Hold the Line

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 I answer a listener's question about swapping and then I waffle, hopefully in a way which makes sense, about 3-handed casting... 

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 The Pet Tutor is a remote treat dispenser. In this episode, I chat with Penney Baker - who participates in field work and hunt tests with her Labradors. Penney recently ran into a problem with blinds, with one of her young Labs, and she used the Pet Tutor to help solve it. If you'd like to learn more about the Pet Tutor or see some of the videos Penney has...

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I introduce you to the Workbook which accompanies Force-Free Gundog Training: The Fundamentals for Success. And I answer some meaty listener questions!

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode I chat with Jo Lock from the organisation Nose No Limit .   Nose No Limit offers trained conservation dogs for a variety of projects. Jo's background is in Search and Rescue, before she moved into conservation work. Originally from the UK, she moved across to the US in 2011. She has two Labradors - and is currently on the search for a new pu...

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I talk about the turn whistle and using flirt poles and tugs to train steadiness and a flush on cue.

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 Yes, finally I got my ass in gear and created an online site where you can purchase courses showing you how to train your dog using force-free methods. Hurrah! It's called forcefreegundog.com Even better, there's a 10% discount code for podcast listeners for any course purchased on the site this month. The code is HOLDTHELINE10  In this episode, I answ...

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I chat with photographer, researcher and author Craig Koshyk about the history and culture of working gundog breeds. Check out Craig's podcast, Hunting Dog Confidential, the magazine he's behind - Project Upland - and his book ' Pointing Dogs: Volume 1 - The Continentals '.

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I answer a listener's question about maintaining straight lines across water and give some training suggestions for approaching this.

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 If you want to catch up with the interview with me in the great podcast Sporting Dog Talk, you can find it in episode 87 - here . In this episode, I talk about canine fitness during the shooting season (not that I am an expert on fitness, I hasten to add!) and give some preliminary thoughts about a concept I call 'triangulation'.

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I talk with Jane Ardern of Waggawuffins Canine College in Bury (Manchester, UK). Jane is Full Member of the APDT(UK) and a member of the COAPE Association of Pet Behaviourists and Trainers. She is an Accredited Animal Behaviourist with ICAN and a Gundog Club Accredited Instructor/Assessor. Jane works and breeds cocker spaniels and takes a specia...

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 Here are the sources I mention in this episode: Housing and exercise-related risk factors - Krontveit et al, 2012 Avidog - How much exercise do puppies need? Puppy Culture - Puppy Fitness that Fits the Puppy

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 Two listener questions... 

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 Here is a link to the video from Fanny Gott where a dog learns to work around a female in season. Or: http://www.fannygott.com/epic-learning-a-big-lesson?fbclid=IwAR1FStZ8xbccKrNItRB7tI7H2RcPTVA7_4WRn2rYfZ4-Z05ojcJUisyOWHk 

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 I ponder the options available when we are disappointed by a dog which fails to live up to our expectations in some way.

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 Today I answer questions about biting puppies and recall problems in hunting dogs. I also describe another great lining drill, the 3-in-a-row drill.

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I describe a 4-spoked and 8-spoked wagonwheel lining drill - which requires very little space to train, so can be done in your yard or garden.   I also answer a listener's question about settling her dog down in various different settings.

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 I ponder the implications of the recent 'lockdown' in the UK:  Can you drive a short distance to exercise your dog in a remote area, or do you have to exercise in a crowded place where everyone else is?   And how do we socialise puppies so they grow up to be well-adjusted, despite all these restrictions on daily life?

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 Let's keep the economy going and help small businesses that have had to move online :) 

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 Today, I talk about the most important qualities for training a blind retrieve: Run or confidence Maintaining a straight line And which types of blind retrieve we can use, to ensure we really isolate those components of our chain and work on them - without muddying the waters by ending up handling and casting and stop whistling the dog... 

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I chat with Hannah Branigan about: food motivation - and how to work with dogs which lack it (especially in the field or in high arousal situations) and the importance of planning our training sessions You can find out more about Hannah herself via her own website .  But she also has her own dog sports podcast, called Drinking From the Toilet -...

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I talk with Ellen Nauman - programme director of OBATs - the Official BAT School .  We discuss BAT, developed by Grisha Stewart - and how BAT helps dogs to remain under-threshold in the presence of triggers which would previously have put them over-threshold.  These triggers are conventionally other people or other dogs, but can also be game - o...

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode: I do the draw to find out who is going to win the one remaining proof of my book ! I have a mini-rant about COIs and people disregarding them. And (mostly) I talk about blind retrieves , and the difference between a 'hunt everywhere' type of blind retrieve and one where straight lines are expected and upheld.  Where have these differen...

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 This episode covers Phase 7 & 8 of the clicker retrieve process and is the final instalment in this process.  Do look back at earlier episodes of this podcast to follow the process from the beginning. You can also check out my book - Force Free Gundog Training:  The Fundamentals for Success , available from Amazon - for full illustrated details of the proces...

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode I answer questions about: Why is the clicker retrieve trained in the way it is? Should or could we teach dogs to quarter between visible targets like white posts or buckets? What is the connection between breeding/genetics and training methods - what are the implications of training dogs using positive reinforcement if they have been bred to be t...

🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I talk about what I'm getting up to with Fyr - in terms of both socialisation and training. And I answer listener questions :)