Betsy has been learning all sorts. We've chased Butterflies together - she is very impressed I can find so many Butterflies to chase! And she has learned that if she stays on her BBQ mat, bits of T-bone steak and puppy kongs appear (she approves of bits of T-bone steak but kongs are ok too). Plus we've managed double cuddle training (Charlie can't be said to be impressed, but he's getting used to it). Yay! Gundog training next week, although she is bringing her little ball back just fine - slightly runs to the side of me, but we'll keep at it. Untitled by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr Untitled by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr
Gosh, haven't posted for ages! Mainly because Betsy ate my Go-Pro charger cable and I like posting videos (not as bad as blowing up a Laptop by eating the charger on that....got a thing for chargers, has Betsy...don't know how many iPhone chargers are missing in action now...). Betsy is a real bird chaser! Annoying. This means walking her on the Common is a bit tricky, because we get thrown in jail if she chases water birds. So we have been doing lots of 'don't chase' around crows and pigeons and staying away from the Swans! In a way, it's lucky she chases crows, because they are super confident, and I know where they are on the Common. There is one place where they will sit on tall posts and completely ignore Betsy going nuts at the bottom. This is extremely convenient to use as training. She is on a line around squirrels and the rabbits. It's very easy to make a mistake, otherwise. She showed all signs of being terrible running over to people and other dogs, but I didn't make many mistakes with that at all, and she is already very much improved. It is interesting to compare her now with Charlie. She hasn't had a quarter of the socialisation he had, and she is definitely more cautious than he was at 6 months, although I'd say at 8 weeks she was much bolder than he was. This is good for her training because (chasing birds and animals aside) I am not having to spend as much time on just basic control around distractions. I worry a bit about how well she is equipped to cope with London though. Today, we stepped out onto our normally quiet bit of the Common only to see a car hit someone on a bike! Much fuss and people running to help etc. The rangers came galloping in on massive horses! She was taken aback by that! Not too bad though, I don't think. She was definitely a bit jumpy at the fuss, noise, and ambulance arriving etc. but soon just seemed interested. She wasn't half as excited as Charlie would have been (so that's good, I suppose). She is a bit cautious around other dogs - on the whole I think that's a good thing, so long as it stays as just cautious. She is very happy to play with smaller dogs and puppies though. She is a moderately keen retriever. Nothing like on Charlie's scale. That's also good. She is keen enough now such that I think I can ask for steadiness, although I don't have a perfect return and hand delivery yet, so I am working super hard on that.
Couple of little vids of the Fat Bottomed Girl. Tweets, I mean treats, for hold in the kitchen (trying very hard to establish a hand delivery) and then failing to transfer that outside. Never mind, it was just a near miss (says Betsy, and so still desewved lots of tweets). hold in kitchen by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr second fetch by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr
Love the fetch vid! I know nothing about retrieving so I know my praise isn't worth much (if anything), but that looked fabulous! You both make it look so easy, but I know how many endless hours of work has gone into that.
Aw, she is so pretty! And what a lovely colour, too. I love her black nose Of course she's a cheese freak, that's the French influence. What was it today, a cheeky piece of brie, or an over-ripe camembert, perchance?
It was just standard extra strong cathedral cheddar - nothing fancy. I save the stilton for Charlie (not that it makes much difference to him outside, he'd prefer his football).
She is doing really well! her beautiful face is soooo distracting though! She is turning into a little cracker! We started early with Bramble, well around 5 months with a clicker taught retrieve and a hold for hand delivery. This worked well, only she seemed to lose a bit of keenness to retrieve, almost like she was thinking about it too much. So we dropped most of the retrieving and switched to short games with toys, such as tuggy. Probably coincided with a growth spurt, with a definite wobble on the confidence front. I am not too worried about her drive, as that will come,( and if it doesn't who cares? ) so working on steadiness, which in hindsight with Benson I really started much earlier! Like Betsy, Bramble does love to chase her nose, and birds... So we had to stop all her free running for a bit, which was a real pain, but she does need a lot of 1-1 training at her age. I spent hours on hide and seek games as recalling her away from all those fab smells would have ruined a really good recall.
