What makes a good gun dog trainer?

I believe a lot of very good professional trainers do not know why they are good. They know how easy they find it to train a dog, and find it difficult to understand why others cannot do it. My wife and I have trained only four dogs between us, but spent a lot of time concentrating on training the dogs in different disciplines – the gundog breeds were trained at clubs for gundog work, basic obedience and good citizen awards, some at agility and more advanced obedience. Because of the amount of training, we became very much in touch with the dogs and their behaviour.

When Terry took our latest puppy (now eight years old!) to the first session of a puppy training course, the instructor asked for a ‘volunteer’ to walk the puppy around the ring. Since Terry had been on a few courses there with the previous pup we had, she was picked as the volunteer. This was the first day the pup had been on a lead, but instead of being dragged around the room being ignored, Terry called the pup to heel, and set off with the pup cheerfully walking beside her. This set an unfortunately high standard for the rest of the class to follow, and for the instructor to explain away.

Now there are two primary reasons that puppy behaved (and has continued to behave) so well. The first reason is the puppy was very well socialised by the breeder, a very experienced and caring gundog trainer who breeds the occassional litter to ensure continuity of her strain; and Terry is a very good handler. If you asked Terry what she does though she will say ‘I just expect her to do it and she does’. What she doesn’t know is the level to which she is able to communicate at a subconscious level with the pup, or exactly what she does.

This is what I think the professional gundog trainers also don’t appreciate or know; exactly how they are communicating with the dogs they train. They can tell you some hints and tips, give you some indication of how they are treating the dogs, but there are movements and actions that have become instinctive that they are mostly unaware of. These are like gold-dust, and will only come with experience.

The normal train-it-yourself gundog owner will only ever train five or six dogs in their lifetime. The first few, if you concentrate on improving your experience, you will make mistakes with; but with patience and thought, and not taking it personally if you think the dog is deliberately ignoring you or disobeying (it is more likely a misunderstanding), then you too can learn just how easy it is to communicate on a much deeper and more satisfying level.

The big advantage that professionals now and in the past have, is sheer volume. They can end up training hundreds of dogs in a lifetime, and once the communication thing clicks, it all becomes a lot easier.