Charlies Chatter - MK.1

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:11 pm
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Late this morning I met a lady ( not big U unfortunately ) I've been trying to help with her cocker bitch pup. I took Charlie with me to cheer him up a bit. This bitch is about 2 months older than Charlie and is very different in character. She is much "tougher" both physically and mentally.She does not turn a hair at a correction level that would devastate Charlie. I had this bitch in for a couple of days training a couple of months ago and liked her so much I didn't want to give her back , she played a big part in my decision to get Charlie.
Fortunately for her owner she is simply a typical mischevious cocker, if you can show her where the fun is she will bust a gut trying to do an exercise for you. Her owner is one of the nicest people I have ever met but is just a little bit afraid to "let herself go." This can have the effect of causing the bitch to switch off to an exercise and find her own, more fun, thing to do.

I have been trying for several weeks to get this little bitch to sit fast at very close range to this ladies voice, body language and whistle. She is being trained as a sort of general purpose beating and picking up dog so heel work is useful. I only see her once a week for an hour or two but she walks well to heel for me and really throws her bottom to the deck in response to my stopping or to my whistle - but she won't do it for her owner ! Her owner remarked today that I am harder on the bitch than she is yet the bitch lashes her tail while I work her - she really enjoys my harsher but more extrovert way of doing things.

This is a hard training attitude to convey easily, usually it is men who are just too macho to be a bit "free -er" with a dog, usually women handlers are far better than men in this respect.
This bitch would suit me fine but the lady would be better off with Charlie, her quiet poise would work fine on Charlies softer nature.

Today we concentrated on retrieving, I advised her last time out to cease all hunting practice until the bitch will do retrieves with no ifs, buts or maybes about it. We began with marked retrieves from what is called , in Scotland, "Rashy grund." A rough translation of this would be "reedy ground." I first heard that description used among my spaniel training friends of 35 years ago - I didn't have a bloomin' clue what they were talking about !

The bitch is now at the stage of sittting but still with a loop of leash around her neck. She easily found the 30 yard retrieve but began to mess about with it near to her handler. The usual story !!! I have, several times now , advised this lady to make herself more interesting to her dog. If she would do this just for a few weeks she could avoid the bitches fast forming "now I'll play with it" attitude.

I was getting frustrated at how best to explain " a more intersting attitude" to her without it sounding like I was trying to imply she is boring !

We tried again with the bitch but this time I called her back with the dummy - - - - I lay flat on my back in that "rashy grund" and sort of wiggled a bit as I called her vocally and by whistle. The bitch was on me in an instant and we had a sort of cuddle game involving her , me and a dummy.
I agree this is a bit extreme but her owner is now aware of what could be done . She was last seen heading running off in the Glasgow direction windmilling her arms and shouting " Whoooooo -000 !!! Whoooooo - OOO!!!" Her dummy carrying bitch was catching up fast last time I saw them - hopefully they'll be back in time for next weeks training session !

Charlie was given a few retrieves , he is still a little bit "down" and didn't pick the dummy with his usual confidence but he did do it. I don't think he'll be out of sorts for long, he does like retrieving.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:54 pm
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I have been doing sits around the house with Charlie and he is beginning to realise that sitting outside of a 3 feet radius of me is not the end of the world. Since there is no retrieving involved I have been giving him treats for sitting. This is something I have always done with my gundogs when first beginning with the sit to whistle. I blow the stop then follow it up with any other cue that helps then when the dog sits I approach it and give it the treat at the sit. This way of doing things has always worked well for me but I rather suspect that for a spaniel I might want to trial it will not result in a fast enough sit. If I can get a game going with Charlie close to me then he will sit very fast and really enjoys doing it. As soon as the distance from me is increased even to just 5 feet he becomes slower to sit or he will even try to remain standing.

I am now beginning to make him wait just 2 -4 seconds after the sit before he gets praised and breaks the sit. Any longer a wait than that and he does what I can only describe as the cocker crawl. I've seen other cockers do this , they go down flat on their bellies and begin to inch along towards you like wee black maggots ! Charlie has an honours degree in this subject , he looks utterly pathetic , his back legs get dragged behind him - hope nobody ever sees it , I'll be accused of assault and battery on my poor little dog !

