Gundog people

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Club training last night and I trained Rafi this week. We did a mark down the line, then a mark to shot over a ditch but the dogs couldn’t really see the fall and there were lots of bunkers so he did really well on that one. Then a memory to shot in same place.

Then to finish we did some water retrieves, only short ones to start with but he swam for them all

Got bitten to death by midges tho!!

 

[Clodagh]

I went down the river this morning. Got there early as it’s in a nature reserve and you can get other people there sometimes! The only other person I met (at the river itself) was a friend just finishing training their spaniel.
Took the working four, they were great. Red has come on so much, she barely splashes now when she’s swimming and she swam right across twice (it’s a wide strong river). I’m hoping after a solid lengthy session they will now be content with gardening for the rest of the day.
It’s a lot wider than it looks in this photo, if I throw a lightweight plastic dummy as far as I can it just lands in the reeds the far side.

 

[druid]

Not a bad day out with my homebreds filling 1st (the Gamekeeper's first trial prospect and first test he's ever run!) and 3rd in a puppy working test today.

Mimi worked well for me at only 9 months old ❤

 

[Clodagh]

Not a bad day out with my homebreds filling 1st (the Gamekeeper's first trial prospect and first test he's ever run!) and 3rd in a puppy working test today.

Mimi worked well for me at only 9 months old ❤
View attachment 140549

That’s a beautiful photo. What gorgeous pups. Well done.

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Club training tonight, really pleased with Rafi. Trainer threw out some marks into cover then we all walked back and lined out, so the dogs had to go through cover, over a track, and into cover to pick. Then the same but a memory to a noise. Then we moved along and sent to the same place from a different angle. The cover was really high so I’m really pleased with him.

He also stopped on the first blow of the whistle when he was slightly off on a memory!!

Then we did some marks over a small pond and I’m really pleased with that too as he wasn’t keen on swimming much but went straight in tonight. Just need to work on delivery out of water now.

 

[druid]

So the good... Girls marking and steadiness has come one leaps and bounds. I still haven't got around to doing a game intro but will do soon.

The bad....Sassy has started water freaking (chasing splashes obsessively). She will go for a dummy, then drop it and swim further and further out chasing her own splashes snapping at them. It can be so dangerous if it's a lake, the sea etc as they really don't focus on where they are going/how far. So today I donned waders, armed myself with a floating tracking line, cooked liver and a lot of zen thoughts. Dummy thrown, dog sent, dog spits and starts swimming for the horizon. Wade into dummy (in water only up to her belly), gently reel her back in, pop dummy back in mouth. Lots of gentle stroking and praise, take dummy and have a liver treat party. Repeat several times until the penny drops and we get a perfect retrieve and she gets a liver jackpot ending on a high point. We will be revisiting this several times and also doing retrieves stood in 10-12" water retriving paralell to shore to make lots of splashes and get her to just focus.

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Club training tonight, really pleased with Rafi. Trainer threw out some marks into cover then we all walked back and lined out, so the dogs had to go through cover, over a track, and into cover to pick. Then the same but a memory to a noise. Then we moved along and sent to the same place from a different angle. The cover was really high so I’m really pleased with him.

He also stopped on the first blow of the whistle when he was slightly off on a memory!!

Then we did some marks over a small pond and I’m really pleased with that too as he wasn’t keen on swimming much but went straight in tonight. Just need to work on delivery out of water now.

Forgot to add that when he stopped he took my direction and picked so a nice positive for the stop

 

[Morwenna]

I can add steadiness to muntjac to my dog’s (admittedly short) list of skills. Had her sat up this morning while I placed some dummies out and a muntjac ran out in front of her, less than 10m away, and ran across the park and she didn’t move a muscle! Still having issues with her swapping dummies when there are multiple dummies out but we’re getting there.

 

[Thistle]

I did a training day a couple of weeks ago with a lovely well known A list judge (retrievers).

Last exercise of the day was pre placed blinds on the far bank of a lake, with a large white marker dummy nearest the water. Freya was first to go, lined her up, she focussed and I sent, great swim, retrieved marker (it was the fist dummy as she exited the lake so that's good) and ignored the other dummies, turned and swam back, well done Freya.

Next dog (who had watched F's turn) swam out well, exited the lake, picked and then continued up the bank and tried to make it's way back around the shore. Trainer said to stop and push dog left, back into the water. Dog did as was asked, straight into the brambles and then popped back out carrying an extremely surprised large egyptian goose! Which she gently delivered to her owner, having continued around the shore! Goose was unharmed, put back in the lake and rapidly swam away to the island. Rest of the afternoon was a challenge for the other handlers as the island suddenly became very exciting. I was extremely grateful to go first.

 

[Clodagh]

So the good... Girls marking and steadiness has come one leaps and bounds. I still haven't got around to doing a game intro but will do soon.

