I have been lazy with regard to his recall. i usually practice ,practice in the regular fields. Just recently I have been really depressed with the weather. It is cold , wet and has been very, very windy for over two weeks. Today is the first dry day that the wind is less than 40 mile an hour. So as a consequence our walks heve been a chore. I have not enjoyed them as I am exhausted putting on all my stuff, fighting through rain, wind and arriving home to face a cold tap to shower two dirty dogs. I step straight into my kitchen, no utility , then dry both dogs, one of which pushes the other out the way. Another thing I need to train. Then it's time for my wet stuff. Muck and mud all over the floor. Splashes on all the units. All I ever do is clean. So an hour walk has used up two hours. Sorry big moan. Well today walking through our usual fields I spotted a young girl with a labrador and terrier off lead. I immediately put Cassie on lead and steered both dogs down field. Cupar had other ideas. Straight for the terrier. Used whistle and got ignored. Or as my children would say I got dingied. I knew I couldn't approach as I still had Cassie, so I went to tie her to the fence. Meanwhile Cupar is having a rare time chasing this wee dog. He started to come back to me as I was tying Cassie up but changed his mind and decided there was more fun to be had with the child and her dogs. Thankfully the girl kept on walking and Cupar came back as I was following him. This week has not been good training wise. We had horses run to greet us , big shire horses. I had been prepared as I had Cupar on the lead, I didn't help as I was terrified. At least 10 big horses thundering in sodden wet ground towards you. Cupar went ballistic. Cassie decided to join in. All these horses heads poking us as I tried to get away. The vets was another stressful episode. From the minute I stepped into the vets. Cupar wanted to play with the other dogs. He wasn't interested in the food or toy that I had brought. I blame the fact the puppy playgroup was held in the waiting room after hours. He's also started getting more whiny in the car. Cupar rarely barks, he whines. Takes after me maybe. Och well back to the beginning for us. thank you all for reading this far. I'm now going to start cleaning again. Can I ask ? Is it too early for a beer?
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. That yukky weather needs to go go go go! It gets us all down sometimes. Don't worry about your pooch - you will get back into things soon enough. Beer - YES PLEASE! (It is Saturday after all!) Mine's a wiessbier , large - thanks. ;D
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. Oh dear not a good week for you but it can only get better at this point. I think lots of us have felt at rock bottom because of the cold wet windy weather and I think the dogs have picked up on or feelings and act as if they have never had a training session in their lives. We were lucky for Juno's last few days of freedom before her op with lots of sun and warmth so were able to make the most of her walks. It's never to early for a beer, just remember it's past 12:00 somewhere in the world
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. You'll be ok; the sun will come out and you'll get back to enjoying your walks and training. But those horses though - terrifying!! So glad you were ok.
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. Goodness ,I'm with you and Karen on the horses ...quite scarey and do take care,my friends Dad nearly died trying to save his dog from horses ....it was foaling season and the horses just closed in on the dog. The weather sounds totally grim,it's hard to make progress in conditions like that,walks must feel like an endurance excercise!Keep,your chin up and go back a few steps,I bet Cupar is feeling it too and was just so ecstatic to get a hoolie with another dog you'd have been hard pressed to bring him straight back ....and eventually he did come back ,so all is not lost x
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. Someone posted on Facebook that it was too early for a beer......this was my reply.... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BPCjC543llU And I texted a friend I haven't seen for a while to see if she wanted a cheeky pint to which the response was a resounding yes! There's a lot of it going round ;D It will get warmer and drier and your training will come good again!
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. It's been a couple days of hideous rain here in Idaho too....everything is muddy and the creeks running high and fo course - the dogs are stir crazy. Bella has been a bit of a teenager with recall herself lately...so I armed myself with hotdogs, poached chicken, and cheese...and in a break of the rain, donned my boots and coat, whistle, and headed out back into the field to run some steam off Bella and firm up her recall.... Then DH turned our other dog out too... : She of course then came out back with us...and so all my meager attempts at preparing for some recall strengthening....went out the window. : Crystal has NO recall - well, not exactly none...but she's a livestock guardian and I haven't bothered with any recall training with her...ever... Anywho....when Crystal comes out, it's a huge distraction for Bella...and Crystal tends to do a perimeter sweep - doing her job in searching for and deterring threats... Well, with as stir crazy as Bella has been with the rain, she really needed a good zooming session....and having her sister out and about doing a perimeter sweep was just too much for her to handle most of the time. I tried to not use the recall if she wasn't paying attention to me...but there were a few ignored whistles/training failures as despite my stellar bag of treats...I couldn't compete with the novelty of having her sister with her, the NUMEROUS high water puddles, and the general need to ZOOM.... : I'm going to prep a few good high value treat bags this evening, and do some basic in the house recall stuff - from the other room, etc and see if we can firm it back up this week. And Hubby has been told not to let Crystal out when I take Bella for a weekend walk....I need to firm up the recall before we try that again!