I took him up The Law again this afternoon and did a few more marked retrieves in to the woodland cover. All went well but he still has a habit of dodging around me on his return with the dummy. I will have to start doing some relatively boring retrieves with a fence or wall behind me or do some in the corner of a field where he gets funneled into me.

I also did a 60 yard memory from woodlands closely followed by a 30 yard seekback from lighter woodlands. He rather surprised me with the seekback , I'd thought I was streching things a bit asking him to go for an unseen dummy so soon but he seemed to know what was wanted and off he went and found it.

A man and woman appeared pushing a pram and with an off lead cocker spaniel. I thought at first it was a cocker X border collie it was so high on the leg and a bit long in the muzzle too. It sported an undocked tail which added to the border collie appearance. I spoke to the couple who told me he was 10 months old - the same as Charlie. I can't say I liked this pup much, it was aggressive towards Charlie and was a bit "snippety" towards me too.

I was curious to know his breeding . As a newcomer to cockers I have been interested but not surprised to hear that the working cocker has had a recent dose of working springer injected into it. I did ask why this has been done, apparently it's a field trial thing. It sounds a bit of a conspiracy theory to me but it seems the crossbred dog can move faster and is more inclined to really thrash through cover - in short it's more eye catching to a field trial judge.
I have no idea of where the truth lies but I have seen some odd looking "cockers."

The pup I met today had a Scottish dam and an English sire. It's owners only want him as a pet so I don't suppose it will matter too much if his breeding is maybe a bit dodgy.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:14 pm
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Hi Duncan, The cocker x springer crossbreed as a cocker trial dog is something I first heard of maybe 14 years ago , I cant quite remember. At that time it did not affect me at all and I kept my nose out. It apparently was a cross carried out by one or more English triallers. The reasoning was that a slightly bigger cocker could move faster while carrying game and would have some of the springers "brush busting " qualities. Cockers ,so I'm told and have read, are inclined to take the scent from cover from the outside and then penetrate the cover IF game is detected.The springers approach is to tear through the cover which, apparently, is more stylish or "showy" to the eyes of a judge. I really don't know enough about it to comment but I have heard some bitter remarks made.

As I understand it the cocker and springer ancestries are entwined anyway since when spaniel trials first got going a dog could be ran as a cocker in one trial then as a springer the following day in another trial !!!


I made what could have been a bad mistake today. It is a mistake I am continually warning others not to make but of course the rules don't apply to me !
Once more being pushed for time I took out Charlie and my young G.S.P. at the same time.This time the G.S.P. took the dummy from Charlie. Entirely my fault , I do know better and I should have done better.

Charlie and my G.S.P. have a peculiar relationship. They play together a lot in the house and garden but not outside . Charlie and Buck will share a basket in the house. Charlie will often sleep on top of his large bunkmate.

The G.S.P. is nearly 3 times Charlies weight and looks huge beside him but only a retrieve will be enough incentive for the big fella to dominate Charlie, at most other times Charlie dominates him, he even takes his food from his dish.
I am having to build a new kennel onto my run because Charlie will not allow the G.S.P. to share the kennel with him. The kennel is easily big enough for 3 large dogs - Charlie insists it is all his - the G.S.P. has been sleeping on the concrete slabs out in the run !!! It's a bit like David and Goliath but most of the time it's Goliath I feel sorry for!


I ceased retrieve practice after Charlie got mugged for the dummy this morning but prior to that happening I noticed something interesting. I had taken a big old fashioned camera with me. A gift from my son in law , an ex soldier . The camera has been, quite literally, through the wars. I was trying to get a few shots of Charlie retrieving and was so absorbed in doing this that it took two retrieves before I noticed that both times Charlie had delivered the dummy right into me with no side -slips.

I had been kneeling to take the camera shots but I have tried kneeling before to receive dummies from him and it did not work. Could it be that Charlie was curious about the camera ? He did not seem to be. Could it be that the camera and my hands were completely hiding my face - no stare threat ??? I don't know the answer but it is food for thought.

