4th October

Most recent

Home page

Settling in:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

The first month:

Day Four

Day Seven

Day Ten

Day Fourteen

Day Eighteen

Day Twentyfour

Day Thirtyone

3 months old:

22nd July

30th July

4th August

21st August

4 months old:

10th Sept

Grade One:

4th Oct

27th Oct

27th Nov

. 

MAKING A START WITH GRADE ONE

BRITISH CHESAPEAKE BAY RETRIEVER CLUB

CHESEPI CHESAPEAKES

PENROSE CHESAPEAKES

AMERICAN CHESAPEAKE CLUB

TEAM CHESAPEAKE

CBR PEDIGREE DATABASE

NORTHERN FLIGHT RETRIEVERS

FIREWEED CHESAPEAKES

CAROWAY CHESAPEAKES 

Lottie is starting to fill out now a little and look more grown up.  As she approaches six months old,  I am now beginning to focus on the skills she will need to pass her Grade One test.   This first retriever field test includes a couple of simple retrieves thrown by an assistant, twenty yards of heelwork, a two minute stay at twenty yards,   and a twenty yard recall.

Lottie's basic obedience so far has mostly been carried out in the yard, where she has learnt to sit for up to 15 seconds whilst I walk up to 5 yards away, and move around her a little.  I am now going to transfer this short stay to the field and to begin with will keep Lottie on a long lead,  and make the stay much easier.  We started this week with me going just three steps away and returning after a brief pause.  For my long lead I have simply knotted two rope slip leads together.

You can see from her posture in the picture below that Lottie's confidence is falling as I move away,  so I will be taking this quite slowly.

I am happy with Lottie's recall,  and she usually comes in to me in a nice straight 'present', I am encouraging this now by refraining from contacting or stroking her, until she is sitting in the position I want.  If she comes in  to me in a sloppy sideways manner or fidgets about when she arrives I back away a little and get her sitting nicely in front of me before stroking and praising her. 

Lottie’s retrieving has a long way to go before it is up to the Grade One standard.   In the test,  the handler has to remain in position during the retrieve, whereas at present, I frequently have to walk away from Lottie in order to bring her in to me.  However this is improving steadily and I now have the 'walking away'  manoeuvre down to about ten seconds.  A great improvement on the 'several minutes' it took a month or two ago. 

In addition,  most of Lottie's retrieves so far have come from me,  so she needs at some point to become accustomed to dummies thrown by an assistant.    She is keener than ever to retrieve and races out with great enthusiasm.   I am still letting her 'run in' and chase the dummy as I throw it.

Here are some new things I will soon be looking at including in our sessions.

• Letting the dummy fall into longer grass or other soft undergrowth so that Lottie has to use her nose a little to find it.

• Steadiness training - making Lottie wait for a command before retrieving.

In addition,  I will be working on that stay,  increasing distance and duration,  and getting rid of the lead.  Hopefully we will have her delivering to me 'standing still' by the end of the month.

All the equipment used for training Lottie

can be purchased

here

The heelwork at Grade One is all on the lead, and Lottie is a natural at this. I will  continue to practice daily for a few minutes and build up the distances gradually. 

CLICK HERE

TO READ THE NEXT INSTALMENT  OF LOTTIE'S

CLICK HERE

TO COMMENT ON LOTTIE'S DIARY

During our heelwork practice we stop every few steps and I sit Lottie with a single 'hup' and the raised palm of my hand.   Sometimes I delay the 'hup'  and she is beginning to sit to the hand signal alone.