Bracken

Managing a working dog.

Project Description

This is Bracken, half Springer, half Wire-Haired Pointer – a working dog. He’s seven months old and a full-on hyperactive teenager. There’s a time and a place for excitement, and with these high intensity working breeds there has to be a time for work too. If we don’t teach them a job as well as how to be calm then we’re really setting the dog up to fail. It doesn’t just make them more challenging to live with, but can lead to an overflow of frustration and bad behaviour. For example, Bracken is starting to show signs of separation anxiety and he’s put himself in danger a few times through his lack of obedience. So our challenge with him is to work on the obedience and give him a job to fulfil his work ethic.

In our first session we focussed on the basics, recall and heel walking, to build the relationship with Brad. In the second session we moved onto the job aspect. It turns out that Bracken is awesome at scent work. It’s a brilliant job for any dog who likes using its nose but for a working breed designed for hunting it can be a great way to give them purpose and to drain energy and frustration. The owner needs to be committed to carry on with both the obedience and the job but it pays dividends almost immediately. Brad is already reporting huge improvements with Bracken inside the house and also while they are out and about.