And just to prove how success can be just round the corner for you too, here are some of the things our clients are celebrating in our online community in the last week:
“We hadn’t noticed that a couple of the fence slats had become very loose and this allowed {🐶🐶🐶} to jump through the gap and chase one of the neighbour’s kittens... I blew the stop whistle, then the recall whistle and {🐶🐶🐶} came back. So delighted and relieved and very thankful to Acer for their excellent training advice! “
“Think I’ve accidentally taken someone else’s dog home from our walk today. I didn’t ask for a heel and I’d run out of chicken. He walked about 300m back to the car like this. Not sure what he wanted. Maybe there’s something in this training thing after all 🤷♀️ 😂”
“This week’s achievement has been an entire walk off lead with 100% recall success (although sometimes slight delay when sniffing). We also had some success with “leave it” and “let’s go” in order to try to reduce her obsessive sniffing of litter and to enable me to do the 15min school run in less than an hour🙄😂. “
“When {🐶🐶🐶} gets excited, she can often run towards other dogs when playing, hence use of long line at times. Visited beach this am, lots sniffing and retrieving ball, incl from sea. 1st time ever she has stayed closer and maybe 15 retrieves right to my feet. Ok, a good day, but was so much more enjoyable for us both! Earned a little fish topping for her tea!”
“My win was today! Took {🐶🐶🐶} walking, and she was desperate to greet these two ladies with their dogs.....but the big win was when they walked off with their dogs (still off lead) and I went opposite direction, called {🐶🐶🐶} AND SHE CAME!! I was so emotional....”
What successes have you celebrated recently? Tell me in the comments below ✍️
Congratulations to everyone who passed the Beginner Gundog Fieldwork Test today:
👏 Helen and Fudge - Pass
👏 Caz and Jessie - Merit
👏 Tom and Buddy - Distinction
Their trainer for the course was Sacha.
Here’s entire heelwork training process 🆓
That’s 4 week’s of training in under 4 minutes!
No lead yanking, no strangling your dog into submission with a slip lead. Instead, changing their motivation to actually want to walk nicely by your side.
Layer 1: Lure & walk backwards
Layer 2: Walk backwards & reward
Layer 3: Walk sideways & reward
Layer 4: Pivot to walk forwards & reward
This should take you up to 4 weeks, so you will probably want to save this one to refer back.
Give it a go and let me know how you get on.
#heelwork #looseleadwalking #looseleash #gundogtrainingexercises #gundogtrainingthatworks #gundogtrainingclasses #acergundogs
How does dog training work? ↩️
Done properly, it should involve some planning. Take the end goal behaviour you want your dog to learn, and break it down into small chunks. Get to the point where it’s the easiest version of the behaviour it can possibly be.
This is what gives your dog the very best chance of success.
As things progress, you can add difficulty. The aim is to keep your dog in the sweet spot between being adequately challenged and it being too darn difficult where they just give up.
Here are 3 tips you can use when you start training anything new:
1️⃣ Lure into positions to get them started, you can then add your cue word and switch to rewards rather than bribes (rewards come after, bribes come before)
2️⃣ Reduce or remove distractions from the training environment (or even change the training environment to get started)
3️⃣ Remove or reduce any time duration to the behaviour
Most important is success. Success leads to a dog who wants to keep learning and get things right.
What gets rewarded, gets repeated!
➡️ If you want training tips like these to feature in your scroll from now on, hit me up with a Follow and Like the post.
#gundogtraining #gundogtrainingtips #onlinedogtraining #dogtraining #puppytraining #puppytrainingtips #dogtrainingtips #gundogtrainingonline #gundogtrainingofinstagram #gundogtrainingexercises #gundogtrainingclasses #acergundogs
People get a dog for a variety of reasons. What were yours?
Congratulations to everyone who passed one of our Fieldwork Tests in the last week:
JUNIOR GUNDOG
👏 Francoise & Coco - Distinction. They’ve been training with Sacha in Steeple Morden.
