We've already had a couple of one-to-ones with the trainer, but today we entered Puppy Class!! Two other black lab girls - one aged around 1 year and the other around 15 months. They had already had several puppy sessions. The two other dogs were very petite compared to Poppy (about half her size) and one of them in particular was very squidgy just like a real puppy and rolled over at the drop of a hat. 
Poppy will be 2 years old next month, but of course she's had all the wrong training so we are joining a class to start off with the basics and take really small steps forward. Poppy has had 18 months of all the wrong training to be a gun dog so we are having to wipe the slate clean so-to-speak and start afresh.
I've been working on stop and sit, sit and stay, heel work, leave it, and recall. Without distractions she does it all. I've also been working on retrieve, hold, and release but with little success.
The trainer explained to the other two that Poppy is a failed detection dog so we were having to completely retrain her, and that she hoped Poppy would show an interest in what the others were doing and that might help her latch on.
It was really hard work and the problem I think is mainly me. We all practised walking up with the dogs sitting and staying then coming up to us and repeat as we moved up the field. I know Poppy can do this but with the other dogs she was really just ignoring me. Our trainer, Judy, took over and Poppy was as good as gold.
We also did a spot of introducing retrieving. Firstly to retrieve one dummy over a short distance and encourage delivery to hand and then sit. Then a double retrieve over a much longer distance. The first dummy sighted then the second placed as a simple blind in the same spot while the dog was returning with the first dummy.
The first exercise the other two labs were both very good and retrieved well but early days and hand over was a bit mixed. Poppy had to do this over a very short distance while still on lead. Holding problematic. One thing that really stood out though was she was absolutely right on it watching the other two do their stuff.
The second exercise again both of the other two labs did the stuff including the blind with a bit of help. Poppy again fascinated. When it came to her turn, Judy put the dummy on a training line so Pops couldn't run off with it and I did the release from about 100 yards away. Absolutely red hot on the out run and pick up and she also managed to bring the dummy back after a fashion. We tried it a couple of times and Poppy did improve.
So that was the end of the lesson and I felt is it really worth carrying on. Compared to the other two Labs, Poppy was hopeless and very hard work. I said as much including I thought I might be a weak link in the process as well. Judy said quite the opposite (and the other handlers agreed). She said even now she could see Poppy had a lot of potential and that she was a 100% full on working gundog and intelligent with it. She said Poppy had been watching the others and was working stuff out. The police training was the main problem we had to work on. If I agreed she'd like to raise the bar and take Poppy for a whole day working with her dogs and she'd do a video of the day so I could see what was needed.
So there you are. Onwards and upwards. This afternoon in the field on our own Poppy did everything to the letter (except a retrieve - I thought that was a step too far).
Poppy will be 2 years old next month, but of course she's had all the wrong training so we are joining a class to start off with the basics and take really small steps forward. Poppy has had 18 months of all the wrong training to be a gun dog so we are having to wipe the slate clean so-to-speak and start afresh.I've been working on stop and sit, sit and stay, heel work, leave it, and recall. Without distractions she does it all. I've also been working on retrieve, hold, and release but with little success.
The trainer explained to the other two that Poppy is a failed detection dog so we were having to completely retrain her, and that she hoped Poppy would show an interest in what the others were doing and that might help her latch on.
It was really hard work and the problem I think is mainly me. We all practised walking up with the dogs sitting and staying then coming up to us and repeat as we moved up the field. I know Poppy can do this but with the other dogs she was really just ignoring me. Our trainer, Judy, took over and Poppy was as good as gold.
We also did a spot of introducing retrieving. Firstly to retrieve one dummy over a short distance and encourage delivery to hand and then sit. Then a double retrieve over a much longer distance. The first dummy sighted then the second placed as a simple blind in the same spot while the dog was returning with the first dummy.
The first exercise the other two labs were both very good and retrieved well but early days and hand over was a bit mixed. Poppy had to do this over a very short distance while still on lead. Holding problematic. One thing that really stood out though was she was absolutely right on it watching the other two do their stuff.
The second exercise again both of the other two labs did the stuff including the blind with a bit of help. Poppy again fascinated. When it came to her turn, Judy put the dummy on a training line so Pops couldn't run off with it and I did the release from about 100 yards away. Absolutely red hot on the out run and pick up and she also managed to bring the dummy back after a fashion. We tried it a couple of times and Poppy did improve.
So that was the end of the lesson and I felt is it really worth carrying on. Compared to the other two Labs, Poppy was hopeless and very hard work. I said as much including I thought I might be a weak link in the process as well. Judy said quite the opposite (and the other handlers agreed). She said even now she could see Poppy had a lot of potential and that she was a 100% full on working gundog and intelligent with it. She said Poppy had been watching the others and was working stuff out. The police training was the main problem we had to work on. If I agreed she'd like to raise the bar and take Poppy for a whole day working with her dogs and she'd do a video of the day so I could see what was needed.
So there you are. Onwards and upwards. This afternoon in the field on our own Poppy did everything to the letter (except a retrieve - I thought that was a step too far).
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But on the plus side when she did her couple of retrieves she had marked the dummy spot on both times and went straight to it like an arrow (musn't compare but the other two dogs both miss-judged the mark and had to hunt). So a spark of sunshine maybe.
