Re: hello again its been a while [/quote] I'm also not clear on this point. Are you blowing the stop whistle and she carries on hunting? [/quote] Ok if I send hazel for a blind lets say 40 yards she will run straight out for about 30 yards then she will keep running but slow right down and with her nose to the ground clearly hunting, i've been told that she should not hunt until I tell her or she finds the dummy. Sorry if i ramble on, i'm not brilliant at putting a situation like this into words golden
Re: hello again its been a while Well, I would have thought that is exactly what I would like to see from my dogs. Especially when they are running into the wind and when they enter the 'scent cone', to hunt until they pinpoint the retrieve. All of my dogs do that. ;D My idea of what a dog should do on a blind retrieve is to run until it either winds or sees the retrieve or until I stop the dog.
Re: hello again its been a while I would have thought that the person giving this advice was talking about a dog that starts to quarter the ground, rather than what your dog is doing, which sounds like sensible use of its nose.
Re: hello again its been a while many thanks for that I did think it was a bit odd when I was told she was hunting to soon as she always gets the dummy, that does put my mind to rest. golden
Re: hello again its been a while Nothing useful to add to the hunting discussion but just wanted to say that is a gorgeous pic - dogs and scenery both!!
Re: hello again its been a while Todays picture Decided to try and make things a bit harder today did the usual left/rights and backs, heel work etc. I sat both dogs up walked about 30 yards away, turned and called one dog by name, stopped the dog in the middle, walked away another 20 yards and called the other dog so they crossed over, did this twice per dog, then stopped the dogs together still about 15 yards away from me. This time as soon as the dog stopped on the whistle I threw a dummy to the left/right and then sent that dog I was over the moon to see that both dogs were steady. golden should i start another thread in another section as my enthusiasm comes across as waffling sometimes.
Re: hello again its been a while Hi there, well done on your steadiness. Plus we love your enthusiasm Shall I make a section for training 'diaries/updates'? It is quite nice to read how people are progressing with a particular problem or a particular dog. What do people think?
Re: hello again its been a while I welcome any comments on the things I try, i try to keep notes of the things that seem to work for my dogs. I never know if i'm doing to much or not enough. My dogs seem to love all the training they get, but I also feel that you can give to much of a good thing, so i'm trying to balance the practice we do. In my heart i would love to have dogs that are good enough for field trial, but I enjoy what we do so much with them they're already winners!! I have some questions, What do people feed their dogs on and why? and what do people do for their dogs that is acceptable for a ticking off? golden
Re: hello again its been a while Just one other thing I would like to improve on his marks what is the best way to try and improve this?is it something that will get better with age and experience. golden
Re: hello again its been a while Marking does improve with practice and experience but you can give it a helping hand. The main thing is to get someone to throw for you. You can't stretch a dog's marking ability on your own. I'll post up some marking drills in another thread.
Re: hello again its been a while Another day another issue, while training Hazel today (which went very well to begin with) she started to lose interest i.e not running out as fast as she would normally, not taking directions, more interested in eating the grass! Almost like she was when she was in season, is this a sign that I am doing too much? I seem to solve one thing then another crops up, my worst fear is that she becomes a Labra-bore!! golden
Re: hello again its been a while How much training are you doing? Sometimes less is more. In the past I have stayed off retrieving completely for a week or longer with my dogs and then gone back to it and found them full of enthusiasm again.
Re: hello again its been a while We definitely have to guard against doing too much of the same thing. Riley gets very bored! I try to mix it up quite a lot(learning new with re-enforcing old) and keep sessions short
Re: hello again its been a while well another couple of days of light training for both dogs and all I can say is I am well proud of my dogs, they are just fantastic both have had 1 to 1 training.I try to make it as hard as I can for hazel and she has been loving it I have put the last week down to the fact she had just got over her first season thanks for your comments. I need some fresh ideas for training, How do you train yours when your on your own? golden
