Do you work your dog?

[anita96]

yeh don't want to hijack the post scott   

[Penel]

Nope I don't "work" in the sense you mean it, with any of my dogs.
(however, they do ALL work, in another sense  - in fact they should really all have their own bank accounts  )

[sportsmonki]

I put no, because I dont work her in field trials?  (she does work in obedience...but i guess that doesnt count  )

I'd like to know how to teach her more gundog exercises (not sure I'd want to go out on a 'real' shoot though) 

You dont have to work them in field trials. You can do working tests, gundog scurries etc which are all canvas dummy based

I would be interested in training her for fun, and working her in scurries/gundog working tests...etc if I had been able to train her to that level (she has done a fun scurry before, but I dont class that as 'working'.  The clubs local to me only really want to take on a working type, and only then if the handler wants to train the dog to take it out on a shoot.  So, I dont fall into either category 

[crazyspaniels]

Bilbo If working involves the cold, the wet and dead stuff you can count him out


Dobbie does a little bit, we are just starting with him but he has retrieved pigeons when we rough shoot and done a few days beating which he loved, we also work one of our Springers (rough and beating) who won a 2nd and 3rd at the scurries at the BASC show this year which made me very proud

Working Tests are for gundogs, Working Trials are the tracking, obedeince, retrieve etc. It is important to make the difference as everyone does different things. I have had a go at working trials training but the scale is too high for my ickle springer girly.
- the top of the bars on the side is the competing jump height

[Cob-Web]

I would class trials and working trials as the same thing. Can't see why they have split.

Working Trials are completely different to Field Trials, hence they have been listed in the Other board. Working Trials involve a combination of obedience, agility, tracking and at the highest level, man work (ie police dog work). Cockers can and do compete at the lower levels in Working Trials (but they're too small to progress to the higher levels)

Thank you, Jane - I'm far clearer about it now 
 
The classes locally are fairly new, but at present sound as if they are orientated towards field-trials rather than working, so I'll be watching the other board more than this one 
I am considering going to them after Christmas - once clicker classes have finished 

[*jean*]

my answer has to be yes and no as they flush and retrieve but i dont go out shooting with them its my oh who has the gun. he shoots rabbits, birds and foxes and the odd deer, I actually hate dead things so I leave all that stuff up to him. I didnt used to be such a wally but its a phobia and its getting worse as im getting older. I feel so guilty as I get asked a lot to help at shoots and i just cant now . I was up on the heather moors behind the croft there yesterday, just me and the three spaniels and poor Gibb the collie,  We went out way past loch muie and crossed miles of heather and bog.we past the old peat banks no one uses now its a sad place the hill no-one in the old bothys and crofts there now since the clearances,  just ruins. one still has a bit of privet growing where once a garden would have been. the dogs worked away the collie tried to round them up and not one grouse did I see and no hares either. the ground here was thick with them once . saw a few red deer in the distance, they watched me I watched them, lovely. I must start taking a camera with me. I did see a trout jump in the loch so theres life there.

[Penel]

Wow Jean it sounds beautiful where you walk.... we see quite a few roe deer down here, and rabbits, no hares though.

[*jean*]

penel you would have a ball with your camera.
there were kites flying above me today I know they are kites by their tails and loads of buzzards as ever, the young are on there own now and they all whirl around in the thermals off the rocks behind my mothers croft.
 we even have golden eagles here in rogart and ospreys  at the mound during the summer. there are hen harriers too. we get loads of bird watchers as well as sportsmen. we have wild goats and sika, red and roe deer. there are not as many hares now but if you are prepared to walk even further into the hill than I was, up at ben armine where the eagles are there are mountain hares. I was at the borders of the muie sheepstock club/  dalnessie area yesterday. today I was just bumming around mams crofts at pittentrail up in the heather behind the house. looking at the birds. there are plenty rabbits just now so the dutch boys didnt shoot them all! also there are hut circles and standing stones and brochs galore. I try to imagine what it was like then very different I expect as it was forrested then and the sea was higher, the vikings used to sail up the fleet. I wonder if they had spaniels? ( or lurchers? bet they had lurchers!!)

[Krisdt]

I would like to work loki eventually but dunno if it will happen, firstly I have no idea about training for this and we ldont live near any shoots or trainers for it (only agility and obedience classes) plus the fact Loki seems to be scared of birds (a walk in the local park he was petrified of the pidgeons)
I f we do move out of the town then I would love to find someone who could help us and a shoot near us.

[sportsmonki]

wow jean...that sounds gorgeous, and a lovely place for doggie walking and training 

[anita96]

I would like to work loki eventually but dunno if it will happen, firstly I have no idea about training for this and we ldont live near any shoots or trainers for it (only agility and obedience classes) plus the fact Loki seems to be scared of birds (a walk in the local park he was petrified of the pidgeons)
I f we do move out of the town then I would love to find someone who could help us and a shoot near us.

You don't need to be near a shoot to do gundog training, it's just another disipline and form of training like obedience and agility.  All you need is a park, 3 dummies a whistle, a dog that listens (if anyone knows of any let me know  _ and you're away 

[Krisdt]

I was thinking of waiting till we got the basics ( we are having major trouble with stay at the mo) before even thinking if doing anything else (which will hopefully gve me time to learn a bit more myself)

[Nicola]

penel you would have a ball with your camera.
there were kites flying above me today I know they are kites by their tails and loads of buzzards as ever, the young are on there own now and they all whirl around in the thermals off the rocks behind my mothers croft.
 we even have golden eagles here in rogart and ospreys  at the mound during the summer. there are hen harriers too. we get loads of bird watchers as well as sportsmen. we have wild goats and sika, red and roe deer. there are not as many hares now but if you are prepared to walk even further into the hill than I was, up at ben armine where the eagles are there are mountain hares. I was at the borders of the muie sheepstock club/  dalnessie area yesterday. today I was just bumming around mams crofts at pittentrail up in the heather behind the house. looking at the birds. there are plenty rabbits just now so the dutch boys didnt shoot them all! also there are hut circles and standing stones and brochs galore. I try to imagine what it was like then very different I expect as it was forrested then and the sea was higher, the vikings used to sail up the fleet. I wonder if they had spaniels? ( or lurchers? bet they had lurchers!!)

Sounds fab Jean. I'm not really up 'north' north much but I do spend a lot of time on the west coast around Fort William with work and I love it up there. I take the dogs whenever I can and they have a ball running around in Glencoe and around the Ben Nevis pathways and we also go out west towards Lochailort and even towards Morar/Mallaig if I have more free time while I'm there. 

I've worked for my company for three years and in that time I've seen golden eagles, ospreys, kites, kestrels, harriers, buzzards, otters, foxes, hundreds of red deer (go to Rannoch Moor in rutting season!  ), roe deer, millions of rabbits, hares, badgers, mink, salmon and trout in the River Lochy, kingfishers, heron.... I could go on!

I think the north and west of Scotland are the last really wild places left in the UK.

[*jean*]

I think the north and west of Scotland are the last really wild places left in the UK.

wild is right, one shop,  one pub, a dial a bus and everywhere is up a hill!  but I wouldnt swop this place for the world!

[denisec]

I think the north and west of Scotland are the last really wild places left in the UK.

wild is right, one shop,  one pub, a dial a bus and everywhere is up a hill!  but I wouldnt swop this place for the world!

My sentiments exactly Jean!!