So Millie doesn’t get much air time … she’s a really good girl … I’ll be honest I don’t do that much training with her compared to the Cockers, she so easy just cracks on with life, doesn’t get up to any mischief like some 🤣
She’s one of those dogs who never really puts a foot wrong !
Anyway the shooting season is creeping up on us, so time to start checking if she remembers everything .. she always does … she’s a one in a million dog, my heart dog, good old reliable Millie ❤️
They love their Aldi special buys, definitely a bargain !!
Who else bought one of these ?
It’s a river kind of day ☀️☀️
What we should have been doing with the bolting rabbit incase anyone was wondering 🤣🤣
A retrieve with a distraction ( your not supposed to catch the distraction ) 🤣
We used the bolting rabbit in gundog classes today … here’s Wick giving a demonstration of what not to do …
She caught it and she’s not letting it run away again 🤣🤣
I got talking to someone today whist doing some training, the lady asked me why my Cockers had short tails.
I explained that they had been docked and she was quite surprised as thought it was illegal to dock tails so thought I’d explain about it.
Docking tails is only legally allowed in some working breeds and this is NOT done for cosmetic reasons.
Working dogs can very easily damage their tails when working.
Tail injuries can be very painful, are very difficult to treat and the healing process can be extremely slow.
Undocked, working dogs quite often end up having to have part of the tail amputated when they are older due to injury … this is quite a big, painful operation, therefore docking is done in puppies as a preventative measure.
Docking is carried out when a puppy is between 1-5 days old and must be done by a Veterinary Surgeon.
Only breeders who work their dogs and can provide documentation to prove this can have a litter of pups they have bred docked.
Your average pet dog breeder who is breeding working breeds as pets will not be able to have docking carried out on a litter of puppies.
So that’s why some spaniels have full tails and some don’t 😊🐶
Sometimes she’s a good girl 🤣❤️❤️
Guess who can hold a fresh rabbit pate without eating it, and guess who can’t….. place your bets then watch the video 🤣🤣
Summer 2024 is officially **** ☔️☔️😫
This was yesterdays weather and today I went on a lovely sunny walk and had a picnic with Wutheringhounds 🤣🤣 … got to love British summertime ❄️💨🥶☔️☀️☀️☀️🥵
So proud of this boy and his owners I could burst !!
Mac is extremely closely related to my Cockers Wick and Dot.
He is the son of Wick’s sister and has the same dad as Dot.
He has been very challenging for his owners but luckily for him they are massively dedicated to training him.
Having the same genetics as my two I could fully understand the challenges 🤣
Mac is a very drivey dog, he has a huge hunt and prey drive meaning he had to be on a long line most of the time for his own safety.
This time last year he had absolutely no interest in any type of toy outside making it extremely difficult for his owners, all he wanted to do was hunt ( retrieving seemed like a pipe dream )
Mac has been coming to gundog classes for quite some time now and just look at him !!
He’s now off lead on walks ( still have to be careful in pheasanty areas ) his recall is on point and he’s absolutely smashing his gundog training !!
The connection he has with his owners is just beautiful ❤️
I am taking no credit at all for this .. this is what comes from pure patience and dedication from his owners !
Go Mac, you are a legend 💪💪❤️
Hydrotherapy day for Millie ❤️
A few people have asked why Millie is having physiotherapy and hydrotherapy.
Millie is now nine years old.
I started to see subtle signs that she may have slight discomfort in her hip area.
When standing, I could see that she wasn’t bearing the weight equally on both of her back legs.. there was absolutely no lameness, this was a very subtle observation.
On the way home from a reasonably long walk, the length of her stride in her back legs became slightly shorter.
If I was to touch / massage the muscles around her lumbar spine / hips they would twitch and she would look around at my hand when I did it .. as if to say “ that’s a bit tender”
As I have said, all these things are really subtle, but definitely indicators of mild pain ….. I decided rather than waiting another year or so or until she is really struggling we would be proactive …. As they always say, prevention is better than cure.
Labradors are quite prone to developing arthritis in later life and I want Millie to stay fit and comfortable and be able to continue her Gundog work for as long as she is able … she loves it so much !! 