I've been doing more sit to whistle practise in the garden , it is slowly getting better at "distance " - - - 5 feet !!! Not as fast as I would like at this range but he is doing it. I did two or three sits to whistle in the park today all at very close distance and all without any distractions, he behaved well and sat every time but is, I think, responding more to body language / hand signals than to the whistle.

Soon now I will have to begin training him steadiness to thrown dummies , that should be fun !

Wullie.

[trekmoor]

Fri Apr 25, 2008 2:06 pm
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Charlie is getting better at the sit to whistle, I even got a fast sit out of him at 5 -6 feet distance from me - this is the furthest I try at just in case I get a poor or non existent response.

We only went for a short walk today I had far too much to do. I seem to have less time now I'm retired than I did when I was working ! Charlie is coming even further out of his shell. He is becoming friendly to almost any adult more quickly and he has discovered that kids are good fun and give unlimited cuddles. I haven't had to do anything special to reduce his wariness of strangers, just day by day exposure is helping enormously.

There is a 50 feet wide strip of woodland right outside my gate, it has squirrels and woodpigeons and not much else. I gave Charlie a little hunt down it. There is very little cover and he seemed to enjoy responding to my turn whistle and following my arm signals from side to side. I can hardly wait to see him "go" with game around but I need a lot more control than I've got at present.

Wullie.

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 1:35 pm
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I have had a little niggle burning away in the back of my mind for over a week now so early this morning I went out to do some more assessment work on Charlie. In the past a few of the dogs I've had have been O.K. at retrieving - but only when and where there is no chance of game being present. The Brittanies I've trained were prime examples of this. This kind of dog , I.M.O. , needs to be kept on retrieves for considerably longer before being allowed to work on game.
I wanted to know if Charlie was of this type.

I didn't want him getting too involved with rabbits so I waited until 7.15 a.m. by which time the joggers would have jogged through and the insomniac dog walkers would have taken their dogs through the area I wanted to use as a test bed. They would have scared off all the rabbits leaving only the scent.

There was a good wind blowing and a nice steady, not heavy, downpour of rain --- just luverly for a bit of dog training ! Charlie was released just inside the area and began to tootle busily about. Just 10 feet in front of us a bloomin' great rabbit charged across the grass ! Charlie did his very best to chase it but was "in difficulties" the rabbit had caught him with his pants down so to speak - - - it had caught him in mid tuppence worth !

Just 50 yards further on he saw and chased another rabbit - then another !

The penny finally dropped as to why the rabbits were still out and about. It was raining , it was windy, it was an unpleasant morning ! Curse all fair weather dog walkers ! At least Charlie was having a good time.
This was more in the way of distractions than I had intended but I tossed a dummy right into bunny territory and prayed, he did his usual stylish run in , dived into a pile of dead willow herb stalks and found the dummy and to my relief he brought it back to me. He had one more rabbit chase and was buzzing about the wood edge like a demented bluebottle with ears when I chucked the next dummy. He went out, found it and brought it back. I can afford to relax a bit - I hope !

I did notice this morning that he hasn't got much idea of how to tackle cover. Much of this ground is a tangled mixture of thorn bush, bramble bush and gorse bush. That is a lot of jaggy things. Charlie didn't fancy them too much but I know better than to get concerned and try too hard to get him to go in. I intend to give him the opportunities and let the game itself take him in. Rabbits and pheasants can do that from inside, far better than I can from outside.

The spike grass areas were hunted in "Zebedee" fashion. This was a puppet on "The Magic Roundabout" that bounced around with the aid of a giant spring stuck up his bottom. Charlie was trying to see rabbits running by bouncing high into the air making a graceful descent by using his ears as parachutes. That was the impression given as they always seemed to land long after he did. I wished I had a camera with me, it was funny to watch though I don't think he'd have got through to the next round in a trial !

I saw some rabbits feeding in a rough field up ahead . I put Charlie on lead and walked out towards them. They skedaddled and I tossed a dummy to where they had been. After walking away 40 -50 yards, I sent Charlie for it as a memory retrieve. He brought it back without fuss. It was an interesting morning for me and Charlies breeder was 100% correct - - - he does know how to chase rabbits !

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted Sun Apr 27, 2008 7:31 pm
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This morning I was up The Law with Charlie. I was trying to keep him waiting a little longer before releasing him to retrieve. I wasn't making him sit, once he begins to calm down when a retrieve is thrown I'll begin to do that. I'd rather not make too abrupt a stop to his running in.

