Gundog Training Forum

Most likely scenario Bill is one of the rechargeable batteries has died after not being used for so long.

You are probably right. I am the kiss of death to anything techie .

U.F.O. Hill - 1.40 p.m. - cloudy and a few spots of rain, light to moderate winds.

Dogs - Edge, Libby and Charlie

Since these three dogs will be working together as picking up dogs I thought I'd better do some retrieve training with them together ....... Edge ran in for the first dummy thrown and for two later dummies which caused me to forget all about positive gundog training ! I gave him a clatter aroont the lug when I did manage to prevent yet another run-in. This remedial treatment proved most efficacious and he didn't run in again !

Apart from one shortish memory retrieve over short grass which all the dogs did very easily all of the retrieves were marks thrown as far as I could throw them over a wire fence into a paddock of high grass and high weeds. My dogs had mixed fortunes with these retrieves. Sometimes they found them fairly easily but they often had to hunt very hard for several minutes if a dummy, I was using plastic ones, had buried itself among the grasses.

I had to handle the dogs from time to time with Charlie handling by far the best, he always was a good handling dog, Libby sort of so-so coz she didn't really want to find bits of plastic anyway and Edge red hot keen but bloody erratic !

I tossed out one last dummy and all three dogs failed to find it one after another. I went over the fence and swept the area with all three dogs and Edge found it eventually buried under grass that had been trampled in over the top of it.

That ground is nothing like the woodlands cover they will most often be worked in while picking up but sometimes high grass can be a bugger to find things in so the dogs all got some hunting practice anyway.

Wullie

I get bored just sitting around very quickly so I took Edge out into the road of the cul-de-sac I live in for some directional training plus a little bit of obedience. I took with me four different dummies, 1 plain canvas dummy, one semi rabbit skin wrapped dummy, one large and very fluffy rabbit skin dummy and a dummy that is almost ball shaped made from the fleece lining of an old sheepskin jacket.

I sat Edge beside me at heel then tossed the dummies out to the 4 points of the compass. I'm teaching him to line up with my feet when being sent from heel and he is pretty good at this very abbreviated form of heelwork. I can turn on the spot 360 degrees and Edge will line up with me as I turn and stop , turn and stop at any point of the compass.

So..... I point my feet in a dummies direction, Edge lines up with my feet and then I send him. This is a visual exercise ,he can easily see all four dummies and is very willing to fetch any one of them. He made no mistakes at all in his direction taking during this. If he does have a preference for one dummy over the others then it did not show during this exercise ......... I think he just loves retrieving .....full stop !!!

I now left him in the centre of the square formed by the dummies and began sending him for the dummy of my choice. He did this very well despite me deliberately having tossed a dummy over his head to fall just 6 feet behind him and then sending him for one of the dummies lying on the road 20-30 feet away from him that I had thrown a moment before. I'd thought he might break back to collect the nearest and most recent dummy thrown but he handled perfectly.

These two exercises both had something in common. The dummies were always at right angles to Edge and that makes things much easier when training handling. I now used just two dummies and with him once more sitting at my heel, I tossed the dummies down the road about 20-30 feet but only about 12 feet apart. This made the angle of send from me much more acute and the retrieve of the correct dummy a good bit more chancy. Edge did this perfectly too so I stopped while I was ahead , went back to the house and chatted up The Soup Dragon into making me a celebratory cup of tea.

Wullie

Oo you spoilt beggar!

Not really Judy, I've got good looks, charm and a silver tongue all working for me.

Wullie

Another rainy sort of day here and I didn't take Edge out until 15 minutes ago. It was another "Kerbside Gundogs " training session and it lasted only about 5 minutes. I again used 4 dummies and gave Edge "compass direction" retrieves plus a couple of retrieves at very tight angles or very closely placed dummies. He made just one mistake and it was due to over enthusiasm. I corrected him and all went very well following that.
He is doing well at this very short distance directional stuff done out on the road. When he can see the dummies he seems to understand what is wanted of him a bit better and in some ways his rather good scenting powers lead him astray in more natural environments.

He is becoming very good at on the spot heelwork and usually aligns and re-aligns himself very well with my feet. Wish I could train him on the move heelwork as easily but I run out of puff almost at once every time I try that so Edge's heelwork is still a non-event.

Wullie

re e-c - I never hold continuous stim button, I rather push it repeatedly, it's easier to time it this way (for me) and I associate it with tugging on a lead/CC.

Thanks H&T , I have now got the collar working. I could see a little light beeping on and off on the collar so I thought maybe it just wasn't getting enough juice to work at the lowest levels I'd been trying so I attached the collar to my arm then worked my way upwards from level one.

