Hold the Line

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I'm going to waffle at you all about taking your dog on a shoot :)

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Tips and approaches for managing over-arousal in gundogs, whether it results in noise, unsteadiness, or lack of focus.

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Introducing the new Puppy Gundog course, plus answering lots of listener questions!

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In this episode, I talk about what I've learnt as a result of the recent extremely stressful situation I've experienced recently. A 9 month old puppy we bred was dumped at a rescue organisation. We were not told. The rescue refused to rehome him to us. PLUS listener Q&As.

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Sometimes life is complicated. If dogs are losing out on opportunities for exercise and enrichment because people can't manage them, then their quota of 'good stuff' in life gets a lot lower. A dog which never leaves the house is going to experience the fewest unpleasant things in life - and also would be incredibly deprived, under-exercised and under-stimulated. R+ training needs to accommodate these complexities, and stop over-simplifying things. Because we live complicated lives which go beyond the 4 quadrants.

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Loads of tips towards helping you to get pups swimming!

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In this episode, I talk about a certain subgroup of gundogs which are very motivated by environmental exploration/reinforcers. They require a different training approach. These dogs might find it much easier to work at a distance (with behaviours like the remote stop and the recall) and much harder to offer sustained focus up-close (as with heelwork).

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The best marking is most likely if we send the dog immediately the retrieve falls. However, this also erodes steadiness. What to do?

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I just wanted to drill down (pun intended) on this particular issue, because it's such a great one for improving focus and attention when you're battling environmental distractions.

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I talk here about a few ways to help dogs which are struggling to offer us focus and attention. Do check out my Focus and Attention course, for more info.

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This is a random collection of thoughts directed towards helping people become better trainers by addressing things other than the usual 'how to train stuff'. From personality traits of effective trainers to gaps in knowledge and misassumptions.

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This sequence can be really confusing for people at first, leading to people often trying to train this in the actual order it actually happens.

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This episode is a little bit of everything. It is a buffet of an episode. Not sure if it's all you can eat, but it is a heck of a lot.

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Here I waffle randomly about what I'm doing with puppies in this age range. It doesn't really involve much gundog-specific stuff, because it's about helping pups to feel safe in the world.

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I talk here about the advantages of picking up, especially for HPR breeds (spaniels would also benefit for similar reasons) - and also offer some thoughts about docking after our experiences with our recent litter of Weim pups.

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Yes, finally, it's here. The long-awaited sequel to *The Fundamentals*, the new book is called *Force-Free Gundog Training: Precision and Progression" and it's available in Amazons everywhere. Whoop whoop!

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Amazingly, my new book (Force-Free Gundog Training: Precision and Progression) is nearly ready. WHOOP!! It should be out in a few weeks....

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This is a ramble of an episode (both subject-wise and literally) covering ticks, the come-in whistle on retrieves and early canine pregnancy.

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In this episode, I recount our incredibly stressful race against the clock to get the right stuff, in the right place, at the right time. Phew.

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What are the pros and cons of working tests?