WIN! Chudleys dog food
Send us your gundog problems and the best one will win a £50
Chudleys dog food voucher. Chudleys makes a wide range of
complete working food for dogs. Simply post or email your question to
the address above. For more information, go to http://www.chudleys.comThe place for all your health, behaviour, diet, breeding and training queries
GUNDOG EXPERTS
GU G
SEND QUES ONS TO A k h Ex t
Sporting Shooter, Evolution House, 2 6
Easthampstead Road, Wokingham,
Berkshire RG40 2EG
OR EMAIL [email protected]QUESTION OF THE MONTH
First time ratting
Q
I’ve been invited to take my lurcher ratting. His
vaccinations are up to date, but is there anything
else I need to consider?A
JACKIE DRAKEFORD replies: Has he caught rats
before? You don’t say how old he is or how
experienced in catching rabbits. If he is good at his
rabbiting, your main consideration is whether ratting will
make him hard-mouthed. Dogs normally get bitten by their
first rat, and after that they crunch them. However, it often
means a hitherto soft-mouthed rabbit dog becomes
hard-mouthed with all quarry. This is by no means
inevitable, and many lurchers continue to be soft-mouthed
on rabbits while killing rats, but we never know how it is
going to be until they start, and there is no undoing it once
it’s done. If he has not started rabbit work yet, I suggest
you go without him and just enjoy the day as a helper.Teaching directional commands
Q
What are the best commands to
use for teaching my springer to go
left and right? There appears to be
different views and I would like to hear
your opinion.A
HOWARD KIRBY replies: Questions
about command words are always
an interesting subject. I think it
might be helpful to just discuss a few
fundamentals. Stating the obvious, dogs
unfortunately are not born with the ability
to understand the English language or any
pre-conceived thoughts about sound-related consequences. However, we can
engineer that the dog offers a behaviour,
and associate a visual or verbal cue to
that behaviour.
So now we’re back to your question.
Common directional commands are: out,
get out, get on and left/right. It’s this last
pair that’s different as the others don’t rely
on an accompanying visual command
given by a gesturing arm to differentiate
whether the dog is to go left or right.
But if we choose, we can teach the dog
to move to the left or right on verbal
command only. For the doubters among
you, shepherds use something similar all
the time for their herding dogs.
Taking the time to train your gundog
to respond to a left and right command
will give you a little bit more flexibility
and probably a better understanding of
your instructions. Assuming you enjoy
the process of teaching your dog to
perform new behaviours, this will be
great fun to teach.
With all your commands, remember to
keep them clear and simple. Be
consistent and teach the dog to carry
them out in progressively more
challenging environments.
And avoid words that sound similar: for
example, Go and No.Give him the elbow?
Q
I am looking for a stud dog for my Labrador bitch next
year. I thought I had found one, but on checking his health
test results I see that he has an elbow score of 1. The
owner says this is fine, but other people have told me not to use
him. What would you advise?A
VICKY PAYNE replies: Elbows that score 1 show a mild
degree of elbow arthritis on the radiographs, although the
dog might be completely sound. The current
recommendations are to breed only from dogs with a 0 grade for
elbows. You might also want to look at relatives and offspring of
stud dogs, as well as using the Kennel Club Estimated Breeding
Value (EBV) to choose a good mate.in association
withPICTURES:
NICK RIDLEY