Is Your Dog Shoot-Ready?

Sit, heel and recall: these are the touchstones of working well in the field. And if your  dog can’t oblige, then it’s time to go back to basics says trainer

- S. Farnsworth, A. Hook, P. Quagliana

Over the summer, a great deal of my time has been spent either organising, running, competing in or helping at retriever working tests. I have competed three different dogs, all at different levels (puppy, novice and open). My puppy is not ready to start working in the shooting field yet, but he heels on and off the lead immaculately, is steady and recalls consistently. These are the basics: heel, sit and recall.

I have tested these skills around various distractions such as my other dogs working around him; other people working their dogs in static and walked-up situations; with thrown dummies and, more recently, with pheasant poults. He has also competed in four puppy working tests and was placed in three of them. It would have been pointless entering him in a puppy working test if he was missing any single one of these skills as it would be quickly obvious to the judge, who would most likely disqualify us or dock us a considerable number of marks. 

I am under no illusions that as his training progresses there will be occasions where one of the aforementioned skills will be less than perfect, but as new situations arise I will continue to hone the basics before moving on to the more technical skills. I am not alone in making these foundations key to training success. So why is it that they are so often forgotten out in the field?

Keeping them sharp

As the shooting season progresses we all get busier. Seasoned gundogs usually take little time to remember their job and, if they are anything like mine, they will have had dedicated training over the summer months to keep them sharp. But what about the novice dogs?