Training aims for the summer

[Nicola]

Soooo what are everyone's training goals and plans for the spring and summer??

My resolutions are as follows (you can all point and laugh at me when none of them are fulfilled by the autumn  ) 

Alfie
- to get him more focussed on me and control his drive better
- to get his directional responses sharpened (i.e. going left and right when I signal)
- to work on his retrieve, particularly the hold
- to teach him a better present
- work on his distance commands, they're only at about 70% atm
- to expose him to as much bird activity as possible with the help of a friend of a friend who has chickens 
- to start the 'go back' with him to find something I've dropped and retrieve it

Tilly
- to continue to sharpen her distance and directional commands, she's at about 98%
- to work on her retrieving
- to teach her a better present and that she has to give up the dummy EVERY time! 
- to teach her the 'go back'
- to do more water retrieves

Hmmm... not much then 

[*jean*]

mine is to try and keep the little darlings away from stinky nasty dead things.!
 seriously Rolo needs some work.. hes getting slower in his recalls and yips a lot when excited. liath is an angel peper still looks for a chance to go on a minihunt I have to keep my eyes peeled and I dont let her off on the croft or up the meadow where she was snared now.. well just heel work really off lead no bombing off.. hah ha!
 

[anita96]

My training aims in between having a baby, getting some sleep, looking after my other two and OH, are as follows:

Get him steady, I was at Center parcs this weekend and we spent each morning sitting watching the ducks on the lake (with the lead on!)
Recall/stop whistle when on the chase
Direction control with the whistle
Water retrieves would be fun
and mocha yelps when he is chasing something, how do I stop that or is it just a case of not letting him chase?

After all that drink pimms and learn to make the perfect G & T whilst holding a baby

[*jean*]

A noisy dog is a habit hard to break. Rolo only does it when out with pepper. she and liath are silent. Rolo also nips at her legs the whole time trying to get her to race him. My solution would be not to have them out together till the habit is broken but as Im just wanting them as pets now Im not too bothered.
but it is annoying. Once hes had a run he calms down. Its excessive energy I think and high spirits.

If mocha yips when chasing stop her chasing. let her hunt but not chase. Easier said than done I know....( Long line )
 best of luck..

[flozac]

Well I have a lot to do this summer:

ZAC  -  To get him to work to the whistle
           Get him used to game retreives
           AND to walk to heel ( he just hates that no matter what I have tried)

FLOSS - Reinforce her recall to the whistle
            To get her to stop to the whistle from a distance.
            Work on her hunting/quartering skills
            Get her used to the gunshot.

SCOUT - Everything!!!  I have started her basic training. Heelwork, recall & sit
             are coming on slowly but that is my fault not hers  I just have
             not had much time to spend on her as I have been working with
             the other 2 over the shooting season.

So I think I have my work cut out.

[Millomite]

Steadiness, steadiness, steadiness. Not worried about the rest, that will come with time

[spanielcrazy]

My training aims in between having a baby, getting some sleep, looking after my other two and OH, are as follows:

Wow, you don't ask much of yourself, do you Anita? 


Now that my work schedule has (finally!) calmed down I think I will start Joy on birds. She's only 7 years old and completely untrained so no problem ! 

[Tasha]

definitely steadiness, Ayla is only just starting her formal training so lots to do.  Her heel work is good now and her sit but she is reluctant to do a down and stay so these will be a priority along with a better recall when in company, she is easily distracted so this is something I want to concentrate on.

With bonnie I have to readdress the stop whistle at long distance, go over her directions in water, search patterns at long distance and tracking of 72hrs plus.  Working test start soon so will am sure have a few more things on my list before the end of the month.

[anita96]

Well its nearly August and I was just wondering how everyone was getting on with their training

Get him steady -  99% on thrown dummies
Recall/stop whistle when on the chase  -  Not there yet (will I ever get there)
Direction control with the whistle  -  Will go left and right from about 12 ft Water retrieves would be fun  -  I can now throw balls in the water and get them back !!
and mocha yelps when he is chasing something, how do I stop that or is it just a case of not letting him chase?  -  No yelping as there is no chasing 
After all that drink pimms and learn to make the perfect G & T whilst holding a baby

-  100% achieved anyone for Pimms 

[Nicola]

DoG I'd forgotten about this... ok, here goes 

Note to self - nowhere in the below list does it say 'get another cocker' as one of the aims 

