Quartering with Shadow the Springer Spaniel – Gundog Training, Preston, Lancashire.

Shadow is a very strong willed Springer Spaniel that’s given his owners a challenging training regime over the past few months. Shadow suffered with wanting to be away and running free, so over the period they’ve attended dog obedience classes, residential Gundog Training and now 1-2-1 Gundog lessons.

During the time we’ve been training I asked that they focus on building up a bond, working on closeness, and establishing a new connection. This training regime meant no off lead, lots of walking and whistle work. Many clients find it hard to understand the importance of small steps, what I say is “short term pain long term gain” and this has certainly proved itself with Shadow today. After weeks of whistle commands for turning and stop/sit we started to work on quartering, hunting up and finding a retrieve. Both Shadow and his owners had an enjoyable lesson and can now start to see how we can eventually let him off the lead and keep him mentally and physically stimulated.

I often liken training to a game of snakes and ladders, sometimes we fall down the snake and climb up the ladders, but we sometimes need to slide down to remember the importance of basics and revisiting the foundations of our training to succeed.

Posted: November 12, 2015