Claire
|
Little updateGary is going away tomorrow for just over a week on his motorbike  So I am off for next week, well Monday - Thursday anyway, so I am hoping to put in some decent training with Whistle because at the moment I just seem to be grabbing whatever spare time I can and I don't feel it is enough.
At the moment I've been working on marked and directional retrieves because silly me spent so much time working on memories and blinds that only the other week I questioned why she wasn't marking dummies, errrr cos I haven't trained her to  Interestingly this isn't a problem with game, but only dummies. She is getting the hang of marking them now but still she sometimes doesn't mark them as well as I think she should/could. I have also been getting her to do marked retrieves that involve jumping over a burn. Now I just need to find some sort of fence to get her used to retrieving from over an obstacle.
Her hunting has been up and down. One day she is really good and I am well pleased, the next day she is flat. I guess scenting conditions and the ground play a large part in it but as yet I'm not experienced enough to know what it is that makes her hunt crap so as usual I blame myself and my dog. Sometimes I think it is not a bad thing to be hard on yourself though.
She refused to retrieve for a few months due to my doing too much. So to avoid doing too much again, I limit retrieve training to once per week which does of course mean we are slower to progress but I am happy with what she is doing and I would far rather that, than run the risk of her not retrieving. Her delivery to hand is improving too. Thanks to cardboard tubes, my clicker and some treats
The other night I did something just for a laugh. I know I will probably never need to do this in a trial or a test but I just wanted to see if she could do it  She is pretty good with memories and blinds so I decided to really push her. I did a memory retrieve of at least 200yds, was probably more but I'll say 200yds so I'm not exagerating. I dropped the dummy around 2 bends. When we had walked far enough away I positioned her and told her to "get out". She ran about 100yds and stopped to look back, I shouted get out again and off she went. I had to move out a bit so I could still see her around the first bend. She then stopped again after about a total of 150yds, I shouted get out and she carried on around the 2nd bend and went out of site. I stood waiting.......low and behold she came bombing back with said dummy in mouth AND delivered to hand  Well if you could have seen me hopping about like an idiot. She knew she had done well and luckily I had some treats on me so she got the lot 
Its great that she has gone from refusing to retrieve to being able to do this. So next week we will spend a day doing some retrieve training and I also need to find some water so I can work on that because whilst she will go in and retrieve from water, sometimes she needs a bit of encouragement to get her going so I really want to build her confidence right up. Oh, and the stop whistle is still being continually trained She can do it and does it but just not all the time, I'm beginning to think I'll be training this forever more
|
Claire
|
Sorry guys, I've just realised how long my bloomin post is. So much for a little update 
|
josie
|
Sounds really good progress Claire 
|
Claire
|
Thanks Josie. Obviously there is only you interested in my little update
|
Bareve
|
Sorry Claire I should have responded
You are making good progress with Whistle - I know what that feeling is like when you finally start and get reliable retrieves from a dog who hasn't really shown much interest
|
BritAnnie
|
No, Claire, I'm interested too, I just got sidetracked on other things yesterday. I have the same with Allez, he stops on whistle while he is fairly close - now up to about 30 yards, but still in ground that, although newish, he now knows - and provided there are no real distractions. He used to do really long memories in my own 10 acres - even in different bits of it, Bill said that wasn't any good though, so now I'm down here I have to start back to short ones and lengthen them and on different ground. As you can see from his own thread he goes leaping in for a dummy if he gets wound up(watching others do it first is good). Like you I wonder when I'll get to the point of being able to say - Allez can do that.
We just have to keep at it. I am fortunate having Bill to train us but I could do with a buddy here.
BA
|
windem bang
|
Hi Claire you are not alone out there , I enjoyed your post too but have been a little bit busy due to being, ever so slightly , involved in a handbags at dawn thing on another forum ! It wiz the other yin that started it - honest !
Good luck with your dogs and your job Claire - that sounded like a really good memory retrieve by the way !
Bill T.
|
Claire
|
Guys I really was only joking
|
sako75
|
Sorry Claire I have not been on here in 4 WHOLE DAYS  - up to my eyes with work............  .
I am glad to hear you are progressing well with whistle , I had to laugh about the cardboard tube , clicker and treats bit Been there done that ................. but remarkably it does work well .
Enjoy your time off and keep us updated with your training exploits . My training has been non existent the past couple of weeks - I really must get back into it before phezzie season !!
Barry. 
|
Claire
|
Who do you think gave me the idea Barry
|
BlackIsler
|
| Claire wrote: | | Thanks Josie. Obviously there is only you interested in my little update |
Now, Now, Claire, you know we are all interested in your progress and plans, I'm just envious that I haven't got the time to do the same. Regardless of what you may believe selfemployed is more demanding on your time!!! As Sako said - 50 hrs, that's part time.
