AVB Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 My cocker is just over two and this is his first season in the field. He has done four driven days so far. He is impatient at the peg, which I am working on, but he loves picking up especially in thick wood and brambles. He seems to enjoy doing hard work. Anyway this week we are doing a walk 1/stand 1 day. He hasn't done any beating yet other than in training and I am worried that it will be too exciting for him. Should I play safe and leave him at home (I don't want to) or are there any tips? I haven't done one either so any tips for me? Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 (edited) Of course he likes hard work he is a cocker ! If you dont feel you can control him leave him at home it can be all too much for a youngster , or you could try him on a drive and see how it goes and if he goes off the rails retire him to your motor . Edited December 2, 2015 by fenboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyboy Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 On the Walk one Stand one shoot I go on, some of the new dogs stay on the lead for beating. Just in case the get too excited and ruin the drive. Not much fun for them though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rimfire4969 Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 I guess each dog is different. My youngest just 2 joins me beating on a big shoot. I can trust her more than my 8 year old as she has been a rough shooting dog most of her life, If she sees a pheasant it needs putting up, but at the big shoot as we reach a flushing point with a couple of hundred birds moving around she would be difficult to stop. My youngest is great on the stop and return, if your dog comes back when you tell it I would give it a go. Is it a paid day or syndicate? Most of my syndicate days this season I have given my shooting to guests so I can concentrate on working my young dog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WGD Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 (edited) What opportunity do you have to take him out for one drive or, maybe more likely, put him away if he's not behaving. One thing if certain, if you are questioning before you start whether you have the control to have him hunt within shotgun range of you in the beating line you probably don't. But there are dogs which will naturally work within a range of their handlers and others which will offski over the horizon given half a chance. You should know by now which yours is... Edited December 3, 2015 by WGD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVB Posted December 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 (edited) I guess each dog is different. My youngest just 2 joins me beating on a big shoot. I can trust her more than my 8 year old as she has been a rough shooting dog most of her life, If she sees a pheasant it needs putting up, but at the big shoot as we reach a flushing point with a couple of hundred birds moving around she would be difficult to stop. My youngest is great on the stop and return, if your dog comes back when you tell it I would give it a go. Is it a paid day or syndicate? Most of my syndicate days this season I have given my shooting to guests so I can concentrate on working my young dog. It is a syndicate. He was very good on stop and recall but twice when out training recently he has flushed and gone after them. I think it is the issue of him enjoying the experience, getting over excited and teenage rebelious years (if dogs go through that) What opportunity do you have to take him out for one drive or, maybe more likely, put him away if he's not behaving. One thing if certain, if you are questioning before you start whether you have the control to have him hunt within shotgun range of you in the beating line you probably don't. But there are dogs which will naturally work within a range of their handlers and others which will offski over the horizon given half a chance. You should know by now which yours is... I will have the opportunity to put him away if he misbehaves. I did have 100% confidence him, and he was for a while quite a nervous dog so liked to stay close. BUT as I said above it has gone a bit wrong as he has gained confidence. My heart says leave him at home but I enjoy working him so much (it's my first dog). Stupid question but how exactly does a walk one/stand one work (normally we are driven and just giving it a bash this weekend)? Is it just that half the guns beat on one drive and flush to the standing guns and then alternate? Thanks all. Edited December 3, 2015 by AVB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rimfire4969 Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 Walk one stand one is as you have said. You are either standing as in driven shooting or beating. My older spaniel is great for this as she sits happily on a peg between drives, my younger spaniel finds it more challenging as she wants to work all the time and not wait on a peg but it does give her a chance at a retrieve or two and learn a bit of patience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WGD Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 It is a syndicate. He was very good on stop and recall but twice when out training recently he has flushed and gone after them. I think it is the issue of him enjoying the experience, getting over excited and teenage rebelious years (if dogs go through that) Leave him at home and train him or you won't enjoy working him for long, my first was prematurely retired into pet life because of pushing on without putting the right type of training in and having a desperate desire to be out shooting with my dog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotslad Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 It is very easy to ruin a young dog by doing too much too young, done that with a couple off mine. And most folk will have. Depending on the shoot but often walk 1 stand 1 tend to be smaller bags so less birds about, but not always, some may have decent numbers about. Generally u can sometimes hunt ur dogs further back but then bring them into heel/lead on as u near the flushing point. Even the most steady of dogs can have moments if a rabbits or bird gets up right under its nose and run on to the flushing point Not a cocker person, so others can correct me but seen a lot of niosey ones over the years Dunno if this will be an issue, but if he misbahves and u put him in a motor so he could still hear/see the shooting/birds may make him excited and start to bark/whine/squel with excitment. If it is impatient on the peg tha may be a potential problem and a hard 1 to fix if it starts. Possibly speak to the shoot captain or someone who has been before to see wot the day will be like. Also sometimes/often a lot of very poorly trained dogs in beating line/walk1 stand 1 shoots, u can guarantee ur dog wil pick up every bad habit of the poor ones but never a good habit of the good ones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVB Posted December 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 Thanks everyone. What about if I leave him in the car during the drive but just let him pick up? Or should I leave him at home full stop. I didn't realise you could ruin a dog by doing too much too soon. I thought the experience would help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotslad Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 I'm probably not the person to give advice on cockers but quite hard for any dog to watch the shooting and not get excited, if he makes a noise and u then go to fetch him and let him pick up sort of rewarding him making a noise. It might not be an issue but there is a potential problem there. Ur probably be better with ur dog just walking to heel, even if on a lead than leaving him in the car Aye a lot of dogs are ruined by oo much too soon, the experience is only a good thing if it is good experience. U just have to bea bit carefful wot u let ur dog do. I ruined my 4 yr old lab by dooing too much, and i should off known better, and hard to solve now. We were desperate for extra picking up dogs on grouse so i took him along with my older ones, was pretty confidents he was ready and tried to be careful with him but he has a few bad habits all caused by having him out too young. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVB Posted December 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 Well we didn't do walk/stand as there was only 5 of us. So we went out and had a walk around. Again this was something I hadn't done before. What a great day. As we were working through think cover it enabled me to keep the dog closer and when he flushed a bird he inevitably didn't realise it which helped. He flushed a hare and stopped to the whistle. However, it was possibly because he was too exhausted to bother. According to my phone we walked about 8 miles, so the dog must have done at least three times that. I have never seen a dog so tired! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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