When I was planning to go to the Titlemania event, I accidently cancelled my Wednesday classes, thinking the four day event started on a Wednesday. This worked out great, I found out about a Wednesday seminar in Kentucky that I would normally have not been able to attend.
For a few years, I’ve seen the Colorado-based Fetchmasters training facility posting about their successful, positive-reinforcement hunting training programs. They also started the (relatively quiet) Positive Gun Dog Association. More recently they have started doing regional seminars and longer events for dog trainers to learn even more about the Fetchmaster protocols/training. Colorado is far and without seeing as much video or writing, I haven’t been able to justify the trip.
Thomas and Linda are trying to do a few part-day seminars in different areas to build interest and enthusiasm for training hunting dogs with positive reinforcement. Hunting training is typically done with other training methods. They’ve been able to develop faster programs since switching training methods, dogs are performing better, clients are happier, and they’ve seen many people specifically seeking out this type of training (so- good for business too).
A few of the things that made the biggest impact on me:
Be selective: Thomas and Linda have become more selective about which dogs go into which programs. This can increase success in terms of dogs, owners, and general perception of training. They now have a selection process for which dogs can go into their hunting board and train program and which dogs should do private lessons with their owners doing most of the training.
Measure: It was amazing to hear about where their programs started (a few months) and where they are now (a month – and dogs learning more). They shared numbers about dogs in programs, pet dogs getting to off leash reliability, ages of dogs, and it was nothing short of impressive. Their field programs have some very specific measurable goals at each level – this is so necessary when there are multiple trainers and many dogs through the program (about 100 a year!).
Show: Thomas brought his dogs and did a couple demonstrations. I wish he had videos of client dogs – it’s different to share with a trained dog vs a dog in training and considering the number of dogs through their programs, they should be able to get a lot of great video examples.
Add distractions quickly: This dogs (and handlers) to be ready for the variation and unpredictable real life scenarios. Some of this is very specific and some is just getting dogs out to do walking training in new areas.
Overall: I did not leave ready to go across the country and attend a longer seminar. There is not as much positive reinforcement as I see in other programs – I see how it creates dogs who calmly do the hunting tasks and do well as hunting companions and pets. I didn’t see the kind of sharp, responsive, ‘open’ dogs I am used to now. I will definitely be attending another presentation/seminar in a couple years – I know this team will get more experienced at presenting and seeing what they accomplish with their enthusiasm! They work with such a huge number of dogs, I’m really excited to see video and photos and hear more about what they do.