I an beginning to get a better delivery from him a bit more often. He still runs past me at times but with this too I am trying to avoid an abrupt stop or any show of "roughness." I don't want him to return to me with his tail down.

His confidence is still increasing, he no longer at once shys away from strange dogs or strange people.

Our training walk through the woods and fields was pretty uneventful and eventually we arrived at the area of flooded woodland where I got soaked last week. I had no intention of playing "stepping stones" again in an effort to get him into water but I couldn't resist tossing a dummy just two feet out into the water.
He's certainly no water baby, he needed a lot of encouragement to go into water up to his belly but after a while he did it . I repeated this retrieve and once more after a lot of encouragement he went in and got it.
I'm hoping this improves once the weather and the water warms up.

I've spent the rest of the day making a dog kennel, I'm rotten at anything remotely technical so dear knows what it will look like - - - I belong to the "Hodge-it and Bodge-it" school of builders.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:19 pm Post subject:
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Again I was at The Law today, I think Charlie is becoming a bit disinterested in the place. There's not enough game up there to fill a chippolata sausage - very little for him to get excited about except sniffing where other dogs have been. On the other hand taking him there means I can relax a little and he can move further from me than perhaps he should as a spaniel. This last thing is the hardest part of keeping a spaniel for me. I have been used to taking out hunt ,point, retrievers, when I see one of them belonging to me running out well over 100 yards while hunting I just smile and cheer it on ! Charlie is a different matter, I was told by spaniel triallers years ago that the golden rule for training a spaniel pup is keep it close to you and when in doubt to keep it even closer. I have no reason to doubt that this was good advice,some of the lads that gave it to me are now field trial judges. ----I just find it hard to do ! What do the rest of you think on this subject ? Should I give up taking him for walks and only let him run free when I am actually hunting him or is it possible to have a spaniel and maybe bring it up to F.T. standards while still "letting it be a dog ?"

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:58 pm
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The belief that heelwork is to the detriment of hunting is not confined to spaniels. When I began with H.P.R.'s I was still working labs too. The change from lab to brittany was fascinating, very interesting and not at all easy. I was told by everyone I asked not to train heelwork or at best to make it the last thing I trained.

The brittany proceeded to pull my arm out of the socket. I had been an obedience ring competitor and then a labrador trialler. I found this bitches behavior intolerable. I taught her heelwork to a high standard. I wanted her to stay at heel with no further commands as a lab would do when game was shot and I wanted her to stay at heel while other dogs hunted and while other dogs retrieved game , whether those dogs were mine and were being handled by me or whether they were being handled by someone else. She did all this with no problems at all. It was a pleasure to watch someone elses dog work a grouse moor without having to hang on to a lead.

I did well in trials with this bitch . She twice won grouse trials where big running dogs are needed competing against G.S.P. 's and other similar sized dogs. The heelwork can have done little harm and it certainly made life much easier.
I ended up hunting the moors with 4 dogs. One lab always at heel and two G.S.P.'s and one brittany doing "shots each" at the hunting while the others fought it out for the best heel position back with me.

I'm still uncertain about training Charlie heelwork , I will see how things develop and keep re- assessing his sensitivity and balancing that against my preference for a "pull free" dog.

The tennis ball training during the hunt has been put off due to an unfortunate accident - - - - - - - my G.S.P. pup ate the tennis balls !!!
Thanks for that suggestion I will follow it up.

I have been busy training my G.S.P. pup today and then busy making a kennel ( it fits where it touches ) Charlie didn't get far at all, I had ran out of steam before I got around to taking him out. I did try him with a new whistle . I dabbled with the so called "silent whistles" years ago and didn't like them . I wanted a whistle sound for Charlie totally different from the 211 1/2 I use for my G.S.P.'s The whistle I tried is a 30 years old metal one given to me by Ian Glass a lab trialler and judge back then.

I still don't like this whistle , I find it uncomfortable. Being metal means I don't like it in my mouth , I also dont like the weight. I know a simple piece of plastic tube can solve the taste/ feel thing but the weight is not so easily dealt with. I think by taking a hacksaw to this whistle I can take at least 1/3 of the weight off - I might be able to reduce it by half.

