| Archive for workinghprs.myfastforum.org Chat forum for owners of working HPR and Versatile gundog breeds. |
| caithness hunter |
New Pup Gsp LexiHere is my new bitch pup, after a long search and some help from some on here  shes 12 weeks old today.
Only picked her up yesterday due to being on holiday and the breeder kindly holding onto her until i returned. She is sitting and staying on command and retreiving over a short distance, pleased as punch with her and looking forward to the summer training her  .
oh dear, big dog  
ill keep a this thread updated ATB CH |
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| BritAnnie |
Nice pup - that is some deep chest! when's her first trial?
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| Mike |
Great looking pup (although what do I know about GSP's???? ) Look forward to hearing how she does!
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| weima |
I love her flashy markings. Who did you get her from? She looks like she could be a bundle of mischief
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| BenB |
Summer is designed for puppies destroying the garden. Perfect! | ||||
| langhaar |
I'd say you're not jinxed anymore Wil
Cracking puppy, hope you have lots of fun |
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| caithness hunter |
Thankyou Brenda, you were a great help
im very pleased with her, she is all that i hoped for and more 
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| caithness hunter |
weima, i got her from norfolk. |
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| shirley cooper |
Is she from Angie Meek by any chance, she is very like her young bitch. | ||||
| caithness hunter |
yes shirley she is indeed.
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| Bareve |
She is very pretty and nicely reared puppy. I am sure you will have a lot of fun with her and I look forward to hearing all about it.
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| Greyghost |
What a cracker. I am so yearning for a pupster and posting pics like that doesn't help 
Hope you have loads of fun together.
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| weima |
Me too 
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| caithness hunter |
bit of temptaiton training
sitting and staying whilst my 7 month old daughter eats her rusk a feet away
training is going well, she now sits un-prompted when i stop on our walks, not every time but most of the time, will sit and stay over the distance of the garden and come once called, and understands the word no 
been doing a couple of retreives with the puppy dummy dialy but max 2 a day and she is coming right back with it over a distnce of about 10 foot in the garden. any tips on the down command, as in flat on her belly? Thanks |
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| caithness hunter |
a quick video of a retreive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3hUSqjJVJ8 |
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| caithness hunter |
feather on a fishing rod to get her to point :ph43r:
which worked but taking a pic whilst holding a rod and stopping a pup from catching the feather is pretty hard $£" |
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| lagopuslagopus |
Looks as though that is what she's doing in the photo - not sitting.
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| caithness hunter |
yes your right, but not when i want her to 
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| lagopuslagopus |
I do it all with a tit-bit when they are small. Just hold it at her nose and slowly take it down to the floor between her front legs. Hold it there and she should eventually lie down. Then give it to her. Only when she is doing this quickly put the command to the action.
Perhaps that might be a bit more helpful 
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| caithness hunter |
yes, much better thankyou
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| caithness hunter |
spent the last week getting her used to the outside world, taking her to the beach, where she went into the water on her own accord up to her knees after the other dogs, which i was pleased with
and took her to the shoot syndacite where we were chopping down trees etc with chainsaws for the coming season and again she was fine with all the noise and strange people milling about. also did some retreives in long grass to get her using her nose and she soon cottoned on to what was asked of her, she seems eager to please and willing to learn, just need to keep telling myself to take it slowly
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| caithness hunter |
quick vid of her in the water, she is not fazed by it hopefully she will have no issues with it when older
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqrRYFhDKuo |
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| caithness hunter |
spnet this week getting Lexi out and about to different venues, took her up the river salmon fishing last night, she must be lucky as my father caught one
lexi was having a good time of it running about and often falling in the water, not to keen on answering me fully with the distractions of other people there  . Some sheep were in the neighbouring field, so took the oppertunity to do some stockbreaking with her, this will be her second time in amongst them and she is not sure of them and is in no way interested in going near them, quite the opposite im pleased to say .
