Re: New pup - noisy dog question Noo, I didn't take offence. It's all good. ;D They're only dogs. far worse things happen at sea.
Re: New pup - noisy dog question [quote author=hd link=topic=1920.msg18627#msg18627 date=1374696028] I have to explain that the noise in the car (the only time we're doing C&T for noise) is not safe to continue. It prevents any concentration on the actual journey and the final straw was a journey to work where i had two of my staff in the car and no one could hear each other. there was full on longleat style wolf howling. [/quote] Perhaps you should be doing set up "training drives" then, when you have assistance and can stop if necessary? Until it is safe for you to take the pup about your day to day business?
Re: New pup - noisy dog question I don't drive her on my own. we've been doing the odd drives and silence reigns when we count up to 30 bananas, click and treat. she'll get there - it'll just be noisy waiting :
Re: New pup - noisy dog question Noisiness definitely diminishing which is great. Car's definitely easier and the gap between treats is now 4 minutes so i'm happy with the way it's going. she's now around 5.5kg - came home a month ago at 2.5kg. She is having her second injection on monday morning. We've been doing lots of socialisation with her. took her over to a friend's small holding and introduced her to lots of new dogs. then after that she visited with the animals and my friend's husband put her in with the rhea chicks. she was very interested in them but thankfully didn't touch them as i was very nervous. they're worth a lot of money! been taking her out to see livestock, people and small eratic children on scooters etc. She's a bold little thing. been doing a lovely bit of retrieiving with her. nothing too much as i'm really trying not to overdo things. doing 2 or 3 throws, 2 or 3 times a week. she's coming in beautifully. i'm always sat on the floor. Took some advice and have started to not do her throws in the same place or with the same thing each time. today i had her in the garden with a puppy dummy. she likes this one as it has a sgtrip of rabbit fur on it. i threw it into the daylilies that she loves to run round in so that was extra fun for her. She is running straight back to me and i am starting to use the "hold" and "dead" words in the right places without expecting her to know what they mean obviously. She really enjoys it and her little tail is wagging all the time. She mobs me for the dummy and tries to find it when i hide it up my jumper after the last throw. then follows me back to the high cupboard where i keep them. this can only be good. Slight concern that she's chewing it etc after she's brought it back as i'm not taking it off her very quickly. Sometimes I give it back to her too. Just so she feels like i'm not punishing her for coming back to me. Would appreciate people's thoughts for whether i'm teaching her to chomp on it by leaving her with it at the point. in terms of obedience, she's recalling like a demon both to the whistle and to her name. she's incredibly motivated by food. walking on lead is going well but she's dancing round in front of me. this i think is because she's mugging me for treats. it makes loose lead possible but not very normal! it's very cute puppy exuberance too so as long as i only treat her when she's at my side i reckon we've got time enough to solve this. in short, i'm really pleased with how things are going. The reasons i'm starting with her how i mean to go on is that there are some dogs that simply can't be pets. they're just too hardwired to work. trying to force them into being happy with a pet life is when you get dogs that bog off and become self employed (in my understanding). with Eevee's breeding she could be one of those and if she is, then she'll need to have a working life. i can certainly provide her with the opportunity to work and i'd like to do so. starting her right seems to be the right way to get the best out of her and not to teach her too many things i will wish she hadn't learned. how well her training goes depends on whether i stop at two dogs or go down the kennel route and have more. Although I'm a novice, dogs are providing me with an outlet and a way of reducing my work obsession (i run my own business). It's also a healthy pursuit which gets me out and active and not stuck behind a desk.
Re: New pup - noisy dog question I agree with a lot of what you say. Dogs like these need to be kept busy, and to use their brains. Are you actually going to be. Using her as a Gundog? I have slightly changed my whole attitude with my little Poppy, since being too pernickety was causing a lot of friction between the other half and myself - and also stopping me actually enjoying my dog so much. Luckily, she is incredibly good - a perfect hybrid - ready to work and retrieve all day long, but also a very happy house pet, as long as she has enough to keep her busy. My training with her has come to an enforced temporary stop (health reasons), and strangely we have become even closer during this time. All I can do with her at present is a bit of chucking the tennis ball around in the garden, while the other half does dummy work with her in the forest. Ironically, it is this enforced 'down time' that has forced me to stop obsessing quite so much about her training, and has allowed me to realize what a lovely dog she is! I've also realized there's plenty of time to continue her training - but that we can have more fun while doing it, and take more time. Sorry, ran on a bit there, and don't mean to suggest you aren't doing anything properly - it all sounds great! ;D Just wanted to say, don't forget to enjoy her puppyhood too, it goes by so quickly...
Re: New pup - noisy dog question I have to admit though that whilst she's cute, she's naughty, makes life difficult and will be far better when she's six months old. ;D I preferred the toddler years than babies and suspect i'm the same with puppies. honey was like a sponge when she was 6 to 10 months old with a longer concentration span and the ability to push her training on. I think maybe i prefer that time than 'newborns'. I did consider buying a six month old dog but I want all success or failure to be my responsibility and not have the chance to blame anyone but myself.
