Gundog people

[Thistle]

Trained yesterday with my normal group, trainer is also setting the club test this weekend so there was a bias towards the type of retrieves that would be required. Freya was ok, but it went wrong a few times. Had a 121 with my other trainer this afternoon, wow, what a dog! We really pushed her, she was awesome. Showed up a few cracks in her training that we can work on going forwards. Well thought out training in a woodland full of pheasants and hares. Freya was really 'with' me the whole time. I have eventually found my mojo again. Toast is taking it easy, I'll crack down on him nearer to the season, of if I decide to do some tests with him (maybe when F is in season in June)

 

[[59851]]

Stop whistle win this morning - walking back to the car after a training session and there was a couple with an elderly terrier coming towards us, Popped young dog on a sit as path to the car park is very narrow and old dog doesn't need my prat of a spanner in his face! Exchanged pleasantries with the terriers owners and walked on my merry way....then you know that feeling you get when something isn't quite right, well it dawned on me I couldn't "feel" the dog at my side, I looked back and there he was still on a sit 20 yards away, I had forgotten to say "heel" as I moved off!! Very pleased actually as he's been such a bugger to train just to stay still, he's like a ferrari with no brakes and extremely fizzy, so this is a win for me!!

 

[Clodagh]

Stop whistle win this morning - walking back to the car after a training session and there was a couple with an elderly terrier coming towards us, Popped young dog on a sit as path to the car park is very narrow and old dog doesn't need my prat of a spanner in his face! Exchanged pleasantries with the terriers owners and walked on my merry way....then you know that feeling you get when something isn't quite right, well it dawned on me I couldn't "feel" the dog at my side, I looked back and there he was still on a sit 20 yards away, I had forgotten to say "heel" as I moved off!! Very pleased actually as he's been such a bugger to train just to stay still, he's like a ferrari with no brakes and extremely fizzy, so this is a win for me!!

At home when Tawny was very young I sat her up while I did some work on a release pen. Walked back home afterwards and was boiling the kettle before I remembered her. . She was still sat there, looking a bit worried. I’m confident that at 11 she’d just go home when ready

 

[Thistle]

Well I now have homework to do. Working test was 'fun' some good parts (including a double perfect score for 2 delayed marks out into a wheat field and a very well done from the judge who said that sadly 20 was the highest that she could award as it was super sleek and stylish). But her fantastic marking ability is also her downfall, in that a blind on an angle, after a long mark becomes a discussion about whether she'll run to the blind or would rather go to the mark (that's already picked) stop when told, take direction but then doubt me and double back. Lots and lots of repetition needed for her to believe in me rather than rely on her fabulous marking. She handles well up to a certain distance but once she's away far enough she tries to make her own decisions. Great for picking up as she usually makes decisions that gain her a bird but tricky in a working test environment.
The tests were set on the hard side, leaning towards 'open' rather than novice, it's only her 3rd test ever and the last 2 were 2 years ago.

We had a good day, lots of friends there and time to chat, the sun shone but scent was poor. More experience needed.

 

[[59851]]

Well I now have homework to do. Working test was 'fun' some good parts (including a double perfect score for 2 delayed marks out into a wheat field and a very well done from the judge who said that sadly 20 was the highest that she could award as it was super sleek and stylish). But her fantastic marking ability is also her downfall, in that a blind on an angle, after a long mark becomes a discussion about whether she'll run to the blind or would rather go to the mark (that's already picked) stop when told, take direction but then doubt me and double back. Lots and lots of repetition needed for her to believe in me rather than rely on her fabulous marking. She handles well up to a certain distance but once she's away far enough she tries to make her own decisions. Great for picking up as she usually makes decisions that gain her a bird but tricky in a working test environment.
The tests were set on the hard side, leaning towards 'open' rather than novice, it's only her 3rd test ever and the last 2 were 2 years ago.

We had a good day, lots of friends there and time to chat, the sun shone but scent was poor. More experience needed.

I've done a couple of tests with my youngster but he's quite shy and gets put off coming in with a retrieve when he sees the judges close by, his hunting is beautiful though and he's had praise by a judge saying he'd love to see him in a trial (fat chance with me as a handler - I only enter tests when clubs put out a last call or the test won't run!!) I might do another this year and see where wer'e at..

My older dog is totally self employed though and we would be chucked out of a test but the little family shoot I go to love him as a sweeping dog as he finds anything that has landed in thick cover and loves a runner, so he can be as feral as he wants as the job gets done!!

 

[Thistle]

My older dog, Toast , now thinks that I'm just there to drive his taxi! I'll crack on with his training again when F is in season in June.

