Adding scent

[Springcopse spaniels]

I think Lloyd is only worried about a standard head wind beat, a back wind is probably least of his current concerns

[Judy]

He can read, learn and inwardly digest for later, we like a good argument and a digression, well, Naj and Newf do anyway.

Naj, I saw that video, managed to resist saying that particular pup needs easier retrieves... The only good thing about it was its perseverance, however, it was a short, marked retrieve so should have been better accomplished. Which reminds me, my pup is now ten months old, do you think its too late to start teaching it to retrieve?

I've had dogs which work a downwind beat quite happily apart from dashing out straight down the middle rather than round the edge of the beat before working it back to me! I suppose it would be easy enough to teach them to go 'round the edge' if I needed to.

[Naj]

He can read, learn and inwardly digest for later, we like a good argument and a digression, well, Naj and Newf do anyway.

Naj, I saw that video, managed to resist saying that particular pup needs easier retrieves... The only good thing about it was its perseverance, however, it was a short, marked retrieve so should have been better accomplished. Which reminds me, my pup is now ten months old, do you think its too late to start teaching it to retrieve?

I've had dogs which work a downwind beat quite happily apart from dashing out straight down the middle rather than round the edge of the beat before working it back to me! I suppose it would be easy enough to teach them to go 'round the edge' if I needed to.

Judy! You surprise me!!! It’s perhaps why we hear of so many problem pups. They’re so bored with easy retrieves they begin to add their own Embellishments.

[trekmoor]

Both Naj and Judy have now mentioned pups/dogs hunting a tailwind and running right through the middle of the unhunted ground before turning to hunt their way back across it. It is not a problem I've had much experience of ? My spaniels sometimes did this but my HPR's very seldom tried to do that. I must have trained the HPR's in a slightly different way ?

I did have some success using the following "method" invented by me when deliberately training dogs to hunt a downwind beat. I began the hunt near to the centre of a fence or hedge by sitting the dog close to the fence , then casting it off to hunt from only a few yards away as I walked backwards while still facing the dog.

Doing this eliminated the "loop" way dogs hunt to a handler on a downwind beat. I used my arms to signal direction across my body to the running dog and I used the whistle to turn it towards me too whenever necessary. I only did a few casts and then stopped before moving to another field to repeat the procedure. From there , as the days went by, I would begin the hunt with the dog sitting by the fence but with me standing ever further back from the fence.

I increased the number of casts the dog was permitted to do before I called a halt until eventually I ended up walking backwards for 1 - 2 hundred yards as the dog hunted into the wind and towards me. Then I began to cast the dog off to hunt from heel downwind towards distant fences or hedges from maybe 70 -80 yards away but I deliberately sent the dog left or right up the field towards that fence and did not permit a straight through the middle of the beat run-out.

Dogs like to hunt so they got to hunt ….but only if they went sideways towards the distant fence. They then …..sometimes.....hunted along the fence and did a fair to middling job of hunting a textbook style downwind beat back to me.

I did not persevere long enough with this "method" to bring it to it's possible full potential ….. I was too damned lazy !

Wullie

[Naj]

Both Naj and Judy have now mentioned pups/dogs hunting a tailwind and running right through the middle of the unhunted ground before turning to hunt their way back across it. It is not a problem I've had much experience of ? My spaniels sometimes did this but my HPR's very seldom tried to do that. I must have trained the HPR's in a slightly different way ?

I did have some success using the following "method" invented by me when deliberately training dogs to hunt a downwind beat. I began the hunt near to the centre of a fence or hedge by sitting the dog close to the fence , then casting it off to hunt from only a few yards away as I walked backwards while still facing the dog.

Doing this eliminated the "loop" way dogs hunt to a handler on a downwind beat. I used my arms to signal direction across my body to the running dog and I used the whistle to turn it towards me too whenever necessary. I only did a few casts and then stopped before moving to another field to repeat the procedure. From there , as the days went by, I would begin the hunt with the dog sitting by the fence but with me standing ever further back from the fence.

I increased the number of casts the dog was permitted to do before I called a halt until eventually I ended up walking backwards for 1 - 2 hundred yards as the dog hunted into the wind and towards me. Then I began to cast the dog off to hunt from heel downwind towards distant fences or hedges from maybe 70 -80 yards away but I deliberately sent the dog left or right up the field towards that fence and did not permit a straight through the middle of the beat run-out.

Dogs like to hunt so they got to hunt ….but only if they went sideways towards the distant fence. They then …..sometimes.....hunted along the fence and did a fair to middling job of hunting a textbook style downwind beat back to me.

I did not persevere long enough with this "method" to bring it to it's possible full potential ….. I was too damned lazy !

Wullie

I don’t think laziness came into it. More likely you’d have died out of boredom if you’d continued. Or had a dog dashing about looking for fences every time you cast it off.

Naj

[trekmoor]

I don’t think laziness came into it. More likely you’d have died out of boredom if you’d continued. Or had a dog dashing about looking for fences every time you cast it off.

Naj

My HPR's tended to dash off until they came to a fence anyway ! If I was hunting a large open field where I could see the buggers , I liked to see them almost bounce off the fences to either side of me as they hunted. No judge ever critiscised my dogs pattern but a few of them did ask me not to let them hunt so much ground as they had wanted to hunt the other half or so of a field with another dog !

Wullie