last thursday i started sniffer training with my 10 mth old sproker pup, more to keep him mental stimulated then any thing else, a week on and jack has taken to training like a duck to water, first i had to convince him that he could pick a leather pouch up and retrieve it just as well as a ball, ( i didnt want to use a ball as the bounce to far away and if he cant find it what chance have i got :) ) the only problem now is getting him to give it up after training because he just wants to carry on, i then got him to use his nose by throwing the pouch in to long grass, bushes etc, and last night i hid the dummy and sent him out to find it after i had hid it, i thought i would just do the search square for fun and never expected him to find the dummy, but he quartered the square like a professional and presented me with the dummy in 1 minute flat,i've just got to teach him to call me over rather than bringing the pouch back then we can start adding the scents,
just wanted to share my proud moment :) and the other good thing is he is so knackered he has stopped digging the garden up, it hasnt stopped him raiding the bin unfortunely

Hi,
That's great, I'm not surprised you're proud! Isn't it lovely to see them doing something they enjoy. My Springer doesn't work but I trained her along sniffer/gundog lines. Like you say it keeps them mentally happy, you only have to see that tail-wag! :D She loves it when I hide treats around the room for her to search out. It comes in useful too, she finds our calves for us when their mothers have "mislaid" them in a patch of long grass and this summer she found my dropped glove in the hayfield.

Happy hunting and I hope the garden continues to survive! :D

Oh, and I agree, gun dogs definately r best. :)

Kath.

Oh go on guys, teach them to find tennis balls too! For a special treat I take my springer to the park where there are tennis courts next to a field. The other week he found 8 tennis balls in about 20 mins! Nobody can get them back out of the brambles like he can. I distributed them amongst all the children playing on the field which amused them. He has as much determination with a tennis ball as he does for a pheasant, and it keeps him on his toes during the resting season.

jack loves to retrieve he likes to retrieve tennis balls off ground and gundog dummies out of water the problem i had was trying to teach him that dummies can be picked up off land too for some reason or other he thinks that he has to swim after dummies so after a few failed attempts on land :D he gave up trying to retrieve dummies of land, i wanted to get him to pick dummies up for the benefit of sniffer training it just means that when i throw the dummy in to the scrub i have a rough idea of where to find it if jack doesnt :D
also it means the kids can carry on playing fetch with him without spoiling his nosework too much, not that they get much chance to play fetch with him as he brings the balls back to me regardless of whether it was me that threw it :D best of it is he isnt really mine he is my mums dog but as his best friend in the whole world is tess my dog he has attached himself to me.
i cant wait to the next stage of training, im itching to start him on the explosives scents and have to keep reminding myself to keep it slow and steady
tanya

Hi jj,
Bess has no trouble finding them but she rips all the green stuff off in a flash, and demolishes the rest if I don't take them from her quickly. Good job she isn't a working Springer or else she'd be handing over pheasant mince!! :D

Kath.