Charlies Chatter - MK.1

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Fri May 02, 2008 2:48 pm
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Thanks Dave( Shanagan) I will remember that for the future. I doubt if Charlie would mind picking the balls on scented ground, he does like retrieving but you are quite right about where he was today. I was very unfortunate to have him find a deer and two rabbits there - normally any game around disappears when the first dog walkers turn up and normally there is hardly any game there anyway ! I'm a bit limited in my choices of where to take Charlie. I only have two rabbity areas and this was one of them - by far the poorest of the two in terms of rabbit numbers. That is why I went there this morning but the little sod is just too good at finding rabbits !

I too was a bit disconcerted to read that spaniel trial judges would be likely to mark down a dog that glanced around at its handler from time to time as it hunted. Providing the dog is not constantly looking to be handled as it hunts then I would not be against it " checking in " from time to time. I rather like a dog that looks at me.

I will be back , weather permitting, to the same bit of ground tomorrow with Charlie. I am meeting a lady wanting a bit of help with her golden retriever - she wants to meet Charlie so I think tomorrow will be centred around retrieving for the lady and for wee Charlie.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Fri May 02, 2008 6:08 pm
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Hi Chris, I don't have access to a rabbit pen. At present this doesn't worry me too much . I've managed to stop some pretty hair raising H.P.R. rabbit chasers. I think I'll eventually get control of Charlie. I've barely started yet with stop whistles and with general steadiness.

In the past I have often found there is a link - often a very weak one -- between having a dog totally steady to dummies and steady to rabbits. A tiny bit of the knowledge of the need to be steady seems to transfer. I hope this occurs and I hope to be able to make use of that little bit of understanding if it does occur. If I can't manage this then you'll hear me screaming for rabbit pen access all the way down to southern sassenach land !!!!

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Fri May 02, 2008 10:48 pm
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The places with rabbits are both public parkland areas. They have been left to grow wild for years and some of the cover is pretty "hectic !" There is no shooting allowed at either place and the better place for rabbits has just lost about 1/3 of its land to "developers." The part lost includes the area where I trained a Brittany and a G.S.P. not to chase rabbits. I called the place "rabbit alley" it is sorely missed. The brittany was "adopted" by my son and is now happily chasing rabbits again. The G.S.P. is my 16 month old lad. He is a very excitable , hyper sort of a dog - but he doesn't chase rabbits - not at that place anyway !

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Sat May 03, 2008 5:48 pm
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This afternoon I went out with the retriever lady and took Charlie for a bit more socialisation. I'm glad I took him, he met and behaved well with three other dogs that we met . He still was not at all interested in their owners no matter how nicely they spoke to him. Children are different, he moves towards them and tries to get them to cuddle him.

I couldn't do much with the retriever bitch, she is heavily pregnant and just wasn't in the mood. I made no attempt to have her do more than she wanted to. She was just out for fresh air and some exercise really.

Charlie got the benefit of this he got more retrieves than he would have got. The lady had brought along a defrosted hen pheasant - Charlies eyes bugged out of his head. I could not resist it , I sent him for it sort of cold turkey , no stockings over it first or anything. You would have thought he'd been retrieving fezzies for years, out he went and back he came with it in an almost perfectly balanced hold. He got back to me with it and then the fun started - he did not want to give it up !

He came into me O.K. but then he held on to that bird - " Mine all mine !" was his attitude . I blew hard and sharp into his nose and he released at once. After two more retrieves with the pheasant including a 60 yard memory into heavy bracken, bush and tussock grass cover he was still wanting to keep a hold of the bird. I'm not going to wrestle him for it and I'm not going to argue the toss over it , those ways can lead to hard mouth. I will think about this then work on it. Food could be used but food often creates as many problems as it cures. I'll miss out on that one if I can.

Any ideas concerning this are welcome. I'm in no hurry to proceed with cold game retrieves but this early warning may be a blessing in disguise if I can adjust his normal retrieve attitudes to deal with it.

