working test

Golly - how remiss - no postings for a fortnight!

The weather here has swung between very hot and very wet. Usually being one or the other at dog work times Sad

Tresallier has been approached by two further owners, this time with Weimararners. One who quartered like a train and took no notice of his owner and one who quartered close and was passionalty attentive of the owner. The ranger took so little notice of his handler that the handler failed to notice the fleeting glances; by walking behind and saying when the dog looked and having the handler reinforce with a visula cue the dog's moves this flash glance built up quite quickly to a more attentive 'look' still not a lot but a good start. The dog's next problem was it constantly back cast - something it had obviously been taught to do. Once it was pointed out that a dog or even a human will turn towards the direction of a sound the handler could see how the timing of the whistle and ensuring it went into the correct ear had such a profound effect on the pattern the dog ran. In the space of a session we had the dog going from 'bog off' to ttentive quartering and turning into the wind on the whistle. The hard part will be to maintain this.

The problem with the other dog was the reverse - she paid a lot of attention to the owner - always anticipating a fresh command; it was noticable that at no time did the handler encourage or praise the dog as it was doing right. Repeatedly telling the dog it was 'good' in a happy bright voice changed it from a plodder to a nice pacy enthusiastic runner. Then of course the double whammy of a positive feed back loop kicked in. The better the dog did the happier was the handler which made the dog do better still.

When it came to retrieving the 'ranger' had a fantastic nose and used this to make up for its marking. The attentive one could mark to a sixpence and was out and back in a manner that would make many retrievers stare.

I don't usually enter 'working tests' but I came home last week to find my wife had entered Fresco and I into the Spinone test at Elstead; puppy. He as about the second or third youngest in the field and this was his first ever working test. I was looking forward to seeing how he performed when there were other dogs around. Four retrieving exercises and a hunting exercise.
Retrieve one - a simple memory - walk the dog out at heel (offlead) throw a dummy (seen) and return to start - send dog. Although he went to the spot he had a bit of difficulty finding it; he could smell it but not see it (note to self take yellow dummies not white ones next time) but diligently worked the spot.
Retrieve two - on a triangular path - walk dog out off lead, throw dummy, walk on, sit dog, wlak back towards start. recall dog. send dog for dummy. Handler error here - instead of recalling on the whistle I was going for the silent silent handling approach and used only raised arms - then my mistake I called 'Fresco' at which point he broke back for the dummy. Mu mistake I say because when out training I will sit him on the whistle and then throw a dummy as a reward for the sit - releasing him - yes you guessed by his name.
Retrieve three - a seen - but with a block of bracken between the dog and the thrower so only the trajectory as a guide. et us say a GSP or Munsterlander has a height advantage here. He marked it a tad short, which was not good as what wind was a back wind; however without any further commands he opened up his area of work intelligently until he winded it - but this is not the way to get top marks for a seen.
Hunting - this was in a tree surrounded field with a cheek wind to start with and a head wind at the end. Another error I made was to let him watch a few of the earlier dogs run amok. He ran like a wasp with good pace, slipped his whistle several times and stopped to 'park a dung'. Mind his sit was good.
Water - a short paddle to a dummy. Released on his name. job done. praise.

The winning puppy also won novice, owned and handled by one of the top people - in fact the top few places were taken by trainers of reputation. (and rightly so) I was however very pleased to take the sixth place rosette.

So a useful check on our progress. Points to address..

Turning on whistle when hunting needs to sharpen up.

Recall with a dummy distraction rather than a dummy reward. - I think this will make a good step towards a flying dummy as the cue to sit.

Off lead heel work used to be very good but lacked crispness ( because we haven't practiced it recently? )

HGS training tonight - should be interesting as I expect some new members and also we have access to a 4x dummy launcher.