Training day on 25th

Yesterday we went to a Gundog Training day set up by the WCGB in Hampshire. It was a bit of a drive from us, but as we don't go to a regular class I rely on these training days to get experience.

Arrived nice and early and we were in Improvers group one. We had a fairly small group with a nice trainer so we were lucky, not too much waiting around.

We started with a few steadiness exercises which I really liked as something I can never practise at home. We did sit and stays, and then recalling your individual dog from them all in a stay. We also did a great exercise where we all walked in a line with our dogs in off-lead heel and the trainer through dummies over our heads landing in front of the dogs. Exercise was to leave the dummies and stay at heel.

We did some basic retrieves such a memory and a split. Good to do these things around lots of other dogs as I do them so much on my own with her, but never know how she will fair when theres lots of distractions around.

In the afternoon we made them jump a countryside fence which was interesting. Olive jumped over without much fuss one side, but couldn't get back across from the other side as the ground was a lot lower. She tried and fell backwards on her back which I thought might have knocked her confidence, but luckily it didn't.

The trainer had a dummy that made a bang like a cap gun when he pulled the toggle. This was a good one for Olive, and she wasn't scared of the bang at all. In fact I think she was excited by it. She can be bad at marking retrieves, which results in a lot of directing from me to get her to find them and the bang really helps her pay attention to where the dummy falls. We also tried her with a dummy launcher which was really loud and fired incredibly far. She loved this one and retrieved it fine with no problems.

Lastly we did some hunting which I was pleased about as this is our real problem area, through lack of practise on my behalf. The trainer got us to hunt them up the field, stopping them to the whistle when he asked us to, and then sending them out left/right to get them on further. Good exercise and she did so well with directions considering she has only just cracked them this past week. I also finally learn't what 'back-casting' is, something I read about and never get. When I am walking along the field and she is hunting up the field, as she gets to the edge and turns I need to push her forward and tell her to get on, as if I stand still she sometimes will back-cast and turn into the ground towards me. Probably just made no sense with all of that but I understand it in my head!

Overall she was great all day and I was so chuffed with her. Her retrieves are good, and she never drops the dummy anymore, her stop whistle is 100% and her directions are good...just got to keep going with those til she really knows them well. Now it's warmer better start on the water retrieves too. Getting her too hold the dummy out of water has always been a hard one!

We had some lovely comments from our trainer and she got a rosette for being best in her class which was nice :)

Hopefully get her to some more training soon.

Too much training

Olive and I have had a really busy week, with far too much training.

Started off the week with some gundog stuff thrown in on walks. I am always doing retrieves back or out to either side, but for some time have been working up to changing directions - ready for blind retrieves in novice tests. From what I hear I will need to be able to direct her to a marker where the dummy has been put in these, so that's what I have been trying to do when out.

I get Daniel to distract her and I then run off to either side and throw a dummy out. Then continue down the path with her and when we have got to a reasonable distance I set her up and send her back. Then stop her, and tell her to change direction and hope she finds the dummy! Generally when we are walking her stop whistle is brilliant, but when she is rushing off back for a retrieve and I try and stop her I notice she can be fairly slow to stop. I guess because she has all this momentum to find the dummy and takes her awhile to snap out of it and stop. So this needs abit of work. Changing direction she has finally got this week. When I said 'out' and hand gestured either side she actually knew which direction to go!! So chuffed with that. When they finally get something you have been working on it is sooo great :)

Here she is doing the first one I did with her http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jss4fNCbF-0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Not sure how well you can see her stop and then change direction on the video. We did a few more, and then the next day too at a different location. I was an idiot most of the time and managed to judge distances wrong and stop her in the wrong place. But then I guess this just makes us have to work even harder to find the dummy by directing her with more steps. Sending her back further, then stopping her again, then out left or whatever. Every time we always got to the dummy eventually which is the most important thing, as I know when they don't end up finding it, it does nothing for their confidence. She was so exhausted after doing this, the most I have ever seen her. I think she really must have to concentrate hard on what is being asked with my hand signals. Quite a buzz to think you are directing and communicating with your dog at a distance though.

I am still working on the 'steady' command for holding her in one area. I haven't done any hunting practise with her at all, which is just naff from me as this is what the trainer said I needed to work on :( that will have to come next week.

Gundog training aside, I have now gone into panic mode that I have barely 3 weeks left til Crufts and I haven't made any attempt to take Olive to Ringcraft or do any practise with her. I don't expect her to do well or win, but I do want her to relax and enjoy herself in the ring and not get stressed and hunch up. Olive can do a beautiful stand with me at home, but when other dogs/people/noise are around it's not so good. Cruft's will be the third show she's been too, and I'm sure the most noisiest of them all so I've had to bite the bullet and find a Ringcraft class.

We went to a 2 hour class on Thursday evening and luckily this was a friendly club and I got a lot of help. Olive was so nervous when we walked into the hall, I don't think I had realised how much of a nervous dog she can be til I saw how she behaved there. If anyone came up to talk to us she would hide between my legs and didn't want to be stroked. The man running the club tried to feed her biscuits and mini Cheddar's but she wouldn't take from his hand. He gave them to me and she ate them straight away. She didn't want to play with any of the other dogs and she tried to hide away from them. Now, I am sure she wouldn't behave like this outdoors, I walk her with a friend every morning, who owns her litter sister and another dog, and she goes up to them all wagging and isn't nervous.

