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Meet Jed, my new Lab


Fal
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Just a quick video of the dog doing his second water retrieve. Only a short shallow retrieve, nice and simple but he nailed it. I'm happy!!! He loves the water, I have been wading in with him up to my ankles for a few weeks, having a bit of a splash about to get him used to it. Apologies about the quality I took it on my mobile quickly!

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Took my proper camera gear out this morning with the dog, thought I would get some photos of him as he's now coming up to six months old. Hope you like them, he's coming along really well. I am very happy with him, loves the water!!!

 

I will add a few photos to different posts so they are a decent size!

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Edited by Fal
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  • 4 months later...

Jed update!

 

He's a year old on the 1st of March. He is coming along nicely, he seems to be picking up things a lot slower now, or choosing to anyway.

 

He is starting to prefer to sniff around and look for scent and mark than listen to me! Nothing major, I'm just putting it down to his age. I am hoping to have him marsh ready for next season or maybe xmas time this year.

 

I am going to start training twice a day from now when I can, see how he does. Some quick videos I took out on the weekend on a walk, nothing too complicated just the basic, sit, stay and fetch. Let me know what you think, and how you think he is doing for an alomost one year old.

 

ATB,

 

Rhodri

 

 


Here's another.

 

 

Ni idea why the ast video will not populate into the post.

Edited by Fal
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Thanks guys! He's coming along nicely!

 

Fenboy, he is a very different shape to yours and most other Labs I see out and about. He is from field trail lines, it took me a long time to find what I was looking for. I prefer the slender, leggier type, he is very, very agile! Keeps up with my girlfriends two spaniels and gives them a run for their money!

 

I like them lean, even though he is very lean he is still 30k which is very suprising. He eats like a horse, he would eat so much more food if I kept giving it to him!

 

How is yours doing at the kennel?

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Well done Rodders :good:

 

My Gwen is a few months younger than yours and also has the 'snipey' face and athletic build as one would expect from a field trial line.

Very quick off the mark and observant and will suit my shooting perfectly.

 

You get what you pay for in my opinion.

 

I love following dog diaries so keep the updates coming mate.

 

ATB

 

Carwyn

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If the dog is less keen as you say "sniffing around etc", start challenging him with those retrieves perhaps? the ones given and shown are not challenging his ability and he is not really flying out the blocks for them. Don't take this as criticism but as a comment on what I see, trial lines tend towards fast and he aint very fast at present. This leads to what you already suspect, it aint nothing to do with his age just he is getting bored through lack of challenge

I see a dog there that has the potential to get out a lot further for some well hidden blinds and more challenging stuff. Try leaving him on drop and walking out to place some long blinds, see how far you can get him. Work on towards three dummy direction drills dog on drop one left one right one behind, you choose which the dog should be looking at you like your holding a fresh steak during this drill! start onto some cold game as his delivery don't seem too bad from what we see. Mix your routines, keep him guessing and buzzing mentally he looks ready to do more- a fine dog

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Thanks guys! He's coming along nicely!

 

Fenboy, he is a very different shape to yours and most other Labs I see out and about. He is from field trail lines, it took me a long time to find what I was looking for. I prefer the slender, leggier type, he is very, very agile! Keeps up with my girlfriends two spaniels and gives them a run for their money!

 

I like them lean, even though he is very lean he is still 30k which is very suprising. He eats like a horse, he would eat so much more food if I kept giving it to him!

 

How is yours doing at the kennel?

 

I very much like the look of labs like yours , they look more athletic ,however I decided to go for a pup whose sire was a very solid dog with a lot of muscle and a really thick coat as I mainly want him for fowling , so far he seems to be heading down the same lines.

 

Weight wise he is just about the same as yours 28.8 kg last time I weighed him , but in a more condensed package.

 

He is away at a professional trainer at the moment , been gone for a month and perhaps for another yet, though I miss him being around greatly, I will be going over to see his progress on Monday.

