Sorry, video may not be done today.. Unless I can get my mum to help. Apparently Becca is sick, so we wont be walking to the school... Kamille will get her in the car...

I'll ring my mum and hear if she'll help me tonight... If we do it in their garden it will only be a short throw, but that's okay right?

It will be fine J but please dont go out of your way to get this done. It doesnt have to be today at all. Do it when it fits into plans and you feel ready No hurry at all

Okay

I just really want to get started on this.. And now while I've holiday would be a great starting point

Sorry I jumped into the thread wiht out knowing the full facts.

Absolutely right Ams, it doesn't matter what Luna retrieves.

Hope you don't mind me asking, but have you had any problems in the past with Luna, perhaps something you wanted or needed Luna to do, and it maybe caused you frustration, maybe Luna was late becoming toilet trained, I thinks Ams may have something there when she says there could be a some sort of conflict, it could be something about the way you hold your self or your voice changes ever so slightly, which could be uneasing Luna.

Hi Lolly !

Welcome to the thread and please do contribute any thoughts

J ... Dont worry if things go wrong or if there is faults, retrieving will take a bit of time like AM says, but I can understand the frustration when you want things to go well and sometimes they dont according to plan ! This happens to me a lot ! I'm learning a lot about gundog training and different things that I can do when things go wrong, I had a very steep learning curve after the working test and learned that I have quite a sensitive dog and he can loose confidence in me, so I have been doing lots of work of where he has been working more with me. Like it was said at the beginning of the thread TTT

No matter what questions you have we can all offer some help and we are always here to support whether things go right or wrong !

I've been doing a lot of work recently of getting him to listen when he's hunting, as he will ignore me last night though, I had my OH throw a dummy near him, and one (blind) was put to the left of a track that I was using alongside a hedge. He marked the one at my husbands feet, but the aim was to get a stop and then a direction (not very far though as I wanted this to be fairly easy.. I'm going back to basics a bit) to the left so he has it is head, 'Mum knows what she is talking about' if he had run on and ignored the stop whistle the marked dummy would have been removed. But he ran out, 7 strides and as soon as he heard the whislte he stopped very quickly and looked back at me, I had it on the left of him the wind was blowing the scent towards him then so I wanted him to scent it after he had been stopped and start hunting (once he was given the command though) and he did ! Once he stopped and looked back, he was given the hunt command whilst I had my arm to the left and he put his nose down straight away and found it quite quickly. I was very pleased. 8 weeks ago I would have had a dog that would have ignored me.

But I know that there will be days though when things dont go as well as last night, but I'll have to not get frustrated, as once again TTT

Hi.. no I cant recall us having had any conflicts other than over this retrieve thing...

She's a very obedient girl (normally) and I have so much confident in her and myself, that she's almost always off lead... She comes when called, sits, stays and downs when told to...

The only problem we have is this retrieve thing.. I think we may have had our conflict at dogtraining one day.. Cant say when... or how...

But its not just the dummy.. We've just been out walking and I brought the tennisball... And its the same with that... She ran for it... and came back with it 2 times (but only cos I started running away) and then.. 3. time she ran for it... stood at it, and looked at me.. didnt seem the least bit interested in the darn ball....

grrr this is really frustrating.. And I know I can ask all the questions I want, but the problem is, I kinda need it shown, you know?

Cos it seems that Luna isnt reacting the way your answers would suggest...

I don't teach mine the down command as I just want them to sit. However, when I am training, or working them, when I say sit, I expect them not to move their bottom's an inch. I want them alert but in that exact spot.

When they are pups, or when I am training somethig new, I train for 5-10 mins a day, doing that exercise. I start off with simple things that they know and then move onto the new thing. However, I am always recalling them or heeling them when we are walking. I've found that when we took on Rosie last year, she was well behaved but not overly obedient. Walking all the dogs to heel together has taught Rosie to heel on command. I haven't done any one to one training with her but we've got there because she's learnt from the others.

Jeanette, I had a few problems getting Pippa to retrieve. I started off in the hallway with a dummy, I then moved onto a passageway outside and then when she was 100% on those, I moved onto a field. IYou could also maybe try throwing the ball a short distance from you. I always say go fetch when I'm sending them out for a retrieve.

Amts, I'll have a look at your video clip later - when my phone line is a little better! It keeps disconnecting me at the moment as it's so crackly! Oh for broadband!

Helen

It sounds like she is either bored or is unsure what you are wanting her to do. I would have a toy that she never has other than when you are training the retrieve. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it is high value. I would then give her one or two retrieves for each training session and then give up. When she is retrieving nicely, LOADS of praise. See if you can increase the number of retrieves she does.

Helen

HI Helen

Thanks for the tip with the hallway... Will write it down

She likes teddybears... I could bring a teddybear and throw that.. That wouldnt go to far Then only let her have this teddybear while we are out on walks... and training (of course)

But will this also work, if we have a conflict we need to solve???

J

Just my opinion, I would stay out of the hallway (or any closed areas).
You have a conflitc with Luna J and by taking it to a hallway you are forced to take the fight.

From what I know of you and Luna and from what you have been doing so far, that wouldnt be the best choice. But thats imo.

As I said before, use whatever you feel like:
And stop worrying J