Sika's Gundog Training

Sika (HWV) is now 8 months old and passed her Bronze level obedience last night (woo hoo!). She doesn't really enjoy obedience training but I have a feeling she will love gundog work. The obedience training has given us a good base to start from.
Today I wanted to see how she would do with retrieving a dummy for me. I threw one out a short distance and she took it back no bother at all and gave it to me perfectly I did a few more throws, most of which she came straight back with (a few she thought about running off with but a quick 'ah ah' brought her back on track). I've left it at that for today as I don't want to sicken her of it.
I am using a guide (level 2 retrieving) from the Gundog Club which I will be following step by step. Going to spend the next few days proofing the retrieve before moving onto the next stage. Watch this space

So exciting! Good luck to you and Sika!

Yesterday we did a few more retrieves which Sika is getting a bit more confident with but with the confidence she is starting to get cocky and has tried to run away a few times with the dummy but always comes back after a bit of a swerve to the side. I want to get her retrieve straight back to me and solid before progressing with this. I have also been practicing the stop whistle by asking her to sit then blowing a quick 'peep' on the whistle, walking away then blowing another quick 'peep' as I come back. I have not been using food rewards for this training but lots of praise and a good game afterwards. I'm keeping sessions to only a few minutes long just now. So far so good!

We had a bit of a disastrous training session today. I went down to the field at the bottom of the road and tried to do a bit of heel work (not so bad) and retrieving (bad). Today she wasn't going to pick up the dummy but run out, sniff it and then eat grass beside it. If she did pick it up she dropped it well short of me. Conclusion- I've moved way too fast and need to keep practicing the retrieving in the garden and get it perfected there first! I'm a numpty. She likes retrieving but could be more enthusiastic. I tried giving her a toy as soon as she came back with the dummy but she started dropping the dummy when she reached me in anticipation of the toy, the reason I've not been using treats. I think I'll go back to the lavish praise instead and limit the number of retrieves she can do which will hopefully keep her enthusiasm up. So for now the plan is heel work practice, sit 'whistle' practice and limited retrieves concentrating on getting a quick return.

I have re-written the above 2 comments as blog entries to keep it simpler!