The Advanced Pet Gundog: A common sense approach to training your gundog: 2 (The Pet Gundog)

This book has just arrived and on first glance it looks really good.

Great books. Reads really well and not difficult to understand. Great for getting the best out of your dogs. A great addition to the previous book. Useful and comprehensive advice, with great online demos to compliment the books!

Fans of the author will buy this book irrespective of a review, but that shouldn't stop the intelligent adult learner critically reviewing new information no matter how well the author is respected.Firstly, the reader should be alert to emotive but fairly meaningless phrases:"Common sense “May bring back childhood memories of scolding by an adult for a minor misdemeanour. Compare it with the phrase "evidence based "Back in the 1970's and 80's in the UK, mothers were advised it was " COMMON SENSE” to settle their new born infants on the front to sleep, they often settled much more quickly. Research into 1000s of sudden infant cot deaths then revealed that many more were lying on their front, compared to their back, when they died. With this EVIDENCE the " back to sleep "campaign was promoted. Within a very short period, the number of devastating infant deaths dropped dramatically.Well-meaning but ill-informed advice can have tragic consequences.Common sense may well be good practice, but we now have access to constantly increasing information, a good teacher should be able to sift out the valid well produced robust evidence for their advice, not just rely on their own experience and anecdotes, but also have the humility to acknowledge when they need to change their teaching in the light of new information.The author at times writes in a way which can feel like that of a headmistress, mature in years who has long since lost the memory of what it feels like to be a beginner, and with that, empathy for the fumbling novice. At points the author's sense of frustration is palpable, that individuals can be quite so naïve and incompetent with methods that she disagrees withFor the confident learner, with an animal who fits the mould, this shouldn't be a problem, they will be able to progress through the exercises.The less confident learner, or one with an animal who has challenging instinctive behaviours, may more easily become disheartened by slowness of achievement.An individual already competent in evidence-based training, transitioning from another dog sport, may find the attituded just irritatingly arrogant.The book falls down heavily on the absence on current understanding of animal behaviour. The author describes herself as a behaviourist, but either she is keeping her knowledge close to her chest, or there are massive gaps. The author has spent considerable time researching information on sight and sense of smell for the book, which is certainly interesting, but where is the information about understanding behaviour?The statement " Once you've trained your dog to do something, regardless of what it is, he should be doing this first time, every time” (p17), is very misleadingUnderstanding and identifying arousal states, keeping watch for displacement behaviours and being able to read dog body language when an animal is feeling under pressure and with this, knowing the benefits of changing training demands is so important.Those who are interested, the work of Lili Chin is a good place to start.Then there is pain, hugely under diagnosed in all ages of dogs. How awful that a dog cannot say to its owner " I'm not being stubborn it hurts when I try and sit”!CAM, Canine arthritis management, is working hard to promote this knowledge.The anecdote of the labradoodle responding badly in the village hall training class would have been excellent opportunity to discuss the impact of an alien environment on animals’ ability to engage with training requests. Instead, the author discusses the failings of its owner. Reflecting, in my opinion, the author's focus.Compare this with, field trial champion and author Laura Hill's book " Advanced Retriever Training". She dedicates an entire chapter to understanding behaviour from the dog’s point of viewThe instructions on drills are easy to follow and may be useful for those who wish to advance their training skills, along with the problem solving some retrieving mechanics, but those with animals with strong prey instinct, will need to find advice elsewhere on how to make progress in highly stimulating environments. Jane Ardens' Mission control is one good resourceIf as an individual, you feel inspired to enrol on a course to learn more or teach others, you prefer an old school approach and genuinely have little interest in what’s going on for the dog in the training experience, the authors approach may be ideal for you.However, if you are interested in the continually evolving knowledge of the science behind behaviour the Animal Behaviour and Training Council ABTC, which has a robust approach to validating evidence based courses, is one place to look.