Ghillie's Report Card

[trekmoor]

It's not my fault I got a cracked cylinder head or a cracked pup ! The scrappies were going to give me literally pennies for my car, they now charge £10 for every wheel they have to remove prior to crushing a car ! The car was put up for sale on Gumtree instead by my son for £200 and his phone went red hot all last night ! Wish I'd asked £500 but it's too late now. The car is being taken away this evening .....I hope !

I am away now to look for another car. Probably just an estate this time.....fuel is getting a bit too expensive for me with the 4x4's.

Ghillie seems to grow in size almost overnight now, she is still on four feeds a day and she likes her grub. When allowed off into the wood she tries her best to follow Edge but I think she wishes he'd make up his mind about whether he's going to go left or right as he tries to quarter in front of me ! She is getting noticeably faster when chasing after the other dogs. Recalling is still a work in progress with her though.....she is independently minded and she likes to keep on truckin' !

Wullie

[Alice]

It's not my fault I got a cracked cylinder head or a cracked pup ! The scrappies were going to give me literally pennies for my car, they now charge £10 for every wheel they have to remove prior to crushing a car ! The car was put up for sale on Gumtree instead by my son for £200 and his phone went red hot all last night ! Wish I'd asked £500 but it's too late now. The car is being taken away this evening .....I hope !

I am away now to look for another car. Probably just an estate this time.....fuel is getting a bit too expensive for me with the 4x4's.

Ghillie seems to grow in size almost overnight now, she is still on four feeds a day and she likes her grub. When allowed off into the wood she tries her best to follow Edge but I think she wishes he'd make up his mind about whether he's going to go left or right as he tries to quarter in front of me ! She is getting noticeably faster when chasing after the other dogs. Recalling is still a work in progress with her though.....she is independently minded and she likes to keep on truckin' !

Wullie

Thats a pain, you probably could have got a bit more for it but on the other hand you'll see the back of it!! Have you looked for something like an Xtrail? Selective 4x4, not over-massive, more of an SUV, and probably 'nice' enough that the Soup Dragon might want to get in it too!

[trekmoor]

Took a look at xtrails Alice but wanted more M.P.G. I have bought an estate. A Vauxhall Vectra .....hope I've not bought a lemon !

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Ghillie had been fed just an hour before but I took half a dozen small meat treats with me when I let her off in the wood anyway. I gave her one while she was still inside our garden and had no trouble at all when recalling her. She was a bit too keen so when I tried giving her the first retrieve she's ever had in the woods she did the retrieve but rather unenthusiastically.

I should have stopped there and then but I gave her another retrieve, which she sniffed at and then left lying while she mooched about around it. I blew recall and got a good response so I gave her a treat. She then didn't go more than 15 feet from me in case I wanted to give her another treat .

For once she wanted to go wherever I went and got two more treats for being "responsive." She even came back into the garden and then the house voluntarily ......that makes a change.....she usually body swerves the garden gate and goes off into the wood again.

I think I will have to take her onto short grass , like a local park, let her get bored with just sniffing around at nothing and then try an outdoors retrieve there.

Wullie

[Blackjaw]

Front wheel drive and good tires can get you in to (and hopefully out of) a lot of places.

[trekmoor]

Typed on an iPad ,please excuse all mistakes. Gillies is not pleased at having her main playmate removed.... Edge is away for a holiday with MIke .....mdp on this forum. he will get much more exxcercise now but ghillie is now trying to play with Charlie who does not meekly accept the behaviours from her that Edge is so tolerant of.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

I am still without a car due to a very dodgy garage that sold me one then broke it's contract and did not let me have the car by the agreed date. The garage refused to refund the deposit I paid and I am now having to try to reclaim through my bank.

Ghillie will now retrieve from inside the wood. She does not as yet like to retrieve more than a couple of times, if further retrieves are tried she ignores them and goes exploring instead.

She is now almost the same size as my cocker 'Charlie' and still seems to grow a bit unevenly. Her head looks too small for her body at the moment.

I overheard my wife who had taken her out the other day, telling Ghillie in her best high pitched voice..... 'good girl, pee pee, poo poo, pee pee, poo poo !' Wummin are funny !

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Ghillie now has a dose of the scoots which I think she caught from Charlie who had it a day earlier. Ghillie is neither up nor down with it so nothing serious .... I hope.
A friend and his four springers visited me yesterday for a blether. Ghillie was delighted to find that his pup of about a year old behaved just as Edge did and would lie down to make it easier for her to maul him. That friend is 4 years older than me and during the shooting season he beats or goes picking up almost every day from the 12th August onwards. How I wish I was as fit as he is !

I'd also like to know how every springer he gets , no matter how "hot" it's breeding is, becomes a calm , easy going, easy to handle sort of dog. I have never seen or heard of this man being more than mildly physical with his dogs...... I think his own calm, easy going manner transfers to his dogs. Personally, I prefer spaniels to behave a bit more "wildly" than his do but I think many spaniel owners would prefer his "type" of dog. He is certainly popular on many estates so his dogs can certainly "do the job."

