The Pet Gundog: A common sense approach to training your gundog: 1

Absolutely brilliantBest dog training book everShe’s very good at explaining each stage step by stepBest buy everAnd a must if you want expertise advise

Great book. Very informative with lots of photos. I bought this when out springer spaniel was 11 weeks old. I’m using the book as reference for what I should be doing with, at what age. Well written and easy to understand. Would highly recommend to anybody with a pet as well as a working gun dog.

A really good book, very informative however the pages have started to fall out

This book has been a godsend! Lez uses plain straight talking to get her message across and you instantly feel as if she knows you and your dog. She explains her techniques simply yet in great detail and with the aid of short online videos. I found confidence in the fact that she is highly qualified in her field as I grow increasingly wary of an industry that remains unregulated.I finally came to this book after spending the first 6 months with my Gundog-breed pup training the new fun, lively, constant treat-based method that bombards our social media every day. I’ve had dogs for 26 years but thought perhaps new methods might be worth a go, especially since lockdown presented barriers to face to face training. I ended up with a young adult dog wound like a spring with little control. I have never regretted anything more.There has been a huge and almost immediate change in my dog’s attitude towards myself and we are gradually undoing the harm done but it would have been a much easier journey had I found Lez Graham sooner.And yes, this training is still based on positive reinforcement and we are still having fun, but on my terms now and in a much more controlled manner and with a far happier and more contented dog.

So informative very pleased

The book arrived very quickly. It was exactly as described. Very easy to read with valuable information. I would definitely recommend

Excellent sensible and kind training guide.

Had looked forward to adding “The Pet Gundog” to my expanding dog training library, however the content is so disappointing. If I was looking for a book that reinforced the ego-centric ideas from a generation ago, I would have probably been delighted.The training drills towards the end may be useful, but I would be reluctant to pass this book on due to the outdated advice it is promoting.Anyone who has read anthrozoologist Dr John Bradshaw’s work “In Defence of Dogs” or Barry Eaton’s little book “Dominance in Dogs: Fact or Fiction”, which robustly debunk the many pack/hierarchy/dominance/wolf theories, will be more than surprised to read the author continue to perpetuate some of these myths and use them as rationale for some of the training methods.Curious readers may like to compare the author’s discussion on kennel versus house dogs with Karen Pryor’s observations in chapter 4 of the ground breaking book “Don’t Shoot the Dog” on motivation through deprivation.The chapter on “Motivators” misses an enormous amount of understanding now available on how the canine brain works, and how behaviour is driven - the author continues with outdated “pack” theory. A reader may like to compare the discussion with that of Jane Arden’s “building reward systems” in her book “Mission Control”.The author appears to be dismissive of teaching a dog ready for a shoot through clicker training or working for food. This is the attitude of many in the shooting world who still see the skill as a craft, handed down over generations, rather than using techniques in response to scientific understanding of canine brain function.They can be forgiven for this, the introduction of these techniques are fairly recent; there are fewer highly skilled trainers around who are able to demonstrate what performance is really like after the many hours of practice.Most sceptics will have only met the novice.Passing judgement would be like commenting on the violin as an instrument after only attending primary school violin concerts!The curious or sceptic may wish to follow skilled individuals such as field trial judge Sally Richardson of Wedgnock dogs or field champion trainer and judge Laura Hill of Stautonvale dogs, who has also recently released a book “Advanced Retriever Training”, to get a true picture of what this style of training looks like when it is done well.On page 39 the author describes a technique to confront a labrador who has started to growl.This is deeply troubling on two counts. Both the animal’s behaviour and the authors response are mild, but it demonstrates a clear lack of current understanding of canine behaviour and appropriate management. It is now said that suppressing the growl is like taking the battery out of a smoke detector! Second, the book is aimed at a novice audience, who will not have intuition gained from experience on their side to recognise ,as to when, this really is a dangerous approach.The instructions for training of behaviours such as walking to heel and sit, many would view as dated and focus entirely on achieving a goal behaviour without any consideration of what is going on for the dog in the moment.A well informed instructor would be helping the novice focus on the environment of the request, and how that has an impact on the animals arousal fear/euphoria state and its ability to respond to the cue in that environment, and also how the handler is delivering the cue request- handler’s own body shape etc . The reader may like to compare advice with authors such as Jane Arden and also Leanne Smith’s “ Whose walk is it anyway” or Jo Lauren’s “ Force -Free Gundog training”On page 105, I would be concerned for the novice with limited understanding of animal body language if they have an animal who doesn’t manage stress levels well, using the authors “leave” technique which involves tapping the animal’s nose if it tries to take the food from the hand.If you are considering buying the book, you may be interested to also pick up along with this a copy of Jean Donaldson’s “Culture Clash” or B Hare and V Wood’s “The Genius of Dogs” to give you a well-rounded perspective ,so that you can make a really well informed choice about how you want to train your dog in the long term.If you are new to dog training and want an easy bedtime read,introducing current understanding in canine behaviour then Sarah Whitehead’s case studies in“Clever Dog “ is a good place to start. For those who prefer to listen rather than read, all three above are available as an audio book.