Wutheringhounds

Wutheringhounds Reward based dog training and pet gundog training. Distinction Cert TPTD. Canine first aid trained.
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‘Am I allowed in the field yet mum?…..there’s some hunting to be done!’ 😂
29/03/2025

‘Am I allowed in the field yet mum?…..there’s some hunting to be done!’ 😂

The very lovely Wilma started her training walk package today. Today was the initial 1:1 session with Wilma and her owne...
26/03/2025

The very lovely Wilma started her training walk package today. Today was the initial 1:1 session with Wilma and her owner, and we looked at….

🐾 Reward delivery. Delivering treats in a way which motivates Wilma and reinforces behavior.

🐾 Using the environment to our advantage to reinforce behaviour.

🐾 Starting to put sniffing on cue.

🐾Activities to heighten arousal followed by low arousal activities. Helping Wilma to learn to switch between excited to calm.

Well done to Wilma and Maxine. You are both doing so well and it was lovely to see you both and work with you again. I’m looking forward to spending time helping you both to work towards some training goals. 🌟🐾😊

25/03/2025

This week in the foundation pet gundog classes we’re working on the autosit to movement/ sit to flush exercise. This is a great and fun exercise to practice with your pet dogs, teaching them to not be so impulsive and think before automatically taking chase.

Highly motivated dogs/high drive dogs often have a reduced threshold for various stimuli in the environment. In plain terms this means that they are much more likely to take chase or have a ‘high prey drive’. This can obviously cause problems, as we don’t want our dogs to learn to chase. It’s important with these highly motivated dogs that we teach them alternative behaviours and work with these innate drives through training and games to keep them focussed on you and engaged.

I have been practising this with Newt and Badger a fair bit within the hunting sequence recently. It’s something I revisit a lot/ train a lot with my 2 as they have a huge desire to hunt and chase, and left to their own devices could potentially end up in the next county! Here Newt is doing a demo, first one a bit rubbish, second one better! Practice, practice, practice 🐾

24/03/2025

Newt is 18 months now, I have never reinforced pulling on lead. Sometimes her heel work is great, other times when her arousal is high, she still really struggles. In this video we are walking to the field in the first part, so she is anticipating getting to have a great time off lead, she manages to maintain the position but due to her motivation and anticipation of the field ahead she isn’t as engaged. On the way home, she is much more engaged as you can see.

It’s common that people struggle with high arousal, pulling and lunging, and sometimes even noise when their dogs are anticipating getting to go off lead and have a great time. If you have this issue some things that may help are…

✅Being unpredictable with your walking routes.
✅Walking the same route but turning round at different points so your dog isn’t getting to go off lead every time you walk that way. It may be that you do this for a few weeks, and drive them somewhere for off lead time whilst you are training.
✅Practising impulse control exercises in the heel position. Setting up distractions to practice heel work around, or walking towards something they want and rewarding them for maintaining the position by releasing them to access the reward.
✅Using environmental reinforcers, if your dog does some nice heel work, release them to ‘go sniff’. Or build up how many reliable steps they can do in heel in order to access that off lead freedom.

‘ This tray thing is handy’……‘That’s a place board Matt!’Target training is powerful, and can really help bring clarity ...
23/03/2025

‘ This tray thing is handy’……

‘That’s a place board Matt!’

Target training is powerful, and can really help bring clarity when training your dog. Place boards in particular are great for…

✅Sit stays.
✅Steadiness.
✅Teaching your dog where you want them to be- sat in front, at heel.
✅A go to target/ send away.
✅Stop whistle exercises.
✅In the retrieve sequence- come back and sit in front.
✅Teaching directions.
✅Beer tray for your lap 🍺

Follow along for handy tips and advice, dog training and more 😜

📣Disclaimer: we are not sponsored by Pollys, other beers are available 🙊😂

This morning I got the pleasure of meeting Cookie and her owner for a 1:1. Cookie is a little star and is doing great, b...
22/03/2025

This morning I got the pleasure of meeting Cookie and her owner for a 1:1. Cookie is a little star and is doing great, but her owner wanted some guidance to help Cookie to walk at heel more reliably.

What we looked at…

🐾Ways to reduce arousal so that heel work is more likely to be successful.
🐾Building value in the static position.
🐾Some impulse control exercises so that we could use food to train more successfully.
🐾A fun game to build value in the heel position.

We also discussed various things which will help Cookie and her handler to succeed in their goal, by considering environment, distractions and rate of reinforcement.

Well done to both Cookie and Gemma, great work 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Barlick foundation pet gundog class are a gorgeous bunch 😍. Last night was week 3, working on foundation skills for ...
20/03/2025

The Barlick foundation pet gundog class are a gorgeous bunch 😍. Last night was week 3, working on foundation skills for steadiness….