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. Once again thank-you for cheering me up and being sooo understanding. Barbara thankyou for that link. I cooked a stir fry for dinner and started on the beer while cooking it. Bliss. Heidi Cupar would have loved to have played with Bella. He loves muddy puddles and water. I love That Americans call their burns , creeks. A lot of my problems with the dirty dogs is the fact that my local river is far too high because of the rain, or they would be in washing the muck off. The horses have been taken in again. OH can't understand why they were out , there's no grass. We think they so human and thought food. I was really worried that they would fall and break a leg, these are big horses. I never got much opportunity to let Cupar off lead. Farmer has put the sheep back in one field and spread slurry over another. We didn't notice until we got to second field( puplic footpath) . So both dogs wer kept on the lead. My daughter walked the long walk with me and stole my walking belt. She's now threatening to walk Cupar. Today at the vets. I defrosted smoked haddock. Raw. I really thought that me stinking of fish would keep Cupar focused on me. Wrong. I tried him on the scales, our vet came to give me a hand. Cupar thought this was wonderful. The nice man was going to play with him. The vet even apologised , I was mortified, all the time being told , it's fine I would rather he was like this as the opposite. We think he might be 25/26kg. Although the scales went from 17/44 kg with the amount of bouncing, can I add he was in a kind of sit. When leaving he jumped on someone coming in. I had two leads on and I still can't control him. His lead walking is a nightmare. We've started c&t heel training. I've also started using the whistle as a necklace at home. Now since I've started wearing it Cupar does not leave my side. So very few opportunities to actually blow it. JulieT calls Charlie a hooligan, well my boy is heading in this direction. On a more positive note. Cassie who came back when it suited her is much, much better at recall. Her lead walking has improved so much even my daughter commented on it. She's an absolute angel in the house. She's my helper and sometimes babysitter at home. Her resourse guarding is a lot better. I'm managing her better when out and she sees another dog, she's more focused on me now. I really am fortunate to have two wonderful dogs. I know Cupar will improve,with a little help from everyone here.
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. [quote author=Cupcase link=topic=10191.msg150045#msg150045 date=1426543734] JulieT calls Charlie a hooligan, well my boy is heading in this direction. [/quote] Ok, if you really have a hooligan - and I mean a real, genuine hooligan, a serious one, not just a normal young Labrador that will just turn in an everyday regular embarrassing performance - but one who is going to make it his life's ambition to show you up there is only one thing for it...work very hard at developing the ability to laugh about it, and appreciate your fabulous, wonderful dog. ;D ;D ;D Seriously though, life does get better, even with a hooligan. Ok, he is never going to behave when I need him to (only today, at the age of two, he planted two muddy paw prints on the vet's clean trousers - and it's not like I don't know how to train and proof "paws on the floor" : ) and his performance on the scales was marginally better than Cupar's - he broke them. ;D ;D ;D Loose lead walking took us the best part of 2 years...and I can't say my trainer is overly impressed with us even now. But it is ok, we did more or less get there. In the end.
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. [quote author=JulieT link=topic=10191.msg150048#msg150048 date=1426544604] [quote author=Cupcase link=topic=10191.msg150045#msg150045 date=1426543734] JulieT calls Charlie a hooligan, well my boy is heading in this direction. [/quote] Ok, if you really have a hooligan - and I mean a real, genuine hooligan, a serious one, not just a normal young Labrador that will just turn in an everyday regular embarrassing performance - but one who is going to make it his life's ambition to show you up there is only one thing for it...work very hard at developing the ability to laugh about it, and appreciate your fabulous, wonderful dog. ;D ;D ;D Seriously though, life does get better, even with a hooligan. Ok, he is never going to behave when I need him to (only today, at the age of two, he planted two muddy paw prints on the vet's clean trousers - and it's not like I don't know how to train and proof "paws on the floor" : ) and his performance on the scales was marginally better than Cupar's - he broke them. ;D ;D ;D Loose lead walking took us the best part of 2 years...and I can't say my trainer is overly impressed with us even now. But it is ok, we did more or less get there. In the end. [/quote] I feel so much better. Charlie really is my kind of dog. I think he's more of a hooligan than Jake ever was. Your right Cupars not that bad. He is just a pup. Oh dear I did worry about Cupar breaking the scales, he just will not sit at peace, but they really break?
Re: It is official, Cupars recall is broken. [quote author=Cupcase link=topic=10191.msg150068#msg150068 date=1426546552] Oh dear I did worry about Cupar breaking the scales, he just will not sit at peace, but they really break? [/quote] I think he just knocked the wire out of the display unit. The head vet nurse looked a bit cross, but I know she loves him really. ;D ;D ;D
