General Dog Training Session 

I am so pleased that they are helping! Thanks for the feedback 😊

Yeah I think we forget how a big chain like that can impact them. Before we moved I was really conscious about how my other dog would cope with it all as she is my wilding and because Ivy has been becoming my reliable one I did really consider that she’d struggle. Yeah I think taking things back a bit is definitely a good call. I had about a week we’re I kept planning our outings as normal and just found myself getting so wound up and Ivy kept failing so I think it was become a frustrating and negative experience for both of us. That’s why I decided I needed to strip things back and just focusing on keeping our relationship strong. I’m hoping that after a couple of months once she more settled in the new home and routine that she’ll start to snap back to her usual self again. I hope the approach works for your little guy too. I know I haven’t got things quite right yet with the adjustments I’m making but I have found that the calming circuits at the start of each session have been really useful, you can see in the video how her while body changes and softens slightly as we do them so if your finding that he is over the top excited at the start of the walk I would recommend giving them ago. Not asking anything of him just having him on lead slowly walking in a small loop over and over again for a few minutes. Good luck, I’d love to here how you get on!

I so glad you found it useful. I thought it was important to share. Everyone else I see online seems to always share their dogs and their training going perfectly. I know others will have ups and downs in their training journey just as I do so felt it was important to still film even whilst we’re in a dip. My jacket is Pinewood Ladies Dog Sports Jacket, I think it is discontinued on but they have a new 2.0 version - www.pinewood.eu/en-en/article/womens-jacket-pinewood-dog-sports-20-3183?attr1_id=1498

Thank you, I’m really glad you liked it. She is 2 now, and I’m pleased to report that she is definitely getting back on track after this wobble period after our move. 8 months is adolescence time?so always a good stage to just go back and work on foundations. Good luck with your training! 😊

I’m exactly the same. My cocker spaniel is nearly 8 months and her recall is not good at all. Really struggling and feel like I’m not getting anywhere. We keep practicing on the long line and she’s great but then off it and it is a different story!!

Thank you, this one was a bit rough and ready but glad you enjoyed it. I was using this one from Amazon, I’ve been using it for just over a year and it does the job but it actually broke whilst filming this session as one of the legs snapped so having to get another. Phone Tripod EVERESTA 42 Inch 360 flexible Smartphone Tripod,Also Use as Camera Tripod, DSLR Tripod, Video Tripod with Phone Holder Mount Bluetooth Remote Shutter (Silver) www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0827B5582/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_K73Q5F187WS39KGAEQJV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Hi Anna, she was 2 when we moved. I dealt with this by just stripping things back to basics for a while reducing my expectations to help her as she re-adjusted and settled in to our new home set up, the gradually started ramping things up as she was ready. However, it sounds like your situation is very different to what I had at this point. It sounds like your hitting adolescence. The key for me at during adolescence is to keep focused on you foundations to ensure they remain strong and consistent. Also if you are trying to work out a comfortable zone of control I would really recommend you check out the Gundog Trainers Academy webinar in going for a bumble as it covers that topic really well. This is the link: www.gundogtrainersacademy.co.uk/courses/going-for-a-bumble I hope that helps. 😊

@@SpanielTrainingDiaries Thank you so Bert much. I sure will check out that link you sent. Your videos have been so helpful. I have suggested them to many of my dog training friends. Would be nice to get a follow up on how things are now for you and your gundogs. I’m so impressed of what you accomplished!! Take Care Anna Karin

My pleasure. I’m really glad you e enjoyed them! I am trying to continue posting videos every couple of months, to either show where we are at with our training or to refresh some basics to show some of the different methods/activities I have used with my guys. I’m hoping to have a go at some tests this year so will try to recreate and film some of the different exercises that we pick up from them this spring/summer. 😊

@@SpanielTrainingDiaries super! Looking forward to your coming videos 🙏

Will do thank you!

He does a great podcast on his actual website and is adding them gradually to RU-vid. He has helped me a lot on his approach to training . Let me know if that helps

I’ve just had a look at his series on training with a high energy dog, which seems interesting. He is choosing to train with lead corrections which isn’t something I would do with my dogs but I’ll definitely keep watching to see what other techniques he uses that might be useful. 😊

Thanks for the advice John! And glad you enjoyed the "warts and all" video, it's not always smooth sailing is it! I have phased the clicker out for a lot of her behaviours and I actively chose not to use it when doing anything that is aiming to bring excitment levels down as it's been shown that the click causes an increase in dopamine which is the hormone assosiate with being active so when trying to bring her down I want to reduce the levels of dopamine slightly and therefore at the moment I'm not using the clicker much. However, I imagine once I've regained more consitent engagement with her and she's starting to manage her excitiment levels better I will reintroduce it just to sharpen up some of the behaviours again to help get them back to a standard I am happy with and then I'll phase it back out once that standard become reliable again.

