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The English Springer by Arthur Croxton-Smith
From the book The Power of the Dog (1910) THE ENGLISH SPRINGER “O, how full of briers is this working-day world!” Shakespeare—As You Like It. “The chief requisite in all kinds of spaniels is, that they be good finders, and have noses so true that they will never overrun a scent. . . . . They should be high-mettled, as regardless of the severest weather as of the most punishing cover, and ever ready to spring into the closest thicket the moment a pointed finger gives the command.” General Hutchinson The transition from the toy varieties to a spaniel is somewhat violent. The one is intended to please the eye,…
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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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We are Losing Legendary Methods (Waterwork)– 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 (Waterwork)– by T. Mostert There are a few issues with water retrieves that you do not have with land retrieves. Some dogs enter water easily, others need a little encouragement and then some need a push. When to push will depend on where the dog is mentally, too soon and you may install a permanent fear of water in the dog. As stated before, the dog should enjoy training and you should make it a fun…
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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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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,…