Quartering

[MUDDYBOOTS]

 Hi, when you are teaching your young dog to quarter do you concentrate on the dog working a methodical pattern regardless of the cover infront of it,or do you let it use its nose and hunt out the interesting bits within range.

Gabby will do both but in mixed cover like woods and bracken or tuffty grass she likes to skip the boring bits and get to the good bits 

[JeffD]

Field trial dogs are expected to quarter the ground they are on immediately in front of the handler and not skip the less interesting stuff and they get marked accordingly, dogs that are just worked and shot over tend to skip the boring bits especially on ground they know well, I would say try to get your pup to quarter the ground in front of you this helps train the pup to keep close in.

One of the problems I have is Teal knows where the rabbits are and will run between the likely bits of cover as she knows the ground so I have to keep on top of her with the whistle to stop her going out to far.

To be honest all of my dogs have ranged much to far and would be out of any field trial with in minutes but when you are a lone gun on ground that does not hold much game you need a dog that will not waste time hunting scentless areas.

[Emilyoliver]

Depends on what you're training it for. My pup's not interested in hunting sterile ground, and I don't make him. If there's scent he's much better and far more methodical. It's a bit of a cocker thing as well, I'm told. They're less likely to waste the energy on ground where there are few rewards (unlike many springere I've seen who will happily hunt a football field devoid of game with enormous enthusiasm and style).

[MIN]

Gemma will not waste her time on scentless ground, after all that is what the springers are for 

[Emilyoliver]

Gemma will not waste her time on scentless ground, after all that is what the springers are for 

[JeffD]

Gemma will not waste her time on scentless ground, after all that is what the springers are for 

 

[MUDDYBOOTS]

Silly springers