Re: Charlie's first one-to-one gundog lesson Hi Helen This is what I said How much force you need to bring to bear on a dog to stop him chasing depends on the strength of the dog's chasing instinct and on how sensitive he or she is. By the use of force/aversives we are talking about physical correction and or intimidation. The lead jabs you describe are a mild aversive. Once the dog is running free it gets more complicated. Pippa
Re: Charlie's first one-to-one gundog lesson Sorry to hear it wasn't as you'd hoped. I think its difficult when you have a clear idea of how you'd like to go about training to find a trainer/class that completely suits.
Re: Charlie's first one-to-one gundog lesson Thanks Pippa, sorry for the mis quote. So my question now is am I wasting my time and money with this training? Thanks Helen
Re: Charlie's first one-to-one gundog lesson ;D Hi Just wanted to say I've been reading your posts and I can't help but admire the work your putting in with Charlie. I have 2 rescue dogs. Our first is a 4 year old Jack Russell/ Staffie Cross called ""Rascal" who is an absconder (can't help thinking this is how he ended up as a stray in the first place ) . He is NEVER off lead. Just can't trust him much as I would love too, we would just be setting him up to fail at the moment and would rather enjoy our walks on lead. I also find I actually breathe more if he's on the lead lol! , and our new addition is a 10 month old black lab "Bruno" who we have had for 3 weeks now. I have started working through "Total Recall" with them both and will be very interested to see how our training goes but I know I have had my days with "Rascal" when you do get a bit down hearted and I find a short break from training for a day or two and a cuddle in front of the fire and a glass of wine helps. But I will be following your posts with interest and rooting for you and Charlie. I've also had to leave a training class because "Rascal" made soo much noise it wasn't much fun having everyone else stare at you or even worse turn and walk away and no-one would come near you outside class as you were the one with the "scary " dog. All a bit upsetting . Decided I would rather try and do it myself and am overjoyed to have found this site and Pippa's books and can only hope me and my rescue's can all enjoy our new adventure together. Christine
Re: Charlie's first one-to-one gundog lesson Welcome Christine, Rascal sounds like a very appropriate name I'm sorry everyone at your class was so unhelpful. I'm surprised the instructor didn't at least suggest an appropriate alternative if a group class was too much for him just now. I'm sure there are more supportive trainers out there. There's a lady that we meet out walking who has a rescue Viszla and rescue pointer-x and I often want to offer to help her with her very nervous and hyper dogs but am so inexperienced I can't imagine I would do any good and I would hate to do the wrong thing for her, her dogs and also Riley (my nearly two year old black lab)
Re: Charlie's first one-to-one gundog lesson Hello Christine, sorry you haven't found a group to help you - I think its quite hard to find the right group - even when you don't have special dogs who may need a bit more patience and understanding. welcome to the forums
Re: Charlie's first one-to-one gundog lesson Hi Christine, welcome to the forum, and welcome to Rascal and Bruno too!
Re: Charlie's first one-to-one gundog lesson Welcome Christine, Rascal and Bruno from me, Hattie 5 and Charlie 2 years. I just wanted to thank you for your lovely words about Charlie I really appreciate it and it's great to have another member with absconder problems too . I wish you luck working through Pippa's Total Recall, it's tought I won't deny it, but hopefully it will help with our issues and lead to our rescue dogs being well behaved in the end . I will look forward to reading your posts too. It's a shame we don't live close to each other as we could work together and we wouldn't feel so alone. Thank you again Christine. Helen x