The bad....Sassy has started water freaking (chasing splashes obsessively). She will go for a dummy, then drop it and swim further and further out chasing her own splashes snapping at them. It can be so dangerous if it's a lake, the sea etc as they really don't focus on where they are going/how far. So today I donned waders, armed myself with a floating tracking line, cooked liver and a lot of zen thoughts. Dummy thrown, dog sent, dog spits and starts swimming for the horizon. Wade into dummy (in water only up to her belly), gently reel her back in, pop dummy back in mouth. Lots of gentle stroking and praise, take dummy and have a liver treat party. Repeat several times until the penny drops and we get a perfect retrieve and she gets a liver jackpot ending on a high point. We will be revisiting this several times and also doing retrieves stood in 10-12" water retriving paralell to shore to make lots of splashes and get her to just focus.

The first time I took T to gundog classes. She was only 6 months but it was the first time I’d done a training class, so Smallest and me set off. He was going to have a group lesson with Brandy, our first gundog, and T and me were going to watch.
T had excellent recall but water was her downfall. She still makes splashes by banging her forelegs down.
Trainer said to try a small retrieve and threw the dummy into the very edge of the water, T just took off and swam round the reservoir catching splashes. Deaf to our cries. The whole group had to move on elsewhere while I spent maybe half an hour getting her out.
We went home.

 

[druid]

The first time I took T to gundog classes. She was only 6 months but it was the first time I’d done a training class, so Smallest and me set off. He was going to have a group lesson with Brandy, our first gundog, and T and me were going to watch.
T had excellent recall but water was her downfall. She still makes splashes by banging her forelegs down.
Trainer said to try a small retrieve and threw the dummy into the very edge of the water, T just took off and swam round the reservoir catching splashes. Deaf to our cries. The whole group had to move on elsewhere while I spent maybe half an hour getting her out.
We went home.

I've seen the life boat be called, it's why I find it scary not funny now. She will learn that water is just another place we do work, she loves retrieving and its very much babyish behaviour

 

[druid]

The daughters are now both bigger than mum!

 

[Clodagh]

Just had such a good training session. Took the four and went down the a small river nearby.
After doing about half an hour of real life scenarios
I put a couple of blinds out on the river bank before walking back up the field. About a ten acre field, maybe a bit more, rectangular with the stream at the short end. Also put a couple in the hedge as we came up, that they saw.
Sent the novices for the marks and Pen and Ffee for a blind each, more or less at the same time.
Ffee found hers straight away (suspect she’d sneaked a peek when they weren’t meant to be looking). Pen was hunting her area and holding it well. Then a strange dog came belting over to her, my heart . Thankfully as she ignored it it couldn’t work out what she was doing so just watched. She found her dummy and came straight back past it. It did run after her a bit but then owner came over the hill and it recalled.
Glad I don’t wear a fit bit! It would have called 999.

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Ran zazu in a novice test today, he listened, stopped and handled when asked we got 70/80 with winner on 75 so not to far behind!

 

[druid]

The sisters had another good day out finishing 3rd (Sassy) and 4th in the puppy test at another ikc working test. The top two were 17 and 18 months old so happy with girls holding their own at just 10 months old.

Thier mother on the other hand....not the favourite right now. I withdrew mid test as she was ignoring the whistle!

 

[Clodagh]

The sisters had another good day out finishing 3rd (Sassy) and 4th in the puppy test at another ikc working test. The top two were 17 and 18 months old so happy with girls holding their own at just 10 months old.

Thier mother on the other hand....not the favourite right now. I withdrew mid test as she was ignoring the whistle!
View attachment 142187

Dogs. Great equalisers.

 

[Clodagh]

Ran zazu in a novice test today, he listened, stopped and handled when asked we got 70/80 with winner on 75 so not to far behind!

That’s fabulous! I’m so impressed. Well done!
Mine have just hunted a fox. They had a lovely time and I am pretending it didn’t happen.

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

That’s fabulous! I’m so impressed. Well done!
Mine have just hunted a fox. They had a lovely time and I am pretending it didn’t happen.

The tests were all fair and nice tests with fair judges, came away very happy! Oops about the fox!

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

The sisters had another good day out finishing 3rd (Sassy) and 4th in the puppy test at another ikc working test. The top two were 17 and 18 months old so happy with girls holding their own at just 10 months old.

Thier mother on the other hand....not the favourite right now. I withdrew mid test as she was ignoring the whistle!
View attachment 142187

Love emoji for the sisters and the pic!

 

[Clodagh]

The tests were all fair and nice tests with fair judges, came away very happy! Oops about the fox!

