Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 9:30 pm Post subject: Tresallier diary
The training diaries seem to have gone a bit quiet so I thought i would fill the gap. I am not sure it will be anywhere near as interesting as Bucks Diary on another forum. Although a lot of what I do is 'more of the same' there are bits and pieces that should prove interesting to all.
I will concentrate on the two orange and white. Topaz now three ish has been running in competative events since he was a year old, Catja now 18 months has run a couple of spring pointing tests.
Topaz - has this summer really come on 'in his head' hunting very intelligently, checking 'hotspots' of his own volition, can hunt well down wind and will enter water on a blind and can be handled whilst in the water. His achilles heel is the sensitivity of his nose and his tendency to indicate game that has recently left. Also a weakness on retrieving where he will be distracted by a point in favour of a retrieve. He was awarded a Certificate of Merit at novice field trial last season.
Catja - still young; sits well to the whistle but sight points more than scent points. Has a tendency to run in on birds - something i have not heavily discouraged as I wish her develop some real passion. Her water retrieves are a work in progress. Her land retrieving is very good but she had a fright whilst swimming earlier this year that has made her wary of long swims particularly in weed. She also seems to resist getting her fur wet, however once she is wet she behaves more like a seal than a woosie dog _________________ Guy, Ellie, Topaz, Catja and in memory Barley
Beauty from Structure
www.epagneulbreton.org.uk
First day on partridge for the Tango Two today. The last outing I had to go on my own as herself had her shortest skirt on and himself was suffering from meringue brain.
Anyway today was initially hard work - they are on a twin lead with swivel - but changes of speed on their part, position and many other things meant they got very well knotted. Topaz spent all morning on his lead so after lunch he stayed in the car - much to his . Catja really upped her game when it came to 'interest'. She retrieved a runner and a rather easy seen, but managed to get up wind of four partridge on a bank we were beating so rather displayed her inexperience.
Tomorrow we are off to an HPR shot over day. _________________ Guy, Ellie, Topaz, Catja and in memory Barley
Beauty from Structure
www.epagneulbreton.org.uk
A whole days training amongst Brittanys - what a delight. The focus was on unseen retrieves - initially 'visible' (but not thrown) and at the end unseen and hidden.
It was most interesting to see how all the dogs progressed during the day - thanks to the policy of 'zero tolerance' all were paying much more attention to their handlers although the retrieverholics were still having a little trouble believing that which they could not see. A blank saluted thrown 'seen' dummy was used as a distraction for a blind on partridge placed in the furrows of fresh plow. So not an easy retrieve - ignore the obvious dummy and then take a line off the stubble into the plow and then start to look. All dogs made a pretty fair job of it and some outstanding.
Catja - i wanted, and we did some hunting onto caged game. I ran her with her lunge line on so I had a means to control her at the end. I was very pleased to see how she was air scenting something half a field from the placed birds and then worked her ground very well, coming on to the birds and pointing quite strongly. Once I had hold of the lunge line I was able to praise and stroke her. Very good on her retrieves and on partridge although she did mouth them a lot (I believe this is a common occurrence with cold game and should not be worried about unduly).
Topaz - well he was a surprise. He actually performed as I know he can. After an intial 'conversation' he knuckled down :-) He usually ran last on each exercise - on the hunting exercise to the caged birds it was interesting to see his work methods change. He initially pointed a spot all other dogs had held long on but quickly moved on (I was pleased with this as he does have a tendency to point residual scent) Where dogs had already run he ran an erratic patern; now this may in hindsight be because the wind was different at ground level (we were near the end of a long field with trees just behind us - I did not get onto my knees to see if I could tell) or it may have been copious amounts of foot scent made him work more directly to where he had seen all other dogs run. But once beyond that he quartered nicely - flat, fast and fence to fence. Drew up the ditch, perhaps a little far, but to be fair to him that is where the birds were likely to be.
Last retrieve was a seen blind blind combo - thrown seen sent to that, stopped, recalled and sent for a blind dummy behind (he spent some time looking for that , but I think only because he had been on partridge all afternoon and this was s dummy. That to hand and then onto the last partridge in the plough. As no one now had any idea where the last one was it was a send away to a possible spot and a 'hunt there' command and let him get on with it. He worked it out well.
A very very good day, great company, great trainer, great bit of ground - thanks to all.
PS watch out for the bungee rabbit :-)
_________________ Guy, Ellie, Topaz, Catja and in memory Barley
Beauty from Structure
www.epagneulbreton.org.uk
Hi all, I want to thank our hosts Alan and Patrica and our trainer Angie Lewis and of course the company for a really super day.
The weather was really foggy when I ventured into darkest Suffolk for a training day with the Mabeleen.
In the morning we did unseen retrieves well they did unseen retrieves while Mabeleen painted her nails. I was very impressed with the standard.
After that Angie made us do some obedence and Mabeleen decided to have a morning nap or Beauty sleep as she likes to call it.
Later we did distence whistle training with a runnung Rabbit dummy, that was great fun while Mabeleen said she would have a go at that as the weather was becoming sunny and she wouldn't get her coat dirty.
Before lunch we did some hunting, I really saw some fab hunting by the rest of the Brits it was lovely and it deminstrated how quick they really are. Mabeleen said " and why are we running around this empty field, I might get dirt on my feet".
We then all had lunch I have never had Frogs legs and Snails but if it was that it was lovely. After lunch I decided I had to go home as I was suffering from the flue but before I did I took the Mabeleen down to the bird pens and at last she decided she would maybe like this working stuff, but I think she is a townie at heart.
