When training our gundogs, we all want our sessions to be productive and successful and feel like a good use of our often limited time.
And yet we have all been guilty of wandering into a field or a training area, with every intention of ‘doing some gundog training’ and realising that we’ve forgotten our whistle, have absolutely no plan as to what exercises we want to cover, or no way of communicating with our dog that now is training time.
What usually happens next is one or more of the following:
· You set up an exercise without the right equipment and then have to watch it go horribly wrong.
· You default to practising exercises that your dog is already good at and don’t make any progress in the areas you actually want to work on.
· You get frustrated that your dog doesn’t seem to be in the mood, you have no idea what to do, give up on training and send your dog off to have some more free time.
My most productive and successful gundog training sessions have always been planned before leaving the house.
Consider how sports people and military personnel prepare themselves. They ensure that all their resources are ready and in working order prior to use. They have warm-up and cool-down routines. Their training plan has been prepared in advance.
Everything appears to look easy and seamless but it is the work that is done beforehand that makes it run so well.
If you have ever watched field triallers competing, the best handlers will invariably look calm, relaxed and confident, making everything look incredibly easy. This is all down to their preparation and their routines.
But how exactly should you go about preparing and planning? That’s what I’ll cover in this blog to help you make the most out of your gundog training sessions.
How to manage your equipment
As a handler, you will need to know exactly where your equipment is, that it is fit for purpose (and the exercises you want to work on), and is easily accessible.
There is nothing worse than turning up for training or an assessment than to find you have lost or forgotten something. It makes you feel uncomfortable and unconfident before you have even started.
By keeping your equipment in the same place, you should feel more in control which will transfer down to your dog.
It will also help you to remain focused on the task at hand and avoid any “faffing”.
Rifling through pockets can waste significant time at best, but can at worst negatively impact your dog’s learning and understanding, particularly if they are waiting for reinforcement.
When it comes to storing your equipment, I always recommend the use of dummy vests. They spread the weight of the contents easily across your shoulders, they don’t flap or dangle in the way of your dog, they have a lot of pockets, are waterproof and can be worn over coats and jackets in the winter yet equally comfortable over a t-shirt in the summer.
Dummy bags are fine if they are well-organised and secured so that they do not swing forward and interfere with your dog.
Whether you choose a vest or a bag, you should never drop dummies on the floor and always get into the habit of putting them away after your dog has delivered them.
It is rude to simply discard an article, particularly after your dog has retrieved it for you. Even if it is not game, articles like dummies or balls should still always be treated with the same respect.
Plus, chucking or leaving the dummy on the ground will become a distraction that is not necessary, especially during your early stages of training, later on you can leave a dummy out on purpose as a distraction, but not at the learning stage of training.
As well as your dummies, you will also need to decide where you are going to store all your other training equipment such as whistle, lead, treat pouch, clicker, ball, get it bowls, posts and go-to targets, placeboard, steady fob, water, as well as things like poo bags, car keys, mobile phone, glasses, etc.
Put some thought into this, it will be invaluable in the future. I suggest you think about which hand you throw your dummy with, and how you will get the dummies in and out of the back pocket of your vest. Where will you put your lead while your dog is working? And have you got easy access to your clicker or treats?
How to prepare your gundog for training
Before you head out training you want your dog to be ready to learn, ready to work, ready to play. They should be well-rested and in good mental and physical condition.
Avoid certain times or situations, such as straight after food, or after a long hike on a warm day, or as soon as you return from work. If you are training after work, for example, give your dog some time to settle after being reunited with you, a walk around the garden, perhaps some play or a short relaxing bumble.
I have many routines that are a running theme throughout my training sessions and if you have trained with me you might have heard some phrases like “Have a KitKat”, meaning take a break, “5 Bananas” equals 5 seconds, and “Work, Rest & Play” (the old Mars Bar advert) in reference to these routines.
No matter what you are working on, training sessions should have a distinct pattern. These exercises below have been put together to form a routine that prepares your dog for training and lets them know what is expected of them.
1. Settle into the environment. Give your dog time to breathe, look around, have a pee, and suss out the area.
2. Warm-up. Circuits give dogs time to get into the training frame of mind. When they start cue seeking you can start to ask for your well-known cues in a random order (you don’t want them to always be the same as it will become a chain of behaviours). The criteria here is to just check that your dog is responding to individual cues, not following a pattern.
3. Training session with frequent breaks. I always aim to take a mini-break after each 10 repetitions of a behaviour and longer breaks when changing the exercise.
4. Breaks that incorporate rest and play. They do not need to be lengthy or involve very high energy play as you are simply giving your dog’s brain a rest from the intensity of the training session. You are not asking them to go off into high arousal or self-hunting mode, simply giving them a bit of a breather, an opportunity to go and pee, and perhaps engage in some light play with you.
5. Cool down session. I like to engage in a bit of light play, followed by a relaxing off-lead bumble.
All these transitions from work to rest to play should have clear cues from you, which can be a combination of verbal and body language.
To start with it may take a few minutes for your dog to be ready to work, don’t worry, give them time.
If you make a good habit of doing these routines before all your training sessions, you will find that your dog is able to settle into work quite quickly and transition from work to rest to play.
How to time and reflect on your training sessions
An important part of your training routine is to be very aware of the time you are spending and the number of repetitions you are asking of your dog.
If you try any repetitive task over a period of time, it doesn’t matter how much you enjoy it, your performance will deteriorate as you tire and/or lose focus.
Part of your routine should be to always remember to try to keep your sessions short yet effective. You might want to count out the number of pieces of food, set an alarm on your phone or have someone monitor your repetitions.
Part of being an effective handler is also being able to reflect on your sessions in order to identify what needs to be done next to make progress. Putting the time aside, if you end many repetitions at the same level and are not moving forward, this can also cause your dog to lose interest and/or become frustrated.
Try to plan the progression of your sessions before you head out so that you are ready to move and can adapt your session if your dog is progressing quicker than expected or struggling.
This means that you will have to be very observant of your dog, the environment and yourself. You might even want to start filming your sessions so that you can review things after you’ve got back home.
Use your observations and reflections to create the lesson plan for the next session.
This system of planning and preparation; doing, measuring and observation; and analysis, reflection and planning will ensure you make the most of your gundog training sessions and keep you on a smooth track of progression towards your gundog training goals.
Getting support with your gundog training session in Haslemere, Surrey and Loxwood, West Sussex
If you’ve been training on your own for a while and have stopped making progress, then it might be time to enlist support.
At Teach Your Gundog I run one-to-one gundog training sessions as well group gundog classes covering all levels from puppy and beginners to working gundog that are preparing for the shoot season or assessments like the Royal Kennel Club Working Gundog Certificate.
For more information on training with me, please head to https://www.teachyourgundog.co.uk/collections/all
If you’d like to join a group class above our puppy / beginner level, please book a 121 with me first so I can assess where you and your dog are at with your training and can recommend the most appropriate group level.