Tonight i took her out to the shoot im part of a syndicate on, and walked some rough ground where i knew there would have been some activity from the left over pheasants and plenty of scent for her, she enjoyed this and turned on a few interesting scents during the walk. finished the night off by doing a few dropped dummys and sending her back for them, the furthest being about 50-60 foot back, all were on the short grass so nice and easy for her and all were picked and retreived back to hand, throughout the session i was asking her to sit on the whistle and i asked her to sit some 15 foot from me at the end of the session which she did without hesitation, her first sit at any sort of distance from me, finished the night on that note, quite pleased with how things went
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| caithness hunter |
Been busy with lexi, had her at the scone game fair for two days where she drew a lot of attention, it takes a long time to get anywhere when you are stopped all the time by admirers
Watched the scurry and lexi was not happy about not getting a go when she seen the dummys flying about, maybe next year she also didnt bat an eyelid at the dummy launcher firing
Due to this i took the oppertunity to walk in the vicinity of the clay range where again she showed no fear of the noise, so we went a bit closer until eventually she lay asleep at my feet whilst the guns fired a mere 20 foot from us. been concentraiting on her sit and stay and we are now at about 30 odd feet and staying for as many seconds before being recalled. Also have took advantage of the hot weather and getting lexi swimming, shes done a few short retreives in the water where she has had to swim to get the dummy and after a little encouragement she is now swimming and retreiving from water
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| caithness hunter |
a few pictures of lexi taken tonight, she has just turned 4 months, tonight i did a fair bit of memory retreives and gradualy built the distance i was sending her back to a couple of hundered of feet, she enjoyed this very much and is a very keen retreiver.
we had a point here, no flush but the birds must have vacated this area seconds before we passed, lexi was pushing her nose in the grass sure something was there, i was making her sit close to this so assume i scared them off
a few pics of the retrieves to give an idea of distance, she will pull out wide from the dummy using the wind and when she hits the scent she cuts in. 
not the best pics as it was late and light was poor and then the rain started, but you get the jist
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| Bareve |
Fantastic photos - you are doing so well and you can see from the photos how keen she is on her retrieving
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| BenB |
wowee - child prodigy. Fantastic retrieving. | ||||
| caithness hunter |
well Lexi flushed her first pheasant lastnight an old cock bird, in some long grass. She scented it and trailed it as it ran along a fence line, i didnt pay to much attention to this though as she often turns on a scent and slows down to a semi point, but up until now there has been nothing there and i can only assume it was old scent, although on this occasion it wasnt .
I had a crap day at work yesterday and was counting the minutes until i could get home and out with the pup, she had been playing up the last couple of nights so i have a check cord on her now and it has helped greatly giving me a bit more control, lastnight she was great, and found her first bird, she sat to its flush and didnt give chase although i think more out of shock at the explosion of wings than any training shes had i have been working on her sitting to the starting pistol and rewarding that with a retreive only once or twice and she will now sit/drop to the shot and await a retreive. i have increased the diatance she will hold sit upto about 40 feet away now and shes getting to know what is expected and rarely moves. the crap day at work was forgotten about and i went home happy! |
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| caithness hunter |
few water retreieves today
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| caithness hunter |
quick update on lexi, she has just turned 5 months old and coming along well.
She is pointing well and answers most of the time, although she got her first scruffing a couple of days ago for this very reason and it seems to have sunk home, hopefully it wont need repeated .
a couple of pictures taken today on our morning walk on point on pheasent, ill try to upload a video also. 
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| caithness hunter |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02W-wrQlfco | ||||
| BritAnnie |
Fascinating stuff. What a star! | ||||
| caithness hunter |
Lexi is now 5 and a 1/2 months old, lastnight seen us have a rake about a small moor on a farm i have permission on, there is normally a covey or two of grouse on it and the object of tonights walk was to see if we could get a point on them
we walked half of the moor and it became apparant that every lark in the county had decided to come to this moor tonight 
lexi didnt know where to point first and much to my annoyance decided once the larks were flushed she would then give chase to them as they half heatedly flew away only a few feet off the ground teasingly in front of lexi's nose, this i verbally told her off for and by the end of the session she had grasped it really wasnt worth the effort. Once we had reached the half way mark of the moor and the furthest point from the truck, the heavens opened followed by some pretty amazing thunder and lightining, we were now soaked through and the rain wasnt letting up, so we headed back for the truck still working the other half of the moor into the wind, lexi had a couple of nice points on snipe but if im honest i was loosing interest as i could barely see the rain was so heavy!! we reached a fenceline and i lifted lexi over it and cast her out to the left of me, as it was still raining very heavily i stupidly walked straight ahead over the ground directly in front of us that lexi had not had a chance to work yet, and you guessed it what did i put up but a nice covey of 6 grouse .
i watched as they travelled a few hundered yards and then landed on the side of a brae, and worked lexi on until we reached that point and let her quarter onto them, she found them again and produced a nice point, i left her on point on them for a short while before i walked upto her, and at this point they decided to vacate the area as they were a bit jumpy from our previous meeting, lexi sat to the flush on the grouse as she does pheasant, i think she is a bit taken aback by the noise of the birds getting up so close to her, yet the little larks etc seem an easier challenge? all in all forgetting about the rain it was a worthwhile walk, lexi had the smell of grouse up her nostrills for the first time and i got a free shower thrown in
a couple of pics of the points before and after the rain. 