I had reached level 9 on my 12 level collar and it still was not working so I went onto level 10 and then noticed another button staring me in the face so.......me being me, I pressed firmly on that button and got my ass fried ! I'd been pressing the wrong button .

As I have said before, I'm crap with anything techie.

I put the dummy collar on Edge then took him out for a run around along with my other dogs ......see below.
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The Tussocks - 1 p.m. (ish) - sunshine and clouds, light to moderate winds.

Dogs- Edge, Libby and Charlie

I'd intended doing retrieving on the tussocky hillside and in the woods nearby but the grasses are now at Elephant Grass height ! Some grass fronds were as high as my head and the grass and weeds were thick on the ground. I decided to make myself walk down the hill about 400 yards to reach the river in the base of the area I call The Hidden Valley because I never see anyone down there but me.

I like that place, it has a bit of everything, woodlands, grasslands , a river........a bit of everything. For me nowadays it has become a very dodgy place to go down into because climbing back out again makes my ticker very unhappy and if I collapsed as I did there about 6 years ago nobody would see me until search parties were sent out and maybe not even then.
As per usual I hadn't taken my mobile phone with me either, I detest techie things.

I was walking along a tiny path only inches wide with grasses up to my shoulders on either side of me when I heard the sound of Edge's thundering paws up ahead and then Libby gave a loud yelp. Edge , who is much bigger than Libby, had steam rollered her off the path.
5 minutes later and still going downhill I was now in woodlands and Libby was charging down the hill near me. She ran right into a finger sized broken branch and it must have really hurt her for she yelped loud and long. I think the branch caught her near an eye for it was weeping and was now half closed.

After checking nothing was actually in her eye I continued on down the hill but Libby seemed to think it wasn't going to be her day and now walked along right beside me ......for protection ?

The retrieves from the river all went very well, no problems at all but when I stopped walking thousands of house flies arrived on the scene to pester me and the dogs. Where they all came from I do not know but they were crawling all over my head and arms and hands and would not buzz off ! If I'd had a shotgun with me I think I'd have given them both barrels !

I got chased back up the hill by the flies. I badly needed to stop and sit down but although I tried to stop twice the flies did not permit it and so my journey back uphill to the car took a lot less time than I'd expected ! I was having to hang onto my car to stay upright by the time I got back there. I got the dogs back in , got myself back in then at once drove 200 yards down the road to lose the flies before stopping to fully recover my breath.

All in all it was a pretty poor training session ! The dogs got one water retrieve each and then back to the car again.

Wullie

I had reached level 9 on my 12 level collar and it still was not working so I went onto level 10 and then noticed another button staring me in the face so.......me being me, I pressed firmly on that button and got my ass fried ! I'd been pressing the wrong button

Happens to the best of us, but I am glad you're still posting
With your ticker issues, it is definitely a bad idea to play with e-c on your own body.

Poor Libby, hope all is well. I know a gent who lost his Brittany to a poky stick.

I swing a leafy branch around my head when the bags get bad and I don't the juice with me.
Sometimes even around the dogs if they get miserably enough and walk next to me.

Livvy Pond - 7.30 p.m. - Cloudy, light wind.

Dogs - Edge

I went to the football field beside the pond to do some more directional training with Edge but when I got there I could see 3 caravans, three vans and a car out on the footie pitch ..........the "travelling people" had moved in !

Bits of rubbish lay all over the place and seagulls were circling to scavenge the area. They had dogs with them, some tied to the vehicles and some in cages. I was stopped from taking Edge from my car by a group of local lads who warned me the tinks/gyppos/pikeys/travelling people had already threatened a dog walker who had went within 30-40 yards of their vehicles.

Discretion seemed to be the better part of valour so I left Edge in the car and just blethered to other dog walkers who had gathered there. We could hardly believe that pikeys would actually make camp on the local footie pitch ! It's not just a stretch of grass, it has all the white lines and is maintained from a large clubhouse with showers etc. up near one of the corners of the pitch.

The police were nowhere to be seen .......they never are when you want them ! If anyone else had taken vehicles onto the pitch or allowed their dogs to defecate on the pitch or had thrown their rubbish out on to the pitch, the local authorities and the police would have been slapping on fines galore and threatening with jail sentences and the vehicles would have been confiscated. It seems this cannot be done with pikeys.

This country has become far too lax in applying what should be the laws for all , to these people who take from communities but give nothing back except for mess and trouble.

Wullie