I am still minus a vehicle but at least I got this computer back yesterday. It has been wiped totally clean of the encrypted passwords the scammers left me as a going away present which is good but every photograph I had plus all the Buck's Diary, Charlie's Chatter, Libby's Diary stuff I had on it has also been wiped clean. I'd quite liked having a look back at those pics and those diaries from time to time.

Ghillie has changed a little bit mentally. She is now a bit more willing to pay attention to me when out in the little wood behind my house. She has tried to take tennis balls and dummies away for a chew during retrieves in the wood but a change in voice tone from me is now often enough to have her complete the retrieve. Distractions still distract her rather badly however and she is inclined to drop the retrieve if she decides to investigate them.

In time and once she gets to know what all these distractions actually are, I think she will concentrate more on completing the retrieves.

I have had to stamp down hard on both my sons family and my daughters family. They have been playing with Ghillie by moving their hands about while she tries to grab at them......the worst offender being my son in law ! My wife and I put up a united front on this .....neither of us liked being grabbed by Ghillies puppy teeth.

She is still chewing just about anything , my wooden kennels and run being a hot favourite. She is also still very "vocal" if she wants something or if she doesn't like something........ I won't tolerate that for much longer !

On the lead she now pulls and lunges so it won't be long now before she will need to be trained some on-lead manners if not some heelwork.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

I became the "Kerbside Gundogs" man again this afternoon when encouraging Ghillie to retrieve a paint roller in the cul de sac I live in. With far less to distract her out on the road she became very keen on the dummy....too keen in one way.....she began to do run-pasts out of sheer exuberance.

My wife was a bit peeved a few moments ago when Ghillie ignored her best squeaky voiced efforts to get a recall from 15 feet away but came back from 15 yards away when I whistled for her. Since my wife feeds her and does most of the "walkies" she feels a bit disheartened by Ghillies disloyal behaviour.

I was taken shopping earlier today for garden plants. My wife wanted a plant called a Trailing Periwinkle. I got fed up traipsing around Dobbies looking for this plant so I told her to ask the young male and rather tasty shop assistant/gardener if he had a trailing winkle ! The young man made things worse by asking if she wanted a "Lesser or a Greater Winkle " I at once replied she'd prefer the Greater Trailing Winkle ! .........I was laughing but my wife wasn't.......nae sense of humour that wummin .

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Ghillie has now been taken to a couple of places in the car to get her used to travelling and to let her experience some new places.

She has been to my local pond where she enjoyed exploring but did not enter the water even though Charlie went in and out of it several times. She met a strange dog there and my wife had to go after her to bring her back , Ghillie is a somewhat "independently minded " pup !

We took her to a beach about 12 miles from here yesterday and she really loved that experience. My wife and I were both laughing at her efforts to catch dead leaves being blown over the sands. Charlie and Billy went in and out of the sea like yo-yo's but Ghillie kept well back from it ......she loves to get her head and paws into the dog-runs water bucket while digging out the water but does not seem to fancy water in large quantities.

She became a bit too engrossed in exploring further along the beach and once more she would not recall so my wife had to go after her and catch her again........... I foresee a checkcord being needed for this pup ! She will be the very first pup I've ever had to use one on in my life just to get a recall !

I physically cannot do things like running away from her and, as I have discovered the hard way, she couldn't give a toss whether or not I hide behind trees etc. when I call her back.

I didn't even try to do retrieves with her while we visited those new places. I don't think she'd have been very interested with all the new sights and scents she wanted to explore.
She is now almost entirely "clean" in the house and if a "mistake" is made it is always my fault for not responding to her whine to be allowed outside. She annoys and worries me by whining far too much for whatever she wants and she is vocal if something she doesn't like is done to her too. I have never owned such a "vocal" pup ......not sure how that will go later on .

In the garden she retrieves tennis balls straight back to hand but some retrieve objects she will try to take away for a chew or for a game of her own devising. A tennis ball retrieve out in the wood behind my house can go either way. Sometimes she comes straight back with it but sometimes she becomes distracted by her surroundings and she does a bit of exploring before returning with the ball.

A few days ago I tucked a tennis ball at my chest height up into the fork of a tree for later use. Ghillie winded it from 20 feet away and was trying to get to it by the time I arrived. She seems to have a good nose ......but not always for my benefit !

At the moment her legs are taking a stretch ......she looks like a lab , greyhound crossbreed !

She is friendly or even over friendly to any strange person and I think she will be the same way with most strange dogs too . When that is combined with her independent nature it could be a recipe for future trouble ......wish I was still fit and could run the little sod down !!! My health is utter crap though so running dogs down is no longer an option for me.

Wullie