Am I being naive?

[Mrs Pepperpot]

I've enquired about novice gundog training for next year at hartpbury college in Gloucester. I asked a few questions one of which was about training methods, the reply I received was

"as this course is gun dog training there will be lots of reward and punishments given"

This sort of gives the impression that gun dog training and punishments go hand in hand which I'm sure isn't the case ?

[Helen]

I don't like the way they've phrased that.  You can teach spaniels gundog training positively, and I've never 'punished' Jarv nor had the need to.  He has had the VOD (Voice of Doom) but vary rarely and only to get him out of harms way (i.e when he was young running towards a railway line and I didn't have my whistle with me!), and I have scruffed him....to get him over fences and not as a punishment   

Working cocker spaniel 'faults' when gundog training usually stem from their over-exuberance and I would never want to train that out of them - just contain it a little and direct it   

Have you looked at Helen Phillips' courses on clicker gun dog training?  You may feel more comfortable with her training methods    Or check out other gun dog trainers near you 

[Mrs Pepperpot]

Thanks for that Helen, and for pointing me in the direction of Helen Phillips.  I've just sent an email about a course she's running in October which isn't too far from me.  Depends whether it's for novices or not.  There are some other workshops I'd like to do anyway, so fingers crossed 

[Mrs Pepperpot]

Yay!  Pepper and I have 5 days gun dog training with Helen Phillips in Oct!!!! 

[Helen]

Yay!  Pepper and I have 5 days gun dog training with Helen Phillips in Oct!!!! 

We'll need a full report afterwards - have fun