Ginger

[munstyman]

Myself , more grumpy, less bothered by thoughts of others, less likely to do what I'm told and I say it as I see it, Life's grand

[PRH]

Well he survived his first stint in kennels, just for a couple of nights and of course he had the other dogs for company. I thought he'd be welded to my side after that but he's not fussed.

[PRH]

Ginger got attacked by a staffie type dog last week. My son was walking the four on the farm and happened across a lady with a dog on a lead. The 3 older dogs walked by and then the dog pounced on Ginger around his neck, shook him and pinned him to the ground. My son pulled the dog off and it shat all down him…not a happy camper. It punctured Ginger’s neck in a few places so I took him to the vet and he had some antibiotics and anti inflammatory drugs. £111. I wasn’t home at the time and being covered in dog sh1t my pad wasn’t too keen to prolong the conversation and swap details.

On the upside Ginger doesn’t seem remotely bothered. He’s met other dogs since and shown no reaction. I took him for another drive on Saturday with my daughter and Moley the spaniel….

[PRH]

I was shooting yesterday. Mrs H was with my daughter at a hockey match in Bradford (3 hours each way ) so I had all four dogs with me. Fortunately my son came with me to provide standard teenage support- nothing like confirmation of what you know (I shot poorly on the first and second drives, which definitely wasn’t linked to a late night on Friday)…..It was one of those days, I had the wrong aftershave and the birds favoured the other end of the line, swings and roundabouts. The last drive went well, I had a bath bird which proves even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally and partly made up for the poor effort earlier in the day. I let my son have a shot and he demonstrated the gun and cartridges worked perfectly well, much to the amusement of the other guns.

Between us we shuffled the dogs around all day and the pup socialised well in between drives. He’s definitely not bothered about gunshot and watched his mum working with great interest. Another useful outing and enjoyable day.

[PRH]

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He is starting to fill out a little, but is still a gangly thing!

[Stacia]

My neighbour went to see my GP yesterday for a consultation and Amber was in her crate in consulting room as quiet as a mouse! When I met her some weeks back she was so well behaved then.

[PRH]

That's good to hear, she was fairly quiet as a pup. Based on the odd update I think all the pups are doing well but from the photos it is interesting how many are allowed to sit on the sofa.....

I've been doing a bit with Ginger, every other day or so a bit of engagement, steadiness, recall and the odd retrieve. He is very keen on carrying 'something' whether the dummy, a shoe, the tv remote....

I'm keen to avoid the mistakes I made with older dogs - they have all been very quick to release a dummy, too quick when it comes to a water retrieve! What should I be doing with him now to create a good foundation? I'm taking my time, not putting my hands down to him when he has a dummy, letting him enjoy it and so on - anything else to do / avoid?

[Nickheref]

I'm keen to avoid the mistakes I made with older dogs - they have all been very quick to release a dummy, too quick when it comes to a water retrieve! What should I be doing with him now to create a good foundation? I'm taking my time, not putting my hands down to him when he has a dummy, letting him enjoy it and so on - anything else to do / avoid?

I think the early release/dropping of dummies on water retrieves may be to do with the dogs desire to shake off the excess water, some don't seem to be bothered by being soaking wet others aren't so keen, so some get rid of the dummy quickly so they can shake. So if it looks like it might be an issue I start by taking the retrieve whilst just standing in the water at the edge and gradually move it back and build the habit. Other than that it is just the usual teaching them to hold until you take it.
My young bitch started by not wanting to give the dummy to me and dropping them a yard out but we fixed that with treats - no holding until I'm ready no treat - but she was never a problem with water retrieves, the dog was quite happy to hold onto dummies until I was ready on land but when younger didn't like being soaking wet (or it might have been getting water in his ears) and I had to teach him not to shake until I had accepted the dummy. The other thing was not to make him wait too long to shake, just enough to have it done how I wanted not his way!

To try and explain how I think the bitch saw things - she didn't mind coming straight in to me whenever asked but wanted to keep the dummy for herself so her reasoning was - "drop the dummy a bit before I reach him then as soon as he releases me I can go back to it". Even though I routinely gave her anything she just brought to me back to her so she didn't think I took everything away!

It is funny how you forget those moments 12 or 18 months on when everything is sorted and going well!

[PRH]

Thanks Nick. Got to see it from the dog's perspective

[PRH]

Out on Saturday, took Tarka and Ginger. I was on shoot captain duties as the regular was away watching rugby. It was interesting being in that seat for a day, slightly nerve wracking as the first drive went poorly (the local sheep farmer decided to whizz through the cover field about 20 mins beforehand pushing circa 150-200 birds out…so kind) but we recovered well and everyone had a good day.

Oddly Tarka was out of sorts on Saturday, really fizzy and not tuned into me - first time I’ve had that with her. She settled after a bit but I suspect it was that she didn’t know her job- I wasn’t on the peg and I wasn’t at the back picking up. Ginger came out for a drive or two and sat and watched. All good.

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