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TRAINING AT WEST LANCS GUNDOGS  For puppies out of quarantine, or the initial 10 day period after vaccines, we offer a socialisation. This involves the most important period of your young gundog’s life, learning to run and play with other similar aged dogs.The age to which to start your pup's training must be carefully considered. It may be that he is timid or even bold, once this is decided the schedule of training may commence. Spaniels can start at around 7/8 months old, Labrador or Retriever breeds may take a little longer to mature but normally between 8/10 months old. Be patient, don't rush his training, consider his charachter.
In most cases it is down to the individual dog, I start training my dog's from the minute they are able to mix with others. Hence why socialising is very important, the sooner they mix the sooner they mature. A lot depends on the dogs breeding, if he is from good working lines then its half the battle but, even this is not for definate. Just because he has lots of Field Trial Champions (FTCh) listed in his Pedigree does'nt prevent the dog from being useless for gundog work. Good early training techniques are without doubt the foundation to your training and the eventual finished article. You should never be hard on the youngster, but at the same time dont be afraid to instill a little discipline now for future results.  Training (Early Stages)Depending on what you require the dog for, as a pet, shooting companion or even to compete, the only way forward is to forget about the finished product. Always train when you are of sound mind, by this I mean, if you are not thinking straight about the task ahead, then dont bother trying to do any training. Three more hours in the kennel will not do any harm if you are not ready, mentally. Once you are ready to train, think about what you are going to do and where you are going to do it before you takehim out. For instance my pups start off on tarmac (it's a car park during the day) and I take them individually. This is where they progress too with retrieving, recall and I introduce the whistle to them. Once the basics of this training have been accomplished, eg, Lead work, learning to sit on command and the occasional retrieve plus recall, we can then move onto the Whistle and the next stage. Although the training is stepped up it is still done in such a way that he never gets bored. The basis now is successful training and to reduce negative thoughts in both handler and dog. I have found that 10 or 15 minutes every morning and the same in the evening is sufficient for a young dog. If we are attempting to encourage a young spaniel to enter cover or water he needs to feel safe and confident. Ensure the cover is not heavy and the water is shallow, so he can run about in it unaided, without having to swim. At this stage he will know what a tennis ball is and will do anything to get to it once thrown. Eventuall you can tempt him deeper by throwing the ball that bit further each time.  Training (Introduction to Game)Steadiness is a massive achievement in a gundog. Initially you have to allow your dog to hunt or chase so you can teach him not to do it. The controlled use of a rabbit pen is an ideal instrument for this type of training as it allows the handler and dog to get really involved. But remember there is a very thin line with training in this environment, once your dog has experienced a little chasing it can become difficult to convince him otherwise, but by using the correct methods will be achieved. West Lancs Gundogs has several game pens for hire, from end of February 2010, based on 121 or for groups, all enquiries, in the first instance should be via an online contact form from the contact page. Suitable only for dogs of a certain standard. These sessions are supervised throughout. Any pegging of game will require compensating. Below is a useful guidance document from BASC (British Association for Shooting and Conservation) regarding blank fire pistols and dummy launchers, simply double click to open, read and print.
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