Charlie got a cold bath at 5 a.m. this morning. Daylight was burning and Charlie and his big G.S.P. pal moved out of the kennel and into the run for an early morning frolic. They began to play bark at each other, I didn't hear a thing but my next door neighbour did. It woke him up and kept him awake. We get on really well so he did what all good neighbours do --- he got up, filled a big jug with water and entered my garden . My G.S.P. aint quite as stoopid as he looks - he dived back into the kennel smartish leaving Charlie to reap the full benefits of the water jug !

According to my neighbour no more was heard from either dog for the rest of the morning. I'm thinking of hiring out my neighbour to any of the rest of you with noisy mutts !

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Sat May 03, 2008 6:37 pm
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Whenever I have had to encourage hunting by using retrieves in the past (42 years ago to be exact) that is what I did Jeff. In that instance I was simply trying to get the dog to hunt, not to establish a pattern. The dog was my first ever "gundog" a show bred springer, he was a fair retriever and a rotten hunter. I was "sold a pup" when I bought him. I wanted a gundog but came from a top flat in the centre of Edinburgh . Nobody where I grew up went shooting or knew anything about it or about dog work. I was on my own when it came to buying a puppy and I was "seen coming." I managed to train this dog to what could best be described as a low standard of mediocrity. I sold him and have been forever grateful to the man that bought him. The dog had a better life with him than he would have had with me because his new owner liked him just as he was and expected much less from him than I did.

This puppy and the way it was sold to me as being a "gundog " has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth towards anyone trying to sell pups not "suitable for purpose." I really detest seeing puppies being sold
as "suitable for work, show or pet. "

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Sun May 04, 2008 9:25 pm
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While out with Charlie this morning I met another work bred cocker. This was a liver bitch of 7 months and she was considerably bigger than Charlie. I have never seen such a big cocker , she was taller than many springers but not so strongly built. Undeniably a cocker to look at but where is the height coming from ? Very, very leggy. I made enquiries, this is a Scottish bred bitch. She made a small Charlie look even smaller !

The pheasant from yesterday was given one more outing. Charlie made a good job of finding it after I'd tried him on a dog legged memory from light cover. This time he let me have the bird as soon as I told him to "Give!" I don't think he fancied me blowing into his nose again!

Later in the day I practiced sits to whistle with him in the garden. All went well, he is now sitting at 8 -10 feet and doing it a little faster.
I now have a 210 whistle with pea. The idea is to have two differing whistles for my G.S.P. and for Charlie. I have tried this before with other dogs and it hasn't worked for me yet !

He is becoming a bit too well socialised where other dogs are concerned. He is now approaching them and is not coming away at once when I call him.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Mon May 05, 2008 10:01 pm
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Back up the Law with Charlie this evening. He was given about half a dozen retrieves , 2 shortish marks but into cover, 2 dummies tossed at the same time into the same area as memory retrieves and two "water " retrieves. I let him run in on one of the marks and both the water retrieves but lined him up for the memories.

No problems at all with the marked retrieves into cover. The memories were only 40 + yards away but were through cover to get to them and in cover when he got there. The first dummy he found easily and though I was worried he'd have forgotten the second one and might refuse to go out again, I was wrong to worry. He did this memory as easily as the first.

The water retrieves may have been from water but they certainly didn't require swimming. The same flooded woodland area that Charlie didn't fancy much was used and this time Charlie who seems to gain in boldness daily hardly hesitated he waded in and brought out the dummies. I know it isn't swimming but it is an advance on last week.

I hunted him straight into a light but positive wind up a 200 yard long field of fresh grass and a load of weeds ! He began to steal ground on me immediately , I could not keep him inside 10 yards of me. I waited until he returned from one 30 yard foray then began to turn him even closer to me and to occasionally sit him to whistle. This went fairly well until he suddenly went off at top speed towards the far end of the field. This time he went 80 -90 yards and his target was a low flying buzzard that had been feeding in the grass up ahead. I just caught myself before I blew the stop whistle. He would not have obeyed but I am so used to working the young G.S.P. who would have obeyed that it is hard to get out of the habit of blowing the stop.

