My Weims match my leather suite perfectly I think a coat the same colour might be nice too.
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I am one of those odd man out folk who don't like the weimaraners colour. I just cant see what's so fascinating about grey as a colour.
Bill - grey? You mean silver grey, cheeky sod Some people have no taste whatsoever humph . _________________ Lesley, Holly (nearly 9) Buddy (2) both rehomes.
We had a mouse in our kitchen once before he/she got caught. That was just the same colour _________________ Jan
Ghillie, hips 8/9=17 and Merlin, hips 9/9=18 My opinions are brilliant, intelligent [sometimes] and MINE alone! If you want one I can give it to you. Sean Bean has wrinkles just like Bill!!!
Yesterday, I was away picking up with a team of Buck plus the 3 spaniels.
I had a good day managing to keep the dogs steady as birds fell around them. Buck was working well and was giving me no problems. At the last drive of the morning I saw a picker up futher up the river bank trying to find a bird . He had brought with him a very inexperienced young lab and a very experienced old springer.
He discovered only yesterday that his springer is now deaf. She has been compensating for this around his house and kennel because she knows how everything "works." Poor old girl she is a very willing dog but she couldn't be stopped and handled yesterday.
I went along the river to see if I could help. He had a pricked bird down just over the river and was having trouble finding it. It was time to move on to the next drive so I sent Buck over the river to hunt the far bank ,then sent the spaniels over to join him ..........but Buck was already gone. He went 30 -40 yards down the riverbank then broke off sharply up a fenceline into the field behind. I lost sight of him over there for much of the time for the field was full of tall spike grass.
I thought he was perhaps on a deers line because surely no pricked bird would go that far out with all of that spike grass to tuck itself into ? I saw Buck about 150 yards away going carefully along the side of a little grassy embankment and was just about to call him back when down went his head. He'd found the bird . I was delighted with that retrieve . The bird was brought back across the river and plonked into my hands.
Later in the day he blotted his copybook a bit. I was trying to send him for a blind retrieve out into a loch . The pheasant was floating dead out there maybe 70 yards out but a light wind was very slowly taking it even further out. Buck refused to go. I think he didn't fancy heading out into nothingness for something he couldn't see.
I cut my losses quickly and sent Charlie , gallant little Charlie Cocker who motored out there just as fast as he could and got to the bird just in front of a guns lab which had also been sent. The gun didn't mind this at all and congratulated me on a good retrieve ..........then he saw Charlie emerge from the loch with the bird . The gun had only seen Charlies black head up until then , he'd assumed he was a labrador. That gun took a lot of kidding from his friends............. a cocker had " beaten" his lab !
Buck behaved pretty well all day until the very last drive when he took advantage of me being fully occupied in handling a cocker out to a bird.
Buck knew my attention wasn't on him and when a duck fell behind me about 25 yards away the sod ran -in !
Bill T. _________________ Breed for the best - train for the rest.
I landed up with a major problem today. Partly my fault but partly not.
I was trying to help someone who was about to have a go at trialing an H.P.R.
We did things a bit in reverse to the usual trial in that we headed for water first. I had a cock pheasant to use as the water retrieve and I knew this ladies dog would definetly pick it so no problems there. I also knew her dog is about 3 years old and was told he was a very good swimmer who had swam keenly and strongly for birds in rivers and lochs. Still no problem.
We arrived at the river, a narrow one of no more than 30 feet wide but of swimming depth in a particular pool. There is a drop of about 2 feet from the bank into the water but other than that it is an easy entry.
The dog would not go in for the bird after I'd thrown it about 15 feet into the river. The lady tried everything but the dog would not face that step down.
I had to send Buck before the bird was swept away . No problem ,in he went and got the bird, the other dog , unknown to me had now been released . the lady was hoping he'd follow Buck out into the water. It still wouldn't enter and I was pleased about that ! I didn't want Buck competing to keep his retrieve out there. He swam back then heaved himself back out of the water to deliver to me . At that point the ladies dog came up to him and I had to tell her sharply - several times to keep her dog away. Buck dropped the bird and stood over it. After I had insisted ,the lady got her dog back and Buck completed the retrieve.
We tried again for the lady was fairly sure that a drop down into the water was what her dog would have to do at the trial. By now I'd been asking questions about this water loving dog. It had been taken to water only at places with a very easy entry. The bird was thrown again ,her dog was sent at once but it would not enter the water. Buck was sent again and when he came back ashore the lady again released her dog " To show him that the bird could be got !"
Buck went all over the place to avoid the dog , I did get the bird back but by now Buck was not a happy bunny - he'd picked up on the anger in my voice directed not at him but at the lady and her dog.
