Hold the Line

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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.