Just wanted to give you all a little update on Toby's progress so far & how he fared in his 1st gundog test.
Lessons are going really well, with his trainer very pleased with progress so far - so much so, she thought it would be good experience for him to enter his 1st test.
We were entered into special puppy & it consisted of 3 individual tests :-
1. quartering + 2 controlled retrieves
2. water retrieve
3. quartering + sending in for blind retrieve
The 1st test was our highest scoring
- when instructed, he had to quarter through woods - sit to whistle when 2 dummies thrown by helpers hidden in the woods & to retrieve when instructed & return with each dummy in turn - we scored 11/20 points .
We dropped points when Toby set off for one dummy before being told (he's just keen
) & dropping a dummy on returning to me.
The 2nd was our lowest scoring test
- Toby had to sit, enter water when told, to retrieve a dummy that had been thrown in by helper.
Toby was superb & did everything asked beautifully - He sat to whistle, entered the water when told & swam out to said dummy .....sadly Toby's not used a water dummy yet & he swam out to it twice but had the look of 'no, that's not mine??' & came back without it - despite doing everything asked we got nil point due to not completing the test
The 3rd test was quartering through woods ('heavy with the scent of pheasants'
) sit to whistle, then retrieve dummy thrown by helper unseen by Toby. Toby found the dummy but with a little help from his handler that wasn't necessary
..... not sure of this score (think we got something
) as I had to put my score card in my pocket quick as Toby decided to have a quick round (or 2 or 3!!
) of honour of the pheasant scented woods & it started to persist down with rain
It was great fun, highlighted points of training that need extra work but also showed Toby's strengths too - he's quick , he's keen & he's so patient with his inexperienced handler
Embarrassingly , we were nearly non starters right from the off when I left our score sheet in the car (needs to be marked after every test
)
....realised I hadn't even got Toby's new lucky collar when we arrived & he had to wear his old one
& fluffed up on some of the test requirements ..... but mainly because we haven't covered them yet
Lots of people I don't know, in test environment would normally be my idea of a bad time but stuck with it , with Toby making it such a pleasure.
I'm looking forwards to moving on to the next step of training with Toby & our trainer & perhaps more tests too ............ but may have to rethink my attire somewhat
....thank doG Toby doesn't care what I wear that's all i can say
off to post some up to date pics of The Bear in photos section