We practised standing the dogs all in a line and I got shown how to hold her and place her feet. Then we practised triangles and up and down etc etc. Loads of great practise that we both needed. Gradually she relaxed and she stood really well and she wasn't too fussed at all about being felt over. By the end of the class I was really pleased with how much she had relaxed, and how much we had learnt. She let a few people stroke her and was fine with standing close to every body.

I am a little concerned after his though that maybe she does need a little more socialisation with people in a confined area, like a hall. It's never been a problem, in fact the opposite, as she never runs off to people or dogs on walks, and if people jog/cycle/walk past us she just trots past and doesn't even look at them. This is great compared to Wiley, who for the first year would run at people wagging and spinning and probably jump all over them and knock them flying.

I do not want her to be a fearful dog though, and I don't want this to turn into an issue in the future so I think I will try and work on abit of clicker training with meeting new people and having lots of positive experiences (not that she has had any bad experiences that I can think of to have made her nervous).

The next day coincidentally was her Vets appointment for her booster vaccination so I tried to do a bit of work there with praising her meeting the vet and being checked over.

This week I also got this book... http://www.amazon.co.uk/101-Dog-Tricks-Step---step/dp/1592533256/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330110683&sr=8-1

just because on the odd day I don't have time to take them for an afternoon walk I do a little training session with them, but our routine has got a little repetitive and boring now, so I wanted some ideas on what else I could teach them. Its a fun book with loads of tricks in and I was a little excited after flicking through so immediately started trying to teach them some... I will have to wait til next time to post a video as they are still perfecting the ones they are learning.

Tomorrow Olive has got a full day of Gundog training, I keep telling her she needs to get an early night as she doesn't know what she's in for tomorrow!!

Confidence Building

At the 1-1 we also talked about encouraging Olive to build confidence in things like jumping, water entries, and swimming. The trainer said they all have the ability to do these things well, but you just need to encourage them all the time to become more and more confident. I haven't taken Olive swimming in ages, I guess thats something we will have to get working on when the weather improves. I have been trying to get her to jump over logs and things in the wood saying 'over', she can be very agile when she wants to be. She easily jumps over a single style, but I have never been able to get her over a double style, so today I encouraged her over it step by step and when she realised she could do it she thought it was great fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKZINeYMR30&feature=youtube_gdata_player

1-1 Lesson

We had a 1-1 training lesson today in Westerham, Kent.
This was our first gundog lesson since Olive was 5 months old with a new trainer I had never met before. Overall I was pleased with the lesson. The trainer said Olive's heel, sit, stay, steadiness, stop to whistle, retrieves, were all really good and didn't even need any work. What we need to concentrate on is her quartering and getting her out more. She hunts well and uses the wind, but I still dont know how to send her into the wind properly ( I am such a dummy with this ). She hunts better through woodland and gets out further than she does on a field. I dont ever practise the hunting with her, for fear of doing it wrong so now I feel I know abit more and have something to work on. I need to just practise walking in the quartering pattern with her into the wind so she is turning into the wind each time, Olive looks to me alot for direction all the time so I need to ignore her abit and just encourage her to get out and hunt further.
We did marked retrieves and memory retrieves and she did them all brilliantly so I was really chuffed with this and so was the trainer. Now I need to be teaching her to hunt in undergrowth for things. So we practised hiding rabbit dummies in thick undergrowth and then I send her out for a retrieve, stop her on the area, and then indicate for her to hunt low to the ground in this area. This is something I have never done before and she didnt really understand at first, me shouting where is it?! where is it?! and she was just looking at me like what are you on about now mum. In the end we found that saying 'steady', 'steady' and a hand signal circling the ground worked for her and got her doing it, which she found really fun in the end. This is definitely something I want to work on now and build up with her. Eventually I will be able to use this comand to hunt low in blind retrieves to hold her in certain areas. When we have got this sussed the trainer did show me how to get them to look high too. She put a dummy on a tree branch and then directed her lab towards it and then asked her to 'look high', the lab jumped up and grabbed the dummy and it was pretty impressive.
We did some steadiness exercises where we left Olive and her lab in sit stays next to each other, and then practised holding our own dogs in place and the other person recalling and giving commands to the other. The trainer was really pleased with Olive on this as she didn't move once unless I called her or gave her a command. I thought she was going to be running off with the lab as soon as the trainer called it, so I was suprised with how good her steadiness was!
So we have lots to get working on in the week now!!

Nice Retrieve :)

Nice long retrieve from Olive. I dropped both of the dummies while we were walking and she wasn't looking, so blind for her. Goes a good way back to find the second dummy, pleased with that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAclFzF3Mkc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Olive has become a lady

Over Chrsitmas Olive has become a lady, she is in her first season.

It's not much fun being in season, although she isn't coping too badly so far. Have been taking her out early in the middle of the woods where no one is around, and then doing training with her in the afternoon. We managed to find a new route on our walking this morning which is great, always exciting when you find a new walk you haven't done before!

Olive definitely seems more lethargic, I think she is just worn out from all the cleaning she is having to do at the moment - cleaning of herself, cleaning of her bedding, cleaning of her pants, cleaning of the floor. She is a busy little girl.

We have a show on the 22nd January so we have been doing a little bit of 'standing' practice. Although I really need to do lots more ringcraft with her. She is looking much more mature now in her body and head.

I have been doing training with her in an enclosed court yard area where there isn't any other dogs, which has worked out quite well so far as the training wears her out nicely for the rest of the day. She got 2 new dummies for Christmas, a pink and purple one off her grandparents. You can never have too many dummies!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQnH4o0ILVg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Bit of a break to try something different

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...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNSGpGNFzI8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54o2Y6uLf2Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player