Autumn July Gundog Training day – Melford Hall Estate shoot
As with the last training day we started with some obedience, the day was set to be nice but not excessively hot, but by 9am it was clear it was going to be warm, so we found some shade in the area we were working.
We started with walking to heel in a big circle, this was on a stubble field which had been cut on Thursday, so smells were still very fresh, it makes the excitement for the dog much higher, once we had done a few circuits and the dogs had settled, we then lined up to do a recall.
With Autumn, I have been working on the recall whistle, so when I am ready to call her back in, I use her name, three pips on the whistle and the clicker when she is at her fastest, this can be very tricky as Autumn is so fast, I have to be ready to whistle and closely followed by the clicker, Autumn comes straight in quite nicely, soon I hope to do the recall whistle on its own, already with retrieves I do not need to give a recall so I am sure with a little more practice it will work.
I have been working on the stop whistle on a Thursday night, so next I put Autumn on the long lead and our trainer fired the starter pistol and threw a dummy out for me, whilst I used the stop whistle and long lead to stop running after it, once she sat nicely for both parts of the exercise she was allowed to retrieve the dummy.
We then moved onto a marked retrieve, this again was one of the longest retrieves Autumn had done, she ran straight out but then caught wind of some smell, so I had to get after her and make her come back to me when asked to, she was then sent again for the retrieve, which she did without distraction, unfortunately when she delivered either she spat it out or I fumbled it but the dummy dropped, so I left it, walked her backwards and sent her for it again, this time retrieved to hand.
To get Autumn more settled on her deliveries I have begun using my hand as a focus point for her to run towards, as long as I get the timing of the hand movement correct, she comes straight in, without running around me, sits up and I collect the dummy, most of the time if it does not happen this way, it is completely my fault not hers, but it has slowed her down upon reaching me, which means more and more dummies can be delivered without problems.
Last thing in the morning session we did directional retrieve, already I have seen how easily Autumn picks up hand signals but we have not done set directional since grade 2, I sat Autumn up on a track, walked back on the field, whilst our trainer threw the dummies down, I blew the stop whistle and then when instructed sent Autumn for the right dummy, she collect it and delivered, once back with me, I sat her up and walked to the second dummy and collected it, this is to teach them that not all things which fall – whether Dummy or bird is for them.
After lunch we walked down the estate to the water, for this exercise one dummy was thrown for a memory, marked and then moved Autumn to the water, where a Dokken dummy was thrown across the water, unfortunately for Autumn it fell back down the bank and got caught behind a tree trunk and hidden Autumn took the steep bank very well, starting hunting for the dummy, because it was hidden, I had to handle her a little to bring her close to the dummy and once nearer it indicate using the word ‘there’ to indicate she was in the right place, normally we would use the hunting whistle but as the dokker dummy holds less scent, the whistle would not have been indication enough for Autumn.
Once this dummy was retrieved we moved back to the memory, which Autumn was sent for a go back, this was a bigger Dokker dummy, which Autumn struggled to hold, so I did have to put is back in her mouth and ask her to hold it before I took delivery.
Next I sent Autumn on a retrieve for me to use the stop whistle, unfortunately I delayed my whistle and Autumn was too quick and it did not work, however this was totally down to me not being quick enough on the whistle, but something for me to work on.
To up the ante on the retrieves the dummy launcher came out, this was launched over a field of set aside, as many of you know we have 2 dogs, Autumn, who came from Barleycourt and Busby, who is 3 and came from a farmer in Yorkshire, as a couple we are known for being competitive with our dogs, in a fun and micky taking way and sometimes when training together we get in a position to compete against each other.
Busby went first, he went for a really long retrieve which was placed for another dog but they could not find, he had marked it from behind long grass, so it was going to be a stretch if he got it, but out he went straight to the dummy, on his way back he unfortunately went for a little walk about and played my husband up a little (think he was showing off as he got the dummy), so our trainer than turned to me and said ‘let’s see how the other half of the duo do’ – no pressure!!!
Anyway this dummy was shorter and Autumn was prepared with an instruction of ‘Mark’ but she went straight out and back, without any problems, as I turned round to the awaiting audience I remarked ‘and that, Ladies and Gentlemen is how it is done’
My husband took it all in good part, the retrieve for Busby was definitely the harder but what is so lovely is that we have 2 dogs, which we can incentivise each other with, push each other to be better and work better with.
To end the day, we did one more water retrieve before walking back to the cars, as we did walk back I took the opportunity to do some marked retrieves, hunting and walking to heel off lead as part of a structured walk.
By the end of the day, Autumn was shattered but we had a good day all round, there are still things to work on, like the stop whistle but I know this take practice to get it right, the next blog will be about the competition day at the end of August – looking forward to this, it is going to be fun.
