Thread: Pointer and Setter Trials

Just throwing some thoughts out here for the experienced or less experienced .
Interested to hear thoughts on Trialing and winning and what each person does to advance a teams skill -what is it that a handler does with a dog that keeps it winning compared to a dog that doesn't ? Is the thought process and mind focus much different between people winning and not winning ?We can read all the books and watch the videos but don't win ?
Some dogs and handlers just keep performing and seem to just have an edge on knowing what to do . How much does a dog learn just by doing it and how much does the handler actually contribute after a time .I let my dog off the lead and he goes -occasionally doesn't come back for a time ..... but in the open cover just does his thing with a few directional prompts
Living in the city makes bird training hard in the week days but yard training happens while I walk as Im pretty bad at stationary training .I was thinking about this the other day -when I walk the dog where I live its not just to exercise them as I always have a focus on prompting an encounter with a bird and talking to my dogs softly with an encouraging tone to create excitement when near a dirty old Puk .Crossing the road I try to teach steadiness with a wait command before the dogs leave the foot path --I walk forward but they cant ..Inti my older dog moves sometimes and defiantly more than the little one . Walking in the weekends out of the city I treat as the family day out where the dogs know we are in bird country -I try to keep a little bit of order letting one go and the other heel -swapping them in and out and letting one point and leading the other in to back where possible
What are you guys doing to install discipline in their dog and to help the dog understand your a hunting team ??