Gundog people

Thistle said:
I have everything crossed, dog and bitch are a good match, both , especially the bitch have decent breeding, plenty of FtCh and IGL finalists (and a winner) but not too hot or quirky, both very laid back dogs in the house but very keen workers. Fully health tested, I've done all my homework, just needs some luck now. If it doesn't happen then I'll be sad but not devastated.
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Everything crossed for success! Sounds like it should be a fabulous litter 🤞🏻
 
A nice straightforward side by side AL, bit wriggly initially but quickly relaxed and cooperated. The lady had a fully equipped 'motel room' summerhouse in her back garden, much nicer that a vet surgery atmosphere.
 
Thistle said:
A nice straightforward side by side AL, bit wriggly initially but quickly relaxed and cooperated. The lady had a fully equipped 'motel room' summerhouse in her back garden, much nicer that a vet surgery atmosphere.
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Also illegal unless she is a veterinary professional, but we won't go there!

Glad the mating was straightforward, fingers crossed for a good litter.
 
Tried a new exercise with the girls in prep for rabbit shooting. Had a pre-planted blind out in a field. Hunted the dog up, stop to find (rabbit ball which they've been taught to sit to as if it flushed), shot and mark retrieve. Hunt on, stop to shot and then cast "back" from the stop to shot to pick the blind. Useful when they miss the flush in heavy reeds on rabbits and need to be pushed back for a retrieve. Mimi did better than Sassy who was a bit hesitant but got there eventually. We'll throw this exercise in periodically on different ground between now and rabbit season
 
Last WT of the season for us today. Mixed bag!

Beautiful woodland course, gallery behind a rope on left of course and behind the start so lefthand dog had to hunt literally up to peoples toes.

Sassy - hunted fantastically for 25y, then spooked at the crowd and shut down completely. Managed both her retrieves but she wouldn't move away from me to hunt near the gallery. Not really an issue as the gallery will never be on her beat at a trial

Mimi - hunted well, blind spot on but missed her mark and had to be handled (a lot)

Skaer - I spent my morning telling people she was probably going to be a muppet judging by the last time she ran at this estate when I withdrew mid test due to complete an utter self employment on her part. So she said hold my beer, got 60/60 for her retrieves including a blind over a jump and ditch with a distraction thrown to the right first. 2 marks off top hunting spaniel. Came away with 2nd in the Open test 🤣 😅 She's either very, very good or she's horrid and there's no in between!
 
druid said:
Last WT of the season for us today. Mixed bag!

Beautiful woodland course, gallery behind a rope on left of course and behind the start so lefthand dog had to hunt literally up to peoples toes.

Sassy - hunted fantastically for 25y, then spooked at the crowd and shut down completely. Managed both her retrieves but she wouldn't move away from me to hunt near the gallery. Not really an issue as the gallery will never be on her beat at a trial

Mimi - hunted well, blind spot on but missed her mark and had to be handled (a lot)

Skaer - I spent my morning telling people she was probably going to be a muppet judging by the last time she ran at this estate when I withdrew mid test due to complete an utter self employment on her part. So she said hold my beer, got 60/60 for her retrieves including a blind over a jump and ditch with a distraction thrown to the right first. 2 marks off top hunting spaniel. Came away with 2nd in the Open test 🤣 😅 She's either very, very good or she's horrid and there's no in between!
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She just likes you not getting complacent 😁
 
Golden retriever interclub today, teams of 4, 2 x novice and 2 x open dogs, Rafi running as novice.

Test 1- mark to shot in woodland for open dog, but novice to pick a blind beforehand
Test 2- 2 blinds to shot, novices was shorter than open, tricky to see dogs and area due to trees etc
Test 3- picking up exercise, 10 blinds out in cover, needed to pick 8, each dog had to pick at least 1 dummy, could go in any order, 15 mins to complete. Then a bonus 20 points if a dog on the team picked a blind from another area.
Test 4- novice dogs, split marks, pick one each. Open dogs, one mark, but a blind to pick by one dog before other went for mark.
Test 5- small walk up, mark on left for novice, mark on right for open. Tricker than it sounds and looked!
Test 6- drive test, 6 marks 6 shots, each dog to pick one, no swapping! Had to stand on peg, could go in any order.

