mrmints

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Hey Harry, I'm in the same boat. Business commitments, young daughter, wife, syndicate and dogs. I generally find some free time and go and do what I can. This often means that I don't get to go when conditions are perfect, but I get out into the countryside and make the most of it. I've yet to go to a shoot day this year! Chris

Thanks for that!

Bazooka, this is where I get confused and I apologise if this is glaringly obvious to those in the know. Say I walk the dog over to the fields on the lead, find a suitable spot and cast her off. After a few mins drop a ball and guide her into it. Not wanting to over do this, is that her hunting done for the week? Or every other day? If so, what do I do with her the rest of the time, let her do what she wants? Get her to do a couple of retrieves (again this is something that I try and do only once or twice a week). Or is she just going to spend 99% of her time out with me either walking to heel or on the lead? I'm not asking in a sarcastic manner, I'm really not sure what to do. I've reduced our sessions out on walks down to 20mins twice a day (on the advice of Graham).

It's a minefield this dog training business! I'm finding it a difficult balance, keeping the dog stimulated/interested and in control. No doubt due to my complete inexperience. I was in Oxford recently and went to see Graham Watkins (as he has a rabbit pen, which my instructor does not) and it is he who suggested I really tighten up her pattern and get her focusing more on me. I'll take her up to one of my permissions tonight and see if we can flush some rabbits and get her excited. Thanks for the comments.

Yeah, I've ended up ordering one. It's roomy, four wheel drive and when you're saving that sort of money, it's going to have to be seriously pants for me to upset.

I love your responses Bazooka!

Well Lucy is doing very nicely now. After the training session with my instructor and his dog a couple of months back, she is a "keen" retriever. I've started to work on a bit of steadiness in the last week or so which is going well. I am now working on sending her left right and back over small distances (I don't think she quite gets it yet unless she can see the dummy). I've also been working on getting her to hunt much closer to me which is going well. However, after about 30s to a min of absolutely all out hunting, she slows right down and starts munching grass as she trots along. She is still sniffing about and will still bring me things if I have hidden them (she will only do this once or twice though after which she ignores them until I touch them) but eating eating eating! Is this something I should be stopping? Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Chris

I was asking a similar question a couple of months ago and solved the problem with a cup of water. My ESS would howl when I put her back in the kennel. When she started howling I would appear at the kennel and throw the cup of water at her then turn around and walk away. It has worked reasonably well. She now occasionally has a cry when she puts her self to bed, but it's once a fortnight for 4 seconds rather than every time she goes back in for 15 mins. The thing I was most worried about was affecting our relationship or her confidence, but my horrible neighbours meant I had to act. I don't think it has affected our bond either because she is always very pleased to see me and happy what ever we're doing.

As a company car user, I am struggling to think of a reason not to go for the PHEV, should save me almost £3000 a year not to mention savings on fuel. Anyone had a go in one?? Chris

What does a 60yrd zero on a .22lr translate to on the HMR? Just asking out of curiosity really.

I'd love to do this. Sounds great to me! Let me know if you have any dates/locations in mind and I'll see if I can get involved. I'm based in Cardiff.

We're going to be doing exactly that on Sunday!

Bazooka, no its neither of those, I have a great deal of respect for my trainer, I just enjoy posting online, listening to peoples opinions on subject that interest/affect me and wanted to hear about other peoples experiences of using the technique he suggested. You've posted in a similar vein on other questions I've asked and I mentioned then that I may or may not take the advice given, but the more I learn the happier I am. Further more, I naively hope that other people who don't post or don't want to ask stupid questions could learn from my mistakes or my questions. Anyway, to the training! I have to say I was amazed with the way Lucy behaved! She was unquestionably more interested in retrieving with another dog around, and brought back canvas dummies for the first time ever! She still isn't mad keen (like my instructors dog, who at the same age will choose a game of fetch over a good sniff around!) but I've been told I have nothing to worry about, she knows what to do and should only get keener as I (very slowly) progress. I'm planning on bumping my training quota up to 2 or 3 times a month, because I feel a lot happier and more confident with the dog, after them. However, he has identified a potentially more serious problem and given me advice on how to stop it. Chasing birds in flight. Twice when on walks with me last week I lost control of her at the worst possible moment. The first occasion I'd just let her off the lead at the top of a little hill down towards a field when two ducks flew in about 30 yards from us to land in a big puddle and she was gone, right on their tails! I kept her much closer subsequently, but on Friday, I forgot my whistle and stupidly let her have a little run around, planning to practice voice commands. Off she went again, this time following a pigeon. I could see the other side of the field pigeons lifting up all over the place. With no whistle, and her deaf to my expletives, all I could do was wait for her to come back...doh! Subsequently, anything that flew over she tried to go after, including on Sunday in our training session. However, I'm now the proud owner of a 15m training lead and will be keeping her on that for a while (as per the advice of my trainer). Also, every time anything has caught her attention flying/moving near her I've been sitting her up and in the garden this morning she did so without instruction when a blackbird flew over. To summarise, I'm delighted with the results of making her jealous! Having her come back to me with a canvas dummy that she wouldn't have even looked at before was one of the best feelings!! Now I need to work on keeping her nice and close and her steadiness to game. Bazooka, I'll give it a couple of days before I post my next strange question

Bazooka, not entirely sure why you care so much about the feelings of my trainer? I want to know if anyone has had any experience of making a dog jealous and if it has been successful. Feel free not to respond to my posts.