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Spencer

A friend like mine!

As a professional falconer I have had several canine companions over the years, all of which I would like to say were superb, but truth be known some fell way below expectation.

I’d like to share with you the process of training and the story of how I came to meet up with and what was to become my dog of a lifetime.

Spencer is a rather glamorous looking “Black” GSP that came into my life one day in Sept of 2003. I was just finishing off entertaining a group of guests at my facility when my mobile phone rang….

“High Adrian, Mark here! Long time since we spoke how’s trix?…. the main reason for my call is that since we last spoke I have gotten divorced and re married again!”

This guy didn’t mess around!

“My new wife is American and we are flying out there tomorrow morning to live, but I need to find a good home for my GSP pup and you’re my last hope can you help?”

I was put squarely on the spot and my mind raced to think of anyone I knew who would take this puppy off his hands?

“He’s 7 months old has had all of his injections and he’s yours, papers and all, if you want him?”

What was the expression about looking a gift horse in the mouth?

An hour passed and a car pulled up, a little black nose pocked his way thru the garden gate followed by Mark.

It was just love at first sight, this had to be the best looking GSP I had ever seen, not the snippy faced dog I was used to in the past but a well built, well muscled young dog with a strong head and neck and good bone structure. He was bold and his tail wagged immediately that he saw me. “This is Spencer, Adrian” said Mark. A cringe ran down my spine! My father was a rather set in his way, practical sort of man and as a child had drummed into me the fact that dog’s should have short, single syllable names that no man should be embarrassed to shout in the park!

“Spencer eh!” I let him off the lead and like most 7 month old dogs, he let his nose take control as he snuffled around the place. I was pleased to see that he returned the moment Mark called him and also noticed how happy-go-lucky he seemed to be, not dowdy or oppressed in any way.

The following few days I allowed him to settle in to my kennels and he enjoyed his morning and afternoon romps with the other members of my canine crew.

So came the day when training was to commence! I could see that Mark had him returning to his name, but that was about it so it was right down to basics and some lead and heel work which he took to straight way. An old adage sticks in my mind at times like this…there’s no such thing as a bad dog, just bad owners…

I see so many dogs straining against their leads when walking with their owners, choking and coughing when this vice could so easily be avoided by the owner simply letting go of the lead with one hand, holding it loosely in the other and only applying pressure with the spare hand when the dog strains to pull ahead from the correct heal position, so effectively checking the dogs mistake.

Next lesson was to drop or stop on command.

I normally achieve this by running toward my dog when he’s not expecting it with hand raised and flat palm facing the dog whilst blowing my Stop command on the whistle. The young dog generally drops or lays down, effectively trying to avoid what must look very much like a likely scolding. A few days later Spencer was dropping like a pro and at any distance.

So with the basic command of stop learned, come back was easily mastered by combining calling his name with a re call whistle then eventually dropping the name call and just using the whistle.

Next stage: a bit of game sense!

I initiated this by allowing him to tag along whilst I worked one of my English dogs, but he was too young and too slow and just couldn’t keep up, preferring initially to drop into rank behind me as we walked thru the heather.

Several days passed uneventfully until the old dog got a great point and Spencer duly locked up in a stylish little point at the sight of his older companion.

I must admit that I am rather sad when it comes to tiny milestones like this and I stood in amazement and awe at what wonderful things nature and evolution can throw at us.

He wasn’t pointing in his own right, but “Backing” as it is called which is the next best thing. And after several minutes the command was given to flush and our burst a wily old cock grouse crying “get back, get back, get back……..”

Visibly a light bulb appeared above Spencer’s head at this point and I could see him get far more interested in proceedings. No longer was he just tagging along with the older dog or walking in my wake, now his nose was working hard as he cast to and fro in search of his own quarry.

I very much admire a French friend’s “English” setters work, they are without a doubt the hardest game finders I have ever seen and even surpass their siblings that end up at other homes, so one can only assume a great deal of credit is down to their training. Apparently the secret is to allow the young dog some success in chasing and catching their quarry. I had always been taught that this was the cardinal sin and should be avoided at all cost, but common sense told me that a dog would work harder for its own selfish ends than for mine! My friend even allowed his young dogs to eat their catch! “What about making them hard mouthed?” I asked.

“My dogs don’t need to retrieve!” was his simple answer, “I have a Lab for that…!”

The next day I took young Spencer out and positively encouraged him to chase rabbits, which he took to like a duck to water…..

After several unsuccessful hours he was knackered and, rather than picking up a scent and running, he slowed and eventually began to actively stalk which led to his first proper scent point. His body as if struck by lightning was rigid with a look of intense concentration on his face as his cheeks slowly drew in the scent of his quarry.

This must be an absolute magical time in any pointing dog’s development; when a mixture of chemicals stir the brain and evolutionary traits take command of the senses. I silently slid in beside him and reassured him by gently whispering the repeated command of “stay, stay, stay……” after a couple of minutes I jolted him from his trance by shouting urgently “Get em up!” and diving toward the cover. Spencer followed suit and by some miracle managed to physically grab the bunny therein!

Without any retrieval training, he immediately brought his squealing prize to me with a wiggly body that told me he was pleased with himself, I gently took the bunny off him showered him with praise and despatched his quarry.

