Hi Elspeth, who am I? Well I've trained gundogs since I was 9, starting with the family Lab, then my sisters cockers, I guess you could say I have an affinity with dogs as I always found them easy to read more so than the people that owned them! ( When dealing with a training `problem' I don't set out train the dog but rather help the dog and handler communicate better) I encountered my first HPR, a GSP a few years after starting training the Lab, He use to escape from who ever owned him ( I never did find out who that was) and he use to find me where ever I was playing and would generally join in what ever it was I was into ( boys stuff!!) and usually involved mud! Years later, following my sisters showing interests with her Wolfhounds, (little brothers are very handy in lugging show paraphernalia to and from the car park! and holding dogs while you have a gossip!) The topic of what breed I would like to have as my `own' brought back the memory of the strange dog encountered of my youth, and it was when I was researching what breed he was that I first saw a munster in the Observer book of dogs, to me it was the perfect gundog ( the size of a Lab with the look and character of the cockers........how naive was that?)
Fate took hold of the situation, as that very week there was an article in Dog World featuring non other than the `Continental HPR the Large Munsterlander' and at the end was Pam Perkins contact details, I joined the LMC in 1980, and took every opportunity to see them at shows when hounds and gundogs were on the same day. A year after leaving college I got my first Munsterlander, Hansmic Flirtatious of Moorgun and the Moorgun affix was born, and my tutoring of REAL gundog training was began in earnest! It may be hard to comprehend, but back then there was no `knowledge' to tap into, no books, no Internet, and no blogs, even the breeders were as much in uncharted territory as I was, these dogs were different to anything that was around, and to add to this I was in deepest darkest Devon!
For any `normal' gundog trainer, Moorgun would have been shown the door as being untrainable as a gundog, her Germanic head strong, stubbornness and titanium hardness of spirit was matched only by her `Natural ability'. But I'm not `normal', training a dog to me is not just about the end result, its about the journey and about what you as the trainer learn about the dog and also of its perception of you. The continental gundogs are a perfect example of partnership rather than master/servant. They have been bred for generations with the ability to `think' and `manage' situations away from their handlers, so it is not surprising when they stop and ask you `why?' on occasions during training, its not defiance ( well not always) or stupidity ( again not always) or `pressing your buttons!' ( thats a munster bonus!!) I've been taught by the dogs themselves its about proving your worth in the partnership, and from this comes respect and trust.
The steep learning curve was not just limited to the dog, Tests and Trials were a whole new world, and from Devon often a world away, but to me they were and still are an encyclopedia of working dog knowledge. I'm not competitive by nature, although it might have been seen that way as I went to so many. It was purely to gain knowledge, what you can get now with a few key strokes and a click of a mouse, I had to drive for five hours ( one way!) and stand in a field often in the rain, for another five hours being the odd one out ( being the only munster amongst GSP's and GWP's ) and trying not to look too stupid when putting a question. But as long as I came home with a new piece of knowledge from each event, to me that was worth any hardship plus I made many friends and got to watch all the different breeds work, ( and this has held me in good stead ever since). Not everything you learn is right for you or your dog, but you know your not just going to have one dog, let alone one munster, so you never know if or when that piece of knowledge just might do the trick, as no breed of dog with character is going to make it easy, is it?
Am I a working gundog expert?! Well I know more than I did thirty years ago, I still make mistakes, the difference now is that I recognise the mistake fairly quickly and I know how to rectify it! When watching a dog work I know what I'm seeing ( dogs don't lie) and I've been around with some of the best working dog men/women for thirty years so have heard all the excuses and fabrications for less than perfect dog work from the `masters' of tales...and used them myself on occasion, so you won't pull the wool over my eyes easily, especially when I'm judging.
All my dogs do what I want of them, when I want them to do it, most of the time,( even if they do it their way), be it on a shoot or in competition, how much is down to the dogs and how much is down to their trainer thats for others to decide, me I'm just having fun in good company.
Peter