The Spotted Devil

That's a gorgeous photo Isn't the intensity in our Gundogs incredible to watch....it never ceases to amaze me. Mr TSD helped me with a new drill on the oval tonight - taken from a book written by Carol Cassity ("Drills for the retriever hunt test enthusiast") and kindly lent by LL. It's called the X drill and for those not in the know it has the thrower standing in the middle of the X (for the purposes of description picture North straight up, South straight down, East to the right and West to the left) and facing South towards the dog/handler. 1st dummy is thrown South-West, 2nd dummy is thrown North-East, 3rd dummy is thrown South-East, 4th dummy is thrown North-West, 5th dummy is thrown due East and 6th dummy is thrown due West. It teaches depth perception and to run across old fall. Great fun for us newbies to run with and good for any level of dog. Of course we started on the oval to make it easy but I'd obviously like to try it in some cover down the track. Em had a ball - paraded with the first dummy but she quit that very quickly. On the 5th dummy she looked behind Mr TSD's back to see if he was holding a bird and then, finding nothing, decided to be happy with what she had and come sprinting back anyway. Off to agility with Zig so will do a few things with Em under lights.

I have done various 'drills' for depth with Polo in his retrieving training, he usually does very well although the retrieves are generally always longer than we get in the field. Part of the problem is that as I live in a state that doesn't have a game season, he does not have the experience of being shot over 'for real'. He does watch the bird come down once flushed, but he will then look away, ready to go on and find another bird which has been the norm in our training. He doesn't get as good a 'picture' as I'd like! It was quite obvious with the other dogs that have much more experience with shooting, they don't take their eyes off where the bird went down. I don't think it will take Polo long to learn the process though That's the thing about retrieving in particular it seems - fix one thing and then something else breaks :D Polo sounds like a lovely, drivey dog to work with

Here we go Just to clarify, is this ground where the other dogs have already retrieved a bird in, or is it ground that already has nice smells opposed to fresh oval grass? Or am I off track completely? I threw a dummy for Ruby out in the bush and she was distracted by the other smells. Not sure how to overcome this properly (hoping a birdy proves enough motivation in the end). OK - this is about the dog hunting in ground where it has already retrieved a bird/dummy. Walking singles is a case in point - the thrower walks in an arc so the dog learns to retrieve in new ground all the time. Remember that dogs think in 'pictures' for marks and we are trying to teach as many 'pictures' as possible. When I'm at the park training I move Em around after every exercise so she doesn't get in the habit of hunting in the same area. Of course they have to learn to hunt in the same area for some retrieves but you can teach that with another drill (which I haven't tried yet - will report back on that one). So when the bumper boys are stationary I worked Em around the clock in 4 positions so every retrieve was "fresh". When LL and I were training it didn't occur to us until after she wasn't as enthusiastic about hunting about what was happening - she was doing everything she had been trained to do! Wasn't a big deal, as I say - just showed that what I had been concentrating on training had worked and what else we needed to work on. We also talked about her natural propensity to quarter when she's hunting (kind of zig zag from left to right) and how natural that is for a dog bred for field work. So obviously that's something that she might revert to - and not something we should be surprised about nor ever correct. Motivation is a difficult one - you can nurture it for sure and build lots of confidence by the thrower helping out with another dummy (for a mark) or going closer (for a blind) or opening up the angle (double mark or 2 piles of sighted blinds). Only work on one thing at a time e.g at the park we were pushing Em hard on distance and she had lots of success (and she was brimming with confidence). But as soon as we took her into cover with birds we shortened the distance so she only had to deal with cover - lots of success. If you're working on distractions back off on cover and distance.

You've mentioned a few drills now, care to share with other newbies what they are, pretty please? :D I could always do with drills for very novice dogs! I haven't tried this one with Em yet so will report back when I have worked it out. What other ones RS? I do a lot of walking singles and I'd like to try walking baseball - that one is very hard to explain on paper though so LL is going to show me.

Whoo hoo FHRP and Polo Way to go That's not 'surviving' - that's brilliant! Interesting about the shorter retrieves - Polo sounds super enthusiastic! I have just found a drill for working on depth of field which looks like fun.

I don't really have that much time RS :p I just don't do anything else apart from Uni (5.30am wake up anyone? ) and dog stuff at the moment. Zig also benefits from a break from trialling/training so I fill the gaps where I can. Here I am on a Sunday night doing paperwork....again!!! Em is a nightmare to walk at the lake now - goes completely nuts over all the bird life and dances on the end on of the lead the whole way round. As soon as she is in the off leash area I can call her off anything though!

We are having a fabulous time rubyroo....and that's not even including the glass of bubbles I shared with LL when we arrived back to her place Learning lots about my Little Em - what makes her tick and when to push on or pull back. I thought she bounced back today much better than previously (mentally I mean) which is a sign of her maturing and gaining confidence in my book. Did some obedience with her this afternoon and then a nice long walk plus an off leash gallop with Zig. Some shaping work tonight for her dinner and she'll be happy to go to bed! Good news on the carry for your lad - yes, lots of fun is definitely the key!

