About Us
We have a Weimaraner called Slate and a Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer called Grey. Our dogs are much-loved pets and members of our family.
Before we got Slate, we were told, by experienced Weimaraner folk, that Weimaraners are happiest when they have a ‘job’ to do. Wanting to be good doggie-parents, when Slate was young, we dabbled casually in several different dog-sports to find something which we liked; which Slate liked; and which we had a reasonable chance of modest success in, using whatever abilities Slate came with, as a Weimaraner. We stuck our toes in the water by attending agility courses, tracking seminars, trick-training courses, competition obedience seminars; and we also showed Slate at championship shows.
Ultimately, we settled on gundog work as our ‘thing’. Over the coming years with Slate, we competed in (a lot of) gundog working tests, winning out of large Novice and Graduate classes and being consistently placed in the top 5 dogs of large classes; we competed in about three field trials, gaining the Guns’Award once; we successfully gained the KC Working Gundog Certificate; we passed a Natural Ability Award; picked up and beat on many shoots; attended many gundog training events for both retrievers and HPRs; and acquired Grey, who was bought specifically with gundog work in mind.
So we did achieve our objective of having fun with our dog in field events and of some modest successes – and we met lots of lovely and supportive people in the Weimaraner community along the way: My friend Mike and I created the Working HPRs forum together in 2006, and – largely through Mike’s tireless promotion of it – it now has over 1000 members.
Alongside all of this, I had a strong and passionate interest in clicker training and reward-based methods. As part of our ‘dabbling in things’ with Slate, I was lucky to have learned from some hugely gifted trainers – trainers competing in many different canine sports, including working trials, obedience and agility. Particularly influential was Anne Bussey’s method of training the clicker retrieve, which was endlessly helpful when applied to gundog work. I frequently attended seminars at Learning About Dogs, the UK’s main clicker training centre, gaining CAP1 and CAP2 clicker training qualifications – and our dogs were clicker trained from a young age.
I was always, though, slightly disconcerted by the tension between these two worlds: The world of gundog work and that of clicker training. There are a very small handful of folk who manage to live in both worlds, such as the brilliant Helen Phillips at Learning About Dogs, with her team of Vizslas, but they are few and far between.
Attending other gundog classes was not quite as easy and there remained an uneasy discrepancy between what people around us were often doing, and what we did. There we were, treating our dog for waiting quietly – whilst another dog is helicoptered around on its slip-lead until it has almost lost consciousness, as a punishment for showing aggression. (The trainer who did this advertises as a ‘clicker trainer’!) Or to see trainers advocating sprinting out, over several hundred yards, to dogs which had disobeyed the sit whistle – by which time the dog is going to have little notion of what the punishment is for.
So, it became increasingly clear to us that the world of gundog work and the world of clicker training make uneasy bedfellows. This is not inevitable: There is nothing about gundog training which means that it has to be the antithesis of clicker training. It is partly that the gundog world is somewhat behind other dog sports in the knowledge and application of learning theory and reward-based methods.
This led us to wonder whether we would be better off pursuing another activity which was more welcoming of clicker training, and we decided to reinvestigate the sport of working trials. (For those who’ve never heard of it, working trials is the civilian equivalent of police dog work.) We attended monthly working trials seminars and we trained hard on things in between for about 6 months. We enjoyed being able to use treats without being told not to, and Slate especially showed a lot of aptitude for the sport. We particularly enjoyed tracking. Everyone was very welcoming of us and helpful…
However, our hearts weren’t in it: We missed the sense of community which goes along with being involved on a shoot; the sense of a group of people (and dogs) working together towards a common aim. We missed watching our dogs get such pleasure from hunting for game, which is something they naturally want to do anyway. (Unlike, say, finding non-game ‘articles’, as in working trials.) We missed being out in the natural world, never sure what was going to flush from where, nor what would happen next – feeling intimately connected with nature. We missed thinking about where to find water, sufficient cover, game, jumps – each day, when we went out training; making use of the natural environment, instead of just looking for open grassy spaces to track or lay search squares.
And so we found ourselves being pulled back towards gundog work. Despite the fact that we have inadvertently ‘created’ two dogs without the sufficient hunting range to field trial very successfully. (Living in an urban environment, without a garden to speak of, it was extremely difficult to gain enough access to game at the best time for the dogs – when they were young. Or, in fact, at any age. Meanwhile, we were doing loads of clicker training – teaching them to be focussed on us and to see us as the source of rewards (not the environment). End result: Two dogs which are under excellent control but don’t range far enough. Can we rectify this? I think it might be too late, but we can try.)
I’m sure it is possible to clicker train gundogs without this result of their being overly focussed on their handlers, and I take full responsibility for this outcome – but you probably do need to be providing dogs with plentiful experiences with game as youngsters. But I have to say that (hunting aside) we really enjoy having dogs as focussed on us as this – they are much easier to own than a hunting-mad HPR – and, given another HPR puppy, I’m worried we would unwittingly create the same outcome again unless we went to special measures to avoid it. Because the same circumstances (lack of game and lots of clicker training) would arise.
Perhaps we’re not best suited to HPR gundog work. Perhaps we should have labradors. Perhaps we should continue with HPRs but with harder-hunting stock with our next puppy.
Who knows. But, hey, it’s exciting.
Currently Slate and I are embarked on our CAP3 clicker training qualification. I have no idea if we’re going to finish it, since it seems a never-ending task.
I also run very popular training classes as an APDT registered dog trainer, including a ‘Clicker Gundog’ course. I’m always looking to further my own knowledge and to improve my training skills in various ways.
I hope you enjoy our blog!
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