Each year the Calgary Pointing Dog Club organizes a training or information session for members and non-members. In 2008 we were excited to have Rick Smith come to the Calgary area to lead two training seminars: first an introductory level (2 days), then one week later an intermediate seminar (3 days).

Thanks to Harvey Linville who worked very hard to organize the two seminar weekends. And a big thank you to Ken and Doreen Bills who generously allowed our club to host the seminars at Wessex Game Birds near Carstairs, Alberta.

Rick Smith Introductory Seminar

"Make It Clear – Whose In Charge"

On the weekend of July 26 & 27, the Calgary Pointing Dog Club hosted a field training workshop by Rick Smith for introductory level of training hunting dogs. Following his usual format, Rick's approach is very "hands on" and everyone had many opportunities to work their dog. Even for those who have attended Rick's seminars in the past, there is always lots more to learn, because Rick is continually evaluating his training and instruction techniques to increase student success with their dog.

Twenty nine people signed up for the seminar and they were accompanied by 11 different breeds of sporting dogs. Everyone was tremendously impressed with Rick's manner with their dogs and with how quickly they responded. And Rick emphasized that his presentation is abbreviated for the purpose of demonstrating his techniques – "Your dog is not trained after this weekend. You have only just begun the process. It will take as long as it takes" he would say.

Rick believes that most problems we have with our dog's behavior we have failed to establish ourselves as the "pack leader" – the dog believes that it is in control. He also maintains that most of any dog's undesirable response to training is based on its determination to maintain its status as pack leader and it uses techniques that it learned from a very young age: barking, howling, rolling on its back, jumping up, laying down, throwing a fit, ... the list goes on! (And we fall for their antics all too often)

He emphasizes the importance of teaching the dog what the expected behavior is before naming it. That's his "silent" training approach. Show the dog what is expected, then name the response you are expecting: whoa, fetch, come, etc.

By the end of the weekend everyone was happy about the changes they had seen in their dog and excited about the potential they can hope for with continued training. We hope that everyone returned home committed to follow through with their dog's training and will reap the benefits this fall during hunting season and at organized dog events.

For more information read some of the training articles in Pointing Dog Journal or visit his web site at huntsmith.com

Rick Smith Intermediate Seminar

It was with great anticipation that 9 dog owners attended the intermediate level seminar by Rick Smith. With one exception, all dogs had had some training and exposure to hunting and/or field events. The one exception was a young dog whose handler had a lot of dog training experience and the young dog was able to participate in most of the exercises but Rick was careful to caution the handler to not exceed the pup's age ability. I'm confident that everyone of us learned at least as much (probably more) from watching other handlers working their dog as we did from the instruction and work involving our own dog.

As we expected, Rick demonstrated new drills and exercises that taught everyone a great deal about our dogs, our own training skills (or lack) and above all ... patience (with ourselves and our dogs!) One eye-opening demonstration for everyone was how most dogs could be controlled "off-lead" in the field with no verbal commands, but just our body language. That was an exercise that required some degree of patience from most handlers.

And all the dogs and handlers spent more time on the "whoa post", an experience that everyone benefited from, by increasing our depth of understanding and confidence levels. Overall, with the smaller number of participants, the training and drills could be more integrated. So when we went to work on the whoa post, the dog could be up on the training table before or after the field exercise.

Training the retrieve

So more hands-on, more field work, more/different exercises and drills and we all advanced our understanding of dog training by several levels. And did our dogs learn? I believe they did. Certainly they all demonstrated their potential to learn – it's up to us to demonstrate our committment to our dogs and excellence in field performance to prove what we learned ... and that we are up for the challenge!

Dogs steady for flushing birds

If you have ever wondered what a Rick Smith seminar at the next level is be like, I would urge you to sign up for the next date that you can travel to. You will not regret it.