lozrob

if i do end up losing her , i wont be getting another one, i could not do this over again.

when she was very young 3 to 6 months old , she had got onto one of the sofas in the conservatory and fell asleep. I went in and went to move her off ( not allowed on sofas) which is when I saw the growling showing of teeth for the first time, I went to make a grab of the scruff to get her off ( show her whos boss type of thing ) and that is when she bit my hand and drew blood with 2 or 3 puncture wounds for the first and only time. I pinned her to the floor until the snarling subsided , and it was if a switch had been flipped , she looked as if she didn't know what just happened. i then walked her out to her kennel and put her away for the night. since then we as a family just thought she was a grumpy dog when she was asleep and when it was time to move her to her kennel did it a command rather than touch. but lately the aggression is getting more frequent .

ditchman, 23 %, she is on a dry food , salmon and potatoe , by bombadier, seems to be ok , poo is in good shape, coat is good. been on this for a year and a half. she will eat anything i put down . dry or soaked in hot water. but a lot of other dog foods give her the squits badly , comes out like coffee. especially all skinners food./ chudleys etc.

obviously i am very concerned , but i want to give her a chance , all my family members are adults who all know the score , we have agreed if she bites anyone she is gone. her behaviour in the normal day to day is great , you wouldnt think there was an issue, its when she relaxes , on the floor , or by your feet , near the fire, anywhere really , once relaxed if you then go to her to pet or even go to move her she lifts her lip and growls.and if you keep it up she will bite. also if you try to tell her off with a finger point and a " NO " she growls and shows her teeth, hates her ears being tugged , only done it the once , we found that out the hardway. when she is eating its a strange one too , she will share her food with other dogs , let you put your hand in the bowl and she will eat through your fingers . but touch her and you get the same treatment. she is not a people person what so ever , and not interested in other dogs. she will follow me about as if she attached on a line, absolutely loves my eldest son ( 31 years old ) but lately been growling at him also when he goes in for a cuddle. im hoping the spaying is going to give her a chance , otherwise i do know what ive got to do, loz.

i have a 3 year old sprocker named Beau, her training has been an absolute nightmare , almost driving me to insanity. a few weeks ago i posted , that although Beau was difficult to train in her early days, i thought she had " got it , and realised what was expected of her " I MUST HAVE BEEN DILLUSIONAL !!!!! She will behave like a field trial champion in any enclosed area , wether my garden , tennis courts , horse paddock. sitting , staying , stopping to whistle , retrieve to hand, going BACK , walk to heal , sitting steady while throwing dummies / pigeons. BUT , get her into any open ground and when she realises where she is , shes off , like a Demonic greyhound chasing ghosts who has become completely deaf . we could be up the park , pigeon shooting , pheasant drive, anywhere open. she will come back when she wants , not interested in other dogs or people just ghosts, i have had loads of help and tried really hard to use it to the best of my ability. its driving me insane , its getting to a point i dont want to let her off the lead once outside. the only JOY at the moment is leaving her at home with the wife when iu go to work. and to top it all off she is now becoming aggresive , to different members of the family on different days. one day she hates me. another day its the wife , then another day maybe my daughter. she hasnt actually bitten badly yet, she does warn you first , but if you carry on touching her chin or whatever she will bite, im sure she has mental health issues. the vet has said , he is 100% certain its her hormones , and spayding will help , then he can medicate properly. she is due to be done on 5th april. my question is , can i turn this dog around , ( at 3 years old and crazy ), do i wait till after the op to carry on her training ( ive stopped at the present time ) or is she a basket case, another down side is , im having a new knee joint in a couple of months . happy days. loz.

with you on this one, my sprocker is now 3 , she is brilliant odd times , (she knows what is expected of her , shes done it.) and uncontrollable the rest. joe irvings book is ok , but one of the most important parts of training , dont let your dog run around in big open spaces when its young - is mentioned right near the end of joes book. hence why my dog is a nutter when out. cheers. loz.

well done alli. if i was allowed id have 15 dogs also.

well done, its awesome when they do it right for you.

try GOOGLE EARTH , it has a print screen as you see it button. top right of the landscape. cheers. loz.

my dog beau is a 2 1/2 year old sprocker from working lines . black and white, she is adorable. BUT. the training of my dog has been a 2 1/2 year uphill BATTLE , especially the bogging off bit at every opportunity. ive worn out 3 whistles , dislocated knees and elbows trying to catch her up. learned to swear in 7 different languages under my breath. ive thought about shooting her , giving her away .leaving her outside tescos ( only joking ). ive had help from some amazing people on here ( alli & steve ,to name a few ) just when i thought i would be shooting on my own , beau has all of a sudden .......GOT IT ......,. shes recalling brilliantly , stopping on the whistle ( most of the time.) retrieving pigeons, rabbits and pheasants to hand , even going BACK to them. working her quarter , sitting quietly in a hide, flushing pheasants and actually coming back straight away. this has all happened in just the last few weeks , considering ive done something with her everyday of her life this happening is amazing , i just had to tell someone. lol. i owe it all to the fantastic people of pigeon watch , without you guys , i really would be shooting on my own. many thanks. and long may it continue. cheers, loz.

i am in possesion of a side x side , 16 bore , 1946 , peter mischitz , shotgun out of the FERLACH gun house. absolutely in perfect condition , its apparently shot 8 cartridges through it. it was made for a friends dad while he was stationed in austria in WW2. His dad brought it home but never used it after that. his dad has since passed away and the shotgun was hidden in the family home untill just recently. been checked out at the barn shop near royston and is safe to use, i was wondering if anybody knows anything more about it , what is it worth etc. as my friend is thinking about selling it. many thanks. loz.

