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Tips and approaches for managing over-arousal in gundogs, whether it results in noise, unsteadiness, or lack of focus.

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Introducing the new Puppy Gundog course, plus answering lots of listener questions!

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In this episode, I talk about what I've learnt as a result of the recent extremely stressful situation I've experienced recently. A 9 month old puppy we bred was dumped at a rescue organisation. We were not told. The rescue refused to rehome him to us. PLUS listener Q&As.

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Sometimes life is complicated. If dogs are losing out on opportunities for exercise and enrichment because people can't manage them, then their quota of 'good stuff' in life gets a lot lower. A dog which never leaves the house is going to experience the fewest unpleasant things in life - and also would be incredibly deprived, under-exercised and under-stimulated. R+ training needs to accommodate these complexities, and stop over-simplifying things. Because we live complicated lives which go beyond the 4 quadrants.

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Loads of tips towards helping you to get pups swimming!

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In this episode, I talk about a certain subgroup of gundogs which are very motivated by environmental exploration/reinforcers. They require a different training approach. These dogs might find it much easier to work at a distance (with behaviours like the remote stop and the recall) and much harder to offer sustained focus up-close (as with heelwork).

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The best marking is most likely if we send the dog immediately the retrieve falls. However, this also erodes steadiness. What to do?

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I just wanted to drill down (pun intended) on this particular issue, because it's such a great one for improving focus and attention when you're battling environmental distractions.