I did win a lovely pair of nordic socks in the raffle though, so at least one of us won something!

 

[druid]

We did retrievers across a river to take advantage of the lovely weather. Built up to sending from 20y back from the bank and picking about 50y away from the far bank. So the water becomes an obstacle and not the point/focus of the retrieve.

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Back to training class today with Rafi, we did a walk up and he was very good no running in, but he was a bit head in the clouds and not marking everything as he was looking at me so need to work on that.

Then sent for a blind and he handled nicely to the area, but just need to work on his confidence handling at a distance and hunting when he's not 100% sure. Going to try and take him to groups more regularly now.

I left some blinds out for Zazu and took him in after the session, one at 12oclock in some reads, one at 3 o'clock up a hill, and I threw a mark at 6 o'clock. Sent for blind in reads and he wanted to hunt along the wall but he actually stopped, listened and handled nicely. Distance etc well within his capabilities but after season he was a bit self employed so I'm really pleased with him. Other blind he went straight out in one cast, and memory was no problem.

 

[EllieBeast]

We had a fab hunting lesson down in Andover yesterday, with the chap who took Ivy’s dad to be HPR champion back in the day. LOTS to work on but he really liked Erik’s drive and style- I just need to learn how to ‘drive’ him I’ve booked another for 6 weeks time. I’m determined to make a marked improvement before we see him again!

Today we went and played at our friends ground alongside their retrievers - Erik doing his first blind ‘over’ their lake (having never done an over before ) then some dummy launcher fun. We were asking some pretty complex questions- he was the youngest dog by far, but achieved everything- not perfectly by any means but my goodness does he try!

He’s now totally shattered I just love him, I can’t fault his attitude and enthusiasm I do wonder what he could end up being if he was being trained by someone who actually knew what they were doing

 

[Clodagh]

Well done all of you, sounds very busy and positive.
Scout is doing well. His enthusiasm is better if I have another dog there so I tend to take Pen or Ffee so they benefit as well. I’ve never done so much proper training this time of year!
I took Ffee and S down to the Torridge valley a couple of days ago. The river is so low they can run across it (very worrying for time of year). There was one pool where they swam so I was doing a mix of retrieves, one behind me in the wood, one out in the reeds across the river and one in the pool.
Sadly after Scout’s first swim he came and sat with me, in pain. He’s hurt his tail again. He seems to get cold tail at the drop of a hat. It must be a physical weakness as he’s not a fast or exuberant swimmer. He does have a long and heavy tail. It’s very bad this time as well so he’s off games for a week, or however long.
Annoying as even if I do get him going again there’s so much river work on most of my shoots.

 

[Thistle]

Well done all of you, sounds very busy and positive.
Scout is doing well. His enthusiasm is better if I have another dog there so I tend to take Pen or Ffee so they benefit as well. I’ve never done so much proper training this time of year!
I took Ffee and S down to the Torridge valley a couple of days ago. The river is so low they can run across it (very worrying for time of year). There was one pool where they swam so I was doing a mix of retrieves, one behind me in the wood, one out in the reeds across the river and one in the pool.
Sadly after Scout’s first swim he came and sat with me, in pain. He’s hurt his tail again. He seems to get cold tail at the drop of a hat. It must be a physical weakness as he’s not a fast or exuberant swimmer. He does have a long and heavy tail. It’s very bad this time as well so he’s off games for a week, or however long.
Annoying as even if I do get him going again there’s so much river work on most of my shoots.

Oh that's annoying, just as you're getting somewhere. Bruce, Toast's brother that belongs to Abbi is having part of his tail amputated today. He split the end recently down to the bone, it won't heal and is smelling bad so it's coming off. He's a VERY waggy dog so you can imagine how upset he's been. Luckily they have a good vet who hasn't spent too long trying to heal it and told them straight that amputation was best. Poor boy.

 

[Clodagh]

Oh that's annoying, just as you're getting somewhere. Bruce, Toast's brother that belongs to Abbi is having part of his tail amputated today. He split the end recently down to the bone, it won't heal and is smelling bad so it's coming off. He's a VERY waggy dog so you can imagine how upset he's been. Luckily they have a good vet who hasn't spent too long trying to heal it and told them straight that amputation was best. Poor boy.

That’s sad. I hope they take enough off, ugly as it is with T’s stump at least she didn’t bang it while it was healing.

 

[Thistle]

That’s sad. I hope they take enough off, ugly as it is with T’s stump at least she didn’t bang it while it was healing.

Yes, I did explain that a half length tail is better than just the tip being removed.

 

[druid]

Group training on Wed...