Really pleased with rafi picked all his retrieves, no zeros, and handled nicely! As a team we were 5th (on same score as 4th but lost run off) out of 12 teams so really pleased 😀
 
Freya scanned today (day 26) as a quick yes or no before we leave for holiday. Sadly no puppies, although all internal structures looking healthy, no sign of infection etc. Very disappointed, although I had become fairly sure that she was empty as nipples and vulva had returned to pre season state.

We were spot on with timing according to progesterone test, semen is good quality and fertile. She absolutely hated the whole process. Deciding whether to try again in Nov or to spay (she's 4, 5 in March) If she was cooperative then I'd be 100% try again but really having doubts. Such a shame as this mating is a great mix of some really great lines. Most commercially available studs are closely related to her as her grandsires are Beileys Aguzannis of Fendawood and Copperbirch Paddy of Leadburn. Toast has Twixwood Shooting Star of Fernshot, another fabulous dog as a grandsire, the generations behind these are like a who's who of working labrador breeding.

Oh well, never mind
 
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I scanned my own bitch empty at Day 26 and 8 puppies seen at day 28. She however was slowly gaining weight
 
Freya scanned today (26) as a quick yes or no before we leave for holiday. Sadly no puppies, although all internal structures looking healthy, no sign of infection etc. Very disappointed, although I had become fairly sure that she was empty as nipples and vulva had returned to pre season state.

We were spot of with timing according to progesterone test, semen is good quality and fertile. She absolutely hated the whole process. Deciding whether to try again in Nov or to spay (she's 4, 5 in March) If she was cooperative then I'd be 100% try again but really having doubts.
druid said:
I scanned my own bitch empty at Day 26 and 8 puppies seen at day 28. She however was slowly gaining weight
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I'll keep a close eye on her, we're away for 10 days so I'll notice a difference if she gains weight I hope. Although they always seem a bit fatter when the house sitter has been feeding them.
 
Erik would like a new handler please! Anyone fancy taking the reins?! 😂

My/Our second ever working test today (HPR Novice)and I REALLY let him down with one silly mistake.

He absolutely aced the hunting - he tore up the ground and was the highest scoring hunting dog, stopped beautifully to shot (were were asked by the judge NOT to use a voice or whistle command to stop- he wanted to see how well they were trained to shot/flush/fall) and stayed steady to fall, was sent when told, well marked, easy pick and delivered nicely to hand. The retrieve was marked separately to the hunting, two tests combined to help speed up the process in the heat. The only marks dropped on the hunting were because I used my turn whistle a couple more times than I needed to- the judge said just twice to set up his beat would have been enough as he was turning on the wind and totally in tune to my body language. First slapped wrist of the day 😁

We dropped one point in the water as I blew a recall when I saw him continuing out into the lake once he’d picked as he had no direct line of sight to me. He was steady to shot, splash and leapt straight in without hesitation. Once recall was blown he spun straight round and again delivered nicely to hand before shaking.

Now, here is where I let him down. We were about 10m back from the rivers edge and had a mark thrown 20m back from the other side, into cover. He was to pick that then be sent back for a blind that would be 10m further on from the original mark. The line was poor, so it was almost round a corner so not straight across.

I didn’t sit him up quite in the right place and so he didn’t mark it properly (this is my nerves/inexperience getting in the way of reading my dog! I KNOW when he has marked properly- he becomes SO laser focussed on the mark, every muscle is tensed- today it was not). What I should have done is send him back on a line, but I sent him on his name as I would a mark.

Poor lad had not a bl@@dy clue what I wanted- he tried his best and handled exactly as I asked him to, but with it being around a bend, up on the bank etc my brain was fried so I called him back.

