We have had a abit of a break from gundog training for a couple of months, mainly because I have been so busy with work, and also because I have tried to briefly do some showing with Olive. I have given her the odd retrieve on a walk to make sure she doesn't forget but I haven't really had time to do some proper sessions with her.
I wanted to try showing, just out of interest really. We haven't bothered with Ringcraft classes as our local one is too late in the evening, so I tried to do some reading up about it on the internet and find some pictures of 'stacking' to copy!
I did practise standing Olive when she was a young puppy and I think this has been abit of a benefit to us now, as she remember how to stand still and let me hold her.
I first took her to an 'Open' show which wasn't too far from us and I am pleased to announce she did very well for her first time. We came back with 2 first places and one fourth place. More importantly, she coped well with the day, with lots of dogs barking and walking past, and people, noises etc,. She didn't stand aswell as she would at home, but she didn't do too bad. After this first experience I realised what I needed to work on was getting her to relax and stand in noisey, busy surroundings. She does try to put her tail between her legs and hump her back to begin with, but gradually she is getting better at learning to relax, and be more confident. Even though I don't plan to seriously show her, I have found this a nice little exercise to practise as it teaches both Olive, and myself, to stay clam in different situations and Olive to trust me to handle her and hold her whilst there is alot going on around.
I have since taken her to a Championship Show (Midland Counties) and she qualifed for Crufts in her Puppy Bitch breed class. She stood better at this show and we had a really nice day out. All of the people I met there were very friendly, welcoming, and helpful.
I have entered her in a few more over the next couple of months, so will keep you updated if I make it to them!
I now want to start getting back into the gundog training, we had a good session this morning and was pleased she is still quite sharp with everything. I really need to now start progressing with her, as we have been 'standing still' in where we are at with the training for awhile. As I am a complete amatuer I guess what I really need to do is get her to classes, so I plan to start taking her in the coming weeks.
Olive is 11 months now, a year very soon, and she is holding the 1lb dummy alot more comfortabley than before. Her heel is still good, and so is her stop whistle, She retrieves to hand 100% of the time if I say 'hold' as she is approaching. If I don't say 'hold' then she will ocassionally drop the dummy if she has been doing alot of running and panting. I guess this is something I will have to just keep working on and repeating. I want to get her alot more solid on directions when retrieving too. At the moment I put her in a sit stay, face her, and throw a dummy out left and right. I then send her to different sides using 'out' and a hand gesture to the side. She does this well, but then if i try to mix her up abit she gets ahead of herself and doesn't concentrate. This morning I threw a dummy left then right, sent her for the left dummy, she retrieved it, I put her back in a sit stay and threw the dummy back out to the left. I tried to send her left and she went right. I thought she would do this, as Olive can sometimes get ahead of herself and try and predict what I am going to tell her to do, rather than concentrate. So stopped her and sent right again. She got there in the end. Think I will have to keep practising the directions and throwing different combinations in to keep her thinking.
Tomorrow I have got a rabbit to try abit of cold game training with her. So excited about this, as been using the rabbit/pheasant dummies for awhile, and now so eager to try the real thing.
Did abit of pointing and then sitting when the bird flies off (to flush?) this afternoon...
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