- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Thank you
Cassie's Gundog training log
- Thread starter Selina27
- Start date
- Location
- Argyll & Bute, Scotland
- Location
- Malvern Worcestershire
A lot of people use food as you have and introduce the hunt whistle, it does seem to become generalised to dummies/birds etc.
Beanwood
Administrator
ment
This bit is really interesting. Bramble loves food, but actually, to click and give her the food isn't quite enough, nor does it get her excited. Tonight was a challenge, scent was up in the top field and rabbits were out (we had left it late...) so I asked her for some easy stuff...a sit..3 second stay.. then went fully into the "snatch" game, I call it this because after we play she gets rather aroused and can "snatch" food from me in excitement. The game normally finishes in a "heel" beside me. So the game is throwing the food left and right...I fake it a bit too...she LOVES this! So much so after her long retrieve, she sat literally on her toes begging to party again!A paraphrase from a podcast I caught this morning: if we think of our reinforcers as being "things" ("food", "ball" etc), then they are static. The dog either likes them in that context or doesn't. However, if we think of them as behaviours ("eating the food", "chasing the ball") then they are just like any other behaviour that can be strengthened by proper motivation and proofing. Build those reinforcers and make them work for you in this hugely exciting new environment
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
Gosh yes, animated food is so much more interesting than the same food popped into their mouths. Dogs are hunters, let them chase their food, they love it
I've decided not to throw the ball for Shadow any more. It really worries me how he catches it - and even if I throw it along the ground or make sure it's stopped before he gets to chase it, he still bounces it up and leaps to catch it. He's going to seriously hurt himself one of these days. So I need to work on building other reinforcers to the same value. I need to keep in mind that he wasn't always interested in balls; I worked on it to make it so. So that means I can do the same with something a little less terrifying.
I've decided not to throw the ball for Shadow any more. It really worries me how he catches it - and even if I throw it along the ground or make sure it's stopped before he gets to chase it, he still bounces it up and leaps to catch it. He's going to seriously hurt himself one of these days. So I need to work on building other reinforcers to the same value. I need to keep in mind that he wasn't always interested in balls; I worked on it to make it so. So that means I can do the same with something a little less terrifying.
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
That's interesting, perhaps I could do that with Cassie. Did you do it like AD catch game?
The difference in Cassie's focus on me since I started throwing her food for her is dramatic! I need to work on matching the value to whatever else she might find though, I've experimented a bit in a couple of places where I know temptation is lurking, with quite good results, but I mustn't get carried away. It would be good to be able to use a ball instead of food sometimes. I have a clam on order!
- Location
- Malvern Worcestershire
Rourke has always had an interest in the tennis ball, if I offered a ball or chicken he would choose a ball every time.
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
Well, puppies aren’t born loving tennis balls. Some have a higher prey drive than others but it tends to be us that focusses this onto balls. Pups will pounce on any moving toy. Puppies that have tug games played with them will be more interested in playing tug when they grow up compared to dogs that didn’t have that. With Squidge, I got a nice delivery of a ball at a very young age, because it annoyed me I hadn’t done that with W&S, but play was far more about interacting with me with the toy. It’s only recently I’ve started to get her enthused about the actual chase part. It’s easy for me to think that W&S were always as ball crazy as they are now, but I do vaguely remember them both having to learn it, and getting more enthusiastic over time. Similarly with dummies; Shadow really wasn’t interested in retrieving at a young age.
This evening, I went back to basics with Willow and the fabric frisbee I want to use instead of a ball. She got a negative response to it after standing on a stick as she was running to pick it up. Since then, she don’t chase it at all. She doesn’t tug, either - although she had just started to enthusiastically tug the frisbee before the stick incident... sigh.
So I took all thoughts of her putting it in her mouth out of my mind and just made it a targeting game. She went from being hesitant about it being there to jumping up to target it, running towards it in my hand and so on. My job is to make her think that targeting it is a brilliant game so that when she sees it, she feels good. Once I have that, I can start adding on to the game and making it a chase and retrieve with those happy feelings attached.
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Feeling really pleased with Cassie this morning I took her puppy dummy on our walk with us and she did some retrieving in the woods, I am happy because a few months ago she would not entertain doing so in that environment, just completely ignoring the dummy. She really seems to like her puppy dummy, so I've been using it lately to keep her enthusiastic, and the other thing she likes is going back for a dummy that is hidden (is that a memory?). She was very excited to do that and also some marked retrieves, it's so lovely to see her keen. And we were very close to the corner where only yesterday there was a 
situation due to deer scent !
There's a big pile of logs and tree trunks which we do a lot of "find it " games and agility type stuff there and I gradually have extended the area we play in, so she's used to having interaction there.
I took her puppy dummy on our walk with us and she did some retrieving in the woods, I am happy because a few months ago she would not entertain doing so in that environment, just completely ignoring the dummy. She really seems to like her puppy dummy, so I've been using it lately to keep her enthusiastic, and the other thing she likes is going back for a dummy that is hidden (is that a memory?). She was very excited to do that and also some marked retrieves, it's so lovely to see her keen. And we were very close to the corner where only yesterday there was a situation due to deer scent !There's a big pile of logs and tree trunks which we do a lot of "find it " games and agility type stuff there and I gradually have extended the area we play in, so she's used to having interaction there.
- Location
- Argyll & Bute, Scotland
What an improvement, fantastic. Is that a 'blind?' 
. Well done girls xx
. Well done girls xx
That's really positive, super that she's focusing on you and the dummy rather than the deer scent, well done!!!
- Location
- Malvern Worcestershire
Yes, that is a memory and they usually love doing that. I am so pleased for you that she is beginning to like retrieving and for Cassie!
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Isn't it funny! I thought for a long time she would have to be better at retrieving before she could do that, but one day I just did it and she loved it, it's one of the things that's re-awakened the desire, I would say
- Location
- East Sussex
It's lovely to hear how well things are going after Cassie's difficult adolescence.
Well done to both of you. Especially given that she focused on task rather than the smell from day before...
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Yes, I suppose it was, it does feel like most of the time between 12 and 24 months was full of hormone related ups and downs, what with the phantom pregnancy coming between 2 seasons and then being spayed in February! She still has her effervescent character though, I don't expect that will ever change
Hmm … well I feel I may have given the impression we were closer than we were, it's work in progress, but I plan to gradually move closer to that area.
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Well I'm feeling happy
I got hold of a road kill pheasant earlier this week, with a view to furthering Cassie's education. I tried putting it in some old tights to see what she would do, she just pushed and poked it , no attempt to mouth, or pick it up. So today I just used one wing, which I fastened to her puppy dummy with an elastic band and put in a bit of old tight. Bingo! 2 retrieves just in my little garden ! She just deliberated a bit as to how to pick it up and then did so, she was so pleased with herself, it's so good to see her like that, a few months ago she had zero interest in dummies but she gets excited now whenever she sees her puppy dummy. So it seems we have turned a corner.
I'm sure that hormones had a part to play in that, as she was retrieving prior to her first season, but also the advice I received about proofing it and building up her desire has got us back on track. And playing more tuggy type games, even if I don't know what I'm doing ! The AD games have helped enormously, the clam is fun.
- Location
- Close to Devon/Somerset border
That sounds like real progress. Well done Cassie - and well done you too of course 
I'm still getting some very inconsistent results with Molly and so far I can't tell why.
I'm still getting some very inconsistent results with Molly and so far I can't tell why.
Putting a wing on a dummy is the first step to introducing a dog to game. If you don't want to use her for picking up, I'm not sure I'd particularly encourage her interest in picking up birds... really you want her fixed on dummies, right?