Charlie came back from his chase to find me not there ! I dashed into a wood at the side of the field and hid behind a tree to blow the recall. He was looking quite worried by the time he found me, he might recall a bit more promptly next time.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Tue May 06, 2008 4:37 pm
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It has been the hottest day so far this year here today so with some trepidation I took Charlie down to the local river. I had in mind an old mill race that runs alongside the river. This 8 foot wide stream is no more than one foot deep nowadays and I hoped to encourage him in there , let him get happy with it then go to a very easy entry part of the main river where the slope in is very gradual.

Charlie tossed all these plans out of the window. As we walked along the riverbank I saw a woman down at the waters edge with a young work bred springer spaniel. Charlie and the springer began to play and I noticed the springer was pretty wet looking. The lady was doing the same thing as me and said her dog was stopping just short of swimming. When she heard that this was Charlies first time near swimming depth water she thought maybe her pup could help encourage Charlie to enter.

This part of the river has a fairly steep boulder bedecked entry point but since Charlie was already testing out the waters edge I decided to give it a try. A piece of branch was tossed in just to belly depth for a cocker , the springer went in but Charlie beat him to it by overtaking him and grabbing the bit of branch. Since I had the branch I threw it and it went a bit too far - but Charlie didn't think so - in he went and swam for it !!!!

His return was like looking at a Mississippi paddle steamer ! The water got a right old thrashing but he brought back the bit of stick and gave it to me.

He and the springer then did a round of the stadium looking for applause , they went in and out of the bushes and in and out of the root systems of the big trees and up and down the high river banking as if they had ants in their pants. The springer lady who is unfamiliar with cockers announced she wants one !
I tossed the branch further out and this time Charlie jumped out so hard after it that he went right under the water, this did not stop him , he swam further out got his branch and headed back to give me another pretty good delivery. The springer and he did another round of the stadium.

I didn't bother going to the millstream following that , I went to a very easy entry point and tossed a dummy in there. Out he went and got it. I tossed once more right into mid river - he went out for it in a series of huge bounds through the shallows and again went right under when the water deepened , again he swam on ,got the dummy and returned. I felt that was more than enough for one day and we returned to the car. I had been leaped on enthusiastically by him and had done a bit of cuddling his soggy little bod. I was now very wet too but it was worth it.

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Tue May 06, 2008 7:49 pm
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I had Charlie out in my postage stamp of a garden . I took a dummy with me and worked on keeping Charlie sitting as it was thrown 5 -15 feet out to the boundaries ! This was fairly easy and he sat and stayed without too many problems.

I put in a little extra , I whistle sat him at the same time I threw the dummy. I did have to "fetch " him back twice and plop him down where he should have sat but I was pretty pleased how quickly he seemed to click to this new thing. After just 3 throws I began to get the impression that he was anticipating the whistle and sitting as the dummy was thrown but BEFORE I'd blown the whistle.
I tested this feeling of mine by tossing a dummy as he moved around and NOT blowing the whistle. He sat to the dummy but I think he has substituted my body position /language for the whistle or the vocal "Sit !" command. It was nice to see him so responsive but I've got a long way to go yet before he is anything approaching steadiness !!! I have made a start though , he was only allowed to pick 3 of these dummies - I had to do some serious walking to pick the others by hand !

Wullie

[trekmoor]

Originally posted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:22 pm
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This morning I took Charlie with me to meet another forum member with her Clumber spaniel. I didn't do much at all with Charlie just 3 or 4 memory retrieves but two of these were from over water, a little 8 -10 feet wide burn that flows through a wood. Swimming was not required but Charlie enjoyed the retrieves and enjoyed playing chasey with the clumber in and out of the water even more. I felt knackered just watching them !
I did some close range sits with him and sometimes had to follow up on the command due to the distraction of the clumbers presence.

Wullie