Re: New pup - update and retrieving questions Ooh dear. me and my husband have very differing opinions on this whole puppy raising thingummy. I'm an avid reader of Pippa's gundog books. read a lot and go to training quite a bit. he does none of this. shows no interest in anything and then completely randomly decides to get the dog retrieving for him. for the love of all that's holy. decides to throw it half the length of the garden for a 12 week old puppy. encourages her back. he didn't sit on the ground and then she comes back and drops it on the floor. does this numerous times and is proud of himself for 'entertaining the puppy. he isn't happy about the complaints i've made. He seems to think i should be grateful and if i'm not grateful he won't do anything with the puppy ever again.<insert flouncing here> i'm saying it would be lovely if he took an interest. really lovely but can he just read the flipping book first or at least talk to me about what I'm doing and not cock a deaf'n ever time i talk about it and then decide to do a unilateral declaration of independence and chuck a 20 yard dummy. He think I should be pleased as this shows I'm not doing as much as she's capable of and should be impressed. mumble, grumble grrrr. sarah p.s. won't really divorce him, not yet anyway. ;D
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. Oh dear, not sure what's wrong with throwing the ball half the length of the garden etc... :-[ But - I do get the general point. I had to vent on the forum when OH used the clicker as a noise distraction when Charlie was supposed to be walking nicely to heel, but instead stopped to sniff poo! I think it's probably even more difficult if you are trying to do the tricky stuff - much sympathy. But, tonight OH took the pup out. And I sneaked a look out of the window...he was sticking to all the rules, Charlie was walking beautifully on his lead.... I think the fact I have more control over Charlie than I do has created a bit of a competition! (but not one that OH will play while I'm around...) Whatever works...whatever works...
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. Well nothing at all. not everyone wants to raise their labrador to retrieve. i totally understand that but i bought the puppy with the main intention of raising her to be the best gundog i can make her in to. There are basic rules that i had hoped that the family would follow - i've really impressed them on to my children so they know not to call for her if they haven't already got her attention or to throw things for her. they're aware of the rules and are really really good at following them. they've seen the effect on them on hd who now won't bother retrieving and even the gundog trainer gave up with it with her. it's a pity my darling husband didn't listen. hd is a fabby dog and could have been a great retriever but due to things being pulled out of her mouth, chased by the children (she loved this game!), having things thrown and people just wander off etc etc her retrieve has been killed off. Now that i have eevee, i want to ensure we don't make the same mistakes and can have a dog as obedient as hd but with a retrieving instinct still firmly intact. the other problem is that i'm not good enough at all this to have serious problems to have to fix so i want to avoid creating them. hope that explains it.
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. It is frustrating.... We feel your pain!! Try a little bit of positive reinforcement. If he does anything 'right', C&T (well, compliment him and make a cup of tea perhaps). If it's not quite right (e.g. expecting too much of the pup), praise for showing some interest and then redirect to a more desired behaviour (i.e. quickly show him where you are up to in training and invite him to have a try). Had to chuckle at the image of the Flouncing Husband
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. well, you lot are far more into positive reinforcement than i am. i'm going for brutal punishment. i might lift him by the ears and give him a good wallop whilst i do so. my favourite was the use of the clicker noise to distract from sniffing poo. that's an impressive lack of clicker-usage expertise.
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. hee hee - even though I had a zipped mouth policy at the time (saving the marriage - who would get custody of the pup?), neither of us will forget it, and pretty sure there won't be a repeat!
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. You know what though - dogs are all different, and it sounds as though hd just doesn't have a strong prey drive. Your new pup's ancestry will pretty much guarantee as strong a prey drive as you could wish for. My Poppy has it in spades - and nothing, but nothing will ever take the wish and NEED to retrieve away from her. Just saying that perhaps you could try and relax just a teeny, teeny bit??? I mean, your hubby will want to have fun with the pup too - if any time he tries to play with her you get annoyed because he is doing it wrong - well, that's going to take a lot of the joy out of things and necessarily create a lot of strife... Everyone trains differently of course and all family dynamics are different too. Please don't take this the wrong way - I'm just thinking there might be a middle way, that would allow you to enjoy this puppy time a bit more? You sound a bit strung out in your posts!
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. praise for showing some interest and then redirect to a more desired behaviour (i.e. quickly show him where you are up to in training and invite him to have a try) I still can't do the blue highlighting,someone give me tip! The above was written by Rachael,made me laugh,I have done exactly that !only my redirection to a more desired behavior was to tell him the cricket was on the Telly!get outta my hair! X
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. the blue highlighting is when you press "quote" in the post you want to quote, it will put the whole post in blue and then you can take out the text that you don't want included if you only want to quote a little bit of the post
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. I have a similar problem Sarah, my husband just wants a dog that will play with him - he's not averse to chasing the dog, chucking things for him and not worrying about if they get brought back etc etc not ideal in gundog land I've just had to modify my expectations a little - Riley's a family pet first and my gundog aspirations are second to harmonious family life. I've found little levers though - we both want an obedient dog so the chasing is off the table in order to get a good recall. OH wants to throw tennis balls for the dog so I've explained how you can damage the dogs retrieve by allowing the dog not to return the ball (to hand please ) and that the throwing should stop well before Riley is bored. A couple of trips out where Riley wasn't interested in his tennis ball although he would run like a demon after a ball or dummy for me has shown OH there's method in my madness and we're getting on the same page. I am planning on hiding my rabbit skin dummies though just in case they get over-used, they need to remain rare and therefore special.
Re: New pup - 'helpful' husband. Oh yes ,didn't notice that ;D thank you Barbara ;D Ah and my poor Hubst,he is a gud 'un...please don't think otherwise,I have to not do him down on here..after 'Halti-Gate' i have had nothing but cooperation.Your words sit well with me Karen,in our case ive had to relax a bit, Dexter is all Chris has ever wanted and he is with us to be a pet ...so we both enjoy him together now,rather than separately....... (well mostly )ha ha ha! BFN