Gorgeous brag! May there be many more

Congratulations wuffles and Ava Nice score to finish off her title - let the fun begin with Novice ;) Great work on the stays too - tough distractions!

Another training update.... LL and I went out to a farm yesterday. Set up a triple mark for her dogs with the bumper boys and Em and I worked off each one for some (shorter) single marks. It was relatively light cover for an advanced dog but harder work for Little Em who is used to seeing the dummies land on the oval. I sent her for a second dummy from the same bumper boy but she wasn't keen on hunting in the same ground - just shows how much emphasis we've placed on retrieving on fresh ground. No dramas at all but just gives us something else to work on (found a good drill for that!) We had one of the dummies landing between 2 of the bumper boys and she wasn't very keen on picking that up at first so I made it simpler by spending some time around the bumper boys whilst I re-loaded them and then sending her at a better angle - she was much happier and it was an opportunity to work through the novelty of the situation. Em had a rest and then I worked her at 4 positions "around the clock" on one of the bumper boys. That went really, really well - she was super focussed and full of confidence - was nice and steady, marked the fall, straight out, persistent hunting and straight back. Another rest and then we pulled out the pigeons to work on Em's latest trick of parading the birds to LL instead of bringing them straight back. Started with some restrained recalls (LL restraining, me running and calling like a crazy woman and the reward was a bird thrown behind me), then restrained by LL -> fetching up a bird thrown by LL -> me running and calling like a crazy woman and throwing another bird behind me. Played the '2 food game' with a pair of pigeons (those poor birds have had an absolute pounding ) but I could see she was getting tired so called it a day. An excellent day

Well done on your first Open pass RS Sounds like some lovely work from Cider and Brookie too - congratulations Complete bugger about the sit stay Ptolomy!!! Yay for little Ms Inka too - your girls are going great guns xena98 :D

Lovely pics - your older lad is in great condition!

Point of interest - my 27.5kg entire male Dally won't do much at all for Mr TSD. I am not strong or loud but I am consistent and do a lot of positive reinforcement based training. Some good advice given.

Now you have to share the secret of a splat down

What's one more..... Very cute indeed ;)

Ain't that the truth!!! I have entered show/obed/jumping previously but won't this year for those prices and (lack of) facilities. It's a long enough day as it is.

Very nice pic RS - made me think of the book title: "Don't shoot the dog!" While we are posting pics a couple that LL just pulled off her camera from aaaaages ago. Slacker And one from the other day. All 3 of LL's camera batteries were flat (we tried one after the other ) so I took this on my mobile phone. Little Em's first birdy...

Thanks for the write up fetchindawgs - much appreciated. Some really tight angles and conditions there!

Love ffire photography I have some fantastic action shots from the Dally Nationals (agility/jumping).

I'd be thinking you had a nice pup if someone went to those lengths I had someone do the same thing to my Dally with a squeaky toy - Zig went crazy, I stayed calm, used all the cues I could think of and dog gaited long enough for judge to give us the class. Practice for sure but your bond will improve as pup matures - plenty of time to show up your rivals

Sounds like you had a great weekend too mollipop Well done!

And so you should be xena98 Wonderful results - and an agility champ to boot

Congratulations What a wonderful weekend of retrieving - you must be over the moon Geez you've had an endless Summer!!! Thanks for the run down on the trial....just so everyone knows I always enjoy hearing all the details of individual retrieves so if you feel like posting them please do! Glad you had a good time too, RS :D All you can ask for is improvement Sounds like he is going great guns (pardon the pun!) Bugger about the chomping but I'm sure you'll come up with something. In a retrieving trial free Victoria we had a great day at agility on Sunday! However, LL suggested I get Mr TSD to do some more walking singles with the pigeons last night and Em went completely bug-eyed She lost every ounce of self-control and broke on every mark - not that it worried me at all as her enthusiasm was awesome and that's all that matters at the moment. She was seriously unimpressed when Mr TSD tossed her a dummy in the second set but we ignored her until she finally decided to pick it up and bring it back. I immediately lined her up for a bird as a reward so she didn't think it was TOO bad. Today, LL and I met up again.....3 walking singles (pigeons) for Em in very low cover and she was too smart for her own good - ran really hard and was parading her bird to LL before she brought it back to me. Gave her a rest whilst the other dogs worked on blinds then LL decided to see how she went in some cover - Em ran hard out to the birds - had to hunt around quite a bit for the first one but she was much quicker to pick up the next two. She enjoyed herself immensely and we decided to leave it at that. Lots of zoomies in lovely, sticky mud so I now have a very tired liver and grey (:D) Springer asleep on my feet!

Congratulations FHRP That's the thing about retrieving - just surviving the day is a great achievement!!!

Thanks Ptolomy - I have more than my fair share of those moments :D Just one more pass to go for JDX. Almost ready for ADX now that he is doing the see saw...leetle bit more confidence and opportunities to reward heavily in training and we will take the plunge