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Unfortunately,
circumstances have forced me to take a break of
several weeks from training with Lottie. It is
now two months since our last diary entry and Lottie
and I have been back in daily training for a few
days.
With the pheasant
shooting season nearly upon us, my priorities
have changed a little. For the time being, I
am focusing on ensuring that Lottie is completely
comfortable with gunfire of any calibre, and that
she is totally steady to game.
Introduction to game
birds
Helping to keeper a
small part of the shoot, with one release pen and
two duck ponds to care for gives me very valuable
training opportunities for my dogs. This week I have been introducing Lottie
to the pheasant pen, and she has also begun to
accompany me whilst the ducks are being fed.
I began by carrying
out some simple basic obedience exercises just outside
the release pen, as initially, Lottie found the
presence of the birds very distracting and exciting.
Today I progressed to taking her inside the pen
- on a checkcord just in case she decided to
attempt to chase a bird. She sat whilst I
checked hoppers, and cleaned out drinkers, and
walked at heel amongst the birds.
She is very interested
in the birds, but not so distracted that she
cannot focus on simple commands. I don't think
she will attempt to chase, but I will keep the
check cord on until I am very confident that she is
steady.
Retrieving
It has been good to see
that Lottie has not forgotten her new casting skills
and although I am not worried about advancing her
retrieving at this point, I want to keep
practicing what she has learned, in lots of
different locations.
Daily sessions
My daily routine at the
moment consists of driving to different part of the
farm each day and placing a couple of very simple
blind retrieves before getting Lottie out of the
car, lining her up, and sending her for the blinds.
Once she has brought me the blinds, I do a little
casting practice with a couple of dummies, or
sit her up, walk out, fire a shot, and throw a
mark before returning to her. I make her wait
a while, (just as she will have to do when
sitting on a peg), before sending her.
Sometimes I bring
another dog and send her instead, and sometimes I am
able to rope a helper in to fire and throw.
Because of Lottie's initial sensitivity to gunshot,
I haven't used a launcher with her yet.
I am carrying my .410
with me for much of the time now, whilst
Lottie is at heel. Every now and then we stop
and she sits and watches me close the gun and bring
it to my shoulder. Initially she found this
quite worrying. I am not firing the gun whilst
standing next to her at the moment, but still moving
some distance away first, and she is fine with this,
and concentrates well on watching for a falling
dummy.
I am really
pleased at just how well Lottie has retained what
she has learned, despite a substantial break
in training. In addition, she does seem
a little more mature and focused than she was in
July. Here is what we did Saturday and today.
23rd September
I had a helper on the
farm today. Duncan threw several marks for me
and fired the twelve bore first for each one.
I took my Springer out with me so that Lottie didn't
get all of the marks. She was happy with the
twelve bore being fired and we brought the shots in
to within 25 yards. Lottie honoured the
spaniel nicely and fetched her own retrieves passing
the gun with no problems. She was less
comfortable with me afterwards opening and closing
the gun next to her, and I spent some time walking
her up and down at heel, opening and closing
the empty gun each time I stopped, and giving
her a little treat every now and then.
Lottie also came down to the duck pond and watched
the ducks feed, and we did some simple basic
obedience on the track.
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