Obviously I got a zero for that but I felt I owed it to him to set him up properly. Once I did this, told him to ‘go back’ on the line I gave him, he went straight out, over the river, winded it, picked and delivered nicely. Sent back for the blind and again, perfect. If I had just done that to start with we would have won the whole thing and been 10points clear of the field 🙈

Sack the handler but I am SO pleased with my boy, I couldn’t have asked for more from him. He’s just so on side, all of the time. Every judge complimented him on his enthusiasm and attitude, and two of them came to give me friendly bollocking at the end for letting him down as they thought he really deserved to do well 😂 I won’t be making the same mistake again, that’s for sure!
 
We had a dual purpose training day yesterday. Half the dogs were doing a run through of the Working Gundog Certificate in prep for the first ever WGC on Irish soil in 2 weeks time. Mimi is attempting it so we sat out an 18 dummy drive off launchers over 15mins or so. The hardest part of this was handlers going to pick first, then their dogs! Definitely helps you mark more accurately.

Then we repeated the drive but with the whole team heeling or hunting depending on breed. Dogs then had a seen retrieve each and we swept forward picking the reaming dummies as we went.

Second half of the day was the final prep for some minor breeds running at the Gamefair. Skaer was being a lab for the day to complete a trio of retrieves consisting of double marks and a long memory over 2 fences and a lane. Each dog picking each retrieve in turn as the line moved forward over the mock Gamefair course. Skaer, unsurprisingly spent a lot of doing judgy face and nailed her 3 retrieves.

Sassy came out to hunt in front of a retriever walk up line and nailed it. No concerns today the crowds, other dogs or dummy throwers. She did the 100y memory over 2 fences also and picked a mark as a reward.
 
Sounds like a good training day Druid! I've got one potentially two more working tests coming up, first one is a charity test my trainer is organizing so I'll run both dogs in that. Then the last one is a novice test I'm thinking of entering Rafi in. Got some grouse dates so just over 3 weeks to go!
 
BallyRoanBaubles said:
Sounds like a good training day Druid! I've got one potentially two more working tests coming up, first one is a charity test my trainer is organizing so I'll run both dogs in that. Then the last one is a novice test I'm thinking of entering Rafi in. Got some grouse dates so just over 3 weeks to go!
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So exciting when the dates plop into the inbox!
 
Last working test of the season today, I'm chuffed and gutted in equal measures!

Test 1 - double mark into long grass, harder than it looked! Test 2- cold blind, not far from test 1 so could make it tricky, judge wanted a hunting exercise, test 3- mark to shot judge wanted to see Steadiness test 5- 4 dog walk up 2 retrieves each, test 4- mark to shot over water, test 6- blind to shot with a mark distraction, pick blind first

Rafi really held his own in the first 5 tests for 19, 20, 20, 18, 20/20 (judge 1) 20/14 (judge 2), then his brain melted at test 6 and we got a 0.

Final score of 151, if we'd have scored anything on test 6 we'd have been in the awards! So gutted about that but pleased as it was an AV novice test, and we only won out of NDNH a month ago
 
BallyRoanBaubles said:
Last working test of the season today, I'm chuffed and gutted in equal measures!

Test 1 - double mark into long grass, harder than it looked! Test 2- cold blind, not far from test 1 so could make it tricky, judge wanted a hunting exercise, test 3- mark to shot judge wanted to see Steadiness test 5- 4 dog walk up 2 retrieves each, test 4- mark to shot over water, test 6- blind to shot with a mark distraction, pick blind first

Rafi really held his own in the first 5 tests for 19, 20, 20, 18, 20/20 (judge 1) 20/14 (judge 2), then his brain melted at test 6 and we got a 0.

Final score of 151, if we'd have scored anything on test 6 we'd have been in the awards! So gutted about that but pleased as it was an AV novice test, and we only won out of NDNH a month ago
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Sounds like you are both being amazing. Well done.
 
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