SparkyTansy Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) bummer TSD I can't see the vid, but sounds like you had a good time!! Who was the Wei person out of interest? ;) sounds like Norma :) Edited January 18, 2012 by SparkyTansy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) Thanks fetchindawgs - I thought it was a massive swim for her! She can swim an awful long way when she's playing or chasing birdies but to concentrate on a long water retrieve is a different matter. I haven't given her any opportunity to cheat on water and have made a really fun game out of handling straight into the water from the shore line - backs and overs - she thinks it's quite a lark actually. I'm going to enter the January trial () - I am feeling mentally ready although I'm not sure that Em is quite there. I have borrowed the thrower and a few birdies from LL and will take it out this week with Mr TSD helping out. If she is definitely not ready in a couple of weeks I will scratch her but if I think she is very close I will run her. If she bombs out we will just use the opportunity to do some training in a different environment. The main thing that I took away from training at Howlong was that if she missed the retrieve it wasn't the end of the world in terms of her confidence - it was very easy to get that back because of all her previous wins "in the bank". Yes, 'tis Norma ST. I really love her dogs and had lots of Wei cuddles Edited January 18, 2012 by The Spotted Devil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparkyTansy Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 :D Norma bred Lulu's daddy. She also spent a bit of time training Ari's mum a while ago. She's always there to help me out when I'm stuck on something!! I wish she was closer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 :D Norma bred Lulu's daddy. She also spent a bit of time training Ari's mum a while ago. She's always there to help me out when I'm stuck on something!! I wish she was closer Ah ha! Who is Lulu's daddy please - I only know their call names. I'm in desperate love with Charlotte and Poppy - apparently I'm attracted to the difficult ones :laugh: Not surprising really considering my dog training history! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparkyTansy Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 He is Duke, but he doesn't live with norma. Is that Poppy 1 or Poppy 2 you love? Poppy 1 is retired but I'm not sure who she lives with! she is duke's dam. I absolutely love Charlotte too - I met her at the national and the judge also loved her, because she was so switched on and clearly showing was not the thing on her mind!! I'm so jealous you got to hang with 6 weis and do retrieving!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) I don't think I know of Duke......will trawl my memory.....such that it is......we did discuss a lot of dogs!!! :laugh: It would be Poppy 2 :D She came back from a pet home and is being trained up for retrieving - such a keen little worker. I did some shaping with her for her delivery and she was so wonderfully keen! Charlotte is now the boss and played the "fun police" when LL's youngster and Poppy started wrestling too hard :laugh: Beautiful temperaments, though, and so easy to be around. It was great to catch up with them all and I will be taking more regular trips up there this year :) Edited January 18, 2012 by The Spotted Devil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparkyTansy Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Duke is Greywei Multi Million - he's shown in ACT mostly. I've heard a bit about Poppy2. So cool she's such a good worker, given she came back from a pet home!! Charlotte sounds a fair bit like Ari!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 The only difficult thing is that Poppy2 has learned a few bad habits in terms of retrieving from her pet home life but I'm sure she'll be fine. Em had a quiet day whilst I worked and we just arrived home from taking her to the oval with the thrower and several birdies. It was a good chance to explain to Mr TSD how to operate it and we had quite a crowd of kids watching after cricket training - they were fascinated so I went over and explained, in basic terms, what the dogs had to do in the days before supermarkets and what we were teaching her on the oval. For the first time since Em was a puppy she got more attention than the Dalmatian :D We did 2 sets of 3 retrieves - one to the right, one to the left and then another to the left but back a lot further so she had to hunt through old ground. Each set was at opposite ends of the oval - so long marks against a backdrop of trees. She nailed them with loads of confidence. Delivery was just lovely on all but one retrieve. I have her a NRM for that one and the rest of them were perfect :laugh: Tomorrow we are off to the water/cover but want to save my birdies so might use dummies most of the time :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perdy Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Em looks fabulous TSD!! That was a long swim!! Very Impressive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Thanks Perdy :) How's your Viz coming along? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perdy Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Hahahaha! Just the poke I needed TSD! Well, I bought some bumpers, a dokken and a whistle for down the track. I went along to a training day but methods used weren't really up my alley, so we've started on our own and the little dude is doing single marks nicely to about 40m so far, only one session has been in low cover the rest on pretty short grass. Steadiness is good, he marks really well, goes out very enthusiastically, brings it back to me and currently delivers in a stand but we're working on a nice sitted front separately and I'll join it up once it's sorted. Once I get thats done I'll enlist some help on how best to progress! He's had a lot of swimming practice this summer... he's swimming technique was a lot to be desired :laugh: but he seems to have sorted it out now and has become a very confident swimmer, so I'll see how he goes with some water work soon. I find the instinct amazing to watch and he just LOVES it! He's like Em though, hates repetition so I've been doing agility stuff and switching to retrieving and back again. Suits him well :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) Great to hear Perdy! Do pop back in before you start doing water retrieves as it's much easier to stop bad habits forming - behaviours that are quite natural for the dog but not good for a retriever! I have done heaps of work with Em on sports ovals with short grass and go back to it whenever I introduce something new - it's all about confidence building and letting the dog win, win, win! Do you have someone throwing for you? Do you know about walking singles? Oh, I meant to add to our training progress. Mr TSD operated the thrower again today - went out to KCC Park. The choice of cover/water wasn't great due to mowing and overgrowth and really yucky water but we did what we could. Set up the first retrieve left to right so Em had to swim across a reasonably sized creek - had the bird landing just in the cover but it was a fairly short mark and cover was also short. That went really well so did one right to left. We moved to another area and set up the thrower left to right near the trees - it was a really long mark with short-ish cover but undulating ground so a nice combination. The test bird landed in some awful murky water so we let that one float down stream, never to be seen again - fortunately I had suggested to Mr TSD that he use the old bird, which had quite a few frequent flyer points and was ready to retire The mark went well so, once again, turned the thrower around to throw one right to left. Went back to the previous area (we were really limited!) but put the thrower on the other side of the water and hid it behind a large mound. Very pleased with that one also. Both dogs had a good gallop and a number of fun water retrieves. Edited January 19, 2012 by The Spotted Devil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 A big weekend of learning for both of us.... Saturday - met up with LL at one of our watering holes and did some really good concept work. Started off with a mark over water with the thrower - decent water swim with a pick up not too far on the other side and an easy entry. Em marked well, swam very straight, picked up the mark but I did have to handle her back into the water - but she took that very well. Then did a mark running the other way (left to right) but landing in heavy cover and up an incline. I didn't think she was ready to add water to the mix so walked her in to hold it to a land run. She didn't quite get the concept of running from bare ground into heavy cover so LL helped her out with a hand throw. Em picked that up nicely and brought it back. Then I took Em up to the region we knew the mark had landed in and I gave her the command to hunt for it. She was not really sure what she was doing so LL brought her older girl out to find it. As soon as she started hunting, Em got the idea and started hunting intently up the incline until she found it!!! Huge win!!! Then I ran her across the water to the same mark twice more for confidence - by the last run Em really attacked the incline and flew straight to the top through all the prickles and cover - fortunately she got on the right side of the wind and hunted down the incline until she found it. PHEW!!! Sunday - ran Ziggy at a jumping trial Sunday morning (4th place, Q and JDO title ) then travelled 2.5 hours with LL to a retrieving training session with another friend. I could have easily taken the rest of the day off but Em really needed to be exposed to novel grounds and people on the thrower. We had an early dinner and went out training as the day cooled down. Had a great dam to work on (one of several) within a large, flattish paddock. I could also practice handling the gun (with blanks of course!) which was really good. The cover was very different from what we are used to. After several tongue in cheek jokes about Springers doing retrieving :laugh: we set to work. Ran Em on 3 consecutive marks, each at further and further distance. She marked the fall beautifully, ran very hard and straight and delivered to hand nicely too. She wasn't very impressed with the unfamiliar dokken though - I could just about see her rolling her eyes at it :D After a rest we exposed her to another concept exercise in order to build confidence on water entries. I felt like I was a mile away from the dam but the thrower had the mark land not too far in the water so as soon