Category: Working The Spinone

Welcome to the Working Section!! A quick tour to help you find the information you are looking for

TRAINING has all the information you need to get you started and links to other useful information. Articles on the sport are here along with dates for any up coming training.
 
EVENTS has all the information you need on up coming competition. Here you can also read about Gundog Working Tests, Field Trials and Spring pointing tests.
 
NEWS AND RESULTS has any relevant news, results and awards that have been awarded.
 
SO YOU THINK YOU WANT TO WORK? Useful information –  you will find information here that is very useful, what is a field trial, what is a gundog working test, and more! (we are working on this section at the moment)
 
If you still can’t find what you’re looking for then feel free to contact one of the working section’s committee members. 
 
Field Trial Secretary: Mrs Alix Johnson: 3girlsandtrev@lineone.net or 0871 996 0640
Committee Member: Mrs Katey Aldred: kateyaldred@aol.com
 
Visit our working Facebook page to keep up to date with all the latest news and events: https://www.facebook.com/ISCGBworkingsection
 
Whilst you are there, why not join the excellent Working Italian Spinone page and chat with other like minded owners. This community was set up to help others find HPR trainiers and share hints and tips: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Working-Italian-Spinone/240175799334634
 
 
 

Working Tests Uncovered (2)

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Working Tests Uncovered

 

Working Tests are run from spring to late summer (out of the shooting season) using dummies, and occasionally dead pigeons, or caged game for the dogs to point. No live game is ever shot (blanks may be used). These tests are organised according to the age and standard of the dogs – Puppy (6 -18 months), Novice and Open; and you would start in the Puppy or Novice and then qualify to move up to Open. Occasionally there is a Graduate or Intermediate test to bridge the gap between Novice and Open.

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First Day on a Shoot

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Alfie’s First Day on a Shoot

By Colin Elliot 2007

 

Alfie and I turned up on Sat morning not knowing what to expect and found a farm yard full of people and dogs of all ages and breeds, it seem that half the local village was there. There were 8 guns and about 20 Beaters some with dogs and 2 Pickingup teams not including Alfie and myself. When we arrived at the shooting ground I was told to stand with one of the Pickingup teams and watch how Alfie behaves and if he is not happy with the sound of the guns to move further away from the sound of the guns.

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Shooting of a Different Sort

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SHooting of a Different Sort

 

The Club was asked if they knew of an old Italian hunting dog that would be in a film and play the part …of an old Italian hunting dog!!!  Linda kindly volunteered the services of my 10 year old brown roan Italian Spinone – Lucca.  She has looked very grey for many years (like her grandfather Trusco, in Carolyn Fry’s book) and although fairly stubborn like many an old Italian hunting dog, she is very responsive in new situations and quite obedient (!).

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So You Want to Pick Up

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So you want to pick up

Written by Joyce Parkes and published with her permission.

First find your local shoot and contact the gamekeeper or shoot captain to enquire if they need extra help on a shoot day. There may be several shoots in your area and it is worth enquiring widely. Contacts made on training days, breeders or other HPR owners in your area may be able to help or advise but people do guard their own territories jealously (they have probably had to work hard to ensure their place!) so there is nothing quite like the direct approach in the end— keep trying.

Always Check Your Dog After Work

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It was the last Saturday of the Shooting season and Alfie had become a real star on the local shoot that season, gaining in reputation as the dog to call in when a difficult runner was giving all the other dogs the run around. He would be shown where the bird had fallen and then he would be off deep into the woods or into heavy cover only to return a few minutes later with the bird tenderly held in his mouth.

The day was damp and cold and not much for us to do but stand around most of the day and watch with only a couple of pheasants to pick up. After the last drive of the day as we made our way back to the car. Alfie didn’t seem his self and on getting to the car would not jump in and I had to lift him in.

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Article – Self help

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Late last summer I was lucky enough to be asked if I would like to come ‘up north’ once a month and join in with a small group of people who enjoy training their HPRs. For me this entailed a round trip of approx 4 hrs but as I found out it is well worth the trip each month. Having heard how this group was formed I approached Ingrid Moyser and Marie Holt to see if they would like to share their experience of setting up and running this training group. Between them they have a very interesting story to tell.

 Colin Elliott

Boswells first gundog training

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He may look dumb but….

 

 

Last weekend (Sunday 6th April) i took Boswell aka Ozzy to his first gundog training day with the GSP club. ( I got Ozzy via the rehoming scheme 4 months ago). 

Very unsure how he would be, i was prepared for the embarrasment of him running off and finding something more fun to play with, but to my surprise he was very good.  “The makings of an excellent hunting dog”, said the trainer.  

So after a hard day of ‘sit and stay’, ‘walk to heel’ and ‘fetch’ we decided to call it a day and went home with homework for the next lesson,  Whistle recall and sit-stay.

He seems to be coping with the recall (due to the fact that there is a biscuit at the end), but sit and stay is a bit more long-winded, any ideas???

Also we are looking for training classes closer to home, this class is in Bournemouth, any one that knows of a class closer to Winchester would be grateful….

The Working Standard

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The Working Standard
 
 
The Spinone’s gait is a long, tidy trot, alternating occasionally with something of the rhythm of a gallop (back legs only), so that he is a little swifter than the Italian Bracco, but the required gait when engaged in the act of sniffing is the trot. It is a lively and economical gait which works in diagonals which are nearly always straight, a hundred metres long and sometimes more, well spaced out and determined by the excellent sense of smell which this great pointer always shows provided he does not overdo it in gaits which are contrary to his nature:Clearly for him, as for all other trotters, concentration on the smelling job is of foremost importance and finding a solution to the various problems, which comes almost by instinct in a lightning flash to the gallopers, demands of the Spinone a complex mental process which can easily be read in his lovely facial expression as a “thinker”.

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The Working Standard (2)

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The Working Standard
 
The Spinone’s gait is a long, tidy trot, alternating occasionally with something of the rhythm of a gallop (back legs only), so that he is a little swifter than the Italian Bracco, but the required gait when engaged in the act of sniffing is the trot. It is a lively and economical gait which works in diagonals which are nearly always straight, a hundred metres long and sometimes more, well spaced out and determined by the excellent sense of smell which this great pointer always shows provided he does not overdo it in gaits which are contrary to his nature:Clearly for him, as for all other trotters, concentration on the smelling job is of foremost importance and finding a solution to the various problems, which comes almost by instinct in a lightning flash to the gallopers, demands of the Spinone a complex mental process which can easily be read in his lovely facial expression as a “thinker”.

Continue reading “The Working Standard (2)” →