Good, steady girl She has plenty of 'go' so I am not sure I would 'gee' her up to go, you might lose the steadiness?
Yes, you are right, I am in quite a dilema around steadiness vs drive right now. She only has speed and drive when we are in work mode. So this means working with shot, or just training sessions. On the shoot, she was completely switched on, in fact, although appearing in control, she did become over-aroused. She throws everything into training sessions and obviously enjoys them, especially her new skill of hunting. She is more focused now she knows how to hunt in specific areas and not self-reward. In fact, I am going to discuss hunting with her more on the next shoot. When we are walking, she is not interested in retreiving, and any outrun is a bit faint-hearted. So I don't tend to play retreiving games with her. Mostly she will just walk alongside my side, occasionally going off for a sniff. We do play games, they are more hunting games, recall, etc..
That's interesting, I think that may apply to Cassie too. Do you find it best to set out specifically to train retrieve at a certain time? It might explain why she seems to be keener when we go to our trainer.
When I train Bramble, we work on quite a few things I guess, but it is all work. For example, I will walk first with her to heel, I might have the flirt pole out, to work on chase, then stop whistle. I would then set out some memories, which are quite long, around 50 - 100 metres. A bit of hunt training, scented "snipe" training in long grass. Snipe dummies are just tiny dummies, useful for hiding. Then back to the memories planted earlier. Dotted with a bit of stop whistle training. I do try and have the exercises mapped out in my head before we set out A walk is a bit different, mainly because the focus is on all dogs keeping close, I usually have 2 dogs on a walk, so no retrieving If I have three dogs, normally one is on a long lead/line so it is important the other two stay close and in control. If you are referring more to the time of training ie: morning vs later in the day, I do try to train earlier, when they are mentally fresher.
Little update: Working on hunting remotely in an area. So OH was armed with starter pistol and tucked himself away in the wood. I am stood in the field with Bramble off lead to heel. Exercise: OH fires x2 shots and throws 2 dummies around 10 feet from each other. These are blind, but Bramble will have the general direction of the shot marked. (We also train sending her out to a different direction from the gunshot.) I then send her out to hunt in the wood for the first dummy, then again for the second. In the clip below you can see how this looks from Bramble's perspective. This is the send out for the first dummy. One mistake I think I made is that I didn't know she had the dummy, and blew my hunt whistle, she drops it, looks around, picks it up then comes back to me? I am not too sure on this.
Yes fascinating. What do you have to do on a shoot if the bird falls out of sight -do you just assume your dog is looking for it if you see them go in the right direction but can then no longer see either them or the bird?
More of a reflective update, I think, as we are heading into a busy month of training with Bramble after a quiet time. So the shooting season is over, and back to the grindstone. In our case, it is time to work on not only Bramble's strengths but areas of weakness too. Well to more accurate, my areas of weakness. Bramble obviously hasn't any!! Bramble was two in December, and that little bit of maturity is starting to show. Combined with this I have a better idea of her temperament. With her being a bit different from what I am used too, show line labs I guess, and a bitch, it has taken us a bit of time to settle into our working relationship. I used to think she was a complex dog, but now I think she is very straightforward. Simply, shooty stick man = pheasants...I run and run....and bring back pheasant. I am a GOOD girl. Bramble is happy. Oh and drop in a rabbit, deer...fair game s'cuse the pun! Bramble is very good at this, it's what she does, and lives for. Her ability is pure instinct, her reward the joy of doing. Bramble immerses herself into the environment and gets dizzy from the fabulousness of being in a wood, drunk with the scent of rabbit, deer, pheasants... and err...me.... I think the difficulty I have is trying to persuade Bramble that hey if you bring back countless dummies, run out to target sticks...when you do the real thing, it will be much more fun! I can almost see her sceptical look. It's like, you carry on mum, I actually know what I am doing...it's in my genes. I swear half the time she is humouring me, like, Oh mum you dropped it AGAIN...as Bramble bends down to pick up an errant dummy I have fumbled. I thought the trainer was supposed to make you feel stupid, not your dog. I have also learnt that Bramble's excitement escalates slowly, her overarousal then becomes apparent, her behaviours difficult for both of us. So why on earth take her out on a whole day shooting? Hmmm..half days are much better, even just a drive or two...food for thought. I am sure though, with experience this will become easier. Just because she appears calm, can manage early on her lead, to be quiet...doesn't mean she can hold this for a whole day. Stop while the going is good. Mix it up. Work on close stuff, fun stuff...read her more closely. The minute she becomes disengaged, do something different, or take her out of the situation. Doesn't matter what everyone is doing in a class. Motivation. What motivates Bramble? Well food, pheasants and shooty stick people. Her environment. What de-motivates Bramble hmmm...I think sometimes I don't really know. Maybe more accurately, why do I think Bramble is not confident/interested in certain exercises is a better question. Bramble does love to be with me, loves our one to one walks and training, and is eager to please, a really affectionate dog. Her eyes shine when things are going right. When we are both in the zone, nothing is better! So in summary, a more mature dog. I know what motivates Bramble, she is not a complex dog. Plan our training, think about the environment, and use it. Short interesting sessions are better. How can I build on Bramble's confidence in training? In terms of retrieving, this would be around blinds. With or without shot. Shot is highly motivating for Bramble. Bramble really enjoys her lotus ball so I have invested in some new retrieval articles on the same lines, different shapes, but all with food compartments. One she can open herself, and two to bring to me to open. I am thinking of combining these with target sticks, and working on my blind cue. Should be fun at least! Working in the woods yesterday, LOT of deer around..lots of scent.. Sending her back for a memory...
Lovely video, her enthusiasm is contagious I hope you don't mind a random question - are all of the woods like that? With no scrub/bush? When we go for a walk, we have to stick to the paths as it's too overgrown to go 'off-piste'. It looks as though you could just walk anywhere you like (which is a good thing!) See... You couldn't possibly go wandering off this path
She's a sweetie! What's she doing, when she finds the dummy and doesnt bring it back immediately? Is she sniffing other more interesting things?
Usually, she brings it back immediately. The problem is more not being interested in going out in the first place I whistled her in, thinking she had the dummy, then gave her a hunt whistle when I realised she hadn't. For the win was her running out in the wood, where there had just been deer running. Also, out of shot in front, OH appeared with our other two dogs which may account for her hesitation
Yes, that would explain the hesitation. Poppy wasn't great on running out on blinds for a long time... It took a lot of building up her confidence with memories and so on, until she gained the confidence that if I say there is something out there, that she will always find something to retrieve. I'm finding this much easier with Merlin - simply because I have more idea what I am doing, and have been doing memories with him from the beginning. By the time I get to my fifth working dog I might just know what I'm doing!!
First of all I thought you might be walking in the plantation I walk in, though know that wasn't possible! Your hunt whistle sounded more like the stop whistle?
