Re: It's all about the training!
Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2022 11:54 am
Or is it?
Yesterday morning - Pup and I went for a long walk interspersed with retrieves. Some of these being marked retrieves so I can practice 'lead on / lead off' in a delightful context, as per previous forum advice, thank you. Lead on can still be a scrumble, which I know is a legacy of earlier difficulties and mistakes. I am working on this and at least some of the time she will settle down enough for l'ead on' to be a reasonably calm process.
Retrieves into double figured and pup still keen so I think that's good. I am still concentrating on not praising her until the retrieve (dummy, ball or similar) is safely back in my hand. Thanks for that advice as well.
She will sit, while I back away and throw a retrieve, but my backward throws are pathetic, so marked and seek back retrieves are needed to give her a proper (official) run, as opposed to self initiated whizz round the field.
In the afternoon I decided an on - ead walk would be the thing, in order to practice loose lead, heel, sit etc. I found a nice quiet road with verges and hedges , which was a bit more challenging (for pup) than the cul de sac oitside my house.
All was going well, a niice calm donder with hardly any pulling,, until suddenly a pheasant flew out and away from behind the hedge, just where pup was sniffing, Immediately pup was on high alert (still on the lead so not going anywhere), but a whole different level of excitement. I told her she was clever, got her to sit, and after a bit she calmed back down.
I don't think she gets that excited about other birds, at least not now. Certainly not bothered about seagulls! We can walk right up to them. Hardly bothered about setting up the crows by running across the field. Even pigeons don't cause that reaction.
The one time she lost a ball, on the way back from retrieving it, was when a pheasant flew up quite close,,when she was half way back,. She gave chase and dropped the ball.
What's special about pheasants?
Are they just rarer? Has she already learnt that crows don't count and pigeons don't much matter? Have I trained her to ignore these common birds for the most part?
I don't need her to flush pheseants, (or anything else. I have no plans to shoot, or take her on a shoot, but I guess I should train her in the approved reaction.
If she flushes a pheasant while sniffing about she should sit. Is that right?
What if she flushes a pheseant while returning with (or going for) a retrieve?
Yesterday morning - Pup and I went for a long walk interspersed with retrieves. Some of these being marked retrieves so I can practice 'lead on / lead off' in a delightful context, as per previous forum advice, thank you. Lead on can still be a scrumble, which I know is a legacy of earlier difficulties and mistakes. I am working on this and at least some of the time she will settle down enough for l'ead on' to be a reasonably calm process.
Retrieves into double figured and pup still keen so I think that's good. I am still concentrating on not praising her until the retrieve (dummy, ball or similar) is safely back in my hand. Thanks for that advice as well.
She will sit, while I back away and throw a retrieve, but my backward throws are pathetic, so marked and seek back retrieves are needed to give her a proper (official) run, as opposed to self initiated whizz round the field.
In the afternoon I decided an on - ead walk would be the thing, in order to practice loose lead, heel, sit etc. I found a nice quiet road with verges and hedges , which was a bit more challenging (for pup) than the cul de sac oitside my house.
All was going well, a niice calm donder with hardly any pulling,, until suddenly a pheasant flew out and away from behind the hedge, just where pup was sniffing, Immediately pup was on high alert (still on the lead so not going anywhere), but a whole different level of excitement. I told her she was clever, got her to sit, and after a bit she calmed back down.
I don't think she gets that excited about other birds, at least not now. Certainly not bothered about seagulls! We can walk right up to them. Hardly bothered about setting up the crows by running across the field. Even pigeons don't cause that reaction.
The one time she lost a ball, on the way back from retrieving it, was when a pheasant flew up quite close,,when she was half way back,. She gave chase and dropped the ball.
What's special about pheasants?
Are they just rarer? Has she already learnt that crows don't count and pigeons don't much matter? Have I trained her to ignore these common birds for the most part?
I don't need her to flush pheseants, (or anything else. I have no plans to shoot, or take her on a shoot, but I guess I should train her in the approved reaction.
If she flushes a pheasant while sniffing about she should sit. Is that right?
What if she flushes a pheseant while returning with (or going for) a retrieve?
