We just got back from the Dave Walker seminar in Richfield, UT put on by Jon Lee of gundogbreeders.com. What an awesome weekend. Dave Walker is a 50+ year veteran professional dog trainer and field trialer and was elected to the AKC Brittany club Hall of Fame. Dave knows bird dogs like no other. He just celebrated his 80th birthday last week, but seeing him work dogs all day long in the field for two day you know he works most 40 and 50 year olds into the ground.
The seminar started on Friday with a delicious breakfast, and Dave talking for a few minutes about his training methods and thoughts about dogs, then we went straight to the field. Where Dave worked one on one with dogs and their owners, starting with the very basics and moving up through steady to wing, steady to shot and fall. He worked with us on backing and honoring as well as force fetch.
We were all amazed with Dave’s ability to get the most out of a dog. He could take a dog that had been running up birds for two seasons and in five minutes have that dog standing like a statue while he flushed the bird for him. It was inspiring. While I’m a long ways from there, it makes me know what is possible from these dogs.
