Gundog Training Forum

Yup that's me - - - a big wummin's blouse chaser !

Wullie

I definitely blended different training methods with my cocker Jake which was documented on this forum throughout the initial years. I trained with a great spaniel group but I also trained him like a north American retriever trainer would. My hunting is about a 50/50 split between more traditional upland bird hunting and waterfowl hunting on water and in corn fields. Due to the amount of waterfowl hunting I do it was important to have a dog that had more control and could problem solve in difficult retrieving scenarios than a typical spaniel would need to do that is just used for normal upland hunting and the occasional jump shooting for ducks. It worked well for me as he is exactly what I want and need. Perhaps he was just a very forgiving student but our dogs are pretty smart. Unlike humans they adapt pretty easily to new things.

Ive taken things from gundog trainers who I like the methods of to train my dogs, Ive taken methods from French bulldogs breeders about breeding as they are 10 years in front of us gundog folk and Ive taken bits from Protection club "Malinois trial training" in terms of obedience and manipulating "prey drive"............ Never really found books useful for training although I find them interesting in terms of references for points in history within the sport.

I take something from everything, even the stuff I don’t agree with. I read books, articles, blogs and most importantly forums.

Videos are good, but I tend to fall asleep while watching. There are several notable horse trainers that I have been able to stay awake for that have supplied me with some behavioural enlightenment that I could transfer to dogs.

I think the best training approach is to not allow oneself to be a slave to any method or philosophy. Have a general plan, and work with what you have and don’t be frightened by behavior; having it change, one way or the other is learning.


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newf wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 1:24 pm

Videos are good, but I tend to fall asleep while watching.

I'm so glad I'm not alone! I find them dull and boring for the most part. I learned most from a quiet unassuming lady at URC, she had great insight was a good trainer but didn't bother to Trial, I thought I would learn more from the chap who did Trial, false assumption! I take little bits from everywhere, the one thing I will no longer do is follow a method, completely beggared one dog trying to do it somebody else's way. If you can bring up a kid successfully you can bring up a dog successfully, there isn't much difference at the basic level.

Yeah, but everybody has a different opinion on how to bring up a kid successfully, or what the end result should look like. And this changes with the generations,

Naj

Nah, bo*****s you shove food in one end and clear it up at the other doncha?