How do I progress my Springer?

15
Dec
2009

"My two-year-old Springer bitch will heel on/off the lead, sit, stay and recall no problem. She will retrieve warm/cold game. My problem is if I cast her off and she bolts a rabbit or flushes a bird, she is off after it like a steam train. When I bought her, she was trained as a trailing dog. Unfortunately, it was my first gun dog and obviously the wrong dog for a beginner. Unfortunately, I think the trainer I bought her from saw my £1,500, and said this is the dog for me. I have asked a couple of trainers if they can put her in a rabbit pen. They say she is not ready for that, but pay me £25 per half hour, and I will show you how to train her to sit, stay, heel and recall, which she already does. I would be grateful for any advice on this problem or if you know of any trainer that is not just interested in making money from a novice, or if you do a video that would help me to stop this." David Clarke

H&C blogger and expert gundog trainer Howard Kirby replies: "The problem you have with your Springer bitch is not an uncommon one; lots of dogs appear to be really well trained until they are faced with game. At this point the level of excitement generated goes off the Richter scale and dogs appear never to have heard or been trained to a whistle in their lives.

As well as all the essential training requirements, good communication, understanding, bond and team work that will all need to be in place, your dog will need to be extremely obedient. The level of obedience required from a well trained gundog means that they will need to be trained to a very high level.

If your Spaniel chases and is generally out of control when faced with game, then we will firstly need to encourage and train the dog to hunt a nice tight pattern that is close to the handler, as a rough guide about ten metres either side of the handler (we will be producing a How To video for Spaniel hunting in the very near future). The dog will need to be trained to sit to the flush, in the first instance a thrown dummy to simulate a flush and as the training comes together the flush will be accompanied by a shot . The dog should sit instantly to the flush and then look to the handler for further instruction. Sometimes the dog will be sent to retrieve and others it will be instructed to ‘Leave That/Gone Away’ and then asked to continue hunting ignoring the fall of the dummy.

These training exercises will need to be practised until your dog offers these behaviours willingly and with a sense and awareness that it is working with you and not by itself. Only when your dog is sharp at these exercises will we then introduce game, a rabbit pen is probably a good place to start the transition to game.

The use of a rabbit pen is an area of training that is often misunderstood. Professional trainers do not use the rabbit pen to teach their dogs to be steady to the flush; in fact the opposite. It will be essential that your dog is already well trained to the whistle before we take them to it. The rabbit pen is then used to enable the handler to stage manage and practice steadiness to flushing rabbits and game. Most owners of a rabbit pen won’t let you near it if it is likely that your dog might chase and catch its occupants.

Buying a part or fully trained dog from someone can be tricky, as with any profession in the world there are good and bad dog trainers. Personal recommendation is always a good way to research and find out whether or not you should go to any particular individual. Unfortunately again just like any other profession, professionals will require a fee for their services. Providing you choose the right trainer this may well be money well spent. However there are endless gundog clubs and training groups that enable gundog trainers to get together, share experiences and train their dogs. In fact, quite often the very same professionals that you might consider visiting for one to one help are in fact employed by the club therefore giving you access to some of the best trainers in the country for very little cost.

Here at H&C we have got some exciting new video projects planned for the near future so keep in contact; we will do everything we can to help!"