Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 5:15 pm Post subject: Chase
I thought, as Chase is now going to start more 'formal' training I should give him his own thread (perhaps Admin could edit Mugi's title so he has his own thread - pretty please??).
So today has been baby steps, I am conscious of the fact that for the last two weeks pretty much all my time has been spent on Mugi or work so I expected and got a pup on speed!!!!
We did have some good work though. As he erupted from the car he managed 200m loose lead walking to the point I would release him, I asked for a sit which he maintained as his lead was removed and continued for nearly a minute while I walked around him. I released him and pocket rocket was off . He had only been running for less than a minute when a Rough Collie got between him and me , I thought I had scanned the horizon but this dog appeared from nowhere. I was well impressed as Chase gave it barely a glance and rejoined Mugi and I.
We were doing recall practice which remains good 90% of the time but the purpose of this walk/session was to blow off cobwebs so mostly he was running. Boy can he run, he covers so much ground and is very fast although he also is pretty careful checking out smells etc as he travels.
Then the downside, he met a Patterdale and a Dalmation, he was not coming back whatever I did and the woman with them was happy for her dogs to play. I wasn't really but to be honest, apart from ignoring me he was playing very well and the attraction of two young dogs that were up for a romp was too great. I chatted to the woman for a few mins and then walked away, Chase did not come to the first whistle so I went back to collect him. Thankfully the woman stood still and Chase was caught up easily. I walked him away on a loose lead again and once we were far enough apart he was asked to sit again. This time we did a more formal sit stay which he maintained for well over a minute even with Mugi running around.
We carried on with our run and he was getting further and further away each time he released BUT HE CAME BACK to the first whistle each time. The final recall he knew he would be caught up as I had his lead in my hand, even so he came in and sat well, we loose lead walked back to the car about 400m.
Tomorrow I have a hospital appointment so he will be a tad bored, I hope to be home in time to get another good run before dark then Wednesday he will have a more structured exercise plan. _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
you have to edit the title line of the first post. Sue you can do it as well - any one can do their own. _________________ Guy, Ellie, Topaz, Catja and in memory Barley
Beauty from Structure
www.epagneulbreton.org.uk
The other day I loose lead walked him down towards the Avon and then put him in a sit at the top of some steps down to the fishing stations, this meant he was left at the top with dirt roads leading in three directions, a field of cattle behind him only loosely fenced in and acres of orchard. Although he is doing well in his sit/stay this is the first time I have totally removed myself from his eyeline and I was dropping down 10' or so below him. He was craning himself round having a good look at his surroundings and nearly fell over BUT HE STAYED SAT till I called him down and he was immediately released to play. That whole hour or so of training / walking saw him having great fun, not putting a paw wrong when asked to do stuff and I was pleased.
Today we had another good few experiences. I lead walked him with Mugi and my friend with her ESS to the fields (about 10 mins of road walking). To be fair to Mugi I don't usually do this as sometimes Chase decides he needs to spice up the walk by landing on his captive companion , today he was quite angelic and even kept the lead slack 90% of the time.
When we got to the field he was the last dog to be released and even so he managed a minute sit, lead off before he got to play. Highlights today were the recall with immediate response to the whistle when he was hunting down a rabbitty hedge line 100m or so away. The sit at about 10m distance to hand signal when he was torn about hurtling away to say hi to an unknown dog and finally the one that scared me!!!
We had been sat marking dummies and watching Dex the ESS doing his retrieves (both mine are off dummies at the mo ), Mugi was off-lead but Chase was on (although he stayed sat firm) cos this was Dexters training time. When Dex had finished I released Chase and almost immediately saw a large GSD coming round the hedge on lead. Chase legged it towards the GSD with me in hot pursuit as I call an apology to the owner (I wasn't going to mess with my pup ignoring a recall I just wanted him not to get caught up in something). The owner called out his dog was ok as it was muzzled which made me even more certain to stop my little lad getting embroiled. To my surprise Chase obviously read the dog well, he stood stock still weighing up the situation from about 5m away from the dog and turned away!!!!!!!!!!! He came back so I popped him in a sit and got his leash on.
Chase absolutely adores his large housemate Brice so not only do I have a Brittany who is confident of his own superiority , I have one very used to rough play with a giant breed so a muzzled, large male GSD did give me a few scary moments. It would have been grossly unfair to the dog to be molested by Chase and a body slam from a powerful dog could have done Chase a fair amount of damage.
My little lad may be starting to mature .