 

Milowalk005_zps862ad6a3.jpg

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If the dog is less keen as you say "sniffing around etc", start challenging him with those retrieves perhaps? the ones given and shown are not challenging his ability and he is not really flying out the blocks for them. Don't take this as criticism but as a comment on what I see, trial lines tend towards fast and he aint very fast at present. This leads to what you already suspect, it aint nothing to do with his age just he is getting bored through lack of challenge

I see a dog there that has the potential to get out a lot further for some well hidden blinds and more challenging stuff. Try leaving him on drop and walking out to place some long blinds, see how far you can get him. Work on towards three dummy direction drills dog on drop one left one right one behind, you choose which the dog should be looking at you like your holding a fresh steak during this drill! start onto some cold game as his delivery don't seem too bad from what we see. Mix your routines, keep him guessing and buzzing mentally he looks ready to do more- a fine dog

 

I will never take any advice as a critisism, the reason I post here is for constructive critisism and advice from fellow dog owners. I am just trying to be very carefull not to rush him, I don't want to ruin him, I do feel that I am keeping it very simple and I feel for the last two months maybe I have been holding him back. Although I have had plenty of other dogs this is my first go at training a gun dog. It's a very big learning curve for us both.

 

I am really enjoying it though. I will def start giving him harder retreives etc. He is excellent on the re-call whistle and sit etc

 

Carwyn, she is a fine looking dog from your pics, hpw's she cominmg along?

 

Fenboy, hopefully it will be worth it!! He will get back into routine with you in no time i'm sure!!!

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Fenboy, hopefully it will be worth it!! He will get back into routine with you in no time i'm sure!!!

 

I sure hope so , two months at the trainer I am using is almost 1k so hopefully my investment will be returned over the coming years.

Once he is ready to come home I will be having regular 1-1 sessions with the trainer so that should help further.

 

The ignoring you for scent thing you talk about is very common mine did it , I spoke to the trainer and he recons its a stage they normally go through as they get older they start to realize that their is more fun to be had than listening to you

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I will never take any advice as a critisism, the reason I post here is for constructive critisism and advice from fellow dog owners. I am just trying to be very carefull not to rush him, I don't want to ruin him, I do feel that I am keeping it very simple and I feel for the last two months maybe I have been holding him back. Although I have had plenty of other dogs this is my first go at training a gun dog. It's a very big learning curve for us both.

 

I am really enjoying it though. I will def start giving him harder retreives etc. He is excellent on the re-call whistle and sit etc

 

Carwyn, she is a fine looking dog from your pics, hpw's she cominmg along?

 

Fenboy, hopefully it will be worth it!! He will get back into routine with you in no time i'm sure!!!

Yeah,

Its a fine line between rushing them and boring them. If you try something and the dog cant do it go back a step and try again. If a dog cant make a retrieve I walk him out to it at heel show him and pick it up myself, just have to be careful the dog doesn't become over reliant on you. Your dog is certainly ready from the looks of him, do you yourself not feel so? I should be itching to see what it can really do (they love being tested you know) after all you cannot ruin a dog from testing him a bit further as long as you are prepared to step back and other issues are fixed. just had my lab out 26-27 months? dropped a retrieve at our feet and called him away to heel walked home then sent him back (waaay far) he totally loved it and went out and back like a bullet the find was easy peasy for him but it took all his effort to not just break heel and go for it ( I like a keen dog on the marsh ). Going out was like a bullet same on return, might not do that again for weeks perhaps its been 6 mnths from the last time I did it?. If he broke heel and lost control of himself on the walk and ran in (you could see the "send me" pleads in his looks) then I should just do it again and again till he learnt, you cant spoil them by testing them a bit now and again. A single failure is not the dog ruined, I bet he doesn't though if you get him going bit by bit

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  • 3 months later...

Quick video of Jed doing a retrieve I was very happy with. I recently purchased a dummy launcher, I am finding in invaluable, the ability to put the dummy in places you couldn't by just throwing them is great and the blind retrieves you can setup using it are much better. I always seem to underestimate its power though and put it in a completely different place to where I am aiming, a bit like my shooting really! :)

 

I didn't realise there was a fence half way up, so he has to go around it, but he is coming along nicely. I am trying to get him to use his nose a lot more. It seems to be paying off, he is using his nose a lot more than he used to.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL4EtzCuKcQ

 

I don't know why I cant embed the video, I'm not doing anything different.

