Spring Into Action - But Take It Steady

So spring has arrived and with it comes all the commitment and enthusiasm to start training that new young retriever.

But while the change in the season gives the go-ahead to start serious work with younger dogs it’s important for both of you not to lose focus.

Handlers can easily get carried away and start to expect far more from their dogs during springtime training when there’s more time available and more challenging training situations become accessible.

In many cases when handlers get over confident and have high expectations of raw youngsters, their training progress can be slow.

One of the most common problems I have to deal with is owners who come to me with young Labradors in the spring telling me their dog is becoming less able to concentrate during training sessions.

They will say the dog is getting a bit “sloppy” in his retrieving or may even have started to be less accomplished in all his work compared with when his training first began.

All very frustrating, but all very commonplace. Too much work too soon is often the root cause of these issues and the problem is then compounded by piling on more training simply because there is more time as days lengthen.

To make matters worse initial training is often undertaken in much bigger, open spaces that weren’t accessible during the winter.

So suddenly, when aspirations were running high for a progressive spring and summer training period, things start to go backwards.

Take a regular stock-check of your training programme

To avoid this situation I suggest all springtime training should be under constant review and even though it may appear that a young dog is ready to throw off his water wings and move out of the shallows quite quickly, you must be confident that really is the case.

Mastering foundation gundog skills in smaller areas rather than large open spaces is so important in the early stages of training. Of course there comes a point with every young dog when you need to start asking bigger questions in training. The dog obviously has to be taken to a higher level that is beyond the basics, but it’s essential to know exactly when that has to happen. All too often the heat is turned up too quickly because it was wrongly assumed the dog was ready to take on bigger training challenges.

So many times at gundog club training classes do you come across a situation where the dummy thrower will be rather over enthusiastic in his throwing and the call goes out to the handlers in a class : “Anyone fancy a go at that one?”

There is always the confident reply from someone: “Yes, I’ll have a go at that but he’s never gone that far before.” The reply has a sub-text. “He’s never done anything like that before but this is my chance to show-off.”

Aim for sustained and steady progress 

As far as I am concerned the dog’s confidence should never be compromised, even at home never mind at a training class. If you are pretty sure a young dog will falter on an exercise my advice is don’t do it. Instead re-think things and make the same exercise more achievable.

Making slow and steady progress on all training exercises – be that marked retrieves, blind retrieves, double retrieves, stopping at distance, hunting or whatever – should be  the sole aim in the early stages. And the purpose of it all must be to achieve success.

And that success is what lays the firmest foundation for sustained progress – and in many cases rapid progress. What causes the wheels to fall off the wagon is getting carried away with expectations that the dog can do more when in fact he hasn’t fully mastered a skill in its most basic form.

Of course it’s important to know when the time is right to move the training agenda up a gear but, as I said at the start, just because there is more time for training in spring and the chance to get out on to larger areas of open ground, this must not assume the dog can do more than he is really capable of.

A fully-trained and effective gundog needs to be able to work in a vast range of situations. We often underestimate just what we are asking our dogs to do. We want dogs that will work some distance away from us, so there has to be a degree of independent decision making on the part of the dog, but equally we need the dog to be totally responsive to our commands. 

At the same time we are asking for all of this to be undertaken in a huge range of conditions. Quite a big ask I reckon, and yet we expect our dogs to deliver the standard of performance we require time and again. So it’s very important to get it right at the start.

Building the confidence between dog and handler

For those with just one youngster to train this spring with a view to it becoming a future shooting dog, there is one word that probably sums up all that I have said so far – confidence.

If you can instil confidence in your youngster in all the training that you undertake, you too will have confidence in him when he moves to the upper house as a working retriever.

And building that confidence into your partnership is so important in the coming months as your dog steadily hones his inherent skills as a working gundog.

So when things are going right stick at it without being in a rush to do a longer retrieve or a more difficult unseen. And when you’re hiding those tennis balls for a hunting exercise don’t be in too much of a hurry to work him over a big area that could lead to him giving up too soon. 

Use success to bring more success. Build confidence by allowing the dog to keep on getting it right and in a training area that allows you to maintain control and give support at all times.

Of course there will be the time in every part of your training when you have to ask for more, but provided you have really developed that early confidence between the two of you, you will know when the time is right and your dog will feel competent to tackle it and not be phased by the challenge.

Jeremy Hunt is GunsOnPegs' dedicated gundog writer and is also the owner of Fenway Labradors. He has been breeding Labradors for over 25 years and is based in Lancashire, England.

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

jeremy@fenwaylabradors.co.uk
07798 826179