Jump for joy - or an accident waiting to happen?

So far in this new gundog training blog we have covered a range of issues but perhaps this one is the most controversial when it comes to making a judgement over the safety of your dog.

Retrievers and spaniels have to learn to jump obstacles as part of their training. Some dogs find it a very easy task to master, others less so.

Some are confident in their ability when they only have their own body-mass to propel over an obstacle and less so given the added handicap of having to carry game.

Some are good at rail-topped fences but less confident over walls, but anyone who has trained working gundogs knows all too well that with due patience and care most dogs learn to how to tackle a range of obstacles even when carrying a cargo of game.

But then there is the issue of barbed-wire!

There are those who would never risk putting a dog over a barbed-wire topped fence and there are others who would never think twice about it.

We live in times where taking risks is increasingly part of the excitement of any sport - but we also live in times where vets’ fees have never been higher. So am I just being a pessimist and should I put my concerns aside and never give a second thought to asking a dog to jump a wire-topped fence?

There is no doubt that anything that delays the time you can get on to a running bird is deeply frustrating. On a day picking-up this season I was confronted with the sort of new fencing that is a credit to any contractor and would probably have held back a herd of elephants let alone a flock of sheep.

The sheep netting was extra taught (as it should be) and there was a single strand of barbed wire on the top while there was another single strand at ground level. The only gate into the next field was some distance away and I had two young dogs with me and a need to get beyond the fence as quickly as possible.

My dogs are not small and never fail to amaze me at how good they can be at flattening themselves to get under fences, but this time the bottom strand of barbed wire was unforgiving and wasn’t an option of entry.

“Never be tempted to send your dog over barbed wire or any other dangerous obstacle – it’s just not worth it.”

- Advice from a top gundog trainer

At this point I have to say I do not train my dogs to jump fences topped with barbed wire – even though it may be increasingly fashionable to do so.

However I did momentarily consider making an exception. The risks would have been considerable – the dogs were not used to wire and it would have been foolhardy to have expected safe clearance from such a close take-off. Inevitably we walked to the gate, entered the field without any risks and mopped up a bag full of birds.

On the way back to the game-cart I noticed another of the picking up team approaching another stretch of high-tensile fencing. From about ten yards out he sent his two dogs over – one clambered having clearly come into some contact with the barbed wire while the other flew the fence like an experienced Aintree hurdler giving it a good foot of clearance.

Training your dog to jump

Clearly my main reason for not training young dogs to jump barbed wire is my concern for their safety. Those who do expect their dogs to jump barbed wire tend to say that a youngster only has to “catch” itself once on the barb to teach it to treat such fences with respect and to learn how to give adequate clearance in future to avoid injury.

That may well be the case, but a young dog also has to learn how to negotiate such obstacles while carrying game – something that obviously adds to the difficulty in terms of ensuring there is enough “power” in the take-off not to mention mid-air balance.

My other concern is that all wire-topped fences are not as stable as they could be. While it may be possible for dogs to learn to negotiate such fences that are rigid, we all know too well that many “wobbly” posts create an added dangerous unpredictability to jumping wire.

By now I am sure those whose dogs tackle wire topped fences with ease and who have never had a dog with more than a graze, will consider this article to be unnecessarily alarmist. But for those who have seen a dog badly ripped by wire with the myriad of inevitable consequences if it is a stud dog or a bitch to be bred from, then my words of concern clearly gain a degree of credibility.

There appear to be two modes of manoeuvre for getting dogs over such fences. While there are the speed merchants who “stand off” the fence at take-off and then clear it without touching, there are those that teach themselves how to perch momentarily on the wire as part of their jumping technique.

The contact - albeit very briefly - that these dogs have with the barbs on the wire presumably doesn’t inflict any injury to the pads, but it is still a technique that is enough to concern me.

It may be that a dog learns to make the very slightest contact with the wire as it masters it’s jumping skills but I’d hate to think what might happen to a dog’s foot if, for any reason, it’s technique was found wanting and its front pads took the brunt of a miscalculation!

As I said earlier in this article, it now seems that “derring do” is very much the order of the day in gundog work, but while looking back into my library of dog training books I came across one written by an experienced trainer some 13 years ago. I quote his advice: “Never be tempted to send your dog over barbed wire or any other dangerous obstacle – it’s just not worth it.”

While I may be impressed by dogs that appear to effortlessly clear barbed wire on shoot days it is, without doubt, putting them at unnecessary risk – and for me it’s certainly not a risk worth taking.

Jeremy Hunt
Fenway Labradors
jeremy@fenwaylabradors.co.uk
07798 826179

Jeremy is the owner of Fenway Labradors has been breeding Labradors for over 25 years and is based in Lancashire, England.

Jeremy runs gundog training days offering individual or small group training sessions, by the hour, half or full day.