Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:31 pm Post subject: Mugi
Ok, here goes with a synopsis of where we are .
Mugi was not interested with ANY retrieving when he arrived a year ago. I was pretty despairing but on the other hand he was old, it didn't matter and when he saw his first pheasant he hunted and pointed soooooo steadily. I sparked my interest in what this breed can do. Liz encouraged me to attend the Feb club training day and by the end of it Mugi was starting to carry a fur dummy.
I attended a clicker gundog day and Mugi was running out, picking up and returning his dummy at speed - what he wasn't doing was returning to hand cos for him fur = sex he is so aroused. I have been given exercises to do with him to reduce his arousal and help his self-control which we are making slow progress with. This mainly involves him being exposed to rabbit fur flicked around on a driving whip, he only gets to put it in his mouth when he is not throwing himself around after the fur. Oddly he has such good control on live rabbits, I can recall him off a chase and if a bunny crosses his path when he is hunting a pheasant then the bunny doesn't get acknowledged at all.
The june training day got him swimming and now he is happy to retrieve a canvas dummy from water and in this instance he will deliver to hand and come a fair way out of water to deliver before he shakes.
One thing I can't do is get Mugi to discriminate whistle commands - he can differentiate between my whistle and my friends as we use different whistles but whatever I blow Mugi hears it as a recall. In the grand scheme of things this is not an issue BUT I can't get him to quarter when game is absent. For him hunting is a purposeful thing when the stimuli is present, he can not be turned on a whistle as he recalls straight to me. Game there and he moves well - he knows his job and I have decided just to let him do his thing and not try to direct him. He is 11 years old and this is all a fun thing for him.
Through play he will do some pretty difficult memory retrieves and now he will do these on a plain dummy, on a dummy dressed with fur and a dummy dressed with feather. He will do long seen retrieves but he still struggles with delivery and he won't do a blind - he just doesn't understand. His next stage is cold game - in april he was interested but not prepared to pop phessie in his gob.
I am waiting till the end of this month for trying cold game when I am on my course as I may need help and I would rather have a third party watching to give advice as this is all so new to both Mugi and I.
Mugi is such a keen dog, he is helping me learn so much and the mistakes I make will help Chase tremendously. As long as Mugi enjoys it and I don't confuse him I will continue to use him as my testing ground. _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
He will pick up and carry a full size canvas dummy - his run out on a thrown retrieve or pretty simple memory is fast and true, his pick up and carry is tidy but his return is truly awful. He parades his dummy as a trophy!! I have been told on some levels to ignore him, some to put him on a long line and insist and in reality I am doing a combi of both. I do not want this to become a confrontation so if he runs off I will ignore, when he gets bored I recall him or I ask for a sit where I approach him, ask for the dummy and he will release to hand. He is treated each time after being stroked or petted insitu as I don't want him to spit his dummy. I have also done some retrieves on a line but he is easily bored and I find it hard to get him in straight without tripping him up. At this stage I want him to be keen and happy so will work on control as he ages - one thing Mugi has taught me is that there is time to achieve things, better wait and have a happy dog than stress him out and achieve nothing. (As I have no idea where our final destination is anyway I need time to see what we can do ).
Hunting, well we haven't done any!!!! I have a puppy with a fast recall who is just starting to follow Mugi's natural pattern when in a field where phessies have been out. I am more interested in relationship building at this point as I know he has been bred to hunt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When the Avon was in flood Chase scared himself so water is a little difficult, after a little specific work where Chase has been watching Mugi and Dexter (me friends young ESS) in the water I am at the point he will wade into water chest deep to pick up his dummy. I am happy with this and anything deeper will come in time. I am undecided whether to use a hydrotherapy pool to start him swimming, it worked for Mugi but Freddy my WSS has to swim for his arthritis, the pool has not helped him love water although he is a strong swimmer - think I will work Chase on natural water a little longer before making things artificial. (Not expecting a young pup to be a strong swimmer btw and now water is getting so cold I will not expect him to go in unless he wants to).
So now you have my ramblings of where we are in our fumbling attempts at gundog work. I am really keen to see what we can do - I would like to see if we can be credible but even if we never aspire high I do want my boys to be able to use their natural talents so they live a fulfilled live.
ps. For 'we' read 'ME' _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
Wonderful stuff, Sue. Isn't it fun? I'm kind of stuck in easy fields and boring pigeon retrieves at the mo, but have been promised outings with guns as soon as the shoulder can cope with rough ground. You wouldn't believe how a bad shoulder affects every other part of your body - even one hand typing. Anyway, enough ramblings, don't want to steal your spot - well done to both your boys!
