Testimonial – Gundog Training Nell the Italian Spinone

I contacted Damian in December last year after reading the excellent reviews on what he had managed to achieve training wise with owners and their dogs.

I have two Italian Spinones, Darcy eight and Nell 18 months. Darcy can be relied on to keep an eye on me during our walks and always likes to be fairly close and doesn’t wander off. Nell on the other hand is totally different and never keeps her eye on me. Nell wants to do what she is bred to do, that is quartering and flushing paying no heed to a whistle or my mad calls for her to come to me. Hence my call to Damian, things could not go on as they were. Not only was it embarrassing but dangerous to have a dog that did not understand recall.

Ideally training should have started with her much earlier at six months but circumstances didn’t allow for this. Appointment booked for initial 1-2-1 assessment, after a three hour drive, yes three hours (I was determined to sort this out) Nell and I had our first meeting with Damian. I was told to forget whatever had happened in the past and to work with positively going forward. Nell is a beautiful girl, very clever and bright and I didn’t want  years of frustrating walks but a dog that listened and understood what I was asking of her.

First visit, walking to heel, sit and wait command – not too bad from Nell’s point of view but I was doing everything wrong and overcomplicating my instructions and not relaxing whilst training – I acted like a sergeant major. Not much fun for Nell. Basically I wasn’t getting engagement from Nell, obviously birds and scents are much more interesting than I.

Damian has shown me ways to get Nell to engage and this has meant training has been successful. Recall work was going well but then I had a few blips with Nell running off, it’s disheartening but small step each day and consistency make me feel that I am getting somewhere with her. The training sessions were once a month but we have increased these (just for a short while) to every two weeks. At the last session the three of us were walking round the field with Nell off the lead, walking to heel, something I would never have believed possible. I have been working on this exercise since our session and it’s going really well. A way to go yet but we are definitely getting there. It’s about training the owner as well as the dog.

Margaret and Nell the Italian Spinone

Posted: April 5, 2017