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| windem bang |
She is progressing very well . I would think that if all continues to go well she will be a serious Novice trial contender by next August.
Bill T. |
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| caithness hunter |
i really hope you are correct Bill
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| Finncally |
Why wait till August Will, Pointing Tests start next April.....
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| caithness hunter |
as soon as she is old enough to compete she will be entered
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| BlackIsler |
Hi Will,
Don't confuse Pointing Tests and Field Trial age restrictions. see - http://www.gsp.org.uk/Forms/PointingTestGuidelines2009.doc 6 months is minimum age for a Pointing Test, you'll be well ready by April. |
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| caithness hunter |
april it is then
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| caithness hunter |
a quick update one Lexi.....
sunday seen us return to the shoot, to go around the boundries and any cover crops on surrounding farmland and dog in any stray pheasants, my father came with me with his Lab bitch to lend a hand. Lexi and Sula, ready for the off 
unfortunately that was the last picture i took that day as my little star pupil decided to forget just about everything she had ever been taught :brickwall: The distraction of having another dog there was just too much for Lexi and she became deaf, despite several warnings and harsh ones at that she was not for listening and constantly made for wherever the lab was, it was decided that since this was going no-where one dog at a time would be worked. She redeemend herself by then and produced a couple of nice points and flushes on a couple of strays and we guided them back to our small syndicate shoots ground, my voice was rather hoarse by the time we had finished, just when you think you have it cracked they send you a harsh reminder that your no where near it yet
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| caithness hunter |
lexi is 6 months old now, im very pleased with her progress to date and just cant wait to get out with her each day and im pretty sure she enjoys it too
here is a video of lexi working a wild cock bird, as you can see she picks its scent up some way away and tracks it as it covers a good amount of ground trying to escape, unfortunatley it wouldnt sit tight and flushed before i got there, lexi has a little run in, something she normaly will not do but i feel the distance she was from me caused this, she did respond to the whistle though and stop after a short distance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls8zcXzR-GE |
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| caithness hunter |
a few pics from today, having a walk around the shoot boundries pushing in any strays
first point next to the river, the hen pheasant was tucked right into the bank edge, just beside the water 
told her to "get on" and she fell in the river, at least the phessie flushed :whistle: 
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| caithness hunter |
as she was wet decided to do a water retreive
waiting for the command, dummys floating away :think: 
only did the one retrieve. |
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| caithness hunter |
out to the other boundry now..a chance to stretch her legs
on again.. 
wasnt keen on flying 
after a gentle bit of persuasion :whistle: 
a happy pup
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| caithness hunter |
Little update, little problem
Lexi has decided she will spit the dummy out at my feet on her return from a retreive, not everytime but some of the time, she is still retreive crazy and often nearly falls over she goes and comes back so fast with the dummy, but i think as she has been coming back so fast to me she sometimes overshot me, this is where i have made a mistake ive snatched the dummy from her mouth in turn i think causing her to spit the dummy out at my feet now
on advice from a few on here i am going to try to correct this with "clicker training" i know nothing about it, but have been given some links to where i can read up on it, fingers crossed i can nip this fault in the bud pronto, thanks CH. |
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| windem bang |
Thought you were already on here ! The change of name was too much for my brain cell to deal with !
Good luck Bill T. |
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| caithness hunter |
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| ibis-mojo |
Clicker TrainingCan you share what sites tell you about clicker training gundogs. |
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| caithness hunter |
Re: Clicker Training
You can find it here: http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/retrieve.html http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/ |
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| josie |
I forgot to say, you might also find these videos helpful - they were made for a class I was teaching the clicker retrieve to. They are complete with handler errors and working through those errors!
Vid 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brKu26LlMTU Vid 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy8UgCivPrs&NR=1 Vid 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V14RcOWeR6w&NR=1 Vid 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avv51UpXPCA&feature=related Vid 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtYmrqNWQAw&feature=related[/url] Vid 5b (with another dog!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkQ0iLNFHmc&feature=related Vid 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB1_wZNABOw&feature=related If you watch this series of videos, they will really give you a good overall handle on the process and you'll see how it's put together. The method in these vids is not the Shirley Chong method, but the basic idea of shaping the dog is the same thing. |
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| caithness hunter |
a short video of training last night, things didnt start well as the first field we went to the cattle had been in and lexi was more interested in eating cow poo than quartering the land , so we shifted fields and cast her out, now theres no game here it was just for training and the next she went on point?? i walked to her poiting a mouse :doh: still she hounered the flush and sat as the mouse scurried away right in front of her nose
the next half and hour was spent trying to stop her from returning to hunt her mouse :brickwall: when i fianly managed this i got a clip of her dropping on the whistle and a retreive, which was thrown over her whilst on the drop, we finished on this note as we very nearly fell out last night
i hadnt been happy with her drop so had been reading up on des o,neils blog about teaching a dog to drop, this is her second night practicing it and i think she has got the idea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TWOWG6r70g |
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| caithness hunter |
a little update on Lexi, i feel i have hunted her a little much and this has been to the detrement of her retrieves, as she switched off a little and this combined with my over zealous snatching of the dummy on her return led to her dropping her retrieves at my feet  .
