Welcome to Jethro's Journey

Jethro is in for 4 weeks foundational Gundog training and we will be going through everything from lead walking, on and off lead heel work, whistle control and retrieves . 

Its all about the focus, getting Jethro to understand that I am the source of everything for him. The aim today was to start the process of getting him to be calm, relaxed and patient. 

Although we had to repeat the same process as yesterday to calm Jethro, but he did well today. We made some great progress with him on and off lead.  

So I split today into two sessions which seemed to work for Jethro, this mornings session was at our training ground at Potterspury.

Today was a day of dodging the rain; unfortunately, we had to cut the session short when the heavens opened. However, before that happened, Jethro truly impressed me with his remarkable abilities, despite his young age. 

Jethro pulls on the lead, he is not to bad but his lead walking can be a little challenging. There is no pleasure in training or working a dog when as soon as you put them on lead they pull you arm of, so this had to change... 

The importance of patience and steadiness can never be understated..... 

Again today I saw some real moments of greatness so I want to give him a few days off the training to see what he has actually retained.

Once Jethro had settled today I continued on with his distance sit on whistle and his retrieves. 

Mixing up the retrieves keeps Jethro sharp and alert, at his age its still quite hard for him to concentrate for to long... 

When it comes to marking and depth perception then I don't think you can beat Jethro and he is just coming up to 7 months old..

Swapping Retrieves is a common issue  especially in young dogs and if not addressed early on can become a real problem as they get older..  

Having been working and training Gundogs for over 20yrs I seen some very good dogs but Jethro's memory marking and distance retrieves at his age is something else..  

I want to continue challenging Jethro's marking and long distance skills, but not to many as he is still young and I don't want him to just think all retrieves are at distance.       

When it comes to marking and depth perception Jethro is doing really well. But today to keep things interesting for him we started a few blinds. 

In training you can set up distractions as part of the drills you are practising, however there is nothing better than natural and unexpected distractions.... 

Casting a dog out for a blind retrieve is one of the most difficult drills to master. But there is a few hacks and techniques to help, one being the use of food... 

So thats it, today was the last actual training session with Jethro as he goes home on Monday morning. I have had so much fun developing this little lad and I will be keeping a close eye on his progress...