It's Good To Talk

Whatever trial judges say, communicating with your dog is essential, says Jeremy Hunt

- 

It never fails to amaze me how many people being taught to train a young gundog are told to “stop the talking”. It is an instruction that is fast becoming the norm with trainers — but it is misguided when the essence of developing an effective working relationship with a gundog is all about communication.

I am certainly not advocating a persistent and repetitive vocal diatribe of instructions that can easily distract and confuse a young dog learning to hone its working skills. However, I am concerned by the absence or premature withdrawal of subtle and appropriate words of encouragement. Taking away the props too soon in elementary training — or even worse, not putting them in place at the start — can hamper progress as we ask young dogs bigger questions in their work.

So many people come to me having lost confidence in their own ability to train their dog, and with dogs that have similarly lost confidence and focus in their work.

To begin, we need to consider why we are training gundogs in the first place. In the case of some breeds we are trying to produce dogs that will put game in front of Guns, while the primary role of others is to put shot game in the bag. The true purpose of training gundogs is not to produce dogs that are programmed to work and perform to a prescribed set of competition rules just to win working tests and field trials.

There are those handlers who relish training gundogs purely for competition. That is all well and good, but we must be aware that the rigidity of the way dogs must work in trials — and the necessary handling constraints that are imposed in all official gundog sport — is not allowed to stifle and skew the way we train gundogs for the field.