One element of a gundog’s training that is often overlooked is the teaching of ‘taking a line’. It is one of the most important skills that any gundog that is going to be used to retrieve game should be taught. However, it should be understood that this can be rather confusing for the dog, especially if it is one of the breeds that are predominantly bred to hunt rather than retrieve.
The main contradiction is that during a dog’s early hunting-and-quartering training we discourage it from pulling forward on scent lines as this will disrupt its pattern. However, when we start to teach the taking of scent lines, we are then letting the dog do exactly what we have been training it not to do. It is certainly a dilemma.…
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Sporting Gun (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2022