Not to worry, Sandra is going to Greece for a fortnight, so surely i'll manage a few sessions then (and if I don't have a hangover i'll get some training done too)
|
Helen
|
Wohoo, sounds like you are doing really well. Teal is starting to get there with the dummy and showing much more interest in it. We'll have to arrange something soon again, particularly now I am back on my feet.
Haven't been on here for a few days and have got a LOT to catch up on!
Helen
|
Claire
|
Took Whistle out this morning for some training, once the rain had finally stopped My plan was to do some hunting first and then some retrieving. I took her to an area that she doesn't go to very often, it is basically a long stretch of long grasses that run alongside crop fields. You might find the odd pheasant or you might find nothing. Further down again you might find the odd hare or nothing at all.
She was working a cheek wind and doing a pretty decent job and then suddenly went on point. I slowly walked up to her, approaching from the side so she could see me and for a moment I thought there was going to be nothing there because she very quickly gave me a little glance with her eye although didn't move her head at all. Having remembered what I learnt in Di Arrowsmith's seminar I reminded myself that chances are whatever she is pointing is going to be very close. So I told her to get in and she very enthusiastically flushed a single pheasant which had been no more than 1 or 2 feet away from her nose The little sod wasn't steady though and it took 2 blows of my stop whistle before she stopped and sat. She was about 20 feet away from me when she sat so at least she did eventually listen to me Wonder if I should try and get some steadiness training done in a rabbit pen 
I carried on hunting her but nothing more. I then turned a corner to again hunt her through a wider area of long grasses and rushes. This time it was what appeared to be a very strong head wind. She worked this really well and covered the ground well but at times she seemed to deviate from the usual quartering pattern that you might expect in a head wind. However, I decided to leave her alone and just ensure that no matter what pattern she was working I would just make sure she covered all of the ground. I wondered if the wind was changing and she was responding to it. Do you think that would be the case and I did the right thing?
She made a couple of acknowledgements of something being there but didn't point. She did find a dead hare though and it took some coaxing to get her away from it
We did a couple of directional retrieves and whilst she responded well to me sending her in one direction and then another and she found the dummies after just a wee bit of searching, she wasn't marking them as well as she should be. I think she is too busy looking at me when I am throwing the dummies so I'll have to rope in some extra help as I aint buying a dummy launcher! We finished off with a blind retrieve, probably only about 120yds or so, but I hid the dummy in the long grass which she found quite quickly and delivered it to hand in return for a gravy bone
All in all it wasn't a bad morning, apart from not being steady to flush. This afternoon I was back out with all 3 dogs and we just walked around a big turfed field where you don't usually see any game but low & behold we came across a hare which the little sod decided to chase  Interestingly though she didn't seem to be chasing it with much gusto. She certainly wasn't running full pelt after it but she certainly ignored my whistle and yelling! I was priding myself in the fact that Harris, who used to be the world's best hare courser was steady and didn't make any attempt to the chase the hare. Oh no, he had other plans, he wanted his very own hare not Whistle's second hand one so he found his own hare to chase at FULL pelt only a few minutes later This time Whistle did sit to watch Harris chase the hare, she was given no option! Bloody dawgs
|
BlackIsler
|
| Claire wrote: | | ... once the rain had finally stopped |
It must have stopped early to get all that in, you're lucky as it's not stopped up here.*
I wonder if Whistle was less steady later because the others were there and she anticipated competition 
I notice a marked difference in Chester if Tia comes romping in, he points and she pegs!!!!
| Claire wrote: | | ...when I am throwing the dummies so I'll have to rope in some extra help |
I bet now you wish Gary wasn't away.
What about the fence/gate jumping? any progress?
* That's another fundamental difference between Employed and Self Employed:
Employed people want good weather for the weekend and dont care what it's like when they're working.
Self Employed people want good weather when they're working and don't care what it's like at the weekend.
|
sako75
|
Sounds like you had a decent sort of day Claire , I liked the description of Whistles point , sounded like she was really positive in the flush. Shame she chased a little but at least she was positive and keen !!
Interesting what you said about Di's seminar. I used to get quite frustrated at just how close Millie got to all her birds last season before going on point. I used to think that there was something wrong with her but as you know Di explained the traits of the weimaraner very well and the reason why the weims get in so close................
I liked your little bit about self employment Phil - very true. I have just spent about 70-80 hours working my day job this week and another 20 working this weekend doing a job through my newly formed company.....................I'm GOOSED !!!! 
Barry.
|
Helen
|
She is doing well! Wouldn't worry about the chase, you can always slow them down, but you can't speed them up.
Agree with BlackIsler, probably due to competition. Mine are awful at it when all together.
Helen
|
|
|
