Following on from my post on the gundog training school in Perthshire I had the opportunity to have a go at working with gundogs. This was not with the Scottish outfit but with Hampshire's equivalent.
This chap is a family friend of my girlfriend's parents. As well as training gundogs for local estates he breeds labradors and spaniels, trains police dogs for the local force, offers daycare for pet dogs and runs training classes for pets. It was the latter that we participated in. We were down staying in her parent's house looking after her granny while her parents were away on holiday but managed to squeeze this in as well.
Instead of working with my girlfriend's parent's dog, we were given dogs from the kennels to work with. We got a couple of black labs that are experienced on shooting. Although what we were doing was essentially basic obedience, we were reinforcing learned behaviour and gave them experience of being handled by other people.
That said, it's safe to say that between me and the dog, I had the far steeper learning curve. Although I've sought out as much time as possible, I've never really "worked" with them. Nor have I had any experience of training them. Although I have tried to look into the theory and "psychology" of dog training I am acutely aware that being booksmart and being able is vastly different. One thing I really took away from it was exactly how dominant you have to be to get best results. I knew that one had to set oneself up in pack leader role but the level required surprised me. Another thing that was pointed out was that verbal commands are of fairly limited; dogs don't speak English and have a limited ability to differentiate the sounds that form words so often it helps to be quite physical when giving commands so they learn to associate the sound with the action.
I loved every second of it. Despite the fact that it involved getting up early on a Sunday morning and standing around in the rain, it was fantastic. I have always maintained that I want to learn about dog training prior to getting a dog of my own. That way I can avoid making basic mistakes and end up with a happy and settled dog. This was an ideal opportunity to learn from an expert and watch him in action. Other experienced trainers were also at the class so it was good to be able to watch them in action and see how they dealt with various actions of their dogs. Best of all, I got to work with a wonderful black labrador called Fabio. He was an absolute star. Naturally, being one of the trainers' dogs, he was extremely well behaved and responded well to me. He was also a complete sop and loved being made a fuss of (and my habit of unconsciously scratching behind his ears when I was listening to the trainer talk). It got to the point that towards the end of an off the lead exercise, he rolled over on his back to get his belly tickled while I was still ten metres away. I had to battle hard not to nick him!
I did feel sorry for him though. One of the trainer's other dogs was out; a black lab bitch called Pippa. Pippa was just about in season so Fabio was taking quite a bit of interest in her and had to be escorted away on multiple occasions. I empathise, after all a large chunk of the heterosexual male population lust after a glossy-haired brunette called Pippa - that said, the Pippa in question has only two legs!
Having tried it once, I can't wait to have another go. I feel much more confident handling dogs and getting the results I want from them. I now can't wait for it to be my lovely black lab that I'm training.
JR
This chap is a family friend of my girlfriend's parents. As well as training gundogs for local estates he breeds labradors and spaniels, trains police dogs for the local force, offers daycare for pet dogs and runs training classes for pets. It was the latter that we participated in. We were down staying in her parent's house looking after her granny while her parents were away on holiday but managed to squeeze this in as well.
Instead of working with my girlfriend's parent's dog, we were given dogs from the kennels to work with. We got a couple of black labs that are experienced on shooting. Although what we were doing was essentially basic obedience, we were reinforcing learned behaviour and gave them experience of being handled by other people.
That said, it's safe to say that between me and the dog, I had the far steeper learning curve. Although I've sought out as much time as possible, I've never really "worked" with them. Nor have I had any experience of training them. Although I have tried to look into the theory and "psychology" of dog training I am acutely aware that being booksmart and being able is vastly different. One thing I really took away from it was exactly how dominant you have to be to get best results. I knew that one had to set oneself up in pack leader role but the level required surprised me. Another thing that was pointed out was that verbal commands are of fairly limited; dogs don't speak English and have a limited ability to differentiate the sounds that form words so often it helps to be quite physical when giving commands so they learn to associate the sound with the action.
I loved every second of it. Despite the fact that it involved getting up early on a Sunday morning and standing around in the rain, it was fantastic. I have always maintained that I want to learn about dog training prior to getting a dog of my own. That way I can avoid making basic mistakes and end up with a happy and settled dog. This was an ideal opportunity to learn from an expert and watch him in action. Other experienced trainers were also at the class so it was good to be able to watch them in action and see how they dealt with various actions of their dogs. Best of all, I got to work with a wonderful black labrador called Fabio. He was an absolute star. Naturally, being one of the trainers' dogs, he was extremely well behaved and responded well to me. He was also a complete sop and loved being made a fuss of (and my habit of unconsciously scratching behind his ears when I was listening to the trainer talk). It got to the point that towards the end of an off the lead exercise, he rolled over on his back to get his belly tickled while I was still ten metres away. I had to battle hard not to nick him!
I did feel sorry for him though. One of the trainer's other dogs was out; a black lab bitch called Pippa. Pippa was just about in season so Fabio was taking quite a bit of interest in her and had to be escorted away on multiple occasions. I empathise, after all a large chunk of the heterosexual male population lust after a glossy-haired brunette called Pippa - that said, the Pippa in question has only two legs!
Having tried it once, I can't wait to have another go. I feel much more confident handling dogs and getting the results I want from them. I now can't wait for it to be my lovely black lab that I'm training.
JR
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