BEGINNER GUNDOGS
👏 Andy & Jensen - Merit
👏 Peter & Barney - Merit
👏 Lisa & Quin - Merit
👏 Jenine & Mara - Distinction
Their trainer was Lisa in Olney.
BEGINNER GUNDOGS
👏 Grant & Elvis - Distinction
👏 Anne & Lara - Distinction
👏 Sean & Elaine with Juno - Merit
👏 Jorge & Sparkey - Distinction
Their trainer was Sarah in Buntingford.
Congratulations to everyone who passed the Junior Gundog Fieldwork Test today:
👏 James and Baxter -Merit
👏 Sally and Lyra - Distinction
👏 Caroline and Tina - Merit
Their trainer was Sacha in Steeple Morden.
Congratulations to everyone who passed the Beginner Gundog Fieldwork Test today:
👏 Nigel and Poppy
👏 Caroline, Alan and Rory
👏 Viv and Shandy - Merit
👏 Neil and Fergie - Distinction
👏 Heather & Splash - Distinction
Their trainer was Sacha in Steeple Morden.
𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗗𝗼𝗴:
➡️Impulse Control
➡️Problem Solving
➡️To Manage Frustrations
➡️ Resilience
Here’s how ↩️
Sit down in a chair for this one. That way, your eyes are closer to your dog’s and you can place the foot beneath your boot quicker than your dog can nab it.
Placing 1 piece of food, ideally low value like kibble, beneath your boot, allow your dog to try and get to the food. They’ll probably try pawing your foot, maybe digging the ground to get to it.
Wait until they pause for a little ponder to weigh-up their options. They’ll probably look at you in a questioning way to see what’s going on.
Be ready. Immediately they make eye contact, mark it with a “Yes” or a click and then find another piece of food (ideally high value) and throw it to the side. Meanwhile, you pick up the low value piece and you’re reset.
If you want to go for something more advanced, try getting the eye contact whilst you completely remove your foot from the food.
Give it a go and let me know in the comments how you get on.
#gundogtraining #gundogtrainingtips #puppytraining #puppytrainingtips #dogtrainingtips #gundogtrainingexercises #acergundogs
Got a gundog who is uncontrollable around wildlife? ↩️
See what can be achieved when you come gundog training.
One of the most realistic scenarios we incorporate into our courses, working with dogs in walk-up and releasing a Bolting Rabbit across their path (a dummy covered in rabbit fur, attached to a bungee cord available from @sportingsaint).
Here are the stages if you want to give this a go:
Before even trying this, you need to have worked through quite a lot of steadiness training and will need to have a dog who is steady (off-lead) to the throw of a dummy.
Stage 1: Dogs already seated - their proximity to the rabbit dictates the level of difficulty. Start at a distance they can maintain a sit.
Stage 2: Dogs walking at heel (on or off-lead), as the rabbit is released. Whistle at the ready, blow a Stop.
Through all stages, reward dogs heavily for sitting and use a lead or short training-tab for the prevention of running-in until no longer needed.
👏 Round of applause to the stars of the show: two of our Advanced Gundog groups who are training in Cambridge with Hellen. Well done guys, you know who you are.
Always follow the manufacturer instructions when working with a bolting rabbit. Stay safe out there.
Save this one for later.
#gundogtraining #gundogtrainingtips #gundog #sportingsaint #petgundog #petgundogtraining #gundoginthemaking #gundogsintraining #gundogsuk #gundogtrainingonline #gundogtrainingequipment #gundogtrainingexercises #gundogtrainingcambs #gundogtrainingherts #gundogtrainingbeds #gundogtrainingbucks #acergundogs
Do these 3 things to level-up your dog’s steadiness ⏬
⏱️ DURATION first. Everything else you want to train involves elements of duration. So, get this component, and only this component, first.
🏃♂️ Next, DISTANCE, but bear in mind that it takes time for you to walk away from your dog (which is duration). Until your dog is ready, don’t go making it more difficult by walking away and waiting. That’s combining distance and duration. You’re making it twice as hard when you do.