so the last few months have seen no hunting, i know she will hunt and hold a point so i concentratred on her retrieves, thats all i have done is retrieves and more retrieves .
with some advice from Bill and another member off tbhis forum, i did this with the aid of the click and treat method to get her to hold onto her retrieve, i was initially very sceptical of this, i had heard about it but just didnt fancy trying it , but i was desparate, anyway to cut a long story short she is now im glad to say back to her good self and retrieving well to hand, not every time but 19 out of 20 times and the times she does miss its due to me or her not getting our timing quite right, she is by no way perfect but with some more work i fell we will get there!!
i was pretty peed off by this and its not been easy by any means, but fingers crossed she will contiue to improve and we can carry on as normal then
a few snaps from today..... with no hunting Lexi has become point desparate, she will point anything with feathers on now
she has a lovely point imo, she is not the only one who has missed it
a few retrieves with the dummy 
and then some with the dummy with pheasant wings etc attached to try and get her used to feathers etc in her mouth, she did this no problem which pleased me
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| ibis-mojo |
Great Photos, keep them coming. | ||||
| caithness hunter |
thanks
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| caithness hunter |
I had a fantastic day today, it was shoot day on our little stand and walk shoot, and as i let the dogs out of there runs at 8 am there was a hard frost covering the ground, i went back in the house to pack my guns and gear and then decided i would take Lexi, i wanst sure if she was ready yet and was i doing the right thing but loaded her up to , even driving out i was questioning what i was doing.
the first drive i was a flank gun and i left lexi in the truck, i was lucky enough to drop a hen bird from this drive and as i was near the truck i decided to get lexi and try her on a retrieve once the drive was over as all the other guns and dogs were some way away, i sent her out in the area of cover where it fell and she was soon on a line, she made straight in and with a little encouragemant pciked and brought back a very much alive hen pheasant to hand superb, as i was having some issues with cold game! i was delighted, i dispatched the pheasant and we made back to the truck.
it was then our turn to beat so i stuck to the outsides of the beats away from the other dogs and tried to find some birds for some of the guns on the outskirts, we found a few and she pointed nicely and flushed on command, a few were shot by the waiting guns from her points and she sat to flush and remained steady to the falling birds, i didnt let her retrieve any of these birds, she reamained very steady and obeadiant despite the numerous shots and birds about .
i took her then and we stood behind the guns and wathced for any shot birds, again she remained steady and didnt break from heel to some birds falling in her view, although none were suitable for a retrieve and the guns had dogs and were closer to the fallen birds, despite no retrieves it was a valuable experiance for her. the last drive i was shooting and the last drive of the day i decdied to take her to the peg with me, again i was an outside gun, as i made my way to the peg the beaters were some way away so i decided to take in a strip of cover in the hope of a point for her, almost straight away she locked onto a bird, i walked up behind her and asked her to flush the bird as i was next to her, she did so and a cock pheasant exploded from the rashes, i brought my gun up and fired, i missed excitemant got the better of me i fired with the second and the bird tumbled down, i looked at my side to lexi and she was sitting but staring straight at the cock bird flapping about 50 yards in front, i made her wait for about 30-40 seconds before sending her th fetch it, she straightlined to it and scooped it up with no fuss and came straight back and deliverd it perfectly to hand again alive, i was by this point elated i think a few more birds came over me that last drive, i didnt hit any and i didnt care, i had shot my first bird over my pups point and she had retrieved it to hand superbly, i had been waiting for this day for 10 months now and it was worth the wait, to top the day off we had a bag of 65 birds a record for our little shoot, made up of about 20 members where we do all the work ourselves, a superb day out! :dance:
Lexi with her first pointed and retrieved pheasnt shot by myself 
the bag 
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| wildman |
Well done !!
Feels good eh !! |
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| caithness hunter |
thankyou, it sure does!! 
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| josie |
Excellent
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| shirley cooper |
Excellent, well done.
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