@@SpanielTrainingDiaries On the contrary, no advice coming from me.At 63 y old trying to train my first Cocker “ gun dog” , its an up hill struggle even getting the loose lead walking sorted.The books and esp the “ experts” on RU-vid make me feel a failure if my dog ain’t doing things as expected after day one.Please keep airing /passing on your frustrations and warts. 🤬🤬🤬Best wishes in your new home.

Sounds like you have an adolescent on your hands. So longline is a great idea to help you manage the situation and prevent rehearsal of the unwanted behaviour. I would first be looking at her emotional state as it sounds like excitement levels may be sky high, and if that’s the case it will be really hard for her to focus. So whether your in the woods or in the field near the woods I would look to start your session with the circuit walking which I showed at the start of this video. Just very slowing walking in a 10 yard loop giving her time to take in her surroundings and start to settle down. In this exercise your not cuing any behaviour the only rule is that if she doesn’t pull you round so if the lead goes tight just stop and wait for her to release the tension before moving off again. Then as she starts to settle (which could take 15 minutes or more, depending on what she’s like) she should start to offer you come connection, when she does I would reward it and the keep walking until she’s offering regular connection with you. At that point I’d then look to do some training. You may find it take you ages to get to that point and if that’s the case it’s fine to end the session there and go home as that will mentally tire her out plenty. Then if you want to work on your recall I would start playing the basic recall training games that you did when developing her recall response in that environment, so you are taking things right back to the basic foundations but practicing them in place she finds highly distracting. I would just keep focusing on your basics at this stage whilst she’s struggling. It can be frustrating as it feels like your going backwards a but you can never overdo the foundations and it will help with your relationship with her to keep things simple and keep setting her up for success. Then over time you should start to notice that she is settling down quicker with the circuits and managing herself better which will make her far more responsive in those environments. I hope that helps!

Awww thanks fairy Steve! 😄

Well I mean that sounds like you’ve developed an amazing level of engagement with him so that’s a definite win! So I always think hunting exercises and the way you set them up really depends on the dog. But I think I would definitely try to go somewhere with more scented ground, to help ramp up the interest levels. You might also want to set the hunting area up before you set him off so you aren’t the one actually putting things down whilst he’s working. And you could create little scent spots when preparing the area by rubbing the items around on the floor to encourage more nose work. Then when your putting items down I would try to make it so they aren’t too easy to ensure he has to use his nose and not his eyes to find them. Then depending on the dog and what’s causing that behaviour you could try one of two options. Option one would be for if he just doesn’t really understand what the hunting cue is yet, and so is looking for you for reassurance and guidance on what to do. In that situation I would almost be hunting with him, walking the pattern encouraging him to sniff and explore different areas and then I would start to add the cue when you can see he’s getting that the game is to put your nose down and explore, then gradually fade out the level of your involvement and he build more confidence in what he is supposed to be doing. Also if it is a lack of confidence you might actually benefit from having more items down to find to start with so he gets lots of little wins to help build his confidence and enthusiasm of the game. Option two would be for if the dog understands the hunt behaviour but is just too fixated on you and the anticipation of the item. In this case I would give the hunt cue and then physically disengage from him, not give eye contact keep hands behind my back on in my pockets and I would slowly walk a zigzag pattern, he should then start to walk with you and then when he clicks that he’s not going to get any engagement from you might start to switch on to the environment and start hunting. I think hunting is a really tricky one as I don’t think theirs a one size fits all approach but I hope that makes a bit of sense. 😊

@@SpanielTrainingDiaries Thanks so much for taking the time with your reply and top tips. He knows and understands what to do - so Option 2 is definitely the way to go I feel, and in more scented ground. A bit hard at the moment as I would need to travel to get to more scented ground - but will hopefully have that freedom soon!, I mostly train on my own so finding a way I can put out rewards for him without him seeing me do it is another challenge. Need to work on an out of sight sit stay !! Also dialling down the body language and engagement will help. I’m finding this very frustrating - I have taught my older dog to quarter beautifully with no issues , so again I feel you have hit the nail on the head when you say no one size fits all here. I can but admire Ivys hunting style and flair 😉