How many sneakers have been run down so far??
I must admit I felt weird when first ran after my dog
But on the bright side I´m in better shape now and I dont fall over as often on bumpy ground as I did before :smt043

And Helen, please jump in here and tell us what you know
We would love to hear from more that finds working with the dogs intersting

I have 8 dogs:

3 springers (used for beating and roughshooting) - Holly, Rosie and Pippa. Holly is retired now as she's 10, she's given us some great seasons, two of those on three legs since she had her leg amputed, amazing dog. Rosie is 8 and we got her last year from a keeper and she was VERY nervous. She has come on leaps and bounds but still has her moments and there is Pippa, who is 2 years old. I made the mistake of taking her out too soon last season and have spent the summer correcting my mistakes with her!

3 pointers (they are used for grouse counting)- Goldy, Lucky and Milly. Goldy is retired and is 13 years old this year. Lucky is 8 this year and is a lovely worker and then there is Milly, she is 2 and a half and is best counting dog. She was hard work as a pup but it all came together this year.

1 gwp, Harvey who is also used for grouse counting. He is 5 this year and is sooo laid back, it's unbelievable.

and finally, little Dotty who is an 8 week old working english setter. She is going to be trained for grouse counts.

Even though they are working dogs, they are part of the family so it can be a bit of a squeeze in the living room!

I know some people may not be happy about shooting but that's what we do. The dogs love it and I love giving the dogs that lifestyle. They are all doing what their instinct tells them to.

Helen

Quite a lot of dogs Helen
And Holly must be something She was actually able to work and keep it up with the rest of them on only three legs?

I would love to see some pics and hear more about your work. Sounds great and you have a lot of experience it seems

Here is my website with photos of them all but Rosie and Dotty, I haven't had time to do a page for them yet. http://web.ukonline.co.uk/hv.foster/

Here is Rosie:



and here is Dotty, her first point:



A lot of people never realised that Holly had three legs as she used to dive into cover and leap over logs. She may have managed to work for a bit longer with 4 legs, who knows but it was getting a bit much for her at the end of last season. She seems happy enough to stay at home though.

Helen

Excellent site and I love your pics on it

I would love to hear more about the training you do with them. It is a bit diff from what I do, but very intersting

Spotted the kanvas dummies on your site - Do I hate those
I get some diff dummies made of other materiel or use tennisballs tbh.
But I know they are whats being used mostly in the UK and with some here aswell.

With them all, I do the basic training when they are young - recall, sit, heel. I don't teach down as it isn't necessary for me. I also start to teach the whistle; continuous peeps for recall, two peeps for turn and one long blast for sit.

For the pointers, we take them onto the moor at around 6 months old to test their nose and to give them a little bit of experience. At this point, it doesn't matter if they chase, they soon learn that it is futile. We can only take them on the moor in the spring or in July/August as during the winter, the grouse are pretty wild and we don't want to disturb them during their breeding season. With pointers, once you have got the obedience there, it is just a case of giving them more experience on the grouse. They are relatively easy to train.

With the spaniels, I also do a bit of retrieving when they are small, but it's just for fun. Once they reach around 6 months or when I feel they are ready, I start to do more formal training on the dummy. I've had no problems with the canvas dummies in the past, why don't you like them?

The retrieving exercises I do are: simple seen retrieves, split retrieves, water retrieves, blind retrieves and memory retrieves. Once they are pretty good at those, I start introducing distractions like throwing a dummy when they are on their way back etc.

When I feel they are ready, I introduce them to game - that's the mistake I made with Pippa, it wasn't a controlled situation. Next time, I will be making sure they are rock steady on game before taking them on a shoot.

Helen

You make it sound so easy dont you

I dont like the kanvas dummies but its hard to put my finger on why
I´ve had a few and they just seem ...annoying?

I like the ones I use better because they come in all sizes.
They are made from both materiel that can float and also with varios fur and feathers on them.
I dont know. I just like them better

And I do mostly use tennisballs. That is, after the retrieving is understood.
The tennisballs are easier to hide, throw with and they have no choice but to get that nose in the ground

I think I should join in and get some pics up !

That'll be on the to do list this weekend, along with a video !

Well training last night .... we were second best to my trainer !!

We were training on a lot of deep heather last night and did a long mark, with a distraction, first one he ran in on but he didnt get the dummy as it was quickly removed by my trainer, so because of that he had to wait for another two dogs to do their retrieves, he sat very silent and still when this was going on, so he got an easy mark as a reward then we went back to what we were orginally doing on the heather, first time he marked it and was straight in, and straight out again. Second one the distraction was thrown up into the air and landed at my trainers feet it was thrown just after he was sent in, he would have had to have run past it, but it was at a 45degree angle to him. I couldnt see what he did as he was fair distance but she said he didnt even look at it, which is great but it did break his concentration as he did a very quick search for the mark, he found it within a few seconds though.

Heelwork has improved as well. It was great lesson ! I was really really pleased with him, he's still squeaking but he wasn't as bad as he's been. He was getting wound up again as he was panting quite hard after a few minutes of being there, but I brought one of those handy travelling bottles with a case that you can let them drink out of that clip onto your bag. He drank quite a lot last night so I think I should have that with me more.

We also used a small stream with a retrieve on the other side of the bank, he has before come back and flopped in the stream, but last night he did two retrieves (marked) and he was excellent, first dummy I was told was hung up slightly so he had to work extra hard to find it, but he had marked it well and charged in, and retrieved it to and without a shake, even better !!

Depsite the one run in at the beginning of the lesson, I was really happy with him

He's with me again at work today, I let him out of the car off lead and he was doing heel work with me all the way to the office door ! So something is sticking in his head !


x

Sounds great Willow Well done

And yes, we would really love some pics and videos soon

Great photos Amts, they all look soo happy. I use tennis balls a lot, especially when they are young. I then reintroduce them as distractions as they love them soo much.

Sounds great Willow

Helen