Residential Gundog Training update for Barney the Labrador.

Barney went home to his owner today after 4 weeks residential gundog training.  Barney is a 10 month old Labrador who showed his true potential during the handover to his owner, Nathan.  Barney is a strong willed dog who has received very little training and when he arrived in my kennels, he would pull on the lead, run off, had no focus and was generally disobedient.

Over the course of 4 weeks and throughout his time in residential gundog training, my main focus was on Barney’s lead work, recall and retrieval work.  Today saw a fantastic demonstration of how Barney has progressed, demonstrating to his owner that he can walk to heel on a lead, he can sit, stop and recall to whistle commands and has more focus.  From being a dog who had poor deliverance on dummies and training objects, Barney showed some true potential demonstrating how he is now able to sit steady to a thrown dummy, he can retrieve to hand and he is able to stop steady to a whistle command on a retrieve.

Barney reminds me of Sam, my 4 year old Labrador who I acquired at 12 months old.  He too was a dominant dog who chased everything, had a lack of focus and was generally disobedient.  With structure, boundaries and the correct training, Sam is now not only a great companion but one of my best working gundogs.

During the handover, it was rewarding to see the results that I had achieved with Barney in such a short period of time.  Whilst it is impossible to achieve a fully trained working gundog in only 4 weeks, residential gundog training does allow me to instil some of the fundamental skills and foundations required for a well balanced and obedient working gundog.

Nathan is committed to training Barney and is going to continue with 1-2-1 gundog training sessions.  I am keen to hear about and see the progress that they make as they continue with their training and feel optimistic that they will have a great working relationship.

Posted: May 26, 2013