Hi

[alpha]

Hiya, what a refreshing change that a springer has been rehomed to a working home, fantastic news for you and Moss.
Enjoy your training and hopefully you wilol let us know how you went on..oh with pics of him if poss.

[mossmaster]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome to the forum and encouragement for our first training session tomorrow. I'll let you know how we get on and hopefully include some pics.

Best wishes

David

[Stacia]

Don't get upset if it all goes pear shaped in about two weeks! The dog will be on his best behaviour to begin with and then will start testing the bounderies to see where he is, if you have good and kind boundaries and understand what is happening, all will end up fine

Jelinga

[mossmaster]

Don't get upset if it all goes pear shaped in about two weeks! The dog will be on his best behaviour to begin with and then will start testing the bounderies to see where he is, if you have good and kind boundaries and understand what is happening, all will end up fine

Jelinga

Thanks Jelinga, useful advice. I think I may be experiencing a little of that already. His lead walking away from the home has deteriorated in the last few days (pulling and not walking to heel), although he can do it very well (on and off the lead) in our garden. Probably because of less distractions. Other than that his recalls, ability to sit and stay until called, retrieves, basic whistle commands etc. are coming on well (most of the time!). Due to my inexperience with gundogs my initial goal is to try and prevent his current level of skills deteriorating. I'm hoping that The Purbeck Gundog School and hopefully this forum will help me to achieve this until my level of learning/skills has caught up with Moss, after which we can hopefully move forward together.

The most important thing however is that we both appear to be enjoying the experience - anything else is a bonus

[trekmoor]

Welcome to the forum.

Wullie

[Stacia]

Sounds as if Moss has fallen on his feet I am sure you will both be great together and you will have great fun learning. I didn't discover gundogs until I was in my late forties and it changed my life.

Jelinga

[heidrun]

Hello and welcome to the forum
I think Moss is a very lucky dog to have been adopted by you, David, and I was very happy to rehome him to you. Best of luck with the training. I am sure you will both love it.

Hiya, what a refreshing change that a springer has been rehomed to a working home, fantastic news for you and Moss.

alpha, I am always hoping to find suitable working homes for the young dogs I am asked to rehome through ESSW but unfortunately there are very few applicants like David with an interest in gundog training willing to take on a young springer. Anyone interested please pm me and I will give you some more info.

Heidrun

[beltabout]

Hi, welcome and good luck

Nick

[mossmaster]

It's now official...I have the best dog in the whole wide world

Moss and I had our first training session this morning at The Purbeck Gundog School near Wareham in Dorset and he did very well. It took him about 30 minutes to settle down and not to be too distracted by all of the new sights, sounds and smell (particularly the rabbit pooh which he was keen to sample ), however, soon chilled out and started to focus more on me and the tasks in hand. We have been placed in the beginners group of approximately 12 dogs and handlers which I think is a good idea, particularly as Moss and I have only know each other for just over a week and my training skills are limited to say the least, during which time Moss will be able to cement some of his previous learning whilst I catch up with him. As Sandra said today, at this early stage it is very important that Moss and I continue to build a relationship based on respect and trust before we move on to more advanced tasks, and the more simpler tasks will be an opportunity for us to do this. I can't believe that we have only had Moss for just over one week, he feels so much part of the family already.

We started the session with lead walking around other dogs and handlers which Moss did well. It was also an opportunity for him to practice his steadiness as dogs and their owners walked around him. He behaved very well on both exercises. We then moved onto a sit and stay exercise, simple recall using the whistle and a retrieve, all of which Moss achieved to an acceptable standard. We finished up by encouraging our dogs to hunt over a small area of ground to where several tennis balls and dummies had been dropped, which he did nicely, however, I let him down somewhat by lunging to one side on the retrieve rather than encouraging him to come to me. I think I was probably so delighted with the hunting element of the exercise (the first time we had done it together) that I messed up the retrieve, which Sandra referred to light-heartedly as more like a rugby tackle

Finally we had an opportunity to let our dogs have a bit of a play off their leads, and for the owners to have a chat.

A thoroughly enjoyable morning, which left me feeling very proud of Moss of what he has achieved in his very short, and to date, disrupted life

The next training session is in two weeks.

I've taken a few pics of Moss that I would like to upload to the forum, but I'm struggling to see how. If someone could explain I would be very grateful.

Have a good week y'all

David

[Bogtrotter]

It sounds as though you and Moss had a great time ... congratulations! I'm sure you'll continue to enjoy the training even on the days that he's not quite the best dog in the world and don't worry if there are quite a few of those days to start with

Fiona