Tbh I encourage them to see them off out of the paddock as I breed chickens. Didn’t expect to meet one on broad daylight on a footpath. I think it has been hit by a car (before I found it) poor thing. It got away through some stock netting. I told the farmer.

 

[druid]

Love emoji for the sisters and the pic!

It's ok, I don't think anyone loves their madam of a mother right now She was quite shocked when I put the lead on so perhaps she won't be quite so naughty next time!

 

[Love]

2 weeks away for us and another 2 weeks settling P back in to her routine and getting over her phantom and our covid - so not much training done other than our usual whistle commands on walks etc. Mr. L took her out last night with a dummy but it was all apparently far too exciting, no focus and much parading. So in his words he got one “bang average” retrieve out of her and called it a day.

This morning I went right back to basics in the garden with some simple as you can get retrieves and after one attempt at a parade she settled back into it really well. Her steadiness is really really good and her retrieving to hand is coming on great. We’re probably far behind where we “should” be for her age but as our first gundog we are very conscious of not wanting to train mistakes into her. Must get some more training booked in, we have been playing at ringcraft more recently but still want to do both.

She’s really starting to mature now too!

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Zazu got 4th place today in his NDNH test

 

[Love]

Out in the rain this morning before work in some open ground and decided to practice our quartering and turns. She's naturally good at this and during our sessions with Paul Brant he commented that she had a great "spaniel like" style. He taught us to wait for the eye contact and cast her back across us for now which is working really well and we get a nice tight pattern the majority of the time.

My question is when should I start trying to incorporate a turn whistle rather than waiting for the eye contact? Any good ways of doing this? I'm conscious to not let her get too wide which can happen sometimes before we get the eye contact again ready for the turn.

 

[gunnergundog]

Depending on what you ultimately want the dog to do, be careful that you don't turn her into a boot licker.

Re the turn whistle, I start with the pups/young dogs, shout 'this way' and stomp off to my left; shout 'this way' again and take a bite forward and stomp off to my right and repeat ad nauseum thereby creating a zig zag pattern. When the dog is following the verbal I will then introduce the whistle (two pips), new cue, old cue. So, two pips and then 'this way'. I still walk the pattern but with time, you walk less and less of the zig zag and more of a straight line, just turning your shoulders as the dog with its eye on you should pick up your body language and realise when you want it to turn. Initially, you then fade the 'this way' cue and over even more time with a good dog you can limit the whistle too. (This is for pattern training only; in real life you obviously need to take into count the wind direction in order to determine the pattern and how your dog works.)

Not sure if he still is, but Paul used to be in to his French and niche HPR breeds.....is that still the case? You may at some point in time want to consider going to some one who is a GWP specialist, especially if your dog has a lot of German or Danish blood in her. Sharon Pinkerton would be my suggestion if you can get her help as probably the closest to you or Peter McCullough if you are prepared to travel a bit.

 

[Love]

Depending on what you ultimately want the dog to do, be careful that you don't turn her into a boot licker.

Re the turn whistle, I start with the pups/young dogs, shout 'this way' and stomp off to my left; shout 'this way' again and take a bite forward and stomp off to my right and repeat ad nauseum thereby creating a zig zag pattern. When the dog is following the verbal I will then introduce the whistle (two pips), new cue, old cue. So, two pips and then 'this way'. I still walk the pattern but with time, you walk less and less of the zig zag and more of a straight line, just turning your shoulders as the dog with its eye on you should pick up your body language and realise when you want it to turn. Initially, you then fade the 'this way' cue and over even more time with a good dog you can limit the whistle too. (This is for pattern training only; in real life you obviously need to take into count the wind direction in order to determine the pattern and how your dog works.)

Not sure if he still is, but Paul used to be in to his French and niche HPR breeds.....is that still the case? You may at some point in time want to consider going to some one who is a GWP specialist, especially if your dog has a lot of German or Danish blood in her. Sharon Pinkerton would be my suggestion if you can get her help as probably the closest to you or Peter McCullough if you are prepared to travel a bit.

Thank you very much for taking to time to reply. Very useful advice. When we trained with Paul he only "seemed" to have labs currently but that was only the ones we could see on arrival so definitely not certain. It was a designated HPR course with him however. Will also look up the names you suggested - thanks again

 

[druid]

Definitely worth trying out some different rainers to see what fits you best, for the spaniels we would pip the turn whistle as they turned naturally and link the action and behaviour.

 

[gunnergundog]

Was having a very senior moment when I said Paul was into his French/niche HPRs......was thinking of Larry Wilks/Brenda Moss. Sorry.

 

[Morwenna]

Directional retrieves are starting to click and she’s really enjoying them. Still having issues with the ladder retrieves though, unless I use a rabbit dummy for the closest one she just runs straight past it to the far dummy.

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Had a 121 with Rafi today, working on memory split retrieves, he’s a tired boy now!