I've not been very good at updating this
but Caoimhe is still doing really well. We've got all of her week 1 objectives either down pat or well underway and she's still so keen to learn. She behaved herself really well at the meet up, she was on lead most of the time and then had a bit of a mad runaround with Daisy but didn't go far from me and kept checking in.
In the last week or so we've been working on:
- reinforcing the stop whistle and gradually increasing the distance at which she'll respond
- starting her hunting and looking for things
- working on her sit stay
- working on her 'leave'
- getting her sitting still when something is thrown
- reinforcing everything from week 1 - recall, 'down', 'look' etc.
- a few easy retrieves and introducing her to the rabbit skin dummy
- keep on with the lead walking
- my one 'trick' that I teach - to give her paw
She's done really well with all of this. I can now turn my back on her for a few seconds as I walk away and she'll stay put and I can walk in a large-ish circle around her. She will stay sitting for a full minute with me about 20 feet from her so on that score I'm really pleased with her. She's also learning to 'wait' before going through doors, getting out of the car etc.
Her stop whistle is very good and she will now stop instantly to the whistle at a distance of about 5-6 feet from me so I'm building this up slowly and upping the distractions slowly, this is one thing that it's so important to get right!
Her hunting is one of the most important things now, I'm starting off very basically by walking a pattern with her, hiding a few things for her to find and she's picking it up well and starting to now go a few feet out in front of me before I turn quickly and bring her back in the opposite direction. I'm just getting her used to the idea that there are things there for her to find and getting her into using her nose to find them but not to dilly-dally along, she's got a good pace and is still only going a max of about 6 feet from me at any time.
I started reinforcing the 'sit' with me stood about 4 feet from her and I dropped a tennis ball at my feet while simultaneously saying 'sit' and giving the hand signal. The first couple of times she went to move forward and I stopped her and put her back while reinforcing the commands. Within a couple of sessions she would sit still while I stood 10 feet away and threw a ball or a treat in front of me. She will now sit while they are thrown to either side of her and won't move until I release her to get them.
Her recall is still spot on and I'm constantly reinforcing it while she's still in the 'I love you mum!' puppy stage
She's recalling to multiple pips on the whistle and will come away from pretty high distractions - people, other dogs, smells etc. Her 'leave' is now pretty reliable and she will look to me when I say it and wait for me to tell her to do something else or give her something else.
I do 2 or 3 retrieves with her twice a week at this stage. She loves it and is a natural retriever but it's the easiest thing to overdo and ruin with a pup. I introduced her to the rabbit skin puppy dummy and she took to it instantly, picked it up with no hesitation and brought it back. I keep my back to a fence or hedge at all times when doing this and her returns are spot on. Her hold is excellent, she doesn't drop or spit out anything, be it a dummy, the rabbit skin or a tennis ball and she will sit in front of me holding it when she brings it back. I'm not interested in her presenting just yet, I just want to keep her fresh and keen to retrieve and to bring it right back to me which she's doing.
Her lead walking is progressing slowly. She's still a bit hit and miss which is fine, she's getting there and will walk pretty well for short periods before she forgets. We practise a lot and she'll get it soon enough. As I thought she is better off the lead than on it!
And finally, I taught her to give her paw simply by sitting on the grass with her with a treat in my closed fist and opening it instantly when she lifted a paw (she tried everything else first
) and she's now doing it on command to great effect
I'm going to keep working on this vein for the next couple of weeks and also get her introduced to water soon.