Saz - horrendous. Cannot use brain when next to water. In fairness to her a walker started throwing tennis balls into the water for her pair of Malinois on our right as we were working on short and long double marks parallel to the shore. She just about managed to keep it together there with some fairly sloppy retrieving. Moved to another location with several blinds out and a water distraction. Angle of about 120 degrees between water distraction and the line we turned on to for the blind. She lined up beautifully, nice and straight at heel, looking down my hand....and immediately ducked out over her left shoulder to bugger off towards the water. We had a discussion, repeated the exercise and nailed it. I forsee a lot of training near/beside water in her future.

Mimi was pretty spot on, one slip up on a mini drive when she followed me when I went to pick up a dummy.

Yesterday they swapped places, Sassy nailing long delayed memories and a blind along with some hunting/steadiness to other dogs. Mimi bounced around gawking at the stars in a distinctly un-trial spaniel fashion and then "forgot" her right cast. So back to basics on a left/right memory to finish on a good note and more work to do

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

I have put my big girls pants on and entered a novice walk up test I've wanted to take Zazu for a while but just put it off!

Think I'll do some training tonight, just scrolled back to find some exercises to do! My trouble is if I don't have a plan I just mimble around doing random retrieves not really working on anything or getting anywhere

 

[druid]

A nice one to practice for your walk up.... clock changes. Have 2 dummies (preferably identical so neither has a higher value to the dog).

Throw a dummy to 6 and a dummy to 12. Pick 6, replace it.
Pick 12 and swivel to 1.30 to throw it back out.
Pick 6, replace it.
Pick 1.30 and swivel to 3 to throw it back out.
Pick 6 and replace it.
Pick 3 and swivel to 4.30 to throw it back out.
Pick 6 and replace it.
Pick 4.30.
Handler picks final 6.

Lots of neat pivoting at heel including to look behind the line, keeping multiple different marks in their mind and getting down to a very narrow angle between last two retrieves.

Sassy did this today after not lining up properly with the water on Wednesday

Mimi had a perfect flush, just needs several hundred more....!

 

[druid]

I have put my big girls pants on and entered a novice walk up test I've wanted to take Zazu for a while but just put it off!

Think I'll do some training tonight, just scrolled back to find some exercises to do! My trouble is if I don't have a plan I just mimble around doing random retrieves not really working on anything or getting anywhere

ETA: I try to get in the habit of deciding exactly what I need to work on before I go out to avoid exactly this as it's my downfall also!

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

ETA: I try to get in the habit of deciding exactly what I need to work on before I go out to avoid exactly this as it's my downfall also!

Thank you!! Taken a screenshot so I can remember yeah that's what I need to do, need to get better at planning

A nice one to practice for your walk up.... clock changes. Have 2 dummies (preferably identical so neither has a higher value to the dog).

Throw a dummy to 6 and a dummy to 12. Pick 6, replace it.
Pick 12 and swivel to 1.30 to throw it back out.
Pick 6, replace it.
Pick 1.30 and swivel to 3 to throw it back out.
Pick 6 and replace it.
Pick 3 and swivel to 4.30 to throw it back out.
Pick 6 and replace it.
Pick 4.30.
Handler picks final 6.

Lots of neat pivoting at heel including to look behind the line, keeping multiple different marks in their mind and getting down to a very narrow angle between last two retrieves.

Sassy did this today after not lining up properly with the water on Wednesday

Mimi had a perfect flush, just needs several hundred more....!

 

[Thistle]

Lovely session this morning with my favourite trainer in the woods, lots of handling practice using hollows, fallen trees, undergrowth and tussocks. Freya was a superstar. I need to trust her to work it out before I interfere.

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Did the exercise mentioned above with both dogs, Zazu smashed it, rafi wanted to pick the 4:30 dummy id just thrown out rather than the 6:00 dummy, so I took a step towards the 6:00 dummy and then he got it. So I repeated that last bit of the exercise and he got it from full distance second time around.

 

[druid]

Did the exercise mentioned above with both dogs, Zazu smashed it, rafi wanted to pick the 4:30 dummy id just thrown out rather than the 6:00 dummy, so I took a step towards the 6:00 dummy and then he got it. So I repeated that last bit of the exercise and he got it from full distance second time around.

It's a nice one to polish those tight angle lines and they do happen in trials!

 

[Clodagh]

A nice one to practice for your walk up.... clock changes. Have 2 dummies (preferably identical so neither has a higher value to the dog).