👀 Finally, when you have the base layers of duration and distance built, and combined them, you can add the final ‘D’ - DISTRACTION
Time to get creative, here are some ideas we use in our training course:
💡Turn your back on your dog
💡Roll on the ground (normally means ‘let’s play’ to dogs)
💡Have a conversation with someone
💡Walk out of sight and hide behind a bush
💡Throw a ball or a dummy
👉🏽 Add your own ideas to the comments below.
When you build your steadiness training in layers, your dog is set-up for success. Oh, and don’t forget to reward success, that’ll make the magic more likely to repeat itself next time.
💚 Save this one for later if you found it helpful.
#gundogtrainingtips #onlinedogtraining #puppytrainingtips #positivedogtraining #whydoesmydog #dogtrainingtips #steadiness #acergundogs #gundogtrainingonline #gundogtrainingexercises #acergundogs
Congratulations to everyone who completed their gundog training with Jan in Bourn today:
JUNIOR GUNDOG FIELDWORK TEST
👏 Steve & Milo - Pass
👏 Ann & Penny - Pass
Plus everyone who completed the Junior Gundog Foundation Course.
If you’d like to achieve the same results with your gundog you’ll find the link to upcoming courses via the link in our bio at the top of the page.
#gundogtraining #dogtraining #puppytraining #puppyclasss #forcefreetraining #petgundogtraining #positivedogtraining #gundogtrainingthatworks #gundogtrainingclasses #gundogtrainingcambs #gundogtrainingherts #gundogtrainingbeds #gundogtrainingbucks #acergundogs
Congratulations to everyone who passed the Beginner Fieldwork Test today:
Chiara & Saffy - Distinction
Beth & Whisky - Distinction (100%)
Andrew & Bingo - Pass
Their trainer was Hellen in Bourn.
Give the post a Like to show your support for their achievements 👏
Nearly all methods of training a Stop Whistle start from the point of trying to getting your dog to stop and sit remotely.
The fact that the dog is being asked to perform a behaviour remotely means this often doesn’t work.
If, as part of your puppy training, you’ve allowed the sit behaviour to become about your dog coming back to sit in front of you, they won’t sit remotely.
The other problem is that distance erodes control. So, if your dog is in any way distracted, or is moving, these are enough distraction to cause the whistle cue to be completely ignored.
The Walking Stop Whistle is a great alternative method that teaches your dog to stop and sit on the whistle whilst they are moving.
Key elements of each stage are to blow the whistle when your dog is focussed on you and not sniffing the ground, and returning to reward your dog after each correct behaviour (and only reward for correct behaviours).
These are the layers I work on when training my dogs:
1. Using a placeboard (which requires teaching first), stop with your dog
2. Using a placeboard, but keep moving so your dog remains on the board as you walk on
3. No board, pause with the dog and phase out how long you pause for
4. Keep walking with no pause
Let me know in the comments what problems you’ve encountered training Stop Whistle with your dog.
#acmewhistles #stopwhistle #placeboard #sportingsaint #petgundog #petgundogtraining #gundoginthemaking #gundogsintraining #positivedogtraining #dogtrainingtips #acergundogs #gundogtrainingonline
#gundogtrainingequipment #gundogtrainingexercises
Standby for today’s Fieldwork Test results. Drum roll please…. 🥁
Beginner Gundogs with Lisa in Olney:
👏 Jo & Pippa… Distinction
👏 Nick & Hettie….. Merit
👏 Laura & Freddie ….. Merit
👏 Alan & Oakley…. Merit
👏 Martin & Maple …. Pass
Junior Gundogs with Jan in Buntingford:
👏 Saule & Javelin - Distinction
👏 Matt & Indy - Distinction
👏 Danielle & Oakley - Merit
👏 Emma & Bryson - Distinction
Congratulations everyone, we’re so proud of you and your dogs and what you’ve achieved!
Want to know about the biggest mistake when training heelwork?
I see people all the time just freeze on the spot, with their dog suspended on the end of the lead.