Annie
It is great Annie. A nice feeling too the other week when I had my (brittany) dogs up near pheasant pens - each time the gamekeeper came past on his quad bike I called the dogs to me and both came and sat nicely to be on the lead as he passed. There were no birds actually about at the time.
Some pics taken on that session to bore you all with .
Mugi
Why did you have to hide it in here mum?
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and Chase
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Click to see full size image _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
Sue I have the same problem with Sherry that you have with Mugi - and so far nobody's come up with an answer for me.
She too regards any command at a distance as a recall - and rushes back to me "here I am mum, what do you want?". I've tried nearly everything anyone's suggested - don't use her name, just a quiet command (?) to not get her too excited (?). I had a terrible job doing the distance control for the Gold Good Citizens.
Since then I've more or less given up on getting her to stay away from me - and to be honest knowing what she's like for bogging off, I do concentrate on making sure I'm the most interesting thing in her world, as she does go deaf if she switches into self-hunting mood.
Any suggestions? _________________ Liz and the Brats
Don't know if you've already tried this, sorry for wating your time if you have, but how about putting your dog on a long lead (with someone else holding it) then giving commands from a distance. If they are not obeyed the person holding the lead can stop the return to you (if you're doing directional work perhaps even runnig in the right direction with the dog). I haven't tried this myself but it may work if all else seems to fail. _________________ My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am.
When Mugi was last doing some water retrieving Chase was very very keen to have the dummy. Although the venue was not good I decided to do some very short thrown retrieves and I decided to use his hi-viz line so he couldn't run off.
Although these pics weren't exactly in sequence (I apparently kept moving the wrong was according to my friend!!) they show little one and how keen he is for his dummy. I didn't trip either of us up either - I really don't find it easy having a line on him.
Throw the dummy Mum!
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You don't need to point - I CAN SEE IT!!!
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Got it
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Is this what you want?
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We are currently working on very simple retrieves in a narrow passageway where he has to bring me the dummy back and once I have his delivery more reliable I will be going back to memory retrieves in hedges etc. He finds his dummy quickly then but I want him to learn to mind me more so we are concentrating on exercises where he has to interact with me until he is more compliant. _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
Swimming nicely for the float dummy
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Retrieving the dummy the ESS dropped Click to see full size image
Proud of himself
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Please don't let me drop it!!!!!!!
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Mugi has a really nice delivery to hand too when he comes out of the water, he waits to shake till he has presented but you do have to move out of his way quickly
Mugi didn't really start swimming till the June Club Training Day. He was started by attaching a light line to his collar and being held on one side of a small river while I legged it to the other bank. I then recalled him over the water and although he wasn't keen he swam nicely. He repeated that twice and I was set to call it a day. The trainer was keen for him to try his first water retrieve though and he did it nicely although he swam across the water and recalled over the bridge to present to hand . I have found that he swims out well, collects the dummy really nicely but he finds the turn quite hard and he seems to have to think it through while paddling further away from the bank. _________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
First retrieve was a bit of a disaster in one sense this evening. Chase was tethered to watch only as he is having some major manners lessons. My friend threw me a seen retrieve for Mugi at about 25m, Mugi saw it but seemed reluctant to run out to it, I called him back and set him up again and he ran the distance but although he acknowledged the dummy he ran away from it. I called him back and didn't insist again - I was pleased he had run out the distance the second time without me having gone nearer myself. When I asked my friend if she had any idea why he refused the dummy it seems a spaniel and owner were waiting on the other side of the hedge and this dog had growled as Mugi went to pick his dummy.
A little further along I tethered Chase again and decided to throw the dummy myself making an easy retrieve so we could end on a high. Being a girl my throw went into crop (and not very far distance wise either ) but as Mugi was keen to go I let him run. He obviously has so much more faith in my throwing ability and he overshot by about 10m, he was confused and started to recall, he ended nearer to me than the dummy but he went back when asked. Again he overshot the dummy but this time his nose went down and he worked the crop line back towards me. It was very obvious when he found his dummy and he was really keen to bring it back although as usual his delivery left a fair bit to be desired, I did eventually get him to carry it to me.
He is gaining in confidence that being sent out will yield a dummy and although his actual retrieving was not great I was really pleased with the progress we have made tonight.
_________________ Sue, Chase and the non-Brittany boys - Brice & Piper. Pets first and foremost.
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he is so aroused. I have been given exercises to do with him to reduce his arousal and help his self-control which we are making slow progress with. This mainly involves him being exposed to rabbit fur flicked around on a driving whip, he only gets to put it in his mouth when he is not throwing himself around after the fur. Oddly he has such good control on live rabbits, I can recall him off a chase and if a bunny crosses his path when he is hunting a pheasant then the bunny doesn't get acknowledged at all.
Anyway, enough ramblings, don't want to steal your spot - well done to both your boys! 
