Total Beginner! Just want to have a go!

[Becky and Wilson]

Hi,

I've never posted on here before because I usually do agility with my dogs (show types  ), but recently Paisley's nose has been getting the better of her and she doesn't seem as keen as she usually is on it.  So I've decided to give her a 6 week break and see how she is after that.  But I don't want to do nothing with her for 6 weeks so want to have a go at some gundog training! 

All the training classes I can see near me look VERY serious and I only really want to do a few basics for a bit of fun and so I keep her mind working and we keep a good bond!

She loves to go and find tennis balls in the long grass (especially when I get her to sit and wait and then tell her to go get it!) and she seems to like using her nose too.  Retrieving is not exactly great, she will but drops it about a meter away or will go and find it and then run around with it for a while! 

Can anyone suggest some basics for us to work on?  Or maybe a more fun gundog day to go to?

Thanks

Becky

[Black Red + Yellow]

It can be very very serious stuff eh.....my hubby choses the shoots he goes on very wisely for that exact reason - very relaxed and informal ones

You might be able to find a local trainer who will be able to give you a one to one lesson every so often instead of a group lesson which you might find less daunting and you can then just work on particular things instead of the whole 'package of gun dog stuff'.  Our trainer also does 'Training Days' which are great fun - very informal and we all have a good giggle at each other when the dogs are tearing off Hopefully someone might be able to recommend someone in your area   It can be a hit and miss process finding someone you are comfortable with so best of luck.

In the meantime, maybe you can work on the searching part as she seems to really like this? Just develop ways to make it a little bit harder week by week.

Does she watch you when you throw the tennis ball into the long grass so she is marking where it drops? to make a more challenging find, put her in a sit position and move away from her and throw the tennis ball along the ground so it rolls and it's scent catches in places teaching her to track the ball and then gradually moving on to a blind retrieve by throwing the ball - again when she is not looking - and sending her to find

.......a helpful hint - when she is close to finding the ball give her a signal she is close.......'lost' in a high voice is often used to indicate the ball is near......they get really animated when they know they are close to success.  If she can't find the ball, just go in with her and click your fingers to encourage her to follow your hands in certain directions.

when you've got her really into the searching - you can move onto the retrieving....just been through all of this in the past year with our ginger Boy...he too would bring back the retrieve but then lay down about 6 feet away...had to really get inside his head to master that one

[Becky and Wilson]

Thanks for the reply,

That's a good idea rolling the ball along so she has to track it.  I will give that a go! 

She has found the ball without knowing exactly where it was before!  So I guess she has the basics of tracking there!  My deaf girl took the ball and dropped it once.  I knew roughly where she'd been so sent Paisley in and said "Find it" it was thick low bushes so no way I could get in there to look for it.  Well it took her a while and I had to send her back in twice, but she got it! 

Should I stick to the ball she usually fetches?  She loves this ball and I only ever play with her with it on walks.  Or should I go and buy a dummy?!

Also is there a certain command for getting her to go and find it?  I tend to say "find it" and then "fetch it" if I want her to bring it back (with varying success!)

I was just reading one site that said the dog should have a slip lead and no collar.  I presume this is because of the rough bushes they go in?  Mine always have collars on and run through bushes with no problems.  Their recall is good though so if no collar is better for when they're "working" I will take her out without it!

I'd love to do a training weekend, I love that sort of thing, as long as nobody is too serious!  Went on an Obedience weekend with her in April, so not our thing!  But I enjoyed the weekend, being around other doggy folk and doing something with her!

[Hurtwood Dogs]

Good luck! I would get a dummy (if anything because if you hide it on walks, it's a lot easier for you to find than a ball if the dog doesn't )

I agree finding a good class is really hard. The ones that are run by the same APDT people that I did Dave's obedience training with were a bit silly tbh - they had all sorts of different dogs in there and it was less than playing at it and not really very useful. My absolute fav ones (although I haven't been able to go for aaaaages sadly) are the ones I've done with Normy which are run by Weim rescue.. it's informal but out in fields, just Weims so more appropriate for them and the dogs learn as much from watching each other as they do from us hoomans training them  - the more advanced dogs go first and the learners watch and tend to copy which is fab (unless it's picking up dead ducks and then Normy just stands next to them and waits for me to pick them up, they're disgusting apparently !) The other chap I've done 'stuff' with is her dog sitter who owns and works his own dogs (Labs and Vizzies), and is a kind man (although he does sometimes hiss to stop her doing something )

The reason I've mentioned the above is, I think sometimes the best experiences with this are not necessarily 'formal' training clubs. Could you ask at your agility or vets if anyone knows of anything/one that you could have a go with?

[Black Red + Yellow]

Well she sounds like she certainly wants to do it - good for her!  By all means go and buy a dummy - try with the small ones - they are brilliant at holding scents!

We do only use slip leads on our dogs as they off lead more than on and remove their collars when working on farms in a lot of heavy cover like bracken etc so you will need to judge that situation on where you are…we do tend to leave them on if we are in a country park though just in case they do disappear after a wabbit!  Just our personal choice though!
 
Don’t worry too much about using proper commands unless you want to get really serious like tests and trials!  – if you find a command that she responds to – keep with it or you might confuse the issue.  We use ‘get on’ and for ours ‘get on’ actually means go get it and bring it back.

I would work on retrieving in a small space like your garden first.  When she drops it, you can either try dropping down really low with your arms open and moving slowly backwards to see if this will entice her to you with it – with our Alfie, we actually walked away and slapped the side of our thigh to help him realise to come closer....anything you might think will work will do because eventually, it becomes natural and you can drop your flapping arms or impersonating a country and western signer! etc etc