inconsistant hunting while training

[countrycartoons]

I have been training my 14 month old springer bitch, Kezzie. One thing I have noticed while training her is that she can be really enthusiastic and hunt really well, the next moment she has slowed right up and is walking next to me looking at me. I can’t get her working properly after this, if I run in zig zags she will follow but not take a pattern on her own.
She is a very nervous dog and I make go to great efforts to not scare her, she will in fact be working really well and be finding the items I have hidden for her and I will be unaware that anything is wrong until I look down and she’s at my side staring up at me.
She has a fantastic movement when she is going and because she is so sensitive she is very responsive, she is from a very good line, with both parents being FTC’s and I have just entered her into her first working test (and my first) which I am happy to say she won, so when she is working she works very well. These spells of ‘sluggishness’ seem to only last a few weeks but I would like to get to the bottom of it. Any ideas would be appreciated?

[Cass]

Sounds like she's just not on scent. Why hunt if there's nothing there?

[Springfield Pointers]

Have you been yelling at her recently for hunting too far or recently introduced her to shot?

[Rascal]

She knows the game....... And is bored by it, I'd say you are putting too much pressure on her to hunt "your" pattern and possibly doing it too often....

Get her on scented ground that you have cleared of game first and move it on from there.....Stick your whistle in your pocket and let her learn what her nose is for..But don't overdo it and keep up the retrieving side of things....

Rascal.

[Stihl 090]

All of the above are sound advice. Good luck!!

[Springfield Pointers]

Stick your whistle in your pocket and let her learn what her nose is for..

That, by the way, is the best advise I ever got for training working dogs. Lots of value in that little nugget.

[WGD]

Stick your whistle in your pocket and let her learn what her nose is for..

That, by the way, is the best advise I ever got for training working dogs. Lots of value in that little nugget.

To a point, then you end up with novice handlers frightened to blow a whistle. We have them for a reason.

I suspect, OP, you're probably hunting her too much on dead ground. Do you hunt her daily on the same ground? I only hunt mine now a couple of times a week and vary the ground. It is not always possible to get a dog on scented ground, but it is nearly always possible to get a hunting dog hunting by restricting the amount of hunting it gets to do.

You've obviously got the dog to a good standard if you've won a novice test, maybe just time to give it a wee rest.

EDIT: typo, should have have read "restricting the amount" rather than "not restricting the amount"

[Longy0710]

i have found with some dogs, they seem to go a little haywire around that age anyway (teenage years) so a slight break and relaxing the training for a week or so may pep her back up.

[Rascal]

Stick your whistle in your pocket and let her learn what her nose is for..

That, by the way, is the best advise I ever got for training working dogs. Lots of value in that little nugget.

To a point, then you end up with novice handlers frightened to blow a whistle. We have them for a reason.

To a certain extent I agree with you William but very often novices try and instil a windscreen wiper pattern in a dog without understanding wind and scent and with a timid dog you can easily "down" it or take the dog out of the dog. If the OP has access to scented ground it sounds like an easy enough dog to tighten up later if necessary but I would get it on gamey ground that I'd cleared first and watch and learn....It doesn't sound like the sort of dog that's going to end up three fields away in double quick time to me but I could be wrong...It is a spaniel.....

A lot of folk don't understand a dog hunting a back wind for instance and start pip pipping before they let the dog actually work it...

Either that or I'd book a 1-2-1 with a good spaniel trainer and get some advice...As you say the OP has done well to win a test which was a first for both handler and dog....

Rascal

[countrycartoons]

Thanks for your responses, its given me much to think on. I think that you might be on to something with her becoming bored.
I do change the ground often and I don't go to the same place twice in one week. I did have a similar problem when she was a bit younger and I was using a balled up pair of socks, she slowed up and didn't want to hunt anymore, as soon as I changed to hiding dummies around the place, she was a different do. I shall try to find some ground with game on it.
I do try to leave the whistle but in all honesty I am a bit quick on it.
Thanks for your advice, I will make some efforts in these directions.