Book: Retrieving for All Occasions

Griffin 2011? His first bird retrieve.

I heard about Retrieving for All Occasions over a year ago – and that it would eventually be available in English. I held off on buying it, knowing that I would reference and use an English version more than a Swedish one. And now it’s finally available!  As an e-book now ($15) and in print soon.

This book is pretty exciting – the authors do compete in some types of field events and work with many student dogs – giving them more experience than many who have authored some of the other positive reinforcement based field training resources currently available. The book is laid out very well, lots of pictures and diagrams and checklists to help readers work through the huge quantity of information. Field training usually seems impossible/too big of a task, but this book makes it seem very achievable and fun.

A few of the exercises are variations of things I have read about in US based field training and many of the other exercises I was familiar with from taking online training classes. This book is a great resource for dog owners wanting to work up to good focus and off-leash control – we’ve used some variations of these exercises in pet classes and puppy classes for a few years now.  The steady progression towards off leash and variety of exercises could make it useful to a wider audience than just those interested in field work.

Some of the exercises seem simplified – I know it would be impossible to write a book that details all the possible variations for a dog or the ways that an exercise may need to be broken down. Reading through some of the exercises I could see how a beginner owner may get frustrated or may not be able to see how to make smaller ‘in between’ level adjustments – this is a challenge in many of the books I read and one challenge I have when even writing client handouts.

One of my favorite parts was about how most chapters had a section on “Play to Inspire…”  recall, steadiness, relaxation, quick stops, etc.  The book does an excellent job of taking early themes (like play and rewards) and spreading it across the book – connecting bigger concepts and pieces back to smaller components.

I also really like that all the training chapters give very specific exercises and activities – many of the dog books I’ve read more recently are just discussion on concepts which always leaves me curious about what and how the trainer actually conveys ideas and concepts to the dog and handler. This book is filled with exercises and ideas – and for distraction training in all the areas as well.

Griffin’s grand-sire Goose. They look very similar!

The final big-picture of a competition or hunting companion  is well broken-down into little, achievable pieces with many ideas on how one person can work on his/her own, as well as ideas on ways to use assistants. I really like that the book has a section on trial/test prep. The training is well done – though many of the pieces are incredibly different than even US style R+ training. The approach is quite different and I even though I was puzzled when I first heard some of the concepts a few years ago – it all makes much more sense to me now.  Especially about the types of rewards, balance of rewards, having many cues, and the predictable unpredictability of training.

I finished reading it yesterday and have already started going through it a second time, making a few lists and fixing some of Griffin’s weak areas and being inspired to do more training with Viktor. Theoretically I’d like to run both of them at a “working certificate” test in the fall – but we’ll see if I can get in enough training opportunities with others before then to make it happen.

I’ve heard a rumor that the R+ retriever book that’s in French should be available in English this year.  I hope that’s true – I also enjoyed reading that resource.