I did some whistle recalls and tried a couple of sits, the 2nd sit was too far , about 8 feet, he needed a 2nd command.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is poor but provided that it isn't pouring down , I intend to take Charlie out to a rabbit scented area tomorrow morning. I also intend to begin getting him to sit while dummies are thrown. He knows me well enough now not to be frightened by me being a little more forceful , a little more controlling in my behaviour.

I've got to start sometime , weather permitting it will be tomorrow.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:33 am
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There is a dog training saying I am fond of, " What you let a dog do you are training it to do." This morning I "trained" Charlie to chase rabbits. This was completely unintentional and there was nothing I could do to put a stop to it. This happened right at the very end of a very good training session as we headed back to the car.

I'll start at the beginning. I took Charlie to a very rabbity area but I deliberately got there late. I could already see another couple of dog walkers and even some forestry workers moving around. I trained my G.S.P. pup who is a complete headcase to be steady to rabbits there - the ground conditions made this fairly easy. Large areas of tufty grass is broken up by forestry and other woodlands. These areas often have pigmesh fencing around them and are topped with a single strand of wire , sometimes barbed wire.

When the G.S.P. was young he was taken there and if he pointed by scent or by sight on a rabbit it was easy to gain full control of him - that's what leads are for ! If he chased, the rabbit always went through the nearby fencing and my pup was easily caught and "reasoned" with !

Today Charlie was hunted directly into a strong wind and some light rain very near to one of these fences. He went like stink !!! The scent was very fresh and at times I could see over the tops of the grassy clumps , rabbits were running back into the forestry 40 yards or so ahead of us.

Charlie couldn't see them from his height but he knew they were there, in frustration and excitement he began to bounce trying to spot them. He had been obeying the turn whistle well but now he began to bore into the wind. I am accustomed to watching pointing dogs work and I could tell by the way Charlie was moving and holding his head that he was air scenting still sitting rabbits from 30 to 50 yards away. He wanted what he knew was further up ahead and bored into the wind. He threw a deafie to my turn whistle and ignored my yell too for by by now he had located and was chasing the object of his desire. The rabbit got away easily, Charlie was halted by the fence and I got to him smartish and led him away.

I didn't want a repetition of this so I tried another area. This area has some very large gorse bush clumps. Again I hunted Charlie straight into the wind . The gorse seemed like a stopper to him, he did not penetrate it at all , he just ran the little trackways between the clumps. I have seen rabbits there before and I could see their droppings all around me as I hunted him but he would not go in .

The bushes had clearly visible rabbit runs going right into them and Charlie suddenly dived into one of these , a rabbit dived just as suddenly out of the other end of the bush! Charlie needed the recall whistle to get him back out . He finally reappeared from 15 feet off to one side. There must be a maze of tunnels in that gorse.

This happened again and then again . I could see rabbits coming out of the gorse . I think the ones I saw were the tip of the iceberg. Charlie was having a great time - I got a hold of him and pulled out a few stray prickles from him. He seems to go in O.K. - IF he scents game in there.

I have noticed that if I try to enforce a sit to whistle at a distance of more than about 5 feet Charlie looks worried . I have tried giving him treats for sitting but he still looks worried and does not behave in his usual happy manner. I don't like to see a dog look worried - though I think at times he is "trying it on" so I tried something different this morning.

Charlie, by now, was going bananas , so much scent , so much for a wee fella to do ! Normally the advice given to dog trainers by dog trainers is train the dog in a quiet place first then slowly add ever stronger distractions. I had been doing this with Charlie but, as I said, he looked and acted worried. I now broke the "distractions" rule , I began to train the sit to whistle just where Charlie wanted to hunt. By the end of a short session of hunting him then stopping him using whistle and hand signal and body language - slightly threatening - I had him stopping then sitting up to 10 feet away. The sits were very slow but he did sit and because the scents and things of interest were all around us he was still keen to "go" again. The distractions were working for me rather than against me. I will continue to work on this and I will try to speed up his sit - he sits very fast close in , I want the same further out.

