NOTES ON BASIC TRAINING 

BY JOHN KERR (Rushfield)

The age to  commence training a young setter or pointer is a subject for discussion among trainers. Some believe that serious training should commence at the early age of six months. There are others who believe that a pup should be left from serious training in its first year.

From my experience the time to commence training is solely governed by the pup. A bold pup of six to eight months will come to no harm if its training is to commence at this age. On the other hand a pup of six to nine months which may be sensitive will require encouragement until it is older. The trainer must learn to read the pupil. This is important, the assessment of your pupil.

Your pup will, or should be, lead trained at this stage and it will also respond to its name when called.

You will also have had it out for walks on interesting ground letting it investigate and run at its own speed.

Choose a grass or stubble field where there is a good length of grass or stubble. This starts a puppy off on the right lines allowing it to run using its nose, and carrying a high head. You must start off by allowing the pup to run into the wind, never allow a pointer or setter to run on bare or rabbity ground. This encourages it to ground scent and consequently lower its head. Now that your young puppy has started off into the wind on the proper ground encourage it to quarter.

Set the puppy down in front of you with the wind in your face. Decide which side you want it to run off. Get its attention and if you wish it to run to the right, stretch out your right arm, walk a pace or two in that direction, and give the command to "get on". The pup may run away from you right away, on the other hand it may only go a pace or two, and turn to come back to you. Keep walking to the right, always encouraging it to run to that side.

When the puppy has run out to the right, say a distance of twenty to thirty yards, call its name  and walk in the other direction, towards the left, signalling with your left arm, encouraging it to cross in front of you. Continue this exercise in a zig-zag movement across the ground, always encouraging the pup to cross back and forth in front of you. keep these lessons short and always end on a happy note.

You may find the pup has an aptitude to run to one side further than the other. If this is the case start the pup off on the side it shows signs of unwillingness to run to.

Another item to look out for at this stage, you may find that your puppy has a tendency to back cast, ie running behind you. In order to rectify this adjust your speed to the speed of the puppy, and never give the command to turn unless you are a pace ahead of your puppy.

Continue these exercises until you have established a good start to a quartering pattern. When you are satisfied that the quartering lessons are progressing,  introduce a whistle to turn the pup from either side.

Coupled to the quartering exercise, you will have your pup on short walks, teaching it to hup or sit by word of mouth and hand signal. While walking on the lead, stop:  give the order to hup gently pressing it flat on the ground, and holding up your right hand, facing the dog, palm outwards.

First of all, on the lead, beside your pup, then at the end of the lead, increasing the distance by degrees until you can take away the lead, always increasing the distance until you can drop your puppy at any given point away from you.

If the pup at any time shows a tendency to come to you during this exercise, even creeping towards you a few inches, take it back to where you gave it the command, make it drop, and hold it in that position for a few minutes.

When you are satisfied that your pup is responding to your word command, you can now introduce the drop whistle. Give the command to hup, immediately give one long blast on the whistle, as this lesson progresses, you can take away the word command and drop your puppy by the whistle and hand signal.

You can now  bring your lessons together, quartering and dropping, a word of advice a t this stage - DO NOT BORE YOUR PUPPY WITH TOO MANY LESSONS. TWO OR THREE TIMES A WEEK IS SUFFICIENT.

ALSO TRY IF POSSIBLE TO CHANGE YOUR TRAINING GROUND. NEVER TRAIN IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY. BEST DONE IN THE EARLY MORNING.

These basic lessons are most important, and if your puppy has not reached this stage, there is no point introducing it to game.

POINTERS AND SETTERS:BASIC REQUIREMENTS

Dogs shall be required to quarter ground with pace and style in search of gamebirds, to point gamebirds, to be steady to flush and shot and where applicable, to fall.

ELIMINATING FAULTS

Flushing up wind - out of control - missing gamebirds on the beat - chasing fur or feather - whining or barking - unsteadiness to game - blinking a point.

MAJOR FAULTS

Not quartering and not making ground good - not dropping to shot - stickiness on point - persistent false pointing -  not dropping to flush down wind - noisy handling.

CREDIT POINTS

Quartering - gamebird finding, pace and style on point and natural backing.

KEY POINTS I LOOK FOR

FIRST THE SEARCH - I ATTRIBUTE GREAT VALUE TO THE SEARCH. WHEN A DOG IS RELEASED UP WIND I  EXPECT HIM OR HER TO RUN AT GOOD SPEED. HE SHOULD CARRY A HIGH HEAD AND A MERRY TAIL - A HAPPY DOG WHO ENJOYS HIS WORK WITH PLENTY OF DASH AND VERVE AND TO QUARTER WITH SPARKLE.

THE FIND - All finds must conform to basic essentials in order to be considered at all. He should be steady on point; he should have a free work out without being sticky and he should be steady to wing and shot.

All good to excellent finds should be executed displaying the following characteristics:- Go to and stand well out from the birds, hold  a high head and show the stylish characteristics particular to his breed, remain steady on point,  when required to, take his handler up to birds in brisk and careful fashion, leaving the handler is reasonably good position to shoot the birds.

 I place great merit on natural backing. This is the natural instinct  in a pointer or setter to honour another dog's point by backing, often from a distance, and it is a wonderful sight to behold. A dog to my mind with a find of class, together with a natural  back of the spectacular type and with ground treatment may be classed as having a complete performance which is extremely hard to beat.

The quest for game should be wide quartering, fast straight  line quartering with  good depth between the casts.

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