🐾 Steadiness in a sit stay.
🐾Steadiness to a thrown toy.
🐾Steadiness in the heel position.

Well done everyone, you’re all doing fab 💪🌟🙌.

Startrite Dog Training - Kathryn Wellock Cert.TPTD

I had the pleasure of meeting Bear and his owner at the weekend for a 1:1. Bear is doing great and has had some lovely f...
18/03/2025

I had the pleasure of meeting Bear and his owner at the weekend for a 1:1. Bear is doing great and has had some lovely foundations put into place already.

In the session we looked at fun ways to add distance to his stop whistle, and introduced a marker word for clarity. We also looked at upping the rate of reinforcement when on the lead, and also when practising steadiness in the sit stay, to develop really strong behaviours. As Bear is only a baby we kept everything short and sweet and had lots of fun. He’s a little belter 🌟🐾🌟

In order to train spaniel, one must first become one with spaniel 😬😂
16/03/2025

In order to train spaniel, one must first become one with spaniel 😬😂

Yesterday I had a 1:1 with the lovely Esther. Esther is a young working cocker and has been busy finding herself jobs to...
15/03/2025

Yesterday I had a 1:1 with the lovely Esther. Esther is a young working cocker and has been busy finding herself jobs to do which aren’t entirely desirable, such as hunting for poo when out on walks. So along with starting to teach her a really strong ‘leave it’ cue, we’ve also added in some hunting games to channel that desire to scent and search onto something more appropriate ( according to us humans).

We also discussed/ looked at…

🐾Our body language and how this can affect dogs wanting to bring things of value into our space.
🐾The 2 toy retrieve.

Well done to Esther and her owners, we’ll hopefully see you in the pet gundog foundation class soon. 💪🌟🙌

14/03/2025

What does quartering mean in relation to spaniels? ( keep reading to find out why this is relevant to your pet working line spaniel).

Spaniels are flushing dogs, their main purpose is to hunt in front of a person with a gun, find and flush the game that then gets shot. Spaniels are required to hunt close ( within gun shot range) and are trained to sit to flush so the person with the gun has a clear shot and doesn’t have to contend with a spaniel hot footing it after a rabbit. These days, spaniels are also often expected to retrieve, and many possess a natural inclination to both hunt and retrieve, though this isn’t true for all.

When we refer to quartering, we mean the zigzag pattern the dog does in front of the handler while searching for game. This technique ensures a thorough search of the area. Spaniels utilise the wind during their hunting, often turning into it, and their head carriage tends to be lower than that of some other hunting breeds since they primarily rely on ground scent. However, you’ll often observe a combination of them having their noses close to the ground while occasionally lifting their heads as they hunt.

There are various intricate quartering patterns based on the wind direction, generally reserved for advanced handlers. Yet, if you observe your spaniel, you might notice them instinctively quartering with the wind. Most handlers simply want their dogs to search the ground thoroughly and stay close, so it’s beneficial to focus on teaching a basic quartering pattern using a headwind (wind blowing towards you).

Now, you have a pet spaniel you have no intentions of working, what has all this got to do with you?

By engaging your dog in hunting games, you not only strengthen your bond with them but also enhance their lives by tapping into their innate instincts. Most importantly, you’ll encourage them to stay close to you.

The attached video shows Newt hunting into a headwind. Although this field is usually rich in wildlife, she isn’t on fresh scent in the video; I throw a ball while she isn’t looking. I’ve slowed down the moment she catches the scent of the ball so you can see how she continues to use the wind to locate and retrieve.

Also, I’m passing on this awesome earworm, it’s chitty chitty bang bang in Japanese, the perfect spaniel hunting song 😂. You can thank me later 😜

13/03/2025

Had a 1:1 this afternoon with the very lovely Miss Wren and her owner. Wren has just turned 5 months old and has typically started to take more interest in the environment and is becoming more confident to venture further afield. Hayley wanted help to keep Wren closer and work on getting her recall sharper.

What we looked at….

🐾introduced a marker word to add clarity to training.
🐾Worked on rewarding checkins and teaching her to keep an eye on handler body language by being less predictable.
🐾 Hunting games for fun and to build value in staying close.
🐾Recalling away from things she wants such as food or sniffing.

Well done Wren and Hayley, super work! we’ll see you in the foundation pet gundog class soon 🙌😊💪

Newt Twist 🙊😂Please sir can I have some more?. I’ve brought you Badger’s bowl… it’s bigger 😬
12/03/2025

Newt Twist 🙊😂

Please sir can I have some more?. I’ve brought you Badger’s bowl… it’s bigger 😬

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