I've seen several adverts for residential dog training; I have a hooligan flatcoat, 12 months old, I know they're all hooligans really!! :
Do you think she'd benefit from one of these residential courses.:0 If I should go ahead, are there any specific accreditations ( soory 'bout spelling :) ), to look out for?

Liberty :D

Hi Liberty!

I am presuming you mean general obedience courses, not gundog training. Personally, I think with a flatcoat, you'd be better off getting general training advice from people who've owned flatcoats, or know them well. Therefore, the people Jo and Polly have recommended would be the best place to start if they are located near enough to you. Being "people" dogs, I think flatcoats benefit from be trained by their handler, not a third party. HTH.

Monty's Mum :)

PS. And your spelling is fine! :D

Do you mean residential for you and your dog or just your dog? There are a number of gundog training establishments, training a dog for the gun, as in all things, some good some rubbish. I know of no training place where you would send a pet dog for training that I would trust. The difference being that with a working gundog, in general the owner knows how to work the dog, just lacking the time to do it themselves. With pet dog training in my experience it is the owner who needs training not the dog!

Flatcoats are a naturally boisterous dog and can be a handful. They can be trained and will work well but they are not Labradors or Goldens and will always be rather more excitable.

Regards, John

So, is that why you're sticking with Labs, John?? :D

One day I'll have my Flattie Sue. Everyone thought Anna was going to be a Flatcoat but after Beth died Anna's breed was fixed! Her grand sire was Beth's sire.

Best wishes, John

"Her grand sire was Beth's sire" You can't say fairer than that! :)

However, "One day I'll have my Flattie" - I'll be quoting that one back at you, John! :D

BTW, have you ever seen a young Rottie doing HTM?? :) You should have been there today!

Max has been on a Residential Training course at the German Shepherd Academy. He was there for 4 weeks and whilst he returned a very obedient dog it only lasts a short time, it really needs to be kept up. Max is still a hooligan as he has forgotten most of his training now a year later. I would suggest that if possible you should find a trainer who will also train you too, as it's important the the dog and handler are 'as one' whilst training. Also we told our behaviourist (Celia Bourne/John Rogerson) that Max had been for residential training and she replied that she could do that and he would be perfectly trained with her but as soon as he got home would probably revert to his bad behaviour, a point which has been proven to us after being about £400 lighter to boot. So having been down that route I would suggest you give it a miss and maybe find a Flatcoat specialist trainer in your area. :D

Thank you all for your advice :) I've decided to bin that idea. I think both Monty's Mum and John made some very good points, plus Maxs' experience, so I'm going to look locally :D

Liberty :)

:) :) :) You'll have loads of fun together, especially when you find a good club/group to join. If you can laugh a lot through all the mistakes made along the way, then you'll burst with smiles whenever things go right. There's no better feeling of achievement!

Good luck! Monty's Mum :)

A bit off the point, but a friend has a lovely young Flattie (must be about 20 months now) and he is very boisterous but soooo lovely, and with lots of training is starting to get very responsive. She is a member of our Working Trials group and he definitely enjoys "doing stuff". He really tries and has a lovely nature, I really hope she continues to do well with him because there are very few Flatties in WTs, and he is so capable.

I'm sure you will have lots of fun with your Flattie, esp. as others have said, if you manage to join a group and are able to do some interesting training with him.

Have fun!

Lindsay