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All my dogs over 60yrs have lived in as family and I have never noticed their tendency to enjoy a days hunting reduced.  Yes, I can understand if you run half a dozen or if you happen to have a house proud wife, but otherwise a well trained working dog is less trouble in a home than kids.  Had Labs, GSPs and Viszla's and for a dog for the home as well as hunting the Viz comes out on top for me.  IF I was in waterfowl territory then a Lab for sure.

TIP ....training starts from day one and I don't mean 'hunting' training either....behaviourable training.   All my dogs knew the word NO! very early in life, a bit like kids should be I suppose.

Edited by Walker570
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Yes, mine always have been kennelled and also house pets. They come on holiday, the pub etc. It is harder when have other people involved wearing your training, but try to ignore them. As long as you treat the pup from day one as you would want the adult dog to behave (no jumping up, mouthing, barking) then no problem. If people try to feed the pup from the table or encourage it to jump up for attention, do not tell them off. Just quietly and severely punish the pup. It needs to learn to ignore naive distractions and also the other people quickly learn they do not want the pup punished. 

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Thanks for the reply’s sound very encouraging I am getting a cocker.Kids wanting to play fetch with it so will just have to make it part of training and make sure kids do it rite.Watched a few trailing dog training dvd and there seem to be so many do and don't.I.e never looks like they just go for a family walk or owt.Wife keeps saying it not just my dog it’s the family’s.Want the dog for hopefully pigeon shooting/rough shooting/beating.Cheers  

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My cockers are always family first,, but,, put on boots or go to gun cabinet the switch goes,, the tail goes and there at front door before me!!!

Absolutely no issues with being a pet and working,they will do what you train them to do,,for me that's lying on top of the sofa looking out the window for 6 mths of year then up and out when the season permits....enjoy the dog for what it is.....

an extended member of your family!!!

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2 hours ago, Lufcyorkshire said:

Thanks for the reply’s sound very encouraging I am getting a cocker.Kids wanting to play fetch with it so will just have to make it part of training and make sure kids do it rite.
 

Watched a few trailing dog training dvd and there seem to be so many do and don't.I.e never looks like they just go for a family walk or owt.Wife keeps saying it not just my dog it’s the family’s.Want the dog for hopefully pigeon shooting/rough shooting/beating.Cheers  

1. Perfect, you have ready made dummy throwers. Personally in a family environment I would avoid any retrieve or fetch based game except whilst specifically training. My dogs will happily chill and sleep whilst we play french cricket with a tennis ball etc as they know it’s not for them. Same with sticks, footballs etc. When training I will have them retrieve all sorts of objects, but under control.

2. If you are going to trial it is unlikely that you would have it as a pet. Trialling men frequently have multiple dogs and many of them have different dogs for trialling than they use for normal shooting. I am from a HPR background but have shot over spaniels in a trial. My current dogs are not trialling dogs, which is great because I need them to work on all sorts of shoots, on the moor, on the marsh, in the hide, picking up crows, walked up, driven etc.

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Kid's playing fetch may unravel any training you do,a working cocker could be a bit of a handful for a first time gun dog.contact Big Bird on here she is a wise ( was going to say old ) bird excuse the pun but very knowledgeable.

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OBEDIENCE  first and foremost. The kids will also appreciate that as well as they can get the dog to 'work' for them.  Having worked alongside a number of police dogs and dog handlers in my time it was rare that one of the working dogs did not enjoy having it's ear scratched.  BUT  Just one word from it's handler and it was a different dog.    I am terribly jealous of you having a new puppy because as I have said on here before, whoever said you can';t buy happiness forgot little puppies ..... in fact that line was written by one of the greatest dog handlers in the USA  Gene Hill. 