The physio and hydro has really helped … and she enjoys it ❤️
Videoing the crap weather and Wick took me out 🤣🤣
Playing in the water 😊
The two experienced gundogs Millie and Wick are like .. don’t waste energy swimming back when we can go around … Dot got back first though 🤣
Working dogs learn a lot on the job .. things you can’t teach them in training.
We always teach our gundogs to come back on the same line they take out .. Millie and Wick would not do well in competition .. they have too much experience 🤣
Through on the job experience, they work out what works best for them .. I like and want a working dog who can think for themselves.
The majority of the time when they are out picking up birds they are out of sight, just getting on with it, they need to be able to make good decisions without me telling what they should be doing.. every decision they make they learn from … I’ll do that again or I won’t do that again … that’s how they gain experience and become experienced gundogs 😊🐶
Steadiness and stop whistle practice … everything is a training opportunity around here 🤣❤️
Tuesdays pet gundog class focussed on impulse control games, teaching the dogs that making good choices pays well. These kinds of games create dogs that manage themselves, so their handlers don’t have to constantly manage them.
🐾 The ‘get it’ ‘don’t get it’ game. Which is basically an automatic leave it.
🐾 Three handed casting, working specifically on ‘go back’.
🐾 The stalking game
People often ask me how do I stop my
Labrador / Spaniel from stealing things ?
If you have either of these breeds you may well have noticed that they like to pick things up.. it might be your slipper , shoe or your dirty underwear or when they are a puppy anything they can get to !
When I ask people how they react to this behaviour, the most common response is .. “I tell them no and take it off them”
If you have a working line gundog breed, remember they have been genetically selected to have a huge desire to hold things !
A big part of a working Gundog’ s job is to retrieve things to you and keep hold, no matter what they may come across on their way back to you !
The desire to pick things up and carry them is a really desirable trait for anyone who wants to work their dog..
Punishing your gundog breed for picking things up and then immediately taking the item off them can lead to problems later down the line, the most serious problem being resource guarding.
Embrace the fact that you have got a well bred gundog that wants to carry things, encourage your puppy or dog to bring those things to you.. make it a game, if they steal a sock, be happy !
“Wow you’re a clever puppy, did you pick up a sock, can you bring it to me “
If they happily bring things to you, swap out for a treat and throw the sock for them to chase and bring back to you again … The timing of your treat is really important .. it must be a reward not a bribe, the treat appears, and is delivered after the dog has given the item up to you, bribing can cause issues if you have a dog who isn’t keen to give things up )
( obviously if the item is dangerous then you need to swap out quickly and give them a big reward for giving the item up … I generally throw a handful of food on to the floor and pick the item up whilst they are busy eating the treats)
All my dogs love to hold things and always greet me with a present when I come home.. this might be a slipper a shoe or
One of the things we start to teach in puppy class, is when I stop you stop.
This is something I teach all my dogs from a young age.
Me stopping, or sitting down on a walk is a cue for them to just come and hang around with me, take a break, stop what you are doing.
Wick is still enjoying munching on the summer grass 🙈🤣
I’ve used a lot of something in the dog training world we call Premack when teaching Dot heelwork.
This is basically the grandmothers rule… you’ve got to eat your vegetables before you get your pudding.
In this video, Dot really wants to go and hunt to the right hand side of where we are walking, as she knows there are really good smells in there and quite often bunnies.
Through lots of training she has learnt that eating her vegetables ( walking to heel and controlling herself ) gives her access to her pudding ( hunting )
She has to perform the behaviour she doesn’t really want to do, to get to do what she does want to do .. ( that’s a tongue twister ) 🤣🤣
This type of training is strengthening the heelwork behaviour because the outcome of walking to heel is something she really likes.
When I initially started this, I would only ask for a couple of steps of heel, then I would release her.
Now, she will walk at heel for as long as I need until she is released.
The behaviour is very strong now, sometimes I will release her to hunt and sometimes I don’t.
Getting good heelwork is a hard slog with a working Spaniel but it feels so good when you have achieved it. Even when you are a dog trainer !! 🤣❤️