Alfie
- to get him more focussed on me and control his drive better - getting there but still far from perfect
- to get his directional responses sharpened (i.e. going left and right when I signal) - very good, he's 99% on this now
- to work on his retrieve, particularly the hold - we have good days and thenl days when he spits it out but again getting there
- to teach him a better present - as above
- work on his distance commands, they're only at about 70% atm - probably about 90% now which I'm really pleased with
- to expose him to as much bird activity as possible with the help of a friend of a friend who has chickens  - not done this yet 
- to start the 'go back' with him to find something I've dropped and retrieve it - done 

Tilly
- to continue to sharpen her distance and directional commands, she's at about 98% - pretty much perfect now, 99.9%
- to work on her retrieving - doing a couple of sessions per week
- to teach her a better present and that she has to give up the dummy EVERY time!  - getting there, still doesn't always want to hand over right away but present is good
- to teach her the 'go back' - done
- to do more water retrieves - done

[Tasha]

pretty much the same as yours but I need to add:

pheasant pen training
steadiness
retrieve retrieve retrieve retrieve retrieve retrieve

Ayla is great at the hunting side of things which I have worked hard on but has no real interest in retrieving so this is what we are working on at the moment.

[cazza]

After getting a serious talking to this last weekend 

I have gone back to basics with Fern and in the last 2 days I have got her 
walking to heal 
Sitting and staying
and we are working hard on the stop whistle 

Next week off to phone CT for a one to one as the little  ran off as soon as I let her off the lead on the beach whilst camping so need advice and help how to deal with this so I can work hard with her on it 

Another thing I need to do is find a rabbit / bird pen and go in with Fern on lead to try and get her to ignore them

[anita96]

Nicola

Remember this post    So one year on how did all of you do with your training aims:

We are still working on steadying him up
direction is good
quartering is spot on
water retrieves are ok but working on stopping him shaking when he gets out of the water and dropping the dummy
Stop whistle fine although he does sit rather slowly for my liking, in his time not mine   

[cazza]

OMG don't remind me 

Mind you Fern has definately changed for the better so I was told this weekend 

Still lots to do

C'mon Nic how did you do???

[Nicola]

Oh god! Caught me on the hop there, I forgot about this 

Well the main summer development was that I got Rodaidh which I hadn't entirely planned for    but he's a wee superstar so I can't really get away with blaming him for any slipping up in the other two's training... dammit! 

Hmmm, let's see....

Alfie
- to get him more focussed on me and control his drive better - definitely much better although still not 100%, he's got enough drive and energy to spread around 5 dogs and still have some spare
- to get his directional responses sharpened (i.e. going left and right when I signal) - very good at this now, he got the hang of this pretty quickly
- to work on his retrieve, particularly the hold - mmmm, he knows what to do but still sometimes forgets and spits it out as he gets to me, we're still working on this
- to teach him a better present - again, see above!
- work on his distance commands, they're only at about 70% atm - probably about 98% now I think which is probably about as good as I can expect really but we still practise and work on them a lot
- to expose him to as much bird activity as possible with the help of a friend of a friend who has chickens - done in pheasant and rabbit pens although with Alfie I don't think his bird addiction will ever be 'cured', he still shows too much interest but no longer goes into a total lather of undistractable shivering excitement
- to start the 'go back' with him to find something I've dropped and retrieve it - done! he can do this perfectly now including over obstacles and into water, we do this a lot for fun as he loves it

Tilly
- to continue to sharpen her distance and directional commands, she's at about 98% - she's pretty much spot on with these all the time now
- to work on her retrieving - we have a lot of fun with this, we do retrieves in every possible way I can think of, she loves it
- to teach her a better present and that she has to give up the dummy EVERY time! - mmmm.... she still has her 'yes I know I should give it to you but I don't want to' moments where she'll sit and present perfectly but then turn her head away when you reach for it but it's really not very often at all and she always relents and gives it back if I say a firm 'Tilly give!' in *that* tone of voice!
- to teach her the 'go back' - done, she does this perfectly now too, including over obstacles and into water
- to do more water retrieves - definitely done, they're never out of the water, she can swim for miles and will bring anything back (well, almost  )

I'm really pleased with both of them. Alfie is never going to be an easy dog to handle or work with but he is so much more focussed and 'sensible' now than he was a year ago. He still has his moments but I was able to take him out working this season before he was ill and it was fantastic. He had a blast and being able to watch him work and feel like we were a team rather than me just struggling against him all the time made it all worthwhile. He does still drive me nuts on a regular basis but he wouldn't be Alfie if he didn't. Tilly is just great, any work she needed was just on polish, she knows what it's all about and rarely puts a paw wrong.

And little goldenballs... well, after his operation in March hopefully it'll be a case of 'watch this space'