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Have a read of Ted's progress done by Lloyd 90 it is about a Springer but it should give you some tips.Enjoy the pup, pictures are compulsory or you may get barred from the site, above all else do not rush or scimp with the training 👍

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11 hours ago, Lufcyorkshire said:

Thanks for the reply’s sound very encouraging I am getting a cocker.Kids wanting to play fetch with it so will just have to make it part of training and make sure kids do it rite.Watched a few trailing dog training dvd and there seem to be so many do and don't.I.e never looks like they just go for a family walk or owt.Wife keeps saying it not just my dog it’s the family’s.Want the dog for hopefully pigeon shooting/rough shooting/beating.Cheers  


How old are your kids? 

Kids can be fantastic for putting confidence and socialising a young pup :) but Kids and others throwing stuff non-stop for the cute new puppy will soon sicken a dog and get it to not bother retrieving anymore so you have to be careful. Similarly when your cute 8 week old pup learns to sit ... until every member of the family had asked it to sit every 5 mins and the dog is thoroughly sick of it 🙈

 

Just my opinion, but there’s no such thing as ‘going for a walk’ for a dog ... animals don’t take themselves out for walks ... when the dog is out and about it’s normally hunting or doing something in it’s mind, I would try not to get it into a habit of “walks” where it just ******* off and does what it wants it won’t help with training. When I take mine out for exercise I try to give him something to do, at a young age it’s all around play, setting stuff up so the dog easily succeeds and the dog loves going out. Several very short sessions a day is better than a 2 hour walk where the pup is just going wild and not engaging you. 
 

People do take their dogs on walks and let them free run you just have to be aware of what your doing and watch ... there are posts everyday on the Fb gundog groups about their dogs who just ****** off whoever they go out and people at their wits end. 

My dog lives in but the family have strict rules, no throwing stuff for him etc, no tug or taking stuff off him and no winding him up too much (can cause them to whine or make noise, especially in cockers and it’s bloody annoying) ... he gets lots of love and cuddles and fuss and some element of being wound up and playing with my Mrs where he gets all excited and zooms about :) ... but people don’t need to be constantly throwing stuff for a dog or winding it up IMO. I feel it is good to have socialising and periods of interaction as well as periods of being left alone. 

 

 

 

I would try to get some space or arrangement where the dog can go where it wants to be left alone ... a dog needs to learn to switch off as much as it needs to learn obedience, retrieving or hunting. Especially if in the house, I couldn’t have one of these dogs doing loops around the kennel unable to switch off. 

 

Just remember, You at the trainer, you have to recognise your individual dog and see what habits it is developing as it grows... if it starts to develop bad habits it’s down to you to recognise it and think why that’s happening and then put it right. 
I have had to do this many times over the last 2 years, assessing elements and working on weak points, I had to have some frank conversations at times with others to stop doing stuff that would mess up any training and tell them to cut it out. 
 

Dogs come good end of last season but it’s a lot of work and an on-going process. Hoping to run him in a trial this season... but so far just aiming to get on as much game as possible. 
 

However, Half the “beaters” on the shoots I have seen take the lead off their dog at the start of the drive and it’s gone ... and they hope to find it somewhere at the other end 😂🤣 so it all depends what standard you want really. 
 



 

4 hours ago, B725 said:

You could also ask Lloyd for a signed copy 😁as there is enough pages been written.

The best is yet to come ;) 

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3 hours ago, Lufcyorkshire said:

Kids are 7 and 4 I will have to keep an eye on them so they don’t over do it.yes makes sense,looking forward to him coming and starting training 


Assume from your name your in Yorkshire? 
 

Do you have access to your own shooting? Especially rabbit shooting? 
 

If so your laughing, walked up rabbit shooting over spaniels can really polish a dog and they say cockers need lots of rabbits to show their real potential. 
 

 

 

There are lots of people out there wanting to train their gundog but with limited access to game, or their only working opportunity is to take the dog beating. 

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9 minutes ago, B725 said:

That's a fine set of beasts you have there, are they all working dog's. 

Oh yes all work some do things better than others 

one isn’t much good in the water 

one hates woodcock 

ones a greedy so an so And not as steady as I would like (lead works thought 

one is a bit prone to pegging the odd bird but brilliant on runners 

and the retriever is Just about right 

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Edited by Old farrier
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