|
Training Day with Ricky Ross Moloney |
|
|
Written by Annette Lee
|
|
Thursday, 29 March 2007 |
Ricky gave us all a very informative and amusing talk at this years' AGM. The day after some of our members took the oppurtunity to spend a day training with him. Please take the opportunity to have a look at some photos taken on the day in the Photo Album.
Well what a day!!
On behalf of all the handlers, I would like to start by offering our sincere thanks and appreciation to Sue Chapman for arranging such a great and informative days training.
Our thanks also go out to Terry Hellicar and Brian Coombes, our dummy throwers, the stalwart members of the committee for providing refreshment and support throughout the day. Of course, not forgetting Bill Biddell, the landowner and last but not least, Ricky Ross Moloney, our Trainer.
There were two classes of 9 dogs in each class. Novices in the morning, which was a mixture of dogs with varying degrees of skill and ages – 8 months to 2 yearolds. The weather was slightly inclement – cold & damp, however, it did brighten later. Ricky split the the novice group into 2, and started with a walk-up in a water-meadow with a single marked retrieve. He made an initial assessment of both handlers and dogs at this stage, and identified a number of areas in basic training that needed addressing. He then set about resolving these with each handler and dog individually. Ricky’s philosophy is simplicity; to get your dog to achieve and enjoy its work, whilst remaining under control and obedient to the handler’s wishes. His attention to basic details and commands is paramount, prior to moving on to more challenging work. He says until we have perfect heelwork, sit, stay, recall and delivery there is little point in moving on. He demonstrated how we could achieve this in a sympathetic and rewarding manner.
We broke for lunch at 12.30 and all enjoyed the hospitality and warmth of Sue’ s home.The Open Class commenced at 1.30 when the weather was much kinder and almost warm. Again Ricky split the group into 2, and started with a walk-up on a double Mark. We went on to a blind and mark. We then had a blind in bracken and finished with a blind in white grass. Bearing in mind these were Open Dogs with a lot of winners and very experienced Handlers, it was quite surprising that many of us, especially me, experienced the same difficulties as the Novice Dogs, i.e. basic training. Ricky followed the same format as the morning session and took individuals and helped us to achieve our goals. I found his training informative and sympathetic to both handlers and dogs. I consider that we all came away having learnt a lot and realising how much more we could achieve by getting the basics correct.
Thank you Ricky for your excellent training and to everyone involved in arranging the training day. Ben Van Praagh
|
|
Last Updated ( Saturday, 21 April 2007 )
|