This next week will see me continuing to work on stays, positions and lead walking. His play will include hunting where I can pretty much bank on him only finding residual scent, I need his control better before I can risk him hunting too far on the land I am using at the mo. He will get no dummy work but his fluffy toy will be going out to try and get him back into retrieving without making the task a chore. _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
Today has been the first day we have been up training on the shooting grounds.
In total there were my 4 dogs, 2 rescue spaniels and 3 young working cockers. We started with a cup of coffee and a discussion of what we all wanted from the time, we are all agreed that initially all dogs will be trained separately and once we have got them comfortable in the surroundings we will add the other dogs in as distraction and for group control exercises. When I say all I mean myself and the two others who have been given permission to train here.
Chase started with a session of control work and he tried very hard.
We did heel on lead (not good with alot of ground scent and distraction).
Some lovely focus work with me increasing the distance to circles of approx 10m radius, at times he got too interested in his surroundings but when I stopped moving he brought his attention back to me.
Some stays that he maintained well although his nose was twitching like a bunny .
Then sit to whistle as his Stop has become sloppy, he was doing well on the lead.
We then had lunch so Chase was tethered to a bench. By the time I had fininshed unwrapping my sandwich a certain chap was lounging ON TOP of the picnic table .
After lunch he did a retrieve and although he ran out well he was not keen on coming back to me at all so I walked away to chat to my friends and once he came back he was ignored completely for a while.
All in all though I decided he had minded me enough to be granted a hunting session.
I cast him off and it was great to see the speed and scope of his legs, we were moving uphill more or less into the wind
In the pic (taken on the last day of the season) we had moved from the lodge and this shot was about a third of the way up the hill, the cover gets a little thicker as you get higher.
He continued to move well until a mxy rabbit literally hopped into him, this was just too much temptation and he caught the bunny (even a sloth could have caught it) and the bunny died without any input from Chase. For all his reluctance to retrieve dummies he brought me this prize and I spent a few moments holding the rabbit while it was still in his mouth stroking and praising him. I have noticed he has no reluctance to bring me game nor to hand it over.
I left the rabbit in the fork of a tree and cast Chase off again, he continued to move over the ground well and hunt with purpose. He managed a clumsy point on a cock bird but as it was in deep bramble cover he couldn't get it to flush. He was getting quite frustrated so I popped his lead on and moved him away to cast him again. By now he was getting quite tired and I decided to call it a day before anything went wrong. Rather than recalling him I blew a STOP and was pleased to see him drop into a sit - he wasn't far away but that wasn't important, the fact he sat so promptly earned him a handful of chopped sausage.
I was very pleased with how attentive he was to me, he was keeping a check on me while we moved up the hill and I was able to pull his hunting pattern with me. It was lovely to be able to let him truly run without me having to worry about roads etc so no over handling.
At the moment we will be training on this land once a week but once the evenings get lighter we hope to get up more frequently, it is less than 10 miles from home so ideal. _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
Another very productive day on the shooting grounds.
I decided this is not the place for retrieve training as it is too distracting and he fails, not much point setting him up to fail so we are doing retrieves elsewhere with mixed success.
So his first time out of the car was a 15 minute heelwork session on lead. I wanted to keep his nose off the ground and the lead loose and we did it. The nose was the harder problem to solve but I was overall pleased. While we walked past the ducks a whole load got up and little one stood rock solid without any prompting .
As his control work was good he got a hunt.
We set off into a pheasant pen to start, he was steady on lead till we walked up there and I sat him off lead before he was released to hunt.
I was very impressed, we hunted through the pen, across a mixed wood and onto an open grass field. He did not find a bird but he worked with purpose and both responded to whistle and my body laguage. I try not to over handle him as the last thing I want is to call him when he is on a scent and this is my biggest concern training him alone as I may miss a sign.
As we hunted back through the wood he put up a Muntjac. He chased for only approx 20m and stopped (ish) to whistle. This is the first time he has really had anything tempt him to run and so I was pleased with his behaviour. He did not come straight back but checked out where the deer had been hunkered down before returning but even then he was not long and I guess scenting that area is good learning for him, I did not pip my recall again until he was back minding me as I do not want him to learn ignoring me is good .
At the final point where I wanted to catch him up as the underkeeper was doing some maintenance I blew the Stop Whistle and at a distance of approx 15m he sat immediately and stayed firm till I caught up and popped his lead on and gave him a tasty treat.
He is such a good lad and after a busy few days at Crufts we were all glad to be out in the mud, rain and wind again . _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
This evening he had his first true point on a wild animal, I noticed him getting interested in an area while out for our 'rec' run with Mugi and Dexter the ESS. All of a sudden he slammed round and held a lovely point (thankfully while Dexter and Mugi were elsewhere), the rabbit he was on hopped away after a few moments and Chase didn't attempt to follow but recalled in nicely. _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
We have had a good morning. I took him to the shooting lodge and all we were doing was hunting.
