Gundog Training Assessment with 3 Cocker Spaniels.
Today I had an initial gundog training assessment with 3 beautiful Cocker Spaniels named Maddie, Nellie and Cash. They are owned by Fran who is a young girl and possibly one of the future generation of dog handlers within the working and field trial industry. Fran recently completed a game keeping course and is now in her first year of game keeping working north of Penrith. The appointment was booked by Fran’s mother who is a dog trainer in Cumbria. She has limited knowledge of working gundogs and after a conversation over the phone it was agreed that Fran would be best attending a lesson with myself to see where she needed to go with her dogs and how to achieve her goal.
Fran is a dedicated young girl who from the age of 14 has been working hard to gain recognition within the industry as a gamekeeper and dog handler. Maddie is the oldest of the 3 Cocker Spaniels and is the dog who Fran originally set out to train and learn from. Whilst Maddie is a fantastic working dog out in the field, she is lacking certain skills which is stopping her from taking part in field trials. Nellie is a young dog who despite having very little structure is showing some great promise at becoming a successful working dog and field trial dog. Cash is the youngest of the 3 dogs and was bred by Fran. Fran is determined for Cash to become successful in field trials and the assessment and training today enabled me to demonstrate to Fran exactly what is required and how to work successfully with a young dog.
One of the most important things to remember when working a young dog is that whilst any books, magazines, DVD’s or internet sites can provide information that is relevant to working dogs, we have to remember that each dog is an individual and training skills that work for one dog may not work for another. Fran has sought a lot of advice regarding training working gundogs however she has been bombarded with conflicting advice and information. Todays assessment has enabled me to work with Fran, her mum and her 3 dogs therefore allowing me to demonstrate where she needs to go and how to get there. More importantly, I was able to use some of my young, inexperienced dogs to show Fran some of the important areas to focus on when training a young dog as well as some of the problems that may occur and how to react to them. After today, Fran appeared to be more focussed and is now able to relax and enjoy her training, taking on board advice and demonstrations given whilst blending this with her own ideas and training techniques.
As training our dogs should be a rewarding experience, Fran sees training her dogs not only as a pleasurable experience but also as an opportunity in her line of work and for this reason is 100% committed. I am looking forward to working with Fran over the coming weeks and seeing the progress made.
Posted: September 3, 2013