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Highs and Lows of Gundog Training.

Not every days train is a 100% positive and today was certainly a mixed bag of results. Coincidentally the dogs I trained today we’re all Springer Spaniels with a tendency to run without warning. Ziggy who’s 10 month old is still only a pup and learning, with me he hunts and listens too commands beautifully but with Noel he know how to frustrate him, deviating from his quartering. On a positive Noel is totally committed to getting Ziggy to the best level they can achieve together. With my help they’ll have a lasting working relationship that will ensure he doesn’t switch off and decided to have that 10 minute free hunting.

Meet Wurly the Springer Spaniel who reminds me of a Curly Wurly chocolate bar, an intertwined and complexed bar. Unfortunately due to work commitments and life Debbie hasn’t attended training lessons for some time. When I initially met Wurly he’d already chased down sheep in Scotland. Over time we’ve worked on stimulating him mentally and physically to his working breed potential. Having such strong hunting/working breeding, makes training all the more challenging. On top of that he’s so focussed on the run which he displayed today. After 30 minutes of great hunting and taking command from whistle/voice he suddenly switched off and ran. You’d think what’s he chasing, but there was nothing there, he just ran and ran totally oblivious to any command.

So you see not everyday is a total positive, but I always insist on finding a positive out of a negative. At least we had 30 mins great off lead hunting, and he returned back to us. Wurly is booked in after today for some residential gundog training to enable me to spend time working on his command structure.

Gundog training springer spaniel hunting quartering