Mistakes to Avoid Spanel Dog Training

Mistakes to Avoid Spaniel Dog Training.

Mistakes to Avoid - Spaniel Dog Training

Mistakes the inexperienced handler should be careful to avoid.

Do not walk too fast when hunting a spaniel, or you will encourage the dog to range so cursorily that many of the thick patches of cover may be missed; of course the pace must be varied according to the thickness of the cover being worked, and naturally a spaniel can quarter open ground much faster than he can hunt methodi- cally through patches of bracken, bushes or similar protective cover.

Don't risk making a young spaniel slack by working it for an excessive period—particularly if there is a scarcity of game—or you may spoil the animal's interest—and half a day's keen hunting is much better than a full day's half- hearted work.

When the pupil is considered good enough to accompany its master to an important Shoot (probably to be used as a retriever only and not to hunt), don't take the puppy to a place where you think there are likely to be wild dogs out with the keepers or other Guns; for during the early period of a puppy's training, bad example is likely to have a considerable influence—and a promising puppy may be spoiled if it continually sees other dogs doing those things which should not be done. Don't assume that because the Shoot is a very good one—expert keepers, large bags, etc.—the dogs are also certain to be well- trained; for it is unfortunate, but true, that often the better the Shoot the worse the dogs! On a big pheasant day, for instance, you may find keepers with unsteady dogs waiting In a covert behind your stand to pick up the birds as they fall, and if a dog comes again and again to take away pheasants which are lying within sight of your hitherto well-behaved puppy, the latter is almost certain to get jealous and take a turn in the proceedings by running in to a fallen bird.

Apropos of this advice, to keep your puppy away from bad examples, the following story is told of the writer—the reader must allow a cer- tain exaggeration of artistic license on the part of the observer who tells the tale. At a certain Shoot in September, many years ago, the hostess joined the shooting party at lunch, and brought with her a favourite terrier; after lunch she decided to walk with the Guns for a while, with the terrier of course accompanying her; the writer was one of the Guns and had a promising puppy with him, for he knew that his host and the other Guns all owned steady retrievers; the terrier had the time of its life chasing every hare that got up, running in to every shot partridge and yelping at the top of its voice all the time; the host was newly-wed and still semi-mesmer- ized, and the black looks of the other Guns failed to have the desired effect on the hostess; suddenly it was noticed that the writer was missing, and after a search he was discovered, sitting under a hedge, clasping his coat over the puppy's head and saying, " you shan't see that.....! " The story, at any rate, illustrates my point.

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