I hope we will be invited for another day in darkest Suffolf a day when I am feeling a lot like my self Thanks again for all the support I got and Mabeleem said she will come only if there is a support staff on hand so she dosn't get her coat and feet dirty. Only Kidding.
Guy,
These are fantastic " action shots"
As always with Angie, things are never dull. She speaks as if she " was the dog" and we had fits of laughter. We all laughed at each other's misfortunes... well most, as I must say I was impressed with Topaz's training and level of obedience. He put many of us to shame
We made fun of his German " orders" and hand signals, we won't go into this!
We certainly were made to " think" and get tougher on our beasts... We are too soft... One exercise we all had difficulty with was a simple recall with our back to the dogs. Not facing them and they remained puzzled and frozen... We had an " elasticated rabbit" and the dog had to recall without chasing the" rabbit". Then drop to recall, which was all successful.
Hunting, finding partridge( dead and alive) and Thanks to Guy for the "bodies". That makes things more interesting.
I loved the 5 dummies standing up like little people. We had to send the dogs to fetch one... and guess what? They all picked the " fluffy rabbit skin" dummy... had a good sniff, ignored the plain ones, and fetched the intersting ones.
Darkest Suffolk???? I prefer to call it Rural Suffolk, peace and fields instead of houses, crowds and noise
We had 7 dogs in training, which was more than enough as we had individual attention. We all had "Bourguignon" not frogs legs!!! Next time Gill!
photos not all mine - i can hardly take a pic when I am in the pic :-) Thanks to Andy and Gill i think? _________________ Guy, Ellie, Topaz, Catja and in memory Barley
Beauty from Structure
www.epagneulbreton.org.uk
Thank you for sharing that with us, Guy...interesting what you say about Topaz as a three year old. Gaston this year on birds also three is now a very deliberate thorough hunter with a 'malicious' passion that sometimes almost scares me!!!!! He is an utter delight to work with; I love our trust in each other, our constant connection and his attention to detail.
I did miss a bird (very sticky cock pheasant that rose like a hornet jet and broke the sound barrier almost) and honestly, the contemptuous look I got from the dog was most humiliating...glad no one was watching me when I knelt beside him to apologise _________________ "...amitie, respect mutuel et amour..."
Ok Guy, all round excellent photography!
Keen to do it again, one of the best training days with a lot of humour...
I might add we used to do quite a few of those training days before, even putting on " falconry days" for long and short wings.
Put into practice some of the things learned on Sunday - and boy what a difference that made. I thought I should put a bit of time into whistle response when quartering (in anticipation of a run in Monday's Novice Ft) so spent lunch time out with himself.
Catja - coming back from the post office (remind me not to volunteer to send loads of people pictures on CD in the future) spotted a brace of hen pheasants in the verge; hasty stop and out with herself on a long lead for a bit of hedge bashing - she sharpened up her act now she has connected the idea of scent to bird. It is a pleasure to see. Afternoon tea-break saw her doing a mark and a blind. Need to put more time into the hand signals - I am not really sure she has got the idea yet. i think her version is 'hand signal is a release command to go in the direction she first thought of' which must be confusing to her as sometimes she can and sometimes she is corrected. _________________ Guy, Ellie, Topaz, Catja and in memory Barley
Beauty from Structure
www.epagneulbreton.org.uk
Took them all out at lunch time for a 10 min run each.
Topaz - I am already getting butterflies in the stomach about Monday's FT run - and I have not even heard if we have a place yet Hamptworth is quite wooded but also has some pumpkin fields ad a bit of yellow grass. So I thought I should give him a bit of hunting in woods, to see how far he ranged. He does keep hunting on even of out of sight, something which could be a problem in the rhododendrons at Hamptworth. On his last run he disappeared behind tall bracken and did not come back to the whistle - this means two things - either he is on point or he has buggered off big time. A quick dash through the ferns on my part put up a deer. On rewhistling him - he arrived from behind me and in his turn put up another; which ran past his nose only a few feet in front of him. He followed grrr - but did sit on command - phew. So that could be us out for chasing or we could still be in as it is only novice and he stopped.
Catja - she had a nice little hunt on short bracken and through brambles - that was indeed a surprise as she doesn't usually like brambles. The couple of sessions with caged game has really spiced up her desire to hunt. A couple of hand signal exercises.
Ellie - I gave her a run in a stubble field. She was not perhaps her usual self - as in she did not hare off as soon as she was told 'go play' but quartered really quite nicely even working a cheek wind in the text book manner. I am currently doing the 'walk in the other direction the dog is taking' school of improving contact. It goes like this - dog runs ahead so you turn 180 degrees from there, dog eventually realises you are not around and hares back and past - so you turn again. the theory is the oscillations reduce.
She got distracted by some smell or mouse hole so I was well across the field when I thought I would increase the 'pressure' so lay down. Now i could see her, but she could not see me - there was a bit of frenzied quartering of the field, a half hearted dash back to the filed gate and some more frenzied quartering. Finally she got wind of me and came in like the hound of hell - much foam at the mouth. Another run and return to the workshop at heel - such a mellow little dog
_________________ Guy, Ellie, Topaz, Catja and in memory Barley
Beauty from Structure
www.epagneulbreton.org.uk
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. Catja really upped her game when it came to 'interest'. She retrieved a runner and a rather easy seen, but managed to get up wind of four partridge on a bank we were beating so rather displayed her inexperience.
I prefer to call it Rural Suffolk, peace and fields instead of houses, crowds and noise 
