My little man did me proud last night, we won the red rosette for best dog and handler at gundog group and I'm so thrilled I haven't wiped the smile of my face since.
We joined gundog group training about 8 weeks ago and up until then we'd trained alone, had one to one lessons, a few sessions with both our dogs and the trainer sometimes brought one of his dogs to our one to ones.
Training was going well and I wanted to get him into a group. My trainer runs a group thats a mix of labs, cockers, springers and a flatcoat. The first lesson was ok, he looked liked a little rabbit in the headlights and was a bit in awe of all the other dogs but did well, he's a year next week so still a baby and when he lost concentration I'd pull him out for a break. He's well socialised with family dogs but seeing all these new dogs in a group was a new experience.
Weeks 2 onward were not good
, we went backwards with everything he knew. Sit/stays, retrieves all went wrong. He wanted to run around with the dummy, hunt the new ground or run to say 'Hello' to the other dogs. He did a couple of spectacular 'bog offs/laps of honour' with the dummy and I really struggled with him but I knew it was because of the new situation and distractions.
The last two weeks it seemed to click with him and he's been an absolute star, walking in the mock beating line, sitting to shot (starter pistol), retrieving to hand and sitting steady when other dogs are retreiving around him.
I'm was so thrilled when he won last night. We still have a lot to learn but he's doing great, just wanted to share that because like everyone else we've had problems with recall, retrieves and all the usual things.
