Lots of small steps needed!
This is working out to be a big challenge. Poppy is 2 years old and has been trained to have all the wrong behaviours, pretty much, for a working gundog. She's been a free agent with no boundaries and where her huge drive has been encouraged to get her to go anywhere and do anything. Well so it seems anyway. Progress to date -
Not pulling on the lead anywhere - I'd say 90%. She doesn't pull at all in most situations and trots along with her nose just next to my left leg. In new situations with interesting smells she goes out to the end of the lead but not much more than that. Super exciting situations like squirrels, cats or a dog walker treating her dogs and I need to BRACE! BRACE!
Recall is not bad but not prefect and she will now recall from other dogs if I get the timing right. I'd say 60% for this one.
Walking to heel off lead - coming along as long as I don't over push my luck. 30 or 40 yards then a sit works fine. Too far and she starts to loose concentration and wander. No score here but a work in progress.
Sit/stay also a work in progress. I can call a sit/stay or peep and she will stay while I walk ahead then trot up and sit when called - and repeat. We transitioned this into walking at heel between place mats set in a square and sitting on the place mat. She got the idea pretty much straight away.
Simple retrieve - she's got the basics until last training session a couple of days ago. She'd sit until called out and bring back. Her release was too quick but we were getting there. This last training session she was just away with the fairies! Ran out like a train then waltzed all over the field trying to bury the dummy and playing stoppy away. We had to call it a day in the end. We tried a different tactic. Poppy on lead and get her to hold and walk with the dummy then release to hand sit and reward. That seemed to work.
So homework until next week is all of the above but concentrating on the walking on lead and holding. If this goes well try a simple retrieve and if successful reward and put the dummy away.
The thing boils down to we are doing puppy stuff with a two year old really stubborn dog. You can tell it's not stupidity because you can see her trying to work things out when she's not getting it right but it's going to take time and patience. One thing that is really apparent is she has calmed down a lot since I started the proper gundog training with her. She continues to be a delight and I'm sure we'll get there in the end but possibly not as a FTC!
This is working out to be a big challenge. Poppy is 2 years old and has been trained to have all the wrong behaviours, pretty much, for a working gundog. She's been a free agent with no boundaries and where her huge drive has been encouraged to get her to go anywhere and do anything. Well so it seems anyway. Progress to date -
Not pulling on the lead anywhere - I'd say 90%. She doesn't pull at all in most situations and trots along with her nose just next to my left leg. In new situations with interesting smells she goes out to the end of the lead but not much more than that. Super exciting situations like squirrels, cats or a dog walker treating her dogs and I need to BRACE! BRACE!
Recall is not bad but not prefect and she will now recall from other dogs if I get the timing right. I'd say 60% for this one.
Walking to heel off lead - coming along as long as I don't over push my luck. 30 or 40 yards then a sit works fine. Too far and she starts to loose concentration and wander. No score here but a work in progress.
Sit/stay also a work in progress. I can call a sit/stay or peep and she will stay while I walk ahead then trot up and sit when called - and repeat. We transitioned this into walking at heel between place mats set in a square and sitting on the place mat. She got the idea pretty much straight away.
Simple retrieve - she's got the basics until last training session a couple of days ago. She'd sit until called out and bring back. Her release was too quick but we were getting there. This last training session she was just away with the fairies! Ran out like a train then waltzed all over the field trying to bury the dummy and playing stoppy away. We had to call it a day in the end. We tried a different tactic. Poppy on lead and get her to hold and walk with the dummy then release to hand sit and reward. That seemed to work.
So homework until next week is all of the above but concentrating on the walking on lead and holding. If this goes well try a simple retrieve and if successful reward and put the dummy away.
The thing boils down to we are doing puppy stuff with a two year old really stubborn dog. You can tell it's not stupidity because you can see her trying to work things out when she's not getting it right but it's going to take time and patience. One thing that is really apparent is she has calmed down a lot since I started the proper gundog training with her. She continues to be a delight and I'm sure we'll get there in the end but possibly not as a FTC!
) that at times, it seems like a mountain to climb , but from what you have said , I think you are doing splendidly and so is Poppy . It will take time of course, to undo what she was used to doing before , but with your loving guidance , she will get there I`m sure x
My OH keeps saying I'm whispering when it sounds normal to me so when Judy made that remark it clicked!
and David 
