Leanne Smith
Leanne runs Dogs R Dogs, based in Devon. She lives with two working cockers who she takes beating on local shoots in the winter.
Leanne’s spaniels have obtained a Kennel Club Working Gundog Certificate on Game, Grade 4 of The Gundog Club Graded Tests and have competed in Working Tests. Finan, her latest pup has been the inspiration for much of Leanne’s rethinking the way that she approaches positive gundog training.
Leanne works with owners of Pet Gundogs, Working Gundogs and Competition Gundogs alongside her other general puppy training and pet training of all breeds.
Leanne has trained her previous dogs in many different disciplines including obedience, agility, tracking, and scentwork. She competed successfully at agility with her German Wirehaired Pointer.
The offshoot of working many with gundog breeds has given Leanne a real insight into teaching dogs how to focus on their handlers in very challenging outdoor environments, which helps her work with dogs with recall and outdoor focus and control issues.
She has always been fascinated watching dogs carrying out the tasks that they were bred to do, and that fuelled her interest in Gundog Training. Whether it is training them to work on a shoot or to have fun with their owners it is great to watch the dog’s instincts becoming fully developed and focused on working with their owner.
In the past few years Leanne has become more focused on helping dogs to learn how to self-manage in the working environment and looking at how we need to change the way we approach training to help our dogs do this better.
Workshop 1 – Transitions
Do you feel that your dog is always hanging on by the skin of its teeth? When you are working your dog does it feel like you are on the edge of being able to control them? It is only going to take one extra small distraction to make them explode? Is your heelwork a constant battle with your dog forging ahead?
Once you have helped your dog to learn to be able to self-manage and enjoy waiting to start work, we need to help them to learn how to continue with that headspace when moving from waiting, to the start point, for an exercise or work.
If your dog triggers into a state of great anticipation as they move away from the waiting area, this will impact their ability to think and manage their arousal, thus making starting to work very challenging for them.
This workshop will look at how we can help our dogs manage those transitions into work and remain able to think and manage themselves.
Requirements :-
Handlers will need to bring either a raised bed or a fabric crate for their dogs.
Dogs must have a good understanding of boundaries and be able to settle on the boundary when not working.
6 handler places available
Workshop 2 – Noise in Gundogs
Does your dog make noise when they are working or training? Do you dread working in a group because your dog will be noisy? Does your dog squeak when you set them up?
Trying to deal with teaching a dog to be quiet, as a ‘behaviour’ does not work, often it just adds to the problem. Dealing with noise as an expression of emotion and looking to find they ‘why’, behind the squeak is the way to help a dog not to need to make a noise.
Leanne will be looking at ways that we can help dogs who already make noise, and also looking at ways that we can modify our training in order not to create a noise problem in the first place.
6 handler places available