We walked partially away from the lodge before starting as there was a GWT held over the weekend and I wanted to move him away from the ground that had been used. As we arrived at our start point we did a little reminder that I am in charge, he is great sitting waiting to be released although you can see him all quivering to go. I released him to hunt and off he went like a tornado, he soon settled down though and was running well and turning when I asked (not often incase I muck him up, just enough to remind him he is with me ).
After about 5 mins he went on point and as I approached he produced a cock pheasant, at the moment he is flushing by himself as he is not experienced enough and the more birds we get the more I will impose control. At the moment he just needs to get the connection that the bird is what we are after.
He thoroughly investigated where the bird had been and then I called him on. We did a little control work before I released him to hunt again. As we proceeded towards a stream I noticed two fantastic male Roe Deer in full antler. They were watching us quietly and Chase hadn't sighted them although I think he had winded them, I asked him to sit and then made enough noise to move the deer on, I wanted Chase close enough to ensure he stayed sat - which he did without me physically restraining him in any way .
As we progressed I could see he was starting to tire when I saw a cock bird wandering ahead of us. I guided Chase onto the bird which he didn't sight - he followed the bird scent for a few minutes as the crafty bird scurried out of sight. We both lost the bird when we had to clamber over a fallen log .
Next bird Chase practically fell over and as it flushed from under his paws he was prompted to chase , thankfully he responded quickly to the whistle and stopped (without sit) and returned eagerly.
By now he really was understanding what we were there for although he was tiring and he also had a tummy upset (somebody got himself into a large pack of treats and is suffering the consequences ) so we called it a day.
As we walked back to the car with him off lead and staying close if not exactly to heel he again tripped over a hen bird. This time I was quick enough on the whistle as as she got up he kind of sat, bum certainly lowered although it didn't connect with the ground. He gave me a very arrogant stare so we didn't move on until that bum went were I expected it .
I was happy with how he behaved, we hope to be back tomorrow and wednesday so he will be getting plenty of hunting. I have been lucky so far that all the birds we have found have been when we were close so he is seeing me as a worthwhile hunting partner.
One thing I have noticed is that he is much keener to work on my right hand side than my left, even in still conditions so I need to set him up to work the other side as well I guess???
He is now sound asleep dreaming happily. _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
Well, isn't it amazing how things suddenly start coming together.
Yesterday we had another hunting session, he didn't produce any birds although a couple flushed ahead of our approach and each time he sat without my intervention. He is sitting to whistle well and yesterday, with poor scenting conditions etc I ran him primarily to keep him moving at pace for a good stretch, thankfully there is plenty of residual scent so he was keen.
Last night I worked a night shift and today my patience is non-existant and my temper uncertain , not the day to train so we went for a nice evening run with Dexter the ESS, Mugi and Chase. I do like Chase to run with Dex as he is another entire male and quite physical, Debbie and I never thought the lads would settle to play well but they are very well-matched and so he is another safe dog for Chase to learn social skills.
Chase is always last off-lead as the main road is close and he is soooo fast and although he has been 100% reliable on recall for a while now I will not get complacent.
He was asked to sit and pratted around so we stayed on the lead a while longer. Next ask for a sit and although he did he anticipated his release so he was called back and put on the lead again, final time he was asked he did well and I was also pleased that he recalled first time when he must have known his fun was not guaranteed .
The only other thing to comment on, Dex and Chase have learned to wrestle under our feet , I am sure this is a ploy for us to seperate them and treat for calm behaviour . So tonight in mid wrestle I blew the sit whistle and someone's bum hit the ground so fast he had to be treated. Dexter still tried to egg him into mischief but he stayed firm till I let him off to play again. Having Dexter as a distraction is a great staging post between his housemates and unknown dogs. We can also now have three dogs sat in front and give treats to each dog by name and the others don't try to snatch .
Tomorrow I have to go to birmingham for a hosp appt, Chase and Mugi are coming too and we will be off to the lodge on the way back for another session. I am hoping there will be more wind than yesterday as I sighted a covey of partridge on some open grassland so will hopefully set him up to hunt them if I see evidence they are still about. (They should be as they are still being fed ). _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
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, I thought I had scanned the horizon but this dog appeared from nowhere. I was well impressed as Chase gave it barely a glance and rejoined Mugi and I.
, today he was quite angelic and even kept the lead slack 90% of the time.
).
, thankfully he responded quickly to the whistle and stopped (without sit) and returned eagerly.
) so we called it a day.
).