🙃 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 answer a listener question about how to avoid punishing the recall by stopping the dog during it when we use it as ...
Oct 24, 2020•28 min
🙃 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 '....
Oct 08, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 42
🙃 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.
Oct 02, 2020•33 min•Ep. 41
🙃 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'....
Sep 12, 2020•21 min•Ep. 40
🙃 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 special interest in impulse control . We talk quite a bit about getting control after the flush through pr...
Aug 28, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 39
🙃 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...
Aug 06, 2020•44 min•Ep. 38
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 Two listener questions...
Jul 07, 2020•16 min•Ep. 37
🙃 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
Jun 17, 2020•43 min•Ep. 36
🙃 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.
Jun 02, 2020•17 min•Ep. 35
🙃 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.
May 22, 2020•50 min•Ep. 34
🙃 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.
Apr 15, 2020•33 min•Ep. 33
🙃 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?
Mar 27, 2020•39 min•Ep. 32
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 Let's keep the economy going and help small businesses that have had to move online :)
Mar 21, 2020•15 min•Ep. 31
🙃 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...
Mar 08, 2020•48 min•Ep. 30
🙃 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 - which you most definitely want to check out and subscribe to. Hannah has two competition obedience DV...
Feb 21, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 29
🙃 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 - or anything else animate. If you'd like more information about training as a BAT instructor, check out ...
Jan 17, 2020•52 min•Ep. 28
🙃 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 differences come from? The article by Dr Carol Beuchat on COIs can be found here . If you haven't been lucky enough to ...
Dec 20, 2019•36 min•Ep. 27
🙃 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 process. And, if that's not enough, you can sign up for my online clicker retrieve course - wherever you are...
Dec 13, 2019•32 min•Ep. 26
🙃 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 trained using aversives...?...
Dec 06, 2019•39 min•Ep. 25
🙃 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 :)
Nov 29, 2019•52 min•Ep. 24
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I answer a question about training the Remote Sit. And I cover Phase 7 of the clicker retrieve - putting the hand target and pick-up together.
Nov 15, 2019•31 min•Ep. 23
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 My book, Force-Free Gundog Training: The Fundamentals for Success , is now available on Amazon (world-wide!). If you do pick up a copy, please do leave an Amazon review to give me some click and treats and make it more likely that I will be motivated to get to work on the next book!! I have a proof left over - a copy of the book which is exactly the same as those sold, except it says 'Not for resale' across the front. I'm going to draw a name from a hat for it...
Nov 08, 2019•32 min•Ep. 22
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I chat with Anne Taguchi from Touchstone Weimaraners in Los Angeles. Anne is a seasoned and accomplished field trial competitor and breeder of working Weimaraners for the field and for hunting purposes. Anne also runs a popular website called Just Weimaraners - which is about everything-Weimaraner....
Aug 30, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 21
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I talk about why it's important to plan your training sessions. I also mention a great free template you can download for planning your training, which is available from Hannah Branigan's super website . You can listen to Hannah talking about planning training sessions on her own podcast (Drinking from the Toilet) here . It's episode 21, 'Why Bother with Training Plans?'....
Aug 23, 2019•17 min•Ep. 20
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I look at Phase 6 of the clicker retrieve process: Proofing the hold against food. If your dog can master this step, you will have an extremely reliable retrieve. Your dog will be unlikely to drop in the presence of distractions and you will be able to use this when your dog exits water to achieve a reliable hold and to avoid the dog dropping when wet to shake. This step also prevents rolling or mouthing of the dummy or retrieve item, in the d...
Aug 16, 2019•21 min•Ep. 19
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I chat with Dr Gayle Watkins about what Avidog has to offer us as breeders, puppy owners and handlers. If you'd like more information about Avidog, please email info@avidog.com Gayle is based in the US and she has been a breeder for over 40 years. She breeds multipurpose golden retrievers under the Gaylans affix. Her dogs have been super-successful in numerous hunt test and working certificate tests and field trials - and in a wide variety of ...
Aug 09, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 18
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I attempt to cover several heelwork exercises at breakneck speed. I also answer a question from Ally about over-arousal during heelwork.
Aug 02, 2019•45 min•Ep. 17
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I discuss the difference between heelwork and loose-lead walking . I conceptualise heelwork and what it is (a moving stay, with a beginning and an end - and duration in between). And I discuss one huge consideration for training specifically retriever heelwork, when using positive reinforcement: How do we prevent the dog staring up at us, and missing marks?...
Jul 26, 2019•41 min•Ep. 16
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I talk with Nick Benger about two completely different subjects: Training dogs to focus on their handlers in distracting environments (otherwise known as 'engagement' training), which is a special interest of his - and we also talk about how (and why) to have conversations with trainers who use aversives. Nick himself has a podcast - called Dog Talk With Nick Benger - which I highly recommend that you subscribe to, because it's one of my favou...
Jul 19, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 15
🙃 Text me (Jo) at Hold the Line 🙃 In this episode, I talk about Phase 4 and 5 of the clicker retrieve. Phase 4 is the Hand Target and Phase 5 is Introducing Slight Distance and a Mini-Hold. Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for some free videos giving an overview of the clicker retrieve process. If you'd like to join us on the 5 week online clicker retrieve course (costing £35 and accessible worldwide), please email me for more info at jo@dogworks.org.uk...
Jul 12, 2019•38 min•Ep. 14