I did a marked retrieve and Charlie did his usual run in . I looped his lead over a fence post and threw again and Charlie went ballistic. I had sat him before throwing and had now to sit him again - several times !
I eventually got him calm enough to remain sitting and quietly took off his lead but kept gently holding him . Adopting my best stern master pose I now slowly straightened and stood up . Charlie stayed for 2 to 3 seconds so I sent him before he broke . He had bother finding this mark , I had distracted him badly and there had now been a considrable time lapse since I had thrown the dummy. I think the scent conditions were very good today, he did find it in the middle of a big clump of spike grass.
I was already standing at a fence line so I kept my back hard against it and just as well too for Charlie tried to sideslip me with the dummy.

I was by now very knackered, I have a slight heart condition , so while Charlie investigated all around me I sat on a boulder with my back against the fence and leaned back watching Charlie. He returned from a short foray stopped dead 10 -12 feet from me and began to snarl and growl at me !

I was baffled and horrified at this , then horror took on a whole new meaning for me. I heard a low rumbling noise, then felt something warm and very wet slide right up my neck, cheek and ear. Then an earth shattering noise went off right in my ear .............. Mooooooooooooooh !!!

Bloody cow I hope it fills a dog food can !!! It had licked me right up the side of my face! I had been rigid with fright , it took me a couple of seconds to turn to face my tormentor. We stared at each other over the fence, I hadn't even known there were cows over that fence ! My poor old ticker struggled on and Charlie and I moved on.

I tried a long memory over some very broken ground covered in thick spike grass and a few straggly bits of bramble bush. This was about 80 -90 yards and involved him crossing a ditch , running through heavy spike grass taller than he is then finding the dummy where I had tossed it just underneath a thorn bush.
I lost sight of him several times when he was sent back for it but always he reappeared still going hard in the right direction. He got into the area and I attempted to help him by shouting . "There !" I don't know if it helped or not but he quickly found the dummy and returned with it. It was a good retrieve.

I was very happy with the mornings work and headed back to the car. Within 100 yards of the car Charlie trotted along a forestry fence line . A rabbit ran from under my feet and went under the fence 10 yards from Charlie. He spotted it and went for it . I wasn't worried , the fence was there ......... so was the tiny hole under it !!! I would have thought there was barely space for a rabbit to squeeze through but Charlie dived under and through faster than a rat going up a drain pipe !!!!

Pandemonium ensued, this strip of plantation isn't big, maybe 50 yards by 30 yards. I could see most of what went on but I could not get in ! The mesh fence is high and is topped by barbed wire. I have spondalitis and my arms would not work well enough to get me over such a fence. The enclosure was chock a block with very young trees ...... and with rabbits !

Charlie pushed them out and chased them all over the place. There was a burrow or three in there but not all of the rabbits belonged to it. Some of them appeared lost and some went out through the wire fence to run across the grass into other wood strips. Charlie chased happily on, blowing the whistle was senseless and useless, I restrained myself from even trying it. I did try yelling but with no discernible effect.

Luck came my way, he was running out of rabbits when I spotted one he'd put up coming towards me with Charlie not far behind ! This rabbit was one of the "visitors" it wanted back to its own warren . It came out of the same little gap Charlie had got in by and it was so scared of the little black demon right on its' scut that it almost ran over my foot, it hadn't even seen me !

Charlie wasn't thinking of me either but this was my chance , I put my leads noose over the little gap under the fence and simply let him lassoo himself as he chased his rabbit. I even had the presence of mind to blow the stop whistle when I pulled him onto his back as he chased off. He was not at all abashed by his behaviour and , of course, I cannot blame him for it.

But did I spend my morning training a future gundog or was I simply training a dog to chase rabbits ???

I'm annoyed with myself that this happened and have gone over it again and again in my mind but , for the most part, I can't really blame myself either.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he chases rabbits and will do almost anything to get to them. I have to start some serious work on control now . I may try doing this during what I hope will be rabbit siesta time in the afternoons, that should provide enough scent to keep him happier about accepting any corrections while still avoiding an actual chase.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Fri May 02, 2008 10:38 am
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I spent a large part of the day yesterday getting Charlie to respond to the "silent" dog whistle. This 30+ year old antique was at last getting some use. I took Charlie out yesterday evening and began doing some sits and recalls with it. Things were going fairly well then when I brought up the whistle to try yet another stop all that remained of it was the central metal screw. The whistle part had unscrewed itself and fallen off !
I had no chance of finding it among all the long thick grass tufts, it's gone forever. I don't think I was ever meant to be a silent dog handler !

