What a great place to train! I have a common, can be completely empty UNTIL I put a dummy out, then people always seem to appear! Impressive straight lines, mine always does a banana which isn't dependent on the wind! Nice heel work as well when you turned away from the dummy.
It's stunning! When we arrived, I had to stifle a little sob at how beautiful it is for training purposes. OK, it would probably be too easy very quickly, but it's so FLAT and LONG and GREEN and GORGEOUS! There's even a little bit of cover at one side that you could use for hunting, blinds and stuff. Oh, I wish it was on my doorstep.
Oh, very good observation from your trainer! That is one thing we have done quite a bit of with Bramble is "do nothing" training, largely because at the time I was working on a "settle outside" with Benson, and it helped to do the two together
Good dog Luna!!! Lovely straight lines and great focus... She does what I call 'the crab scuttle' when walking away from the memory... By which I mean she kind of scuttles slightly sideways, partly in front of you, instead of right to heel. Poppy does this too, and I have never managed to train her out of it. Comes with high drive, I think - Merlin is far more relaxed... She looks great, Fiona. Lovely girl, lovely training field, lovely weather!!!
I've been doing regular short sessions with Squidge recently. We have lots of things to work on, but I find she responds better if I keep it short and sweet, and we progress a lot faster. Yesterday, we went out to play the "sit to shot" game. She finds bangs (even little ones) very exciting and so will break a sit if she's already in it. So, instead, I have started approaching it from a standing position, blowing my stop whistle so she sits as soon as she hears the "shot" (which is just a kids' cap gun at this point). So. Much. Fun! She understood the game almost immediately and was plonking her bum on the ground without the whistle after just a couple of goes. I think I felt the earth shake from how definite she was that her bum was going down! I then introduced a dummy and she was brilliant with her steadiness, which is something else we've been working on recently. It's wonderful to see her working out the games and loving them so much. As ever, she'll scarf down handfuls of treats when they are offered, but the thing that really floats her boat is being told how clever she is. You can almost see her puffing up her chest to say, "I am, aren't I?"
Sounds great! She's a clever girl to work out the game so quickly, and great that you're getting the steadiness from her. Are you using the cap gun, or is your OH doing that at a distance? I'm wondering how Merlin will do with shot when we are in the UK this Christmas - there is always a lot of gunshot around where we stay, though I will keep him at a distance obviously. I think it's wonderful to see when dogs are really happy about being praised
I'm using the cap gun, it's barely a pop. I'll move on to party poppers in the next session. She's been introduced to the dummy launcher and never flinched - it's all hugely (too!) exciting for her. I do want to get a starter pistol as it will be far more convenient than the poppers and launcher, both of which need two hands to use, but I have to arrange for the firearms license for it, and I just haven't got around to it. I'm quite glad I delayed any steadiness work with her, as I think it helped to build her desire to retrieve just letting her run in, and now I'm introducing the steadiness it actually seems to be increasing that desire. I can throw a dummy over her head while she sits, which I was amazed only took a single session of clock-face throwing to achieve and if I choose to send her back, she releases like a coiled spring. Maybe not with the speed of Shadow, but for her, plenty of gusto
I have a starting pistol (and the firearms license for it; always makes me laugh that you need one!), but have never used it anywhere near Merlin yet. You hear so many different things regarding steadiness - some say dogs should be taught it from the word go, others that you should just let them run in until they are 7 or 8 months old or even older... I think, as with so many other things in dog training, it's a balancing act and is different from dog to dog. Are you enjoying the fact that Luna is so different to your other two labs? I love it that Poppy and Merlin are so very different, it makes training them so fascinating!
Definitely! All three are so different, it's brilliant and a challenge, especially to remember what I've done with each. I keep promising to keep better notes, but life gets in the way It definitely gives you that perspective on "train the dog in front of you" But, oh, how I wish I could turn back the clock with W&S and not introduce some of the errors we have.
It's so easy to avoid the errors when you know what they are. I just keep wondering what I don't know I'm missing this time around
I understand what you are trying to achieve - steadiness to shot - but be careful that shot doesn't become a cue to sit for her. Drop to shot is vital for spaniels but not for retrievers.
No, not necessarily. She could be on a retrieve when there are all sorts of distractions, loose birds and shot for example, that shouldn't stop her, only your stop whistle should. A spaniel on the other hand should sit to shot and to flush.
I do struggle a bit with this, and my understanding is that retrievers should be steady to shot so they can mark effectively, and not run in. I did find this difficult when it suddenly got quite "busy" with birds on the last shootover, coupled with SWMBO barking instructions on the radio!! Marking all the birds, and waiting your turn is quite a challenge for a young retriever!
I think 'steady to shot' and 'sit to shot' are two different things! Sitting and not running in when shots are all around, waiting to pick up, is a case of 'staying in one place until I tell you differently' - sitting to shot, is a dog hunting and then sits to the flush and shot, this is usually spaniels or other hunting dogs.
