Training Diary Day 51-55

The Squeaky Gundog Goes on Holiday

Day 51

We set off on holiday today and Erik practiced waiting in the back of the car with the boot open whilst I pitched the caravan. He was really good and didn’t try to come out at all.  Very pleased as I was out of sight for quite long periods of time.

Day 52

Saturday was spent beating at a friend’s shoot. Erik had a better start to the day than out last outing and was listening reasonably well to his whistles.  Not perfect but he wasn’t running on as much as he had last time out.  He was quiet whilst I walked him about when we were waiting but if I was still for too long he was a bit whingey but mostly fairly quiet whinging.  He only had one major noise event and that was after a long time standing still and then a load of birds flushed very close to us.  He really lost the plot on that one!  He did, however, settle and was quiet in the beaters wagon whilst we had a break mid-morning so I was pleased with that.  Much still to work on but an improvement on the last shoot outing 🙂

Day 53

Rest day for both of us!  The picture is of a very tired Spaniel after a day’s shooting.

Day 54

We walked in to the local town and found a tea room that allows dogs, and we practiced sitting and doing nothing in a new environment. That worked very well, no noise and Erik settled well while I had a cup of tea, only a few times where he tried to get up and wander off.

We also practiced waiting in the back of the car while I was sorting out caravan things and that also went well and then in the evening we had to queue for about 20 mins to wait for pizza and he was quiet and patient for the whole time, I was very encouraged.

Day 55

I had a one to one shoot over lesson on Tuesday morning which involved basically rough shooting through cover crop and a bit of hedge work. Erik started well and we practiced some stops and recall before we got near to the birds.  He was a bit ‘deaf’ to recall when he was on ground scent.  He worked really well through the cover crop, mostly not too far away and responded well to his whistles.  I need to slow down and give him time to work a back wind or cross wind before I move forward.  After an initial chase of the bird he settled and did some nice stops on flush.  He does, however, want to run in on the shot now that he has worked out that the shot is linked to a retrieve.  The cover that he was working was quite tall and so after a while he stopped trying to run in on the shot as he couldn’t see the birds fall.  He heard 8 shots and had two retrieves which he found after I walked him nearer and sent him on his blind retrieve cue.

He had a good transition from hunting to staying close whilst we walked to the retrieve point and transitioned to retrieving well also. He is picking them up nicely and returning straight to me but is struggling to let go.  I need to work on his release when aroused as he is also prone to do this with toys.  The good news is that I can replicate the problem away from the birds so it will be easier to practice when I don’t have access to game to work with.

What was very encouraging was that he offered to lie down with no noise when we took a break. He only had one squeak and that was when I set him off hunting again so I called him back and set him off and he was quiet.  He recalled and restarted hunting during the rest of the time with no noise and no yipping when he flushