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Don’t forget to sneak and weasel wherever appropriate. Good things come to those who weasel, young Maxx-with-two-kisses.

Ok we shall continue to work hard on recall! We can recall away from rabbit holes now (with rabbits in them) and sitting rabbits at a distance, but no chance with running rabbits. And I don't really now have access to reliable running rabbits or pheasants at the moment, they just pop up...

ooh he is in Newbury I think - v close to me!

This sounds great - i need to teach a retrieve from scratch with the Pig before that though as she won't retrieve feathery things. Bunny fur is ok though...do you think instead of getting a dead thing, I could put some scent on a normal dummy and drag that along instead?

Yep absolutely I did not know the Pig’s instincts at the start, I allowed her to free hunt before I realised it was a problem, and we adopted her at 9 months before which she had run amok and learnt god knows how many bad habits 😱 I would hope that now I have learnt more about dogs, I would do...

That’s absolutely the key to the problem - although not easy, I understand how to work on over-arousal to a controllable thing like dummy launcher or agility course. These damn phessies and munties just pop up randomly and infrequently and in a completely uncontrolled way :(

I will have a google - I think we would need pheasants rather than rabbits...She sees rabbits a lot more often and although wouldn’t be steady to one running away, she copes ok when they are sitting round next to their burrows. Is there such thing as a pheasant pen? What does one do in one -...

Absolutely! I would love to hunt the Pig in a controlled way as this would be her ultimate rewarding activity and such a bonding experience if we could do it together. But we have only managed to do it hunting dummies so far and that doesn’t float the Pig’s boat when there are small feathery...

Perhaps SWMBO has perceived that it is already a habit (despite my best efforts and two years of long line use...) so there was no point in panicking if it happened - but also perhaps she hadn’t realised quite how little control I have when it does happen...not sure!

Well done Tatze. The Pig has almost caught a muntjac once and a few pheasants so she seems to have conditioned herself the other way :(

Exactly! There must be a way, that’s why I am so frustrated that I can’t work out how to fix it! Every other problem I have with the Pig, I am either working on fixing or at least know what I need to do, but this, I am stuck. Given that with food reinforcers (the pig’s second highest valued...

Please do! It can be a ‘those who have hunty dogs’ therapy group :)

Ahah I have hatched a cunning plan... given that the Pig and Stanley look quite alike...you wouldn’t notice if I swapped them...you fancy a gundog surely, keep you fit now you are getting a new baby? 😋

I chased phessies. I can die happy. Oh no actually I can’t die yet I have to go find more phessies. They are not going to chase themselves, are they? A pig’s work is never done.

And HPRs as well though, I think?

We have taught a turn whistle, and quartering (after a fashion), which is reliable in no-scent situations - but it doesn’t matter what she is taught, if she is on a scent she is unable to respond to any cues. I can turn my body away, walk in opposite direction, get in car and drive home and...

You were there yesterday @Beanwood ?? Wait, morning or afternoon? We still go under the ‘Indie’ name when I am new to a class because people will think I am bonkers introducing the pig as the pig 😋 I’d really like to hear how you have got so far with bramble. I use a lot of food reinforcement...

Ah well that is something! To be able to stop her when she has seen prey is pretty impressive. We aren’t there yet (at least if the prey is moving)...

That’s interesting, I have been reading about the predatory sequence recently. I have been practicing with rabbits and generally have control with the pig during staring, stalking and pointing behaviours (she will recall away, respond to stop whistle, turn to me to eat treats etc). But, the...

That has been my experience with gundog training so far, all the beginners classes are really geared up for retrieving first, and all the stuff I have read about teaching to hunt/quarter etc under control recommend seeding a field with dummies/tennis balls and teaching that way. But that assumes...