Training Notes

Dilly Dog and I go training once a fortnight.  We are in a spaniel group of a gun dog training club who train during the summer at various different venues.  As guests of the landowners, we spend a glorious hour or so in some beautiful settings and for me it is a chance to completely switch off from my normal day-to-day activities and get some fresh air and some time with my beloved dog.  We don't work Dilly, but it is great for her to learn with other spaniels in a way which is suited to her breed.  Everything we do is relevant to her life as a farm dog and family pet.  

The group is small and mixed ability (with Dilly and I being the least experienced) which is great as you learn so much from watching others.  We have a fantastic instructor (Aunty Mary) who the dogs, and handlers, all adore.  A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to have a visiting instructor take our session.  Writing up our thoughts on it afterwards (homework!?!?) was a useful exercise.

The most important point that I returned home with was "simplicity".

• Keeping commands to the bare minimum, adding an additional movement or word if a command was not understood or acted upon and then returning to the original.  For example, on a retrieve, send the dog on their name and if they do not respond, take a step forward to encourage them and reinforce what you are asking.  It certainly stopped all the hand flapping (sending the dog, in theory, in several different directions!) and from my point of view, meant that Dilly really listened to me instead of watching for the next acrobatic display and having to fathom out what I meant!
• Keeping training to the bare minimum, not in terms of time spent, but of simple commands which we could both achieve and really know that that particular thing will stay with us now.  For example, hunting.  Moving gradually forwards with the dog encouraging her with the odd "lost" and then pinpointing with my hand where the ball etc was.  From this, I felt that Dilly understood what I was asking her to do as each time we did the exercise she was successful.  This particular hunting exercise was a bit of a lightbulb moment for us.  I had wrongly assumed that Dilly would either disappear off into the distance or simply lose interest and do her own thing - I was wrong!  
• Being the centre of the world for our dogs!  We talked a lot about not sending the dogs out too far afield and by working close to the handlers while establishing the basics, the dogs would always believe that that is where the interesting stuff happened!  I think this is very relevant to Dilly and particularly as she does spend time away from me being a "farm dog".  Hopefully, if I keep true to this advice, she will stay interested in what I have, what I say and what I'm asking her to do.  This is also the case where "toys" are concerned.  I have always kept the training dummies etc separate but removing any toys apart from the ones that only appear if I'm around should help.  Now I've just got to explain that lego and teddy bears are also not to be played with!