Lacking that extra gear

[Quin]

On a few occasions I've seen 6 to 8 month old spaniels for sale saying they lack that extra gear for trialing, is it actually possible to tell by that stage that the pup isn't fast enough for trialling and won't the pup get faster as he matures and builds stronger muscles??

Just curious,
Thanks

[bird]

I don't know the answer(which I'm very interested to find out ) but is it the dogs attitude rather than pace per se?

[Quin]

I don't know the answer(which I'm very interested to find out ) but is it the dogs attitude rather than pace per se?

Could well be, I'm new to all this so guess we'll find out soon enough.

[WGD]

From my own perspective it's not necessarily pace alone that is considered. The pup's attitude, trainability and general traits are starting to come through and you get a feeling whether you're going to enjoy working with the dog and whether it will do well.

If there's a question mark generally it will get moved on, too much time and money goes into trialling to persevere with a dog that's not going to cut it if you want to win against the best dogs and handlers in the country.

Edit: all that said if a dog doesn't have some "go" in it by that stage it's probably not going to cut it.

[trekmoor]

Slightly slow dogs often have an extra gear that they go up into once they begin to work on game. That isn't much help however because the trial pups/dogs it would compete with will have gone up a gear too and so they would still be faster/harder going.

Wullie

[Hepe]

I think WDG got the gist of it. If you are seriously into getting the best of the best you need to move on the ones not being top notch or needing too much time. Myself as a hobby owner i will keep them anyhow, yes it's fun competing but rough hunting is even more fun so.. However, i would also find a new home for a dog i wouldn't be able to use at all out working.

Helene

[Alice]

It's not just speed, IMO, it's the whole lot. You do generally have a feel for what a dog is going to be like if it continues on the same trajectory at that age. For sure there are dogs that have ended up very good who were passed on at that age for not seeming like they were going to have the 'go', and sometimes a different handler can bring out the best in a dog in a way that the first didn't- so it's not the dog gets something it didn't have before, but just that not all dogs go their best for everyone if that makes sense, so yes, it was right to move it on.

For myself, I'm a softie and would keep giving a dog chances to shine much longer than that if I liked it, but for someone very serious about it, there's no point them putting their energy into something that 'might' be- they're better served training the one who's more exciting and getting shot of the 'maybe'.

[Naj]

As a matter of interest, are these 'passed on' dogs the plugs that everyone keeps talking about?

Naj

[trekmoor]

Nope, "plugs" take up residence in the bottom of a hole ! Or they used to back when I started.

Wullie

[Nickheref]

It is difficult to generalise but it depends how many dogs you have to work with and how much time you can give them. The best dog I have ever had and still remains the one others are judged by was dull at 8 months old. Kind, honest, desperate to please but just not very fast, he would retrieve dummies etc very nicely but always gave the impression he was doing it because you had asked him to, not because it really mattered to him. I had two litter sisters of his at the same time who were a lot more zippy and a friend who was short of a dog came over to pick one and passed him straight by, not surprising as I had told him he would not want the dog. The change came when I started shooting over him and he really did want to hunt and retrieve game and got better and faster all through his first season as he learnt his job. My friend who saw him again aged three accused me of telling porkies about the dog as a youngster to make sure he did not have him!!
Another friend watching him at 10 years old commented that he was like an ageing footballer, had not got the pace he once had but was always in the right place at the right time.