This morning armed with my trusty 211 1/2 and a few treats I took Charlie out again. The place I took him has far fewer rabbits, I didn't want any more chases. He has done more than enough of that !

This area has a lot of what I call spike grass, it is at least twice Charlies height and grows in thick clumps covering areas larger than a football pitch. It isn't ideal ground for a young spaniel but beggars can't be choosers. I hunted him as near as possible straight into the wind and he at once tore off, boring straight into the wind and put up a roe deer 25 yards or so away. It had been couched down right on the edge of this ground near to the wood . Two or three bounds took it out of my field and over the fence into the wood where it quickly disappeared. I extracted Charlies nose from the mesh of the fence and we moved on.

I had brought with me two nice new tennis balls and a rubber ball. I intended trying out the idea posted by one of our forum members. The balls were to be tossed for him when he wasn't looking to try to keep him hunting in front of me. They weren't needed this morning ! He bored ahead like nobodies business and was , to be honest, out of control. By sheer bad luck or sods law, call it what you will , he found a rabbit sitting out among the tussocks. Again the fence came to my rescue and again I had to quickly get to Charlie and retrieve his frantically quivering little bod from the fence !

The other dog walkers haven't been doing a good job , there shouldn't have been any bunnies out there ! I hunted Charlie on and began to use my voice along with the whistle - much better ! We began to get a pattern going at last but he was still wanting to bore into the wind or to pull too far out towards the wood on my left. The tennis balls jjust weren't needed to keep him in front of me. It was all I could do to keep up with him , he was really travelling !

Charlie and I both saw a flash of white at the same time near the woods edge. It was a rabbit on the other side of the fence. Things went haywire here because Charlie found a hole in the fence and was through it in an instant. He doubled back ,found the rabbit on a tail wind and chased it back down the wood. After a moment he came back towards me, I whistle recalled him back to my side of the fence and gave him a treat for returning. I cannot blame him for chasing rabbits, I knew he did that when I bought him.

Since he was so keen to "go" I began to introduce the stop whistle. I did not mess about with this - it was sit - or else! If I'd tried this in the house or garden or even in the park he would have collapsed on me. I tried a sit to whistle only last night in my living room at 10 feet range. He refused to sit so I moved to him and pushed his bottom down. He at once acted as if he'd been brutalised , he jumped straight into my wifes lap as she sat in a chair, tucked himself in against her then turned to glare balefully at me !

Today was different , I won't say he sat fast but I did get him to sit as he hunted at up to 10 feet from me. He accepts this kind of training far better when he is thoroughly wound up.

I made a start to making him steady to thrown dummies this morning. To begin with I crouched beside him and gently held him as I tossed the dummy. I kept a hold of him as he wriggled hard to get free and get to it. Once he'd quietened I sent him for it. Then I began to stand very slowly upright. I ended up gently uplifting and stroking on one of his ears while keeping him sitting with my voice. Eventually I could stand upright not touching him and could send him to retrieve after a few seconds wait. He mismarks badly when I do this but this exercise isn't about marking.

By this mornings end I could sit him , step back two paces , toss a dummy out to one side of me or even slightly behind me and keep him sitting. He managed to break the sit and get past me once to reach the dummy. He got no correction for this. I cease to verbally admonish a dog as soon as it reaches a retrieve - whether it is meant to have it or not !

By the end of this very short retrieve training / steadiness training session he was sitting and staying while I tossed a dummy 8 feet or so from him and picking it up myself. A big advance really considering he has ran into every dummy up to present.

I ended the session with an 80 yard memory retrieve over fairly rough ground to a dummy tossed into a big patch of spikegrass. He did this easily but is still inclined to try to dodge around me when he returns. I am not only refusing to move toward him , I am refusing to even put my arm out the foot or two to one side that would be needed to intercept him. He has to come to me.

Wullie