Throw a dummy to 6 and a dummy to 12. Pick 6, replace it.
Pick 12 and swivel to 1.30 to throw it back out.
Pick 6, replace it.
Pick 1.30 and swivel to 3 to throw it back out.
Pick 6 and replace it.
Pick 3 and swivel to 4.30 to throw it back out.
Pick 6 and replace it.
Pick 4.30.
Handler picks final 6.

Lots of neat pivoting at heel including to look behind the line, keeping multiple different marks in their mind and getting down to a very narrow angle between last two retrieves.

Sassy did this today after not lining up properly with the water on Wednesday

Mimi had a perfect flush, just needs several hundred more....!

I’m going to have to draw that on a bit of paper to clarify in my mind!!

 

[druid]

I’m going to have to draw that on a bit of paper to clarify in my mind!!

Start with 2 retrieves at 180 and reduce the angle between them by 45* each time until there is only 45* between the final pair. One dummy always goes to the same spot and the other moves slowly closer.

 

[Clodagh]

I have got it really. I use a 90 degree version for young dogs. It’s just a good idea putting them closer together for more established ones. I’ll certainly give it a go.

 

[druid]

I have got it really. I use a 90 degree version for young dogs. It’s just a good idea putting them closer together for more established ones. I’ll certainly give it a go.

I can only do visual explanations of this kind of stuff so do diagrams or videos for everything!!

 

[druid]

Lovely training day up in Nordy land today. Split the day between the girls with Sassy doing the Novice session in the morning working on tidying up the handling and finished with a lovely retrieve into a mock up of the infamous CLA/Gamefair Bull Ring. Mimi did the more advanced session picking remote launcher retrieves over fences and over ponds. Ended the day by discovering Mimi has fractured her upper canine completely in half at some point today so dental referral done and trying not to think about how a cheap training day is now probably a four figure referral surgery! She is completely unbothered, never faltered, still eating etc. I only spotted it when she was doing the lip tuck spaniel face expression!

 

[druid]

Root Canal surgery booked for Wednesday. Poor Mimi!

 

[[59851]]

A nice one to practice for your walk up.... clock changes. Have 2 dummies (preferably identical so neither has a higher value to the dog).

Throw a dummy to 6 and a dummy to 12. Pick 6, replace it.
Pick 12 and swivel to 1.30 to throw it back out.
Pick 6, replace it.
Pick 1.30 and swivel to 3 to throw it back out.
Pick 6 and replace it.
Pick 3 and swivel to 4.30 to throw it back out.
Pick 6 and replace it.
Pick 4.30.
Handler picks final 6.

Lots of neat pivoting at heel including to look behind the line, keeping multiple different marks in their mind and getting down to a very narrow angle between last two retrieves.

Sassy did this today after not lining up properly with the water on Wednesday

Mimi had a perfect flush, just needs several hundred more....!

Great exercise thanks for posting - we did it this morning and after a few balls up with him trying to deviate to the one HE wanted he started to run beautifully down my hand and keep a line!

Group training yesterday was good too, lovely hunting in the woods followed by a bang on long memory - that used to be a real issue as he couldn't switch between hunting and retrieving and would just bog off hunting..Homework is sending to an area for a hidden blind and working on the lost command

 

[druid]

It's a great exercise!

We're also working on the lost/hunt there command - showing the dog several dummies throw in an area of cover, picking them all and really burying a few tennis balls or snipe dummies in under the cover. Send, stop, hunt and pick. Sharpens up the stop too as there is an immediate reward of a hunt and retrieve. They hold the area because there's plenty of scent from all the thrown and picked dummies. Build up to a memory blind where they go to an area they are familiar with but haven't seen a dummy thrown

I was watching bits of the International team WT out on the continent yesterday - some lovely interesting exercises. 3 dogs/handlers on a team all doing a retrieve at each station. 5 tests/stations over the day. One was a dummy with shot going out about 1.30 if the team on stood in the centre of the clock. Team are stood on the edge of a field of kale. Dummy 1 lands unseen in woodland. Dog 1 sent. As dog 1 emerges from woodland a thrower at about 10.30 throws dummy 2 to 12 o'clock followed by dummy 3 to 3 o'clock. Thrower shouts "that's a runner!" indicating dummy 2. Dog 2 is now sent for dummy 2 while dog 1 is still on the way in. Dog 3 picks the memory mark dummy 3 once both dogs are in. Set to replicate a trial with last few dogs in, all 4 judges stood together, one pair of judges has a dog out on retrieve and a runner is called so the other paid of judges send the lowest numbered dog in line from their side. Temptation for swaps, going to see the other dogs etc are high

 

[[59851]]

That's a good one too - will try it later, just trying to mix things up a bit and not do the same old things all the time!

the bottom paragraph sounds fab - will look for that on youtube!