Morning everyone, David took Charlie out this morning for his walk and of course it's completely dark at 6.00 am in the countryside, no light pollution absolutely nothing. David decided to let Charlie off lead to stretch his legs and instead of a full on go, go, go he came back within 15 seconds and stuck by David for the whole walk. So the plan is to take complete advantage of the dark mornings and work really hard on off lead heel work and try to keep him close. I wonder if the big lad is afraid of the dark : Do you think this could work? As always prepared to try anything and everything Thanks xx
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark Recently I have been walking on the lead Molly in the dark. I have found that she behaves differently, more pulling etc. I am walking her around the town and along quiet roads so we have street lighting, so I think it does affect them.
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark I've sometimes been told practicing retrieving in the dark improves return and delivery and Riley used to stay closer last winter in the dark. We have yet to see if my bold spaniel stays close Definitely use it to establish a good habit if you can ;D good thinking !
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark That is useful to know, and going to experiment with that as it's almost pitch black here in the morning. OH has a special harness for Casper that has a slot to silde a torch in OH does like his gadgets, and is particularly fond of VERY powerful headtorches! ;D
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark Murffi does some of his best retrieving in complete darkness. ;D No idea why, possibly because of the lack of visible distractions.
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark Well I wonder if he might prefer retrieving in the dark : I have been working on building excitement with a tennis ball and ball chucker, I stand at the back door Charlie bouncing around and I launch the ball over our 12 foot Yew hedge into the back garden, Charlie goes off like a rocket and brings the ball back to me for a piece of frankfurter, we just do 3 and that's it. Nuts I know but I am prepared to sell my soul to get Charlie retrieving!! Do you think it's worth a go on a walk? x
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark You can try it but you might lose some tennis balls. I do something very similar to you and throw tennis balls into the pitch black garden from the comfort of my conservatory. It is a lot harder though for the dog to find a retrieve in unfamiliar surroundings.
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark I have a box of balls I bought off Ebay so don't mind losing some Could throw it straight along the track rather than into a field, and also smear the ball with Frankfurter to do a bit of scent work too :-\ x
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark Yes, you could do that, you can also try putting out more than one ball to increase the chances of him finding his retrieve. I suspect that Charlie is very much like Murffi when it comes to retrieving. Murffi needs to be successful in order to keep him interested in the game. He is not the sort of dog who will go the extra mile to find a lost tennis ball.
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark Great idea to throw more than one ball. Maybe Charlie is a bit like Murffi that's why I am keeping to 2/3 chuckers for now. He was funny a few weeks ago, I chucked the ball but no Charlie, he was barking like crazy, so I went out to the garden and he was literally leaping high off the ground trying to get into the Apple tree, the ball was stuck in the branches, so why is this boy not an obsessed retriever? : thank you Heidrun x
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark Lilly's retrieve is very situation related. Garden yes ok for a few. The beach......she is hopping about in anticipation before we get right down to the water. This only happened after ball mad Georgie started it with her - related to the chase factor! Still won't retrieve elsewhere really. I am currently "marinating" a dummy in her kibble box though So just wondering if Charlie will transfer his new found skills elsewhere. Without more work anyway. I must say I don't let Lilly off in the dark since she developed her deer chasing fetish....but that has given me some pause for thought.
Re: Interesting Behaviour in the Dark Unfortunately he won't transfer his "retrieving" skills elsewhere and this is what we really have struggled with for 3 bloomin' years , we never rush always tiny steps but it has never worked Always super exciting at home/garden but that's where it ends. Good idea to marinate, I must go and put his balls in the Frankfurter bag ;D Charlie is only let off when there is enough light on the way home or in the woods where he sticks close to David, so hopefully Deer will be spotted but not always. I am hoping with the ball chucker that getting the ball a good distance for Charlie to get a good run at it will help but I'm not holding my breath, but worth a try anway : Jac if I were you I would be marinating the dummy in something smellier than kibble - good luck and at least you get some retrieving out x
