Good morning, its been a while since I have been on this forum so thought I would give you an update this was when I first got Hazel http://www.thelabradorsite.com/forums/index.php/topic,608.0.html. Ok where do i start, since the last up date I was training Hazel and everything was going very well and the trainer I was going to was very happy with her progress (apart from her heel work). Any way we ended up buying her younger brother Miller at six months old and is still quite timid!But he has been really good almost catching up with Hazels training.Miller on the left and hazel on the right He does like having his picture taken!I would like to buy some books on the next stage of there training any advice on what ones to buy?We had Pippas books to start with ('the right start' and a puppy one).Hazel is a bit more advanced then Miller both will stop on the whistle and take directions. golden
Re: hello again its been a while That is a great photo ;D love the smile! If you enjoyed the right start you could try the gundog grade 1 & 2 books.
Re: hello again its been a while That's the funniest photo of a lab I have seen, made my day thanks for sharing Im sure Miller will catch up in time with training, they all learn at different rates
Re: hello again its been a while He's brilliant at saying cheese...which book did you use to train that ;D,both gorgeous dogs x
Re: hello again its been a while Miller looks like a right character in this picture! Hazel is absolutely stunning Welcome back to the forum!
Re: hello again its been a while Too funny!! Looking forward to hearing all your adventures with the pups!
Re: hello again its been a while Thanks for all the comments, these are some of the problems I need to work on: hazels heel work she likes to be in front have been told to live with it as she is getting to old to correct the problems.Hunting: when I send her for a blind she will go 30/40 yards then start to hunt she drops her nose she doesn't stop just slows,creeping: when I sit her up, there is more but need to sort these out first. Any advice would be great,hazel is very strong headed keep being told shes a hard dog to handle. golden
Re: hello again its been a while They're super and very well-behaved! ;D Not answers to your challenges exactly but a few thoughts from my limited experience....... My in-laws lab isn't great on walking to heel and is pretty bull-headed (heart of gold tho!). I've introduced him to a clicker and it's amazing what a difference it makes even on the odd occasion when we have him, he's bright and food motivated and the unambiguous nature of the clicker really helps him work out when he's doing it right. My in-laws are very chatty and I think the commands and encouragement get a bit lost in the chat(not suggesting you're too chatty just that this is a contributing factor here). Do you clicker train? Or would it be something you'd consider? With the coming up short, Riley does this with me if he's unsure. It's been suggested to me that he doesn't quite believe there's something out there so we've taken a step back and blinds are quite short as is anything into dense cover. I want to build his confidence in me and so I never do exercises that don't have a dummy at the end(some of the stop whistle exercises for example)
Re: hello again its been a while No I have never tried clicker training but it is something I am willing to try,I have just got back with millers walk/training we did 3 lefts/3 rights/3 backs some hunting on the whistle then as I walk I drop 3 dummies in a line about 5 feet apart carry on walking a good 50 yards turn and send he never swaps just runs out picks the first dummy and straight back I walk a bit further away turn and send for each of them finish on some steady work,time for hazels walk/training golden
Re: hello again its been a while Sounds like a lovely, successful walk Were your retrieves seen or memories or were there some blinds in there too? There's some great clicker training resources on the main site, I think Pippa has posted links to them from the forum too. There's a clicker training section. Let us know if you decide to try it and how you get on ;D
Re: hello again its been a while I always try and do seens,long memories which is hazels strong point and blinds into woodland or hedges,I am going to try the clicker for hazels heel work. Here is todays picture,Today was one of those days when everything went perfect I had hazel running past miller with the dummies and he never moved,I need to try and think of some harder things to do :-\ golden
Re: hello again its been a while Beautiful,clever dogs ....I can't help,with any of your training issues but I'm loving seeing your 2 x
Re: hello again its been a while Bit short of time this morning, and will have a proper look at your post later, but noticed the above. Not quite sure if this is what you mean, but if your dog is starting to hunt prematurely, before she has reached the area of the dummy, you need to build up her confidence on shorter distances and extend the distances more slowly. Are you using permanent blinds, markers or any other aids to help her? Visual guidelines (tracks, hedgerows etc) Give us an idea of how you are setting the blinds up. Pippa
Re: hello again its been a while I walk the dogs to heel until I tell them to 'go wees', then, as I walk along I try and drop 3 dummies without the dogs seeing. Once I am about 30/40 yards I call the dogs to heel, stop, turn and take 2 steps forward call one dog to heel, line hazel up and send, she comes back. I walk on with dogs to heel turn take 2 steps call Hazel to heel, line her up and send. I repeat 3 time with both dogs,when I do long memory retrieves she will run a good 300 yards without hunting or hesitating. golden
Re: hello again its been a while [quote author=goldenbrown link=topic=2588.msg26497#msg26497 date=1379574670] Thanks for all the comments, these are some of the problems I need to work on: hazels heel work she likes to be in front have been told to live with it as she is getting to old to correct the problems.Hunting: when I send her for a blind she will go 30/40 yards then start to hunt she drops her nose she doesn't stop just slows,creeping: when I sit her up, there is more but need to sort these out first. Any advice would be great,hazel is very strong headed keep being told shes a hard dog to handle. golden [/quote] I'm also not clear on this point. Are you blowing the stop whistle and she carries on hunting?
