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Break it Down- by Tok Mostert
There is no doubt that seeing a well trained dog doing everything right is a pure delight to owner/handler or observer, not to mention a judge. The seamless way they cut up a field missing no ground, the sudden stop and lock up on point, the flush on command, the stop, the marking of the fallen bird, the glance for permission to retrieve, the retrieve and the delivery all flowing like a gentle mountain stream over smooth rock. Pure dog poetry in motion! What few understand is how exactly you get a dog to that level. Many fail due to their lack of experience, the experienced fail due to their…
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Gun Proofing your Dog by Tok Mostert
Il silenzio è d’oro
A Time to Reflect (on Training) by Tok Mostert
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There is no off season, just time off- by Tok Mostert
Spring is drawing ever closer and our field season has pretty much closed down. It has been a long hard season for Flake, many hours, many miles and many birds. Off days where non existing: we always had a trial or a hunt going on, that was in between the training. A season like we had takes its toll on a dog, mentally and physically. No matter how well conditioned the dog may be at the start of a season, he is likely to lose weight during the peak of the season. Just like losing weight, a dog will also lose some discipline, it cannot be helped, or prevented, unless…
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Too much of a gundog – by Tok Mostert
As I walked through the door of the large gunshop, the familiar aroma of gun oil mixed with freshly ground coffee filled my sense of smell. The well stocked bookshelves drew my attention and I headed to the dog training section, maybe hoping to find a quick fix to training a better gundog. With a pile of books under my arms, I settled in the plush leather couch to learn a thing or two, I did learnt something, but not what I wanted. The generic layout is one thing, but every chapter in every book that covers selecting a puppy may as well have been plagiarism, it is way too…
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A Time to Reflect (on Training) by Tok Mostert
I am busy packing for a long holiday, Louise, my companion, says she is actually taking me away so that Flake can get some rest. There is truth in that, sometimes we get caught up in pushing so hard and trying to get to the next level with our gundogs that we forget to have fun, so should your dog. What few of us realize is that the “next level” holds more problems, more challenging training situations and that often we made a mistake in our initial training and that we now have to go back and fix that before we can move on. If you are serious about your…
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Gun Proofing your Dog by Tok Mostert
Introducing a dog to gunfire is and will remain a critical element in his training. Many good dogs have been ruined by a wrong use of gunfire and some develop problems later that are not easy to solve. Having a gun shy dog is frustrating and leads down a long path of re-training and sometimes a dog that cannot be hunted at all. The dog becomes so frightened by gunfire that when he does scent a bird he will avoid pointing, as this will lead to a shot or even more shots being fired. I have a somewhat different approach to training my dogs, gundog or lapdog all receive the…
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We are Losing Legendary Methods (Fieldwork 4) – By T. Mostert
Tok Mostert, a Professional Hunter from South Africa, now living in Sweden, is sharing his writings on dog training with us. You can start reading them from Part 1 here. We are Losing Legendary Methods (Fieldwork 4) – By T. Mostert Hunting your Dog, the Best Experience Flake kept on improving to the stage where we shot several birds over her, placed birds and wild birds. The single biggest mistake you can make with placing birds, is making the game it too easy. The dog should work, work hard for each and every bird, some days I placed no birds or only ran her once other dogs have cleared a field.…
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We are Losing Legendary Methods (Retrieves 2)– by T. Mostert
Tok Mostert, a Professional Hunter from South Africa, now living in Sweden, is sharing his writings on dog training with us. You can start reading them from Part 1 here. We are Losing Legendary Methods (Retrieves 2)– by T. Mostert A few more things I learned from Jeppe and Arne on training a dog to retrieve before I moved on to training for water work. Some dogs will try and move around you once they have retrieved the game (or the dummy), almost as if they want to circle around you, do not allow this. You can stop the dog from doing this by training against a fence, or with a…
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Dall’obbedienza al fermo al frullo
A few more words on gun shyness
Lasciateci addestrare
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We are Losing Legendary Methods (Retrieves)– by T. Mostert
Tok Mostert, a Professional Hunter from South Africa, now living in Sweden, is sharing his writings on dog training with us. You can start reading them from Part 1 here. Part 2: We are Losing Legendary Methods (Retrieves) – by T. Mostert Arne played a major role in training Flake for water retrieves, but before a dog can retrieve in water, he has to be able to do this perfectly on land! So, let’s take a step back. Too many folks have opinions on which method is the best, force fetch or the natural fetch training method. Dogs react to movement: you throw a ball and the dog wants to chase,…
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We are Losing Legendary Methods 2 – by T. Mostert
Tok Mostert, a Professional Hunter from South Africa, now living in Sweden, is sharing his writings on dog training with us. You can start reading them from Part 1 here. Part 2: We are losing legendary methods (Tracking) By the time Flake was 8 months old, I could do a left or right retrieve on command, I could stop her on the way out to one retrieve and switch her to the other, Jeppe Stridh made extra effort with us, I figure it paid off. It was time to get her to track blood so we could work our way to getting her qualified as a Swedish Blood Tracking Champion. Time…
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We are Losing Legendary Methods 1 – by T. Mostert
Brief intro: here at Dogs & Country we are often looking to publish good articles, articles dog people can benefit from. I (Rossella) was therefore very happy when Tok Mostert, from Sweden, accepted to share his writings with us and our readers. At the moment, unfortunately, I do not have time to translate them in Italian, but if anyone wants to help out with the translation, I’d be happy to share that as well 🙂 Part 1: We are losing legendary methods Two years ago I came into the hunting dogs world, I knew nothing, I could not make a dog sit or stay, much less retrieve, track or hunt…
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Il percorso
Tok Mostert su Sentieri di Caccia
Do you click with your dog? – by Tok Mostert
