Sporting Gun UK – May 2019

The solutions

Great subscription deals at http://www.sportinggunsubs.co.uk may 2019Sporting gun 61

gundogs

Training

Thefirstthingtodowhenyourdogdoesanything‘wrong’istostop
andthinkaboutwhathappened;therecouldbeextenuating
circumstancesthat caused the situation and it might not be the
dog’sfault.
However,bytheendoftheshootingseasonmostgundogs
would have gone off the boil and unlike a gun they cannot be put

awayandbroughtoutagain[unused] in October. They might well

needa bitof‘bootcamp’training.

Thatsaid,providedyourinitialtrainingwaseffective,itisa case

oftryingtorecreatea problemandworkingtorectifytheissue.

Ifyourdoghasstartedto drop its retrieves, there are a number of

ways to remedy this.

2

Next,gentlytouchthedogwithyour

handaroundtheheadandtheside

ofthemouth.If it dropsthedummy,

putit backandstartagain.Theaimisto

desensitisethedogandforit nottoexpect

youtotakethedummyeverytime.Remove

thedummyoccasionally,praisethedogand

repeattheexercise.If it startstomoveits

headsidetosidefromyourhand,restyour

other hand on top of its head to steady it.

3

Oncethedogiscomfortablewithyou

touchingit,youcanstarttogetit to

moveina controlledmannerwhile

carryingthedummy.Beginwiththedog

satinfrontofyouholdingthedummyand

slowlywalkback,encouragingit verballyand

withyourhands.Stopoccasionally,praise

it andthenmoveoff.Changedirectionto

keepit onitstoes,asdogsarevery good at

anticipating your next move.

5

Torectifyyourdogpicking-up

numerousretrieves,startbyputting

twoorthreedummiesina line

approximately25mapart.Sityourdog

downnexttoyouandsendit foroneofthe

dummies.Assoonasthedogreachesit,

encourageit backby either verbal or the

recallcommand.

Graduallymovethedummiescloserand

closeruntiltheyarealmostnexttoeach

other.I wouldadvisethatasyoumovethe

dummiestogether,startwiththedogquite

closetothemsothatyoucanimposethe

recallassoonasthedogreachestheretrieve.

Thisissoit hasnotime to think about

swappingover.

Asthedoglearnswhatisrequired,you

canmovefurther back and start to use

cold game.

4

Overa relativelyshortperiodoftime
youshouldbeabletoincreasethe
weightofthedummyandthen,if
youhaveany,usesomecoldgame.It
shouldn’ttaketoolongtore-educateyour
dogintomakinga betterdelivery,especially
if thelessonhad been taught properly in the
first place.

1

Thefirststageistogeteithera very
softdummyoranoldsockstuffedwith
rags.I preferthesockasthismakes
a lightretrieveandencouragesthedogto
hold.Inthefirstinstance,I sitthedogupin
frontofmeandgiveit thedummywiththe
command‘Hold’.Remember,thisexerciseis
tore-educateyourdog;it shouldalreadybe
a goodretrieverfromyourtraining and just
needs reminding of the rules.