Break through

I bought some new dummies at the CLA game fair at the weekend. I nice light puppy dummy and a rabbit one. I played about with Olive in the house with the puppy dummy, getting her excited about it and holding it, and then following me holding it. This worked really well and when I was throwing it out for her to get she was bringing it back presenting :)

YAY

So I took her out on the field later and practised a proper retrieve with her and when she was on the way back with the dummy I started running away and calling her and playing as we were doing in the house, i then asked her to sit and she did a nice present.

Think it's all starting to come together!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldJzehIaCT0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Vizsla Fun

Today Olive had a fun day out walking with her brother, our friend's Vizsla, Ruby, and a Vizsla they are looking after for the weekend called Chester. Chester is related to Olive and Wiley and comes from the same breeder. I also had a Yorkie called Dolly staying for the weekend, so she came too.

We went to the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge in Epping Forest. They dogs had a great time running around together, hunting, and playing. We practised a few stop whistles, which went well, and did lots of 'stay' for photos.

Update

We've had a break from training for a bit as I have been busy working a lot recently.
I managed to get Olive out to do some today, need to get back into practising every day to sharpen her up again. She is still delivering to hand 80% of the time but I am not worrying about catching the dummy off her anymore as I am continuing to teach the 'hold' and plan to incorporate this into the retrieve.

I did a long retrieve with her http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4tO95cRA-o&feature=youtube_gdata_player which was good she is still eager to run off and get dummy and return.
Good back retrieve http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ93AQkITns&feature=youtube_gdata_player
And hold still looking good http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP-kXK6fmDk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

So Olive is still coming along ok, and I know we are going to eventually get there with a solid delivery to hand and present. Need to work on hunting and water retrieves still though when I can find time!

Hold progress already!

Really pleased Olive has made progress so fast with this... and just in one day !

We started off at this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mWEDQD5H78&feature=youtube_gdata_player

which I was chuffed with!

and then added a heel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo-K93a-BnM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

really pleased she got this, as heel and hold bit confusing for her at the same time, when I am saying two commands!

and then this (trying to mimic a present) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjueWmALDgs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
again she is slow with the recall but this was the first time I tried it, and I could see she wasnt sure what to do, as she wasn't concentrating on holding.

Teaching 'Hold'

I wasn't planning on teaching Olive the 'Hold' command, but we have been having a bad week with the delivery to hand so I thought I might try going down a different route to get there. Olive's delivery to hand has always been fairly good, but it is more a case of me catching the dummy off her in time, rather than her actually understanding that she is holding on to the dummy until I ask her to give it to me. I want to improve her pick up of the dummy aswell, which is messy (she is still very young so I haven't been too bothered about this), she tends to grab the dummy, and dangle it from one end bringing it back to me, or sometimes she will drop it and re-pick it up. She needs to eventually pick it straight up, get a good hold, and bring it straight back.

So yesterday I started by putting the dummy in her mouth, which she wasn't too keen on, I sort of expected her to be reluctant to hold it to begin with. Then I stroked under her chin praising her to stop her from dropping it. When her grip loosens and she goes to drop it I say 'ah ah' and she will keep a hold which is good. I was able to move my hands away and she kept holding the dummy. I gave lots of praise and repeating of the word hold. I found when I praised her she would get excited and go to drop it, bless her. I will try doing the hold with her later and building it up until I can walk around her and she holds it.

The big goal here is for her to be bringing the dummy back to me on a retrieve, and for me to say 'hold' and she will keep hold of it and 'present' the dummy to me.

Here she is holding the dummy...

Preparing

We have been reading up on all the things we need to be able to achieve for a Puppy Working Test, which is our goal, and practising them.

The tests that I think we could come accross are...

Memory Retrieve - Which is walking the dog at heel to a point, throwing dummy out, walking dog back at heel and sending the dog for the retrieve. We have practised this alot and Olive will always go out to get the dummy and bring back. The only issue we have is she is retrieving to hand 80% of the time but I have got nowhere with teaching the 'present'. Getting them to present the dummy isn't something they have to do but it will look alot better and I think most people teach it with dummies.

Half-way back - This is the same as memory, but on the way back after dropping dummy, you leave your dog in a stay half way. I then command Olive to go 'Back' and she should run back and retrieve dummy. Again we are fine on this one too, only issue being the present.

Half-way back with recall - This is same as above but after leaving your dog in stay, instead of commanding back you recall it first, and then stop it half way, and send back. This too us a little bit more time to learn, as Olive wanted to go back straight away as opposed to recall but now she is very good at it.

Seen Retrieve - Someone else throws dummy and you send you dog for it. We don't really get a chance to practise with someone else throwing dummy as it's only me and her, but I am pretty sure she would go for the retrieve. I do need to keep teaching her 'Mark' which is a good command for getting them to keep their eye on where the dummy is landing.
Simple split- This is one dummy out to left, one dummy out to right, and dog needs to be sent to collect one after the other. I have been told in Puppy Tests it doesn't matter which one first but have been training her to only go for the one I have sent her to just incase. We have ony started doing the split and it needs a little more work as sometimes she will get confused.

Water- This will be a dummy thrown into water, the entry on puppy tests will be shallow and gently sloping. Olive will go out for retrieve and swim but I need to work lots on the distance she will bring to me once out of the water. I dont practise this as much as I should.
And then Hunting Test, which I am not to sure how will be set up.

So we are just going throught these everyday and working on making them perfect at the minute. I don't know when I will feel ready to enter her, I would really like to get the present but I don't want to push her too far. I might try for a test late August or early Sept!

Hunting and Pointing

Took Olive out to practise hunting, which is something I don't really practise enough with her. To begin with I just release her from my side, I am trying to introduce the 'seek on' command for this. Then I walk from side to side into the wind and let her hunt out infront of me quite away. She is good at covering alot of distance, and isn't one of those dogs that stays by your side. I try and do the turn whistle as we go from side to side. If she comes up on a bird/rabbit she points which is great. She will hold it quite awhile, but sometimes will chase when the bird takes off which I NEED to get her out of. After awhile I do a stop whistle, which is sometimes a bit hit and miss when she is preoccupied hunting.