I see that Poppy and I have been "at it" for just under 3 months. It's been great fun with bouts of deep depression thrown in for good measure. 
The challenge is to convert a 2 year old detection dog (failed - lack of concentration) into a passable gundog. Complete opposites in behaviour and temperament. Our trainer, fortunately, loves Poppy, thinks her conformity to the breed is cracking, and that she's bright but very stubborn. I think she views the pair of us as a challenge. So where are we?
Well in general terms since we got properly into a training regime, Poppy has settled. She's much calmer, interacts nicely now with other dogs, and has completely stopped the lunging and barking at other dogs when she's on a lead. We can also walk past sheep on a slack lead really very close and only the odd "Leave it!" is needed. Today she touched noses with a pony through a field gate. I mean rocking and rolling!
The last few training sessions we've been gradually challenging Poppy's boundaries. The latest homework for us was to have Poppy sit/stay, me walk away from her not looking at her. Put dummies out left and right then call Poppy in on a selected dummy, retrieve, deliver to hand and then sit. At today's session after a few warm up exercises, Judy said she was going to test Poppy. This involved two long retrieves. Poppy and I in the field corner and the first one half way across the diagonal of the (large) training field. Pretty good but not perfect success. The second test was the full length of the field diagonal - about 200 yards. Poppy sat perfectly, Judy threw the dummy, I sent Poppy "Out!". Straight as a die, bit of an overshoot, found the dummy, straight as a die back, handover and sit. I have to say I nearly burst into tears with the joy of it.
Well if I don't blow a few trumpets, who will?
The challenge is to convert a 2 year old detection dog (failed - lack of concentration) into a passable gundog. Complete opposites in behaviour and temperament. Our trainer, fortunately, loves Poppy, thinks her conformity to the breed is cracking, and that she's bright but very stubborn. I think she views the pair of us as a challenge. So where are we?Well in general terms since we got properly into a training regime, Poppy has settled. She's much calmer, interacts nicely now with other dogs, and has completely stopped the lunging and barking at other dogs when she's on a lead. We can also walk past sheep on a slack lead really very close and only the odd "Leave it!" is needed. Today she touched noses with a pony through a field gate. I mean rocking and rolling!
The last few training sessions we've been gradually challenging Poppy's boundaries. The latest homework for us was to have Poppy sit/stay, me walk away from her not looking at her. Put dummies out left and right then call Poppy in on a selected dummy, retrieve, deliver to hand and then sit. At today's session after a few warm up exercises, Judy said she was going to test Poppy. This involved two long retrieves. Poppy and I in the field corner and the first one half way across the diagonal of the (large) training field. Pretty good but not perfect success. The second test was the full length of the field diagonal - about 200 yards. Poppy sat perfectly, Judy threw the dummy, I sent Poppy "Out!". Straight as a die, bit of an overshoot, found the dummy, straight as a die back, handover and sit. I have to say I nearly burst into tears with the joy of it.
Well if I don't blow a few trumpets, who will?