It’s like, by freezing on the spot, that’s going to teach the dog a lesson. They wait for the dog to check back in before they continue walking.
Why is this a mistake? Because it doesn’t bloody work! The dog is oblivious to the lesson it is being taught.
Need proof? Watch the dog do exactly the same thing again a couple of minutes later.
Try this instead - set your dog up for success.
Be on the lookout for your dog getting distracted and the lead about to go tight. Yes, freeze on the spot again, but this time make a noise which diverts your dog’s attention back on you. If quickly followed by something your dog likes, this noise will become a ‘Positive Interrupter’.
🗣️You can use your dog’s name (but you will 100% need to say it in your most enthusiastic chirpy voice)
💋 You can make a kissy noise (like me in the video).
🧸 Hey, if you’re a bit embarrassed about making a kissy noise, keep a squeaky toy in or ball 🥎 your pocket. Anything to get your dog to look round.
At the point they do, take a few steps backwards, rewarding your dog as they follow you. By definition, your dog simply CANNOT pull on the lead whilst you walk backwards.
Then, spin them round and 💥 ! You now have a reset button for when your dog gets distracted and pulls. Because all dogs do.
Used consistently, the steps you take between resets will increase and soon you’ll be winning the war.
Gonna give this a go, give this a Like 👍
#gundogtrainingtips #gundogtrainingexercises #onlinedogtraining #dogtraining #puppytraining #puppytrainingtips #forcefreetraining #dogtrainingtips #heelwork #looseleadwalking #looseleashwalking #gundogtrainingclasses #acergundogs
📣 Exciting News!
I’ve been working on a little project lately.
My Bark To Basics mini taster course is now available online and I’m offering it to you for FREE.
Try it for a fortnight. See how I work and if we’re a good fit to work together to train your dog.
If you like how I roll, I’ll send you details of my full courses to continue your training. If not, that’s cool. I hope you learn a ton of useful stuff from the taster course.
Here’s what I cover:
✅ Focus & Impulse Control
✅ Walking Nicely On The Lead
✅ Coming Back When Called
✅ Supercharging Your Recall, Even If Your Dog Isn’t Motivated By Food
✅ Getting Your Dog To Give Back The Item They Retrieve
Access the course on your phone via the App, on your tablet, or on your desktop. Pretty much anywhere you can get the internet really.
To enrol, message me with the word ‘GUNDOG’ and my electronic assistant in the clouds will send you the link.
#gundogtraining #gundogtrainingtips #onlinedogtraining #onlinepuppycourse #gundogapp #dogtrainingtips #labrador #cockerspaniel #springerspaniel #gsp #pointer #vizsla #gundogtrainingonline #gundogtrainingofinstagram #gundogtrainingequipment #gundogtrainingexercises #acergundogs
Do you ever just look at your dog and think they’re the most perfect thing you’ve ever seen?
Until they behave like a complete idiot!
What’s the goofiest thing your dog has ever done?
Congratulations to everyone who passed the Beginner Gundog Fieldwork Test today after training with Jan in Buntingford:
👏 Isobel & Mark with Milo - Distinction
👏 Victoria & Abbey - Merit
👏 Jane & Buddy - Merit
👏 Michaela & Lottie - Merit
#dogtraining #buntingford #puppytraining #puppyclasss #puppytrainingtips #forcefree #gundogtrainingthatworks #gundogpuppy #labrador #gundogtrainingcambs #gundogtrainingherts #gundogtrainingbeds #gundogtrainingbucks #acergundogs
Congratulations to:
👏 Adrian with Oscar, and
👏 Hannah with Ajax
Both were awarded a Distinction in the Beginner Gundog Fieldwork Test today 🥳
They’ve been training with Mel in Bourn.
#dogtraining #puppytraining #puppyclasss #puppytrainingtips #forcefree #gundogtrainingthatworks #gundogpuppy #labrador #gundogtrainingcambs #gundogtrainingherts #gundogtrainingbeds #gundogtrainingbucks #acergundogs