Brilliant. She lost the plot once. In a spinney. She was on her way back to me on the whistle. When she got scent of something else and off like a bullet. She did come back after a few minutes.

Been out with the gamekeeper and his dog. For a bit of dogging in practice. Butter wouldn't melt .ehhh

what a cracker.

hi all. bigbird & her hubby steve certainly sorted me out and my dog "beau", well worth a visit if you have got a problem or just want to sharpen up. in a word ..................................... BRILLIANT.

sounds like a fantastic idea, the kids will love it,

I was starting to get really frustrated with my dog , all she wanted to do was run off at a million miles an hour to hunt on her own. i was getting close to giving her away . i then spoke to BIG BIRD and arranged a meet up with her and her husband steve over the bank holiday for some dog training. it turned out it wasnt the dog, it was me that required the training. Ally and steve were tremendous in helping me and beau to work together and i came away from theirs with some fantastic exercises to put us right, both me and the missus were well looked after , drinks and lovely grub . if anybody has a problem with all aspects of gundog training , i thoroughly recommend contacting Ally ( big bird ) and her hubby steve, it has definately been a massive help for me and beau . happy hunting,. loz.

brilliant read alli. brings it all back.

cheers big bird, no offence taken , i need help. when out walking on short / long lead , i stop her ( on a whistle ). she sits. then i use " come " somebody else mentioned that before . " get on " is only used when out in the field or the woods.

my dog beau is now 18 months old, shes a sprocker. come from a working background. is there a level that she should be at by now. its really frustrating for me at the moment as to what she SHOULD be doing. she sits, she stays ( only for as long as im looking.) she will retrieve to hand, she has no problem being around a gun. BUT, she will not walk to heel . she will run off at any chance she gets when were out, 200 / 300 yards ( she does come back to me if i run off in the other direction.) she just wants to hunt and not bothered what im trying to get her to do, she pulls like a train on a short lead. and on a long line, ive taken her pigeon shooting with me over the last few months to try and get some steadiness in her , , which is fine , but as soon as i send her out to pick up a bird shes off, in a massive circle , then eventually comes back with a lot of help from me to find the downed bird. also she is now trying to take a second bite on the pigeon for better grip and damaging the bird, if she is too young for the shooting part , what age is good, what should i be expecting her to do, have i got to start basic training again. ive been training with a long line for 3 months now, everything seemed ok then tried the same exercises off lead . and shes off like a train. cheers for any help.

im going away in late july for 2 weeks, and was wondering if anybody could recomend a trainer + boarding kennels somewhere nearish to cambridgeshire, my dog Beau , will be nearlly 1 1/2 by then. cheers. loz

1 year and a month. cheers.

i posted on here a few weeks ago about my sprocker running off when out of the garden, had some fantastic advice from other pigeon watch members. ive been using a long retractable lead when ever out side of the restraint of the garden fence, when ever beau gave me a retrieve of the dummy , i let her have a hunt ( only till the end of the lead ) using recall and stop whistles all the time, any way , took beau pigeon shooting today to see where we are getting , she sat in the hide reasonable well , ( kept putting her head through the net for a look,) kept her on a short slip lead, shot a pigeon , not quite dead , sent beau out , she found it, brought it back to me , perfectly. i shot 12 birds . she brought back atleast 3 of them. whenever i left the hide, i took beau out ,off lead , she behaved herself very well. i know i have a long way to go , but i thought id share this massive change , all thanks to the pigeon watch members. cheers.. loz & beau.

scotslad. ive let her off the lead since shes been able, the problem has gotten slowly worse over a period of time. i will do as you suggested with the long lead, i have just come back from a walk around the streets near my home, with beau on a retractable lead. she just started jumping about at first then soon settled down. every junction and every 100 or so yards , tugged the lead , blew the stop whistle , and she sat and stayed untill i told her " to get on " i will continue for as long as it takes , will keep everybody posted. many thanks,

i am the only one who takes her out for walks. feeds her, puts her in the kennel , takes her out of the kennel. shes a lovely dog otherwise, full of it , just as you would expect a puppy to be. B725. will try the long lead ,sounds a sensible thing to do, when you say back to basics do you mean just the sit & staying for a while on the long lead, cheers for your replys.