 

Edited by Fal
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Lovely looking dog mate.

 

Just a word of warning and in no way meant as a criticism. Don't make the mistake of getting the dog used to hearing the bang then expecting a retrieve. if you look at the video you have posted you'll notice he is already starting to anticipate the retieve once the bang has sounded.Before using the launcher make sure you get the dog steady 100% to shot. Let him see you tossing retrieves up first then hearing the shot second.Stop him to shot on a regular basis with a starter pistol and retrieve most dummies yourself, let him see you retrieving dummies in front of him, after he has seen retrieves being tossed out and heard the shot. Only then move on to the launcher but when you do you have got to be very careful, watch that his *** does not leave the ground on shot, if it does and you don't correct it, it will develop into a run in to shot, IMO if you have to correct that, you need to retrain steady to dummies and steady to shot. Quickly and before any more launcher work is done.

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Lovely looking dog mate.

 

Just a word of warning and in no way meant as a criticism. Don't make the mistake of getting the dog used to hearing the bang then expecting a retrieve. if you look at the video you have posted you'll notice he is already starting to anticipate the retieve once the bang has sounded.Before using the launcher make sure you get the dog steady 100% to shot. Let him see you tossing retrieves up first then hearing the shot second.Stop him to shot on a regular basis with a starter pistol and retrieve most dummies yourself, let him see you retrieving dummies in front of him, after he has seen retrieves being tossed out and heard the shot. Only then move on to the launcher but when you do you have got to be very careful, watch that his *** does not leave the ground on shot, if it does and you don't correct it, it will develop into a run in to shot, IMO if you have to correct that, you need to retrain steady to dummies and steady to shot. Quickly and before any more launcher work is done.

 

I never take any view on here as critisism, the reason I post here is for peoples views etc

 

The funny thing is I have never noticed him doing that until I watched the video. As part of a normal training session I always sit him down, throw dummies around him and pick them up myself, he does not flinch apart from watching them hit the ground.I can sit and stay him and I can collect all the dummies without even giving him a retrieve at all. I even throw a dummy so he marks it, then I heel him back to the van, sit him up then I go to collect that dummy while he sits at the car waiting for me to return. He's pretty good to be fair, but I see what you mean, he was def thinking that retrieve was his.

 

I've started using the launcher to give him more challenging retrieves, and blind retrieves. It seems to be working well as I can see him using his nose a hell of a lot more now.

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That's refreshing to hear. Some on here and other forum for that matter, ask for advice then jump all over the guy trying to offer honest advice.That's all it was, just a nip in the bud thing. He's certainly not what anyone could call unsteady but with those launchers,you ( anyone), concetrate so much on the holding of it and the firing and marking of the bloody expensive dummy that it's easy to take an eye off the important thing. The dog. I offerd advice a couple of months back to someone on here to start filming some of their training sessions to see if they could see anything in their training that was causing a problem to the dog. It was not taken seriousy. It can be another pair of eyes.

 

There's many a clip on you tube with them being used but this possibly demonstrates why i have reservations about them.Bear in mind the second clip is approximately 1 year later. The first clip, new toy, dog steady, clips from there on see the dog getting more unsteady.I don't like them for that reason but I understand people wanting to give more challenging retrieves. Just think there's easier and less risky ways.

In fairness to the guy in the clips, he states he is 'pet gundog training' so he's not taking things to seriously but I use the clips as an example of the dummy launchers failings (IMO), not the trainer/handler.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYKB-bPujvs

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJe3E9T683E

Edited by Bazooka
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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, Jed is coming along nicely! We've been down to the trainer for the first time, just for me to have a bit of peace of mind really. Anyway, trainer loved him and thought he was excellent, pointed a few things out that I would never have thought of, I've bed working on them since and his progress seems to be getting a lot better. He's getting very good on the stop whistle and hunt whistle, I feel like it's all falling into place now. He's still very immature around other dogs, wants to play about all the time, whether he will be ready for September or October remains to be seen. I'll get some more vids up soon, in the meantime here's a pic of him, he's 15 months old now.

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