I felt that the pheasant was now too woebegone looking to send a dog for so we moved on to another bit of river bank with a one foot drop into the water which only came halfway up a dogs legs at the edges. This time I chucked a woodpigeon in but her dog still refused to enter . Buck went in for it but this time he reverted to behaviour I thought I'd seen the last of more than a year ago. He whined as he swam for the bird. Again the ladies dog was allowed by her " To come for a look."
Finally at a place with a drop of just a couple of inches into the water her dog went in and swam . He had to swim about 30 feet and he did it just fine. The lady was very pleased with this and told me it was the furthest her dog had ever swam ! I could hardly believe my ears ! I'd been assured he was a King Bee of a swimmer !
I wouldn't have dreamed of taking such a dog to a high bank entry point if I'd known just how little experience of water retrieves he'd had.
Out of curiousity I threw a dummy into the river and sent Buck . He yipped like crazy ! I am not at all amused by this. I have very carefully worked on this for a long time and had this problem sorted.
This lady has set Buck back by a full year by encouraging or at least allowing her dog to investigate a bird in Bucks mouth.
Buck had a thing about getting out fast to water retrieves and he'd become a really good water dog. He's had pricked and diving ducks from ponds and pheasants from lochs , he's swam more than 50 yards out again and again for pheasants from a loch . He had stopped whining because he wasn't getting to it fast enough to please him. Now it has all started up again.
So - - - all you clicker folk - how do I clicker train him not to whine during a water retrieve ?
The combination of water plus a dog trying to take his bird was too much for Buck today.
(p.s. At that same bit of high banking I have to spend time training my cockers and the one I'm training for a friend NOT to take huge flying leaps out into the water ! The difference in attitudes is very noticeable.)
Bill T. _________________ Breed for the best - train for the rest.
What a shame this has set you going backwards Bill. Perhaps Jo will be able to help you with this one (where is she these days????).
All I can think of for now is to teach the 'quiet' command.
Just a thought, how about a long line and only let him get the retrieve if he is quiet or is this too detrimental to the exercise . I have visions of you going head first in the drink _________________ Lesley, Holly (nearly 9) Buddy (2) both rehomes.
I hope you told that woman never to darken your door again! You should have yelled at her to 'keep that bloody dog on the lead' after the first time! _________________ Aberdon HPR's. Good-looking AND Intelligent.
Some people just don't think about what damage they can do to somebody else's dog! I bet you wish you hadn't offered to help her now.
We were at a training shot-over day last season and as Ekko came back to me with her retrieve a GSP on the lead was allowed to lunge right towards her which could have caused me a problem. Luckily it didn't seem to bother her. I always try to keep my dogs away from another dog with a bird. This is the only photo without the handlers in view.
Last edited by lagopuslagopus on Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
Hi Annie The lady was a client and Buck was only there in case of a problem arising with her dogs water retrieve . I'd been going to use dummies and didn't want about £6 worth of dummy being carried away downstream............. I'd taken the assurances of her dog being a great water dog with a pinch of salt ...........next time I'll pour the whole salt container over such assurances !
Buck only got off lead to fetch those water retrieves and once more off lead to demo a hunting command.
It was the dearest days training of another person I've ever had. A whole year of painstaking work has gone down the swanny ! I would probably have lost my not inconsiderable temper had she not been a paying client. I don't allow my dogs to do that to other peoples and although I know the lady has very little experience of gundog etiquette I had thought she'd have more sense than that.
Buck won't be going out with her dog again. I had just got the applicattion form for a trial I was going to enter him in. I won't bother to send it off now. There's no point in entering a dog that whines as it swims.
That's assuming he got to the water and that is a big assumption ! He doesn't get birds shot from the flushes from his points. He might very well run in under those conditions although he is normally pretty steady while picking up. I can line up him and the 3 spanners and send an individual dog for an individual retrieve by name.
He is very,very good at finding shot birds. If it's a runner then Buck is the boy to send for it . He rarely ever fails. Pity about the whine at the water !
Les - I was considering a catapult filled with dried peas and giving his bum a peppering if he whines !
I have spent a full year very carefully working from shallow water to deep and then from close in to further out. Once he was O.k. with that I began to introduce other dogs. Just one to begin with and then up to 3 . I worked them nearer and nearer to him and all had gone well . Buck had accepted that other dogs could be there but they were not going to try to take his retrieve. He was silent.
Today it all went ta-ta in a few minutes .
That's a good pic of todays misadventures - except the one in the pic is on the lead !
Think I'll stick to spanners !
Bill T. _________________ Breed for the best - train for the rest.
Rory told us to use the stop whistle in the water even. Maybe that would work...... every time he squeaks stop him and send him on when quiet. Consequences
_________________ Lesley, Holly (nearly 9) Buddy (2) both rehomes.
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I think a coat the same colour might be nice too. 
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. I have visions of you going head first in the drink 
