view it was important to establish the capabilities of the gundogs, the trainer briefly asked the owners to explain thir gundogs biggest weakness which ranged from Stop Whistle, Straight line work, Recall, Delivery issues and one dog asking too many questions! (Robots).

The area of training tasks covered, heelwork, steadiness, marking ability, handling skills, changes in cover and obstacle work.

Not wanting to have any instant failures, the gun dogs were initially asked to line up off lead to view a double mark both short and long at 50m & 100m in light cover.

Gundogs were sent in a number order with number 1 picking the short mark, then number 2 was sent for the long mark and on completion we reversed the retrieves with the same gundogs.

Not one gundog completed both retrieves without any handling!

This exercise highlighted a number of problems?

It showed those gundogs who had no marking ability?
It showed those handlers who could not mark?
It showed handlers interfering with marks, i.e poor sending techniques, not allowing gundogs to use their nose?, noisy handling?,
It showed up gundogs with poor recall,
It showed up gundogs with poor delivery,

Advice was given on all these problems.

Our trainer highlighted that a number of handlers failed to read there dogs body language, did not read the wind conditions and far too many handlers tried to pick the dummy rather than put the gundog in the best position for it succeed its self.

The gundogs were then asked to pick a mark with distraction, the retrieve on the left was over a deep ditch with heavy cover, the other mark was at 90 degrees in light cover.

A number of gun dogs wanted to hunt the ditch and handlers lost sight of their gundog, some gundogs found the ditch too much of a barrier, we discussed how we improve confidence and gundogs marking ability, some handlers stopped their gun dogs in front of an obstacle, some handlers gave instructions whilst their gundogs were in motion, some handlers just expect their gundogs to go over obstacle without instruction.

Different methods suited different gundogs!, there is not a one size fits all mentality!

The trainer highlighted the need to stop handling those gun dogs, who rely too much on the handler, he also demonstrated how to achieve a longer cast, using memory marks increasing the gundogs confidence, we covered sloppy delivery and holding techniques and the need to be more assertive when gundogs are not satisfied after completing retrieves or not willing to stop to instruction.

After lunch, we did some work holding an area, then had a mock walk up with marks and blinds using the ditch, water hazards, thick hedges and a difficult wire fence.

The students will judge the value of the training training session for their particular needs, but from the trainers point of view we tried to highlight at least one weakness, although many gundogs had several, then the trainer tried to give some brief explanation for the reason of that weakness and give guidance on how to improve that weakness.

We conclude with this brief summary;

Peter & Diesel excellent performance during the day, needs to stretch training tasks be more demanding in different covers, would expect this dog to feature in future awards.

Roz & Gibbs excellent performance during the day, this dog is packed with natural ability, be careful not get a working test mentality ~ you are handling the dog when it is not necessary.

Barry & Holly your biggest weakness is not the dog, despite whining being a fault, the trainer was more concerned about your handling and sending techniques, nerves obviously play a part, your dog would mark much better if your set up was change. It certainly has a good nose! The whining got less and less throughout the day...may be that's the answer ~ more work in more highly charged environments?

John & Finbar it was a pleasure to see a stylish flat coated retriever, which did not run in and delivered its retrieve to hand, its a pity the handler cannot read his dog properly! this dog has bags of talent, just needs more consistent handling and its stop whistle tolerance improving.

Julia & Fly very talented gun dog with a handler who needs to serve a good apprenticeship, you need to be much more assertive at times, but equally knowing when not to interfere is absolute. Standing over game is serious fault, do not make it any worse?

Anthony & Pepper another promising gun dog, handler again needs to be more assertive, in a measured way ! pepper responded well to a change in vocal tone you will need to get out to her to remind her of the recall, I would do this without a dummy initially.

David & Lottie, this is a typical talented Labrador that has been over trained, one the country's best trainers Alan Thornton once remarked to our trainer Stewart North "how long has the dog be controlling you" owners with dogs that prompt instruction falsely believe they are controlling the dog? I would like you to place less emphasis on obedience and more emphasis's on hunting, in fact forget about obedience for a while and hopefully your problem will disappear!

Denise & Blaze, need to practising a lot more marks, gundog gave trainer the impression of a good picking up dog - good nose what about its eyesight? too much short work this dog needs to be strenched and confidence improved. You need to practising longer blinds both in and out of cover as this dog loves cover too much ! we spent some time on delievry issues dont be too quick to relieve the dog of its retrieve, reward the dog whilst holding the dummy.

Throughly enjoyed the day, well done Christine and thank you helpers Stuart and Anson.

This report is published to summarise training issues and help others new to our sport to understand, these are typical gundogs problems by people who regularly train gundogs, the writer will fully understand's if any student doe not wished to be mentioned.

Sould you wish to discuss any training advice, please contact Working Gundogs