Water retrieves are -dare I say it - coming along well. We have progressed from me giving her a second dummy as a reward for a clean delivery to hand, to chucking a ball for her as a reward; and from that to me giving her the ball as a reward. Today we moved one further - the reward ball is on the ground behind me, and after she has delivered the dummy to hand without shaking, I bend down and get it and give it to her. Very pleased! I have to remember to take a step backwards at the start of each training session though - so next time I'll have to go back to giving her the ball as a reward, and then progress from there. I'm still considering about the exam without cold game, and will make a decision after our training session on Sunday.
That's quick progress! Took me weeks to fade out dummy and ball rewards....sigh, but Charlie is not Poppy (as though I didn't know that ). Must work out a plan to work around water. Exams are funny things - how important is it that you do well? I mean, if it doesn't go so well will it knock you back (it would me) or will you shrug it off because you knew it was a bit of a stretch anyway? If it's important to you, then that points to doing it later. But then, you often are a bit nervous, and always do well.
You are right Julie, I do get nervous before exams and competitions - but that is because yes it is important to me, and I always want to do well. OH thinks we should just go along and 'give it a go'; but that's not how I do things! I wouldn't mind not passing because something went wrong (such as if she didn't remain lying down in the 10-minutes 'down and wait' with gunshot; that is quite a lot to ask of any dog with the handler out of sight), but I would hate for it all to be a complete disaster. The results are published so everyone will see them... I've been reading the 50-page (YES ) of instructions about the whole exam. I know that Poppy can do all the work without a problem; it's really all about whether I can control her excitement levels. We'll see how things go on Sunday.
Just in case you think I'm exaggerating about the 50 pages: http://www.drc.de/sites/dev.drc.de/files/document/blpo.2014_0.pdf
50 pages! I can't remember how long the J Regs were but I didn't think they were that long!!!! I've always been a practice until it's right before you go out and compete person but having a dog has really changed that. If I waited til I thought we were good enough I don't think I'd ever compete with my dogs but I've gained so much from the working tests this summer it would have been a shame to have missed out on that. Hope Sunday goes well and gives you a confidence boost x
Oh I agree Barbara, I am happy to punch above our weight in working tests, because so many things can happen on the day, both for you and for the others competing, and you never know what tasks the judges are going to set, so there's a lot of luck involved. This is very different, for a start there will only be five dogs there, and it goes for the whole day with ten tasks for each dog. It really is a big stretch as the judges are very precise about what they want the dogs to be able to do. Every aspect of the dog's behaviour over the whole day is judged, so not just marking, blinds, retrieves from water, tracking and scenting etc - also their general obedience, will to please, style, determination, nose work, steadiness, quietness, heel work and how they work with other dogs are all taken into account and marked. The point of it is actually not just to show what a dog has learned and how it has been trained, but also to show its basic temperament and inherent abilities. For breeding purposes, if your dog or bitch passes the 'Bringleistungspruefung', then it kind of means they are serious retrievers. People looking for puppies that they are intending to work are much more likely to be interested in a litter where one or both parents have passed this exam.
We're going to go for it. Our last formal training session today went a lot better - Poppy was still very excited, but far more manageable, apart from running in one time But careful perusal of the 50 pages say I can keep her on the lead for that task, and just get points knocked off that one task. I'm ok with that. I'm so glad I dragged myself along there today (have had a horrible tummy bug and spent most of Saturday in bed), as I feel much more positive now. We practiced a 300 meter tracking task and four separate blinds which all went very well. Then we practiced a walk up, stay with handler out of sight, and a simulated drive - these last three with shotguns. I feel much happier about the whole thing.
So - we have been doing more water retrieves, and things continue to progress. Today we had a lot of fun, and out of around 15 retrieves Poppy only dropped the first one to shake. After that she delivered every single retrieve cleanly to hand, with me throwing her dummy ball for her as a reward. With each retrieve I moved a bit further back from the bank - by the last one we were about 10 meters away from the water, and Pops had to climb quite a steep bank to get to me, but good girl she didn't stop to shake at all. Very very pleased
Thanks Fiona, I am delighted! Going to make the most of being in the UK for a week with easy access to water. We'll probably go down to the beach one day for a bit of practice there as well.
We've been practicing blinds across water over the last couple of days - it's coming along very well. Poppy will now confidently swim across a 25 meter pond for a blind retrieve, and then swim back with it and return cleanly to hand, without shaking, am terribly thrilled! Whether she'll do it with cold game is another matter, of course, as we've only been practicing with dummies. I gave up on the 'shake' cue, as I decided it was just an additional link in the chain that she didn't need. Simplicity seems to work well for us... Oh yes, and I've had my mum's two dogs out with me each day as well! Sally, the border collie, is a keen retriever and I have had to ask OH to hold her to stop her leaping in to the pond to compete for Poppy's dummies... She gets her own retrieves too, and did a super marked retrieve over the pond today! I reckon she could give a lot of labs a run for their money... Bella the rescue mongrel does not understand the dummy/retrieving obsession; she clearly thinks the other two have lost the plot and amuses herself by digging for mice and chasing squirrels during our training sessions.
Good girl, Poppy! I'm so impressed by the speed of your progress when you start working on things! Takes me billions times longer with Charlie... Can you say a bit more about how long you've trained for in the two days, what you did etc?
Well, I only do about half an hour to 45 minutes max water training with her, or it gets too much. We did a couple of simple retrieves, then a double mark, then I told her to stay while I walked out of sight around the pond and placed a dummy on the other side. Walked back, sent her for the blind, re-sent her when she didn't go right, much enthusiasm and cheering when she came back with it. Walk to the second pond, and repeat. Stop while she's still keen. Lots of throwing the dummy ball as a reward when she got it right. I would say of around 15 retrieves, she only dropped the dummy to shake once, when she got water in her ears. I think it was throwing the dummy behind us that helped break the chain that she had worked up before. Her attention was taken off me, and moved to the second dummy, which is the thing she wants most in the world, so she was no longer focused on getting the water out of her coat immediately. Once she understood that was what I wanted, then we could gradually phase out the reward. It's been a really useful exercise, and time well spent!
