Hi I was hoping someone could give me some advice. I have a 7 month springer Dexter. Having read a lot of these posts I'm thinking that I'm really not encouraging Dexter to reach his full potential in terms of training him. Even though he's 7 months it seems to have been a long slow process to get a sit, down and stay. (Although we do seem to be progressing at last!) His recall is terrible, in fact I was actually wondering if he was deaf at one point. I was wondering if whistle training would help this but am not sure how to go about it.

The major problem is that I don't really know what I am doing and you all seem to be so knowledgeable. Can anyone recommend a good book or give me some tips. We have been to dog training lessons but wasnt that impressed and the only thing Dexter was interested in was playing with (annoying) the other dogs. I am thinking of going back though.

I'd be grateful for any advice, thanks.

Have pm`d you

There is a lot of advice on how to start whistle training on the board and I think there is something on the main site. At his age, it's consistency you need, whatever method you use. He's coming up to his adolescence so is really going to push his boundaries. It is around this age that a lot of people start to have problems with recall etc.

If you are wanting to go down the gundog training route, I think the gundog club - www.gundogclub.co.uk (I think or it could have "the" at the start of the address), is a good place to start. There may even be training classes in your area.

There are also some gundog training broadsheets you can buy for about £10 which are really useful. It tells you, step by step, how to train your dog right from the basics of heeling, sitting up to working your dog. If you google gundog training broadsheets, you should find them.

HTH

Helen