Hi all!

I've made a new video showing a 2 minutes routine with me and Daz.

The field is not ideal, quite narrow with mainly short grass.

I'm quite happy with the retrieves, the delivery is not excellent but I'll work a bit more in a second time I'm more focused on keeping her happy to do it at the moment.

The quartering (or lasses how we call them here... laces) is the tricky bit, I've followed the methods I found in a couple of books (walking upwind and downwind and letting her find the tennis balls or dummies) but she stays always too close and not going really far.

I'm in italy so no spaniel trainer to go to, anybody got any suggestions?

many thanks

M.

here the link:

http://vimeo.com/17266687

Mik,

first let me say that's a nice pup, doing very well. and for me very advanced for his age!

Excuse me saying it, but the field you are 'hunting' him in  is, to the dog, probably about as interesting as a car park! I'd be looking to get him into some higher light grass, preferably with some scent in it, a bit like the cover in this clip:

http://www.workingcockersonline.com/apps/videos/videos/show/7364696-simmer-hunting-white-grass

It's that kind of covre that I'd be teaching the dog to quarter. I tend to use tennis balls very sparingly, and prefer them to hunt for scent.

I also try to get them used to exploring cover at that age, a bit like the woodland in the next clip - I'll let them run around with the older dogs which will encourage them into the cover. At that stage they are just learning that there are interesting scents to hunt for.

http://www.workingcockersonline.com/apps/videos/videos/show/7225370-switch

You may not have access to woodland like this, but we have to be creative and work with what's available. All I'd say is get the dog hunting first, and get the quartering in from there rather than trying to 'drill' the quarter into the dog on boring ground when you'll end up with a dog going through the motions and with no drive!

Hope that helps.

BTW the dogs in the clips aren't youngsters like yours!

Nick

We base our early quartering sessions on the recall,  when the dog comes back it is cast by hand sideways to me and I move in the opposite direction and recall the dog to me and again cast it off as it comes in and so on. I cover almost as much ground as the dog, both of us doing a zig zag pattern in these early quartering exercises, I do it on on mown grass in a public park.

ok hunting first then quartering exercises... I think I can find good places to work into so I'll post another video as soon as she made good progress to show you.

really thanks for your replies are really helpful for me so far and not having mutch experience with spaniels...:)

M-

I like the look of the pup. I personally have no problem with her being too close. I think you will find that she will pull further out when she finds game or rabbit scent.

Many people then find the dog is too far in front.  If the dog is too far in front on a bare bit of grass you will have no chance when you get into cover!

I would relish in the dog being with you and then pray you can keep it there when you find plenty of scent.