Elation could not begin to describe the way that we both felt at that moment!

Lesson learned he was put back on the lead and taken off home.

The following day we returned to the hill, only this time I was in the company of a dog who meant business casting this way and that in search of a rabbit, and it wasn’t too long before he locked up once again on his second career point. He held it well and flushed instantly on command only to “course” (chase) this bunny right off the hill and out of sight…. Oh dear!

No amount of threatening, bellowing, pleading or baby talk could persuade this young predator to deviate away from his natural quarry, which was after all what I had primed him to do.

All the books I had read said that if a dog were to pursue his quarry after point, the dog should be run down (by way of chasing on foot rather than by the wheels of a vehicle) or even beaten with a branch (God forbid) until this trait was cured. Now I know my dogs aren’t stupid and I hadn’t just spent ages getting my dog to enjoy hunting for game, just to beat the desire to hunt back out of him again, there had to be another way.

I know that many people reading this will know of electric collars and many may see them as barbaric or unnecessary, so before I progress any further I would like to share with you a quick experience that happened to a friend of mine less than 3 months ago.

He had a hard hunting dog that loved to chase rabbits, so to cure the fault he sent it to a very well known dog trainer of the old school who spent 22 weeks chasing the dog around the hills trying to beat it for chasing. The result? A timid dog, that didn’t hunt anymore, but apparently incurable. And a £1000 bill for his efforts.

We cured this dog in 16 seconds using an electric collar just once, he has never chased again and now is hunting hard once more.

I firmly believe that this was the most humane way of my dog learning a hard lesson, if the handler were to chastise him at this point, the handler would be the one stopping him from chasing, something he could resent the handler for, and possibly continue to chase dishonestly when the handler was out of sight. Alternatively he honestly thinks now that rabbits have this amazing defensive tactic where they emit pain to any predator that chases them.

I tried my electric collar on both myself and several of my colleagues before contemplating its use on Spencer, feeling that it was only fair to try it ourselves first.

We headed back out onto our rabbit ground and attached the devious device. Spencer ran hard for several minutes before a point materialised, he held it well and flushed on command. I gave him 2 seconds to start chasing and then pressed the button. He jumped a little and stopped instantly watching his quarry respectfully leg it to cover. A couple more perfect points and flushes without chases established the dog had learned its lesson well and subsequent outings saw me blowing the stop whistle after the flush encouraging young Spencer to lay down (an excellent trait if shooting, effectively getting the dog out of harms way)

When hunting with a young dog I am constantly aware of the wind direction and never underestimate its help or hindrance to a young dog, For example if working a young dog with the wind up its bum, it will have to run past quarry before it even stands a chance of telling whether or not it is there. So a young inexperienced dog needs to always be worked straight into the wind.

My next training was to offer the dog some direction by way of hand signals and whistle signals to effectively be able to send him where I wanted him to hunt and I called on my labrador training experience to achieve this goal.

When training a labrador, great hand control may be achieved by playing a very simple game of fetch the dummy, then find the dummy. A canvass bag (the dummy) is introduced to the young dog by way of throwing to bring back, then the dog is encouraged to stay whilst the bag is thrown then the dog is centred whilst two dummies are thrown, one left and one right. A simple hand signal and command encourages the dog to head off left or right until eventually the dog can be encouraged to search left or right for hidden or “blind” retrieves. By these methods a young dog may be encouraged to initially hunt an area for what he thinks is a hidden dummy but eventually becomes real game.

I now hit my main and only stumbling block in Spencer’s training, although he was delighted to bring me back live game I was sadly mistaken if he was going to be bothered with dead game or heaven forgive a canvass dummy! He just ignored both.

I had a few days head scratching until the problem was solved with the use of a long distance Frisbee, which he really loved fetching back! So by replacing dummies with Frisbee the lessons were learned.

I had a young dog now that hunted hard, pointed and flushed on command and had some modicum of control at distance by way of whistle and hand signals. Now all he needed was some hunting time and a chance to learn what this game was really all about!

I hunt every day of the season with my team of hawks as I have guests join me most days, so Spencer was not short of exercise or opportunity, and it was now that I started to realise just what I gem I had.

He is one of those dogs that possess two very, very rare qualities. Firstly he’s telepathic…no really! He just knows when I want him to do something and does it.

Secondly he posses a mastery of the wind and scenting conditions, and will readily head off a mile or more down wind across open moor land before turning a working a perfect beat back toward me with the wind in his face. Something that only, very rarely, do older more experienced dogs work out.

Now he has a distinct advantage over most of his peers and that is he works for 3 hrs every afternoon of his life as a professional working dog and has amassed thousands of hours experience in the field, so he really doesn’t have any excuses not to be good.

He will point most game items including snipe, woodcock, hare and partridge as well as easy items such as rabbit, pheasant and grouse.

At the time of writing he is just 3 yrs old and I am looking forwards to many more years of his solid friendship, his easy company and probably best of all the shared joy of our afternoons together.

I have never experienced the level or quality of sport that this dog has entitled me and my team of Harris hawks to and know that things are going to get better and better.

He’s my colleague, my work tool and my silent friend,

I sincerely hope that one day you find a friend like mine!

Adrian Hallgarth

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