My little funny looking puppy is coming on ok! I posted about him tearing for home and with the loose lead training, we're walking calmly home. He's also a lot calmer out with our other dog too. We still have some improving space but everything is so exciting at this age. We are also working on being calm when we see people. His little bum wiggles at everyone so I'm getting him to focus on me instead of pulling towards them, sometimes he even looks at me to tell him. This weekend we met up with a gundog trainer so I can get some focus points. The lesson went ok, but with it being a new area, he was very excited. Still we now have some sort of plan in place which will get us both thinking which is what I went for. The trainer said that for his age he's actually quite good and if he continues like he is he should produce some nice work! We worked on off lead heel.. failed. He wasn't interested in the whistle, but we're going to start that this week. Then he did some retrieves getting Spud to wait and when I was ready to, let him go. His attention there was fantastic.. and he did really well. He used his brain and found some tricky ones. Near the end of the lesson we gave him the options of two and directed him towards the least interesting. On a fun note, he had his first swim and looked like a little otter I still want this to be fun for him and I'm not going to push him at all, but it gives us some variety in our day! So for the sake of it being a training log, here is what we're going to work on over the next few months! Off lead heel Delivery to hand/holding the dummy Recall to whistle Waiting to retrieve I'll try and update it weekly, see how it goes Spud by Hoof&Hound, on Flickr
He is really doing well! Sounds like he is natural, although personally, I wouldn't be too bothered about steadiness at this early stage Love his ears in your (stunning) photo.
Thank you! That's reassuring, I'll let him have fun with it for now then, and put that at the bottom of the list
What a super looking pup! And I agree with @Beanwood, I wouldn't worry too much about steadiness at this stage. More important that he really enjoys the retrieving! Time enough for steadiness once he is hooked
Funnily enough Bear was one of his shortlist names before Spud!! Thank you all regarding the photo, it's what gets me out and a lovely model helps! Thank you! He did well today really.. infact..he even brought me my bag haha. But yeah, as long as he's happy to bring anything back I'll concentrate on that then IMG_3166 by Hoof&Hound, on Flickr
An update a bit sooner than expected! Took him out this morning, and to begin with he wasn't fussed about bringing the dummy back so we changed it up and I sent him away to do what he wanted and called him back with the whistle.. wow the excitement on his face was hilarious. Then after a few of those went back to some retrieving and his head was in the game. Made him wait, and he came straight back each time. All fun! Let him potter around before we headed home and as I posted above, he decided to bring my bag to me! On the way home I asked him to walk to heel off lead.. and there was actual heelwork. After our first session I was a bit apprehensive. At one point he was walking away when we had finished and I simply said 'to heel' and he came to my left side. I'm chuffed with him. It might sound dumb but this is the first dog I've had the pleasure of bringing up properly as I was 11 when we got our Staffy coming up 12 years ago and he was more my Mums anyway and not too fussed with toys etc. Now I know he *can* do it!