as Em hit the edge, she caught sight of the mark and attacked the entry. We did 3 of those in total with increasingly longer swims. On the first one she tried to cheat coming out but we managed that ok. On the second one I whistled her in just before she picked up the mark to catch her before she thought about cheating - my obedient one promptly turned around and started coming back but without the mark!!! So the thrower helped her out and we got through the next couple ok. To finish off the evening as the sun went down, I set Em up for a mark from the thrower. Again, the ground was novel, undulating and I made it a little shorter to compensate. I thought she had watched it fall really well and she just attacked the run like she had done it a dozen times before. But then she over-ran the mark and kept hunting, hunting, hunting, hunting, returning to the area of the fall, hunting, hunting, hunting......eventually the thrower cottoned on that she didn't appreciate his selection of game for her which was very novel :laugh: He told her to fetch it up - she eventually did but dropped it about a metre out from me and wouldn't have a bar of it. It was actually very funny but I kept my laughter under control and followed the suggestion of having her heel with it in her mouth. Did a couple of recalls, razzed her up and used it as a reward. She did get the hang of it but clearly was unimpressed. All in all a very successful weekend. Em is entered in Novice next weekend - I was really worried about having entered her too early but am MUCH more relaxed after running Zig yesterday and doing some more training with Em. If she bombs out I'm cool and I don't think she will be phased at all (which is what I was most concerned about) - she has enough wins in the bank to fix it if it all falls apart! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubyStar Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 Good luck for next week, TSD! I'm sure you'll kick some retrieving butt!! What was the type of game Em didn't like bringing back? I think Ruby would bypass a rabbit or wait, no, she'd probably eat it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RallyValley Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Zora goes nuts for rabbit! Took her out in the field on Saturday, it was so warm we only got about an hour and a half of work in. And it was very still so scenting conditions were pretty bad. However Zach found so many birds!!! Zora scented out a couple then she knew what we were there for and kept looking. She did a few nice points (one very flashy one at a dragonfly :laugh: ) and did very good air scenting! Very excited to go out in cooler weather and better scenting conditions... if the amount of quail now means anything we are going to have a bumper season! At the end of the session the dogs (and the owners) were very hot! Zach is a clever boy and jumped in the water through for a cool down, Zora followed suit, so bummed this picture didn't come out very well though! (Zora went home, had a bath and went to a show that night!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Thanks RS :) Nah, that's a great pic RV - isn't it wonderful watching their instinct develop! It's such a pain training when it's hot. Although it's great to practice water work as the water is nice and inviting! After training yesterday Em was hunting like a possessed thing in the paddock near where we were staying - apparently there are hare in the area which send the dogs completely nuts! Must be the strong smell or something. That's what she does in her down time :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Things are very busy at Uni at the moment but I headed out to train at around 6.30pm tonight. Went to a familiar training ground and just consolidated what we have done the past few weeks. Hot blinds across water plus marks (thrown by me with Em on a stay) into heavy cover and water plus longer runs into water. She was having an absolute hoot, was trusting my line, hunting like a thing possessed in the heavy cover and took my handles in water pretty well. Was most pleased when she took a left over into the water when she went off her line. She just kept swimming left until I stopped her and sent her back. Ziggy had a good time in the water too although he's not quite as graceful :laugh: When we arrived home it was nearly 9pm - I went to lock up the chooks but noticed one missing. Called and called to no avail then finally listened to my dog who was intently wagging and staring through the fence. Followed her gaze to find my chook hidden in heavy cover and sitting on no less than 17 eggs!!!!! I wondered why we weren't getting many eggs lately Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FHRP Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Good luck this weekend TSD and Em! You've put the training in, so I have no doubts you'll both do great :D And have fun!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perdy Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Good luck TSD!!!!!!! Goooo Em!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Thanks gals - you just put a big smile on my face. Settled in my tent and looking forward to having a fun day tomorrow. Very relaxed with no expectations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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