I thought I'd start a new diary for this Brittany pup that I have called Libby. She is co-owned by myself and a friend who is experienced with working labs and spaniels but not with HPR's. I picked her up yesterday and I spent from about 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today watching her and assessing her in various circumstances in my friends house , garden, courtyard and kennels.
She is bold when it comes to new surroundings and will begin investigating them almost immediately. She is wary of the other dogs in the adult dog kennels and she does not like hearing a shout given to shut them up when they start barking.
There are a few pups in the puppy kennels ,labs and spaniels. She is about 1 week younger than the cocker pup I let her out into the courtyard to socialise with. The cocker pup is a small and fairly quiet one and Libby discovered she could bowl her over and bully her. I ended that experiment fairly quickly.
I tried the lab pup the little cocker shares a kennel with. The lab is 3-4 weeks older than Libby and considerably larger . The lab is playful and lively but never bullies which is why she shares a kennel pen with the cocker. When she and Libby met the lab gave all the "play" signs before bouncing, puppy fashion towards Libby and then bowling her over. Libby had not recognised those play signs and promptly retaliated very fiercely. The lab pup looked puzzled, backed away and then moved back in for another attempt at a game. Libby didn't wait to be bowled over this time, she retaliated before the lab reached her and she meant it !
For the next several days Libby will be kept separately from the other pups but will be let out with them into the courtyard when they can be well supervised a couple of times per day. At this stage I feel it is more important that Libby learns to socialise with other pups than for any training by me to take place apart from perhaps 2 or 3 play retrieves per week.
I hope to kennel Libby for a while with this lab pup once she starts to understand the lab means her no harm. The lab is a bit too big and strong for Libby to bully and it isn't inclined to bully other pups.
I have a feeling Libby will lose some fat within the next week but that does not trouble me much, she is like a little butterball !
Her focus on me is already fairly good, she has the most disconcerting stare when looking up at me ! I tried her with the "wing on a string trick" out in the courtyard but instead of pointing rather than charging in , she very quickly decided the "wing" could not be caught so she bogged -off to take a look at other things.
I did a bit of experimenting to see which, if any, retrieve articles would be a strong enough incentive to have her ignore the other distractions in the courtyard, such as 3 adult dogs out in their runs. I tried a plastic dummy and I tried a couple of rather ancient birds wings tied together without success. Then I tried a 1/2 lb. semi-rabbit skin covered canvas dummy also without success. Only when I took off my gloves and put one inside the other before tossing it twenty feet did she decide to pick up and retrieve this article. She ran past me with the gloves but soon came back to be fussed over.
If these pics look a bit smeary it isn't my fault ! She stuck her nose into the lens as soon as I bent low enough to let her do that.
The retrieve with my gloves.
Wullie
"Give me a couple of days to suss you then I'll train you to my liking" pure Brittany