We took Poppy to a new level yesterday with mixed results but a lot of fun. The venue was changed from the nice safe square training field to an area of mixed woodland with a pond and adjoining open fields. There was another more experienced dog there too so Poppy could hopefully benefit from watching. He was a 3-year-old Golden Retriever dog. Our trainer said the bitch/dog combination usually worked better than both dogs being the same sex and indeed it seemed to work out that way. The Pop dog was fawning all over the other dog and licking his face.
We stood in the woods with the dogs sitting off-lead while Judy walked to the other side of a little valley. The idea was to try a simple sighted retrieve each, followed by a sighted plus a blind which Judy placed while the dog was returning with the first dummy. The starting pistol was used for each sighted dummy. Poppy was fascinated watching the Golden Retriever do his stuff and wanted to join in, so I had to restrain her on the lead. When it came to be her turn she went out like an absolute train, picked up the dummy, came back halfway and started to bury it.
I'm not allowed to move at this point and Judy sorts it out on the basis that if I go towards Poppy it's rewarding the wrong behaviour. We tried again and success but not by the direct route. Much deviating and taking the great circle route back to me. The sighted plus blind was a bit better, however. Pops brought the first dummy bac straight and then did "go-back" for the blind. Basically she has no clue about hunting for a blind retrieve, though. She needed a lot of help.
We then tried sending the dogs out and getting a stop and sit, then a "go back" and retrieve. The other dog was super and promptly sat at the stop whistle and successfully retrieved. It was a bit of a stretch to expect Poppy to do that - needs more work but to be fair I haven't put much time into that yet. Judy got her to sit, and I then did manage to send her back.
We did some steadiness exercises as well including walking up out of the wood and then going back from the open field into the wood for a retrieve. Some sit/stay work and then finished with a really long sighted retrieve across an open field.
Poppy can be really hard to control. What seems to work is if she knows there is a treat on offer so my strategy agreed with Judy is to use treats to get results. It's not ideal but it's addressing a double job really where I'm training out the sniffer dog traits and training in the gundog traits. All in all, I'm told Pops did well bearing in mind we'd put her in a completely unfamiliar environment and with another dog.
We're pretty busy over the next few weeks so I can't make it to a gundog session until after the Jubilee celebrations, but I've got a lot to work on.
We stood in the woods with the dogs sitting off-lead while Judy walked to the other side of a little valley. The idea was to try a simple sighted retrieve each, followed by a sighted plus a blind which Judy placed while the dog was returning with the first dummy. The starting pistol was used for each sighted dummy. Poppy was fascinated watching the Golden Retriever do his stuff and wanted to join in, so I had to restrain her on the lead. When it came to be her turn she went out like an absolute train, picked up the dummy, came back halfway and started to bury it.
I'm not allowed to move at this point and Judy sorts it out on the basis that if I go towards Poppy it's rewarding the wrong behaviour. We tried again and success but not by the direct route. Much deviating and taking the great circle route back to me. The sighted plus blind was a bit better, however. Pops brought the first dummy bac straight and then did "go-back" for the blind. Basically she has no clue about hunting for a blind retrieve, though. She needed a lot of help.We then tried sending the dogs out and getting a stop and sit, then a "go back" and retrieve. The other dog was super and promptly sat at the stop whistle and successfully retrieved. It was a bit of a stretch to expect Poppy to do that - needs more work but to be fair I haven't put much time into that yet. Judy got her to sit, and I then did manage to send her back.
We did some steadiness exercises as well including walking up out of the wood and then going back from the open field into the wood for a retrieve. Some sit/stay work and then finished with a really long sighted retrieve across an open field.
Poppy can be really hard to control. What seems to work is if she knows there is a treat on offer so my strategy agreed with Judy is to use treats to get results. It's not ideal but it's addressing a double job really where I'm training out the sniffer dog traits and training in the gundog traits. All in all, I'm told Pops did well bearing in mind we'd put her in a completely unfamiliar environment and with another dog.
We're pretty busy over the next few weeks so I can't make it to a gundog session until after the Jubilee celebrations, but I've got a lot to work on.
