PERCE

You can get a emge for not much more & they're considerably better. The revolvers are truly ****.

I've seen them fixed into the stock of a springer air rifle

Find somebody to help you, ask where you've bought the pup for a starting point if you don't know anybody. You have to train the dog that's in front of you & takes experience to know when to start, it's very easy to put faults into a dog by rushing things before they're ready. My advice would be to play with the pup instilling it's desire to retrieve & to come back to you when asked, infact recall, recall & recall are the first 3 lessons to teach it.

Sorry but you've got a 17 week old baby in front of you & to be considering dragging it about anywhere at this age is madness. It's a hunting dog, I've no idea why you'd be instilling this type of obedience into a spaniel so young.

What you really need is one of these http://www.thunderequipment.com/products/T100.php http://www.gundoggear.co.uk/thunder-equipment-345-c.asp

The Gundog Club books are a very good starting point, they're a very thorough set of instruction manuals.

Totally true

Put it another way then, I wouldn't be putting a 7 month old spaniel on a lead. All I'd want it doing is coming when I tell it, generally following me about / heading in the same direction I am, getting it hunting in an uninhibited fashion & picking anything I throw it to retrieve.

Heel work is one of the last things I'd be teaching a seven month old spaniel, very low priority.

So, we're 4 months on, how's your dog doing?

Saw this on facebook, may be of use https://www.facebook.com/WilashotSporting/posts/551846334887042

Just wondered, some vets are chipping at the 2 or 3 day old when the pup is docked. Others, like mine, chip at 6 or 7 weeks before the pup is sold. Either way the chip is part of the legal requirement of the docking & the chip number should be on the docking paper work. My vet retains the paper work until the chip has been put in place.

How come you pup hasn't been chipped? How old is it?

I just leave mine in the garage.

I've just had a bit of a look at the pedigree, I always look at the dams pedigree as it's usually the weakest. Garrethall Nyoni of Meadowdale has a stud book number which means she's either won or been placed in a trial. Birdsbrook Eppie & Millibues Merry Maid both have siblings with stud book numbers. They all have good hip scores. Certainly well worth getting in touch about.

I'd suspect these would be a better quality working pup than the first site that you posted.

Accredited breeder means little in my book, there's plenty of folk out there breeding good quality working health tested stock without it. As DJL4 has already stated be patient & the right litter will come along.

Yes, it's far more rewarding, I'd just add that if you can find somebody that actually knows what they're doing to give you hand, all the better.

IF you're wanting a trained dog buy one ready finished as in the long run it'll cost you less money.

I don't actually think ATBH61 is Phillipa Williams, I think the guy may have been to some of her training. BTW Do you know Philipa Williams is?

Create & put it in a separate folder which can then allow public access to.

Proper force fetch or not, I don't think it's something that an inexperienced dog owner should be doing. As Kent has posted, I don't think the average work bred dog in the UK needs handling like this, with the right encouragement most dogs will quite happily hold stuff with no need for any type of force. If a novice handler were to do this to the wrong type (nature) of dog it could quite easily ruin what could be a nice working dog given the time & encouragement.

If I sit a dog up & it sets off to follow me as I walk away, I do not reinforce it's bad behaviour by giving it another command ie stay. I take the dog back to the point that it misbehaved at & make sure it knows I'm not happy. I then give the sit command again & walk away. Obviously I'm doing this with a dog that has been taught to sit where it's told until further command, there's a long chain of training events to happen before you can sit a dog up & walk away from it. Whilst atbh61 as gone at things in a bull at a gate fashion, I can agree with him that some of the pinned advice is not fantastic. Until now I've never bothered reading an awful lot of it but having done so I see several techniques that I certainly wouldn't be doing with anything I own & I certainly wouldn't be recommending to many of the first time dog trainers that ask questions on this forum.

At 13 weeks old I would not be restraining a dog from running in on a retrieve, I'd be more interested in getting enthusiasm for the retrieve & letting it run into steadily thicker & thicker cover whilst doing this. I'd also be looking for a dog to swim after a retrieve before any form of steadiness is put in place. At 13 weeks I'd be working on enthusiasm for the whole retrieve & some recall games.

http://glencoekennels.net/Training.html look at the in the yard stuff, I think this gives the gist of what it's about.