- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Cassie's Gundog training log
- Thread starter Selina27
- Start date
- Location
- Malvern Worcestershire
- Location
- Argyll & Bute, Scotland
Sounds like fun. Can I ask what the "search in a small area" cue is please? xx
- Location
- Malvern Worcestershire
If you send your dog out for a retrieve (usually blind) then when the dog is in the area you blow your whistle 'twit doo- twit doo" a high twit and a low doo! That tells the dog to hunt in a relatively tight circle and not rush all over the country disturbing birds.
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Having not done any gundog training with Cassie for 2-3 months this morning I stuffed a dead pheasant which I happened to come across in a pair of tights and sent Cassie to retrieve it in my garden. She looked at it and then at me, seemed to have a lightbulb moment, picked it up right in the middle and brought it to me!! So pleased, she was happy 
.
Since taking her shooting I've relaxed with her a lot more, let her do her own thing, I do feel that it did both of us a lot of good.
. Since taking her shooting I've relaxed with her a lot more, let her do her own thing, I do feel that it did both of us a lot of good.
- Location
- Malvern Worcestershire
I think that is the secret. Well done Cassie for picking up the pheasant and bringing it back
- Location
- East Sussex
I mis-read your post at first as 'I stuffed a dead pheasant which I happened to come across with a pair of tights.' I was wondering why... 
Well done Cassie!
Well done Cassie!
Atemas
UK Tour Guide
- Location
- North Cambridgeshire
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Today Cassie and I have been for 121 training with Swmbo. I can't remember when it was the last time we went. We've had such a good morning . The sun shone and Cass was utterly delighted to be there. In the past she has started whining when we drive though the village but not today. But as soon as we got to the gateway of the new training ground, that she has never been to before she began squeaking with excitement . I can only conclude that some familiar scent was blowing her way!
Back in the distant past Swmbo gave me some exercises to do to improve Cassies almost non existent delivery to hand. We've done these intermittently on days when she hasn't had as much exercise as she would like for whatever reason or just because she's looking for interaction. I was very pleased that today she picked the dummies up correctly 80% of the time and sought my hands out every time she retrieved.
My aim for the lesson was for me to be able to extend the type of retrieves that we do, I want to be able to send her in different directions and back and have a clearer picture in my own mind of what I am asking her to do. I need to write it all down now so that I remember it all. It means that we can do a bit more than marks and memory marks and learn to do proper blinds, which I realise now we haven't been doing.
It means I've got to work hard on the stop whistle as well, as that has got a bit sloppy. So plenty of things for my thinking girl to think about.
She certainly enjoys retrieving more these days, quite possibly because I'm not so intense about it, and also I feel that she's calmed down such a lot herself and doesn't become quite so overstimulated by the environment as she used to do. It's as if she's more discerning now.
She's had a very early tea and is now snoring ....
. The sun shone and Cass was utterly delighted to be there. In the past she has started whining when we drive though the village but not today. But as soon as we got to the gateway of the new training ground, that she has never been to before she began squeaking with excitement . I can only conclude that some familiar scent was blowing her way!Back in the distant past Swmbo gave me some exercises to do to improve Cassies almost non existent delivery to hand. We've done these intermittently on days when she hasn't had as much exercise as she would like for whatever reason or just because she's looking for interaction. I was very pleased that today she picked the dummies up correctly 80% of the time and sought my hands out every time she retrieved.
My aim for the lesson was for me to be able to extend the type of retrieves that we do, I want to be able to send her in different directions and back and have a clearer picture in my own mind of what I am asking her to do. I need to write it all down now so that I remember it all. It means that we can do a bit more than marks and memory marks and learn to do proper blinds, which I realise now we haven't been doing.
It means I've got to work hard on the stop whistle as well, as that has got a bit sloppy. So plenty of things for my thinking girl to think about.
She certainly enjoys retrieving more these days, quite possibly because I'm not so intense about it, and also I feel that she's calmed down such a lot herself and doesn't become quite so overstimulated by the environment as she used to do. It's as if she's more discerning now.
She's had a very early tea and is now snoring ....
- Location
- Malvern Worcestershire
- Location
- East Sussex
So glad it was a helpful session and look forward to hearing about how it all develops in training.
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Yesterday Cassie and I went to some lovely woods which are owned /managed by whatever the Forestry Commision is called these days, so open for walking for the public and their dogs. It's next door to a big shoot, so I know we are guaranteed to find pheasants.
I've been working on the stop whistle ever since our last one to one and wanted to try it out in such a high excitement environment. I was really pleased with her -- she did really well!! I have to read her body language pretty accurately and catch her just at the right moment, and a couple of times it took two or three blows before her bot slowly went down and she looked at me, but she did do it!
I feel she's getting that by being released straightaway , to flush a pheasant, she's not being denied her fun and that somehow it increases her happiness. If that makes sense. I love how when she comes back to me she is lit up from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail -- it's like "did you see what I did there?"
Compared to our first visit there when she was 2, we've come such a long way ! Then she was completely intoxicated and spent the whole time careering about 200 yds from me, but these days it's as if she takes an altogether more measured and thought out approach.
Work in progress indeed!
I'm such a novice at this, and there was a lot I didn't understand at first but it is fun and rewarding to be doing it with her, no matter how long it takes.
I've been working on the stop whistle ever since our last one to one and wanted to try it out in such a high excitement environment. I was really pleased with her -- she did really well!! I have to read her body language pretty accurately and catch her just at the right moment, and a couple of times it took two or three blows before her bot slowly went down and she looked at me, but she did do it!
I feel she's getting that by being released straightaway , to flush a pheasant, she's not being denied her fun and that somehow it increases her happiness. If that makes sense. I love how when she comes back to me she is lit up from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail -- it's like "did you see what I did there?"
Compared to our first visit there when she was 2, we've come such a long way ! Then she was completely intoxicated and spent the whole time careering about 200 yds from me, but these days it's as if she takes an altogether more measured and thought out approach.
Work in progress indeed!
I'm such a novice at this, and there was a lot I didn't understand at first but it is fun and rewarding to be doing it with her, no matter how long it takes.
Atemas
UK Tour Guide
- Location
- North Cambridgeshire
- Location
- Malvern Worcestershire
Well done Cassie. Have you been to SWMBO lately? Rourke can now see squirrels and comes back to me for the ball and doesn't chase! I don't blow the stop whistle for that as he has taught himself to come back to me, as he does if he flushes a pheasant. However, the stop whistle is spot on if he is out retrieving but he somehow doesn't think it applies if we aren't doing that! If you have been to SWMBO do tell me all about it.
- Location
- Cornwall , UK
So pleased you enjoyed it, Helen , and that you both got a lot out of it , sounds fab xx
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Yes, back in September, see earlier in this thread. I feel inspired to keep at it now. A lot of what I did when she was younger has gone in, but it seems like we can polish it now! (Cassie that is, not SWMBO)