Team Gunner Go Group Training

Serious subject requires serious face!

"Changes are a-paw. They need some serious thinkin' about. My whole life I has been a one-Person dog and that Person, in all matters to do with my workin' life, has been a one-Dog person.
"Now we have two gonna-be-gundog Understudies. Stands to reason they may shape up into workin' dogs too. Otherwise why She (who must be etc etc) spendin' so much energy on 'em? And She been takin' them for lessons every week to Rory-the-trainer. Bein' flibbetyjibs with the attention span of a gnat (in the case of Understudy #1 aka Jaunty aka Gaberlunzie Master at Arms -  half a gnat - don't larf 'cos that's his full moniker ... in fact, his name's a load bigger than he is - and a dog's life more serious....) She takes them for a 'shared hour' which, they both assure me, is more than strenuous enough. (From what I seen, gettin' them to concentrate for 5 minutes is a Major achievement!). She's also been takin' them along to somethin' called Group Trainin' Sessions when she has market-free Saturdays. She said the idea was just to 'socialise' them (pardon me, but I'm a pretty sociable dog and I never attended a single Group Trainin' Session in all my life..... actually, I tell a porkie..... last summer She had the idea it would "do Gunner good" to go to Group Trainin.... It was not an idea I welcomed. But I had a plan.... I'm not the fastest dog in the pack at the best of times but I really excelled at bein' totally pedantic in my attitude to group stuff. Rory-the-trainer even had the cheek to refer to me as Lightening whenever I was asked to do somethin'. The plan worked a treat: after two sessions She decided it was makin' me blunt & bored instead of sharp and keen. We did not return!!!!! *Grins*).

"Now; it seems that this group stuff has been making my boy Bugler, normally a quite sensible (if more bouncy than a bucket of frogs) young dog, a bundle of excitement & nerves. She says he can't sit still for more than 5 seconds at a time and really gets wound up when any other chap gets asked to do anythin'. Jaunty on the other hand, at home unable to sit on the same spot for any measure of time, excels in the group - patiently waitin' his turn and then chargin' off like a bat outa hell to do whatever's asked of him. Not always correctly 'cos he does tend to forget what he supposed to be doin' and need quite a lot of remindin' but he, on the whole, do behave a lot better than when he at home.

"So, she said to me the other day, that we were now goin' to do Group Trainin' Sessions at home! That way, maybe the norty Jaunty behave better and the bouncy Bugler calm down a bit!
(Note from Ed. .. "It pays to be optimistic when training spaniels")
"I must own up to bein' a bit shocked, if not betrayed.Worse than that - these GTS's have replaced my usual mornin' runs 'cos, She say, I don't have enough energy to do both. Well, if She had consulted on the matter, I'd have had a few words about priorities, but, typical human, She just went ahead & decided what was to be!
So here we are, at home, doin' Group Trainin Sessions every mornin.....

I was resistant to start with; specially when she did the 'quiet call' lesson. If I been told to sit, I sit. And sit. Callin' my name is ignored. I has been taught to sit still till whistled. Now, however, in Group Trainin, if I hear my name I am to move up to Her; if one of the others is called I sit still; they move up to her when their name is mentioned; immediately; and turn in turn. When 'trievin we only go if our name mentioned; that difficult cos when I hear "fetch" that my cue to go without any names....After all, that's what I been doin' these past 7 years. We been spendin all week gettin it sometimes right  & sometimes wrong... it difficult to learn new ways and the pups are quick to bounce up at me when I get it wrong......
It's a difficult lesson. Personally, I don't see the point cos there's no way the Understudies are gonna be ready to go to work for ages yet. She has ambitions though. That's a Human thing. I'm happy as I am but Her? Nope. She got plans for what a twitter pal of mine (@disneyspaniel) calls Team Gunner. She say I gonna be No.1 dog in the bestest spaniel pickin' up team. I suppose if that means extra bickies then I might consider it but I not havin' anyone on my team who ain't absolutely best - and from what I seen in our GTS's so far, that could take a lot more thought and work than She might be realisin..... As I said before, needs more paws for thought....