Sally,

Give him a dig from me - and remind he he needs to get up to Cheshire to see me!! (Sometime on 08 would be good!)

If his OH is there (Sarah is really nice) again say Hi from me

You will enjoy your time, just dont expect instant miracles, you will need to work at every day and "listen" oh and do your home work (Hey Liz?)

I have known Alex quite some time and when he decided to do this for a living, we had him as a guest trainer on a training day we ran in Lancashire - he did good. I would not have recommended him otherwise.

Mike

You will enjoy your time, just dont expect instant miracles, you will need to work at every day and "listen" oh and do your home work (Hey Liz?)



Thats about the size of it, not miracle workers, just there to guide, and to make sure you put the work in

Way to go guys, can't wait to see her in action

hey dont worry i'll defo put in the homework. i dont expect instant miracles cos thats just being unrealistic isnt it? just got to set the criteria low and then build it up!

Well not a lot to say today, just more of the same, and last time wasn't a fluke, moll was off and staying close, she retrieved the rabbit skin dummy no problems, but she still won't pick up the bango birdy, she is an absolute pleasure to have off her lead at Mike's, and if i'm honest i think the thing holding her back at home now is us!!!!! so just need to go somewhere not too interesting and safe and go for it and as a wise man said have a bit of confidence in our dog Her stay is also damn near perfect if i do say so myself, in fact got told off for showing off today!

If you had asked me whether we would have got to this stage when we first started i would have to say that i dreamt about getting this far, but didn't really believe that it would happen,so it just shows that with time, effort and patience you can get there, so for everyone thats thinking of starting this journey go for it, you won't be dissapointed and more to the point you may well find you enjoy it, and that your dog enjoys having a purpose in life. As for us we love it to the extent that Nev's shotgun license came yesterday

Way to go !

Love reading the updates

So do I. Great Liz, am really pleased for you and it's such an encouragement.

Hi. This thread has been simply inspirational! I just wish I could find a gun dog trainer local to us in Hampshire. Although I have a young lab that probably works slightly differently to a springster, the whole idea of training a dog to simply do what it was bred to do sounds absolutely wonderful, albeit some hard work & input is needed by the owners as well.. Great stuff Now off to find me a trainer (no e-collars either!).....The heel work & stop on the whistle sounds incredible - just in my dreams!! Off to find me a trainer like Mike!! WTG Molls.....

Ive just read all the way through, fantastic and very inspirational.
I have just contacted www.swanwaygundogs. as hes quite local to me and has a very good reputation.
Heres hoping for my two.

Watch this space!!

well done Liz!! I think I may be coming to you for some tips! Mr Conker has got his naffing off head on again or maybe a trip up to Mikes...

I too have found this thread very interesting. Our young girl Pepper really does need something to challenge her. Could someone give me contact details please as we do not live too far from Cheshire? We live in Newcastle under Lyme.

Many Thanks, Chris & Pepper...

Hi chris,

mike is actually a member of ST. his name is MiLisCer. i dont think he'd mind if you pm'd him . i'm going to see him on sunday with my sammy.

Had a strange couple of weeks with Moll since our last lesson,

what we have found is that she does really well when we go to lessons,she is great off and on her lead,her recall is spot on and the retrieving is coming along.we suspect she may have been given a hard time by her previous owner over retrieves as she will run out to fetch but then seems wary of picking up or if she does pick up she crawls back on her belly.Maybe that's why she ended up a poundie,something we'll never know.

Despite everything she has learned when we get her back home she seems to revert back to mad spaniel mode and is happy running round like a loon although never going too far and at least she comes back rather than us having to go hunting for her.

So today's lesson was re-inforcing the basics and some quartering which went pretty well and the next lesson will be at our place in an attempt to show her that training is training wherever we do it.

Meg on the other hand had a brilliant day,some basic stuff to start with and then onto some sighted retrieves which she really seems to enjoy,and by the end of the session she was doing 50- 60 yard retrieves.Her whistle work is coming on a treat ,so really pleased and a good day had by all.

Great stuff... your thread illustrates the successes of gun dog training..and also the need to keep going back to basics every now and then

If you contact the Kennel Club they will give you a list of all the Gundog club/societies. Not all of them have training classes but most do.
Most of the clubs run little -*test*-('")s in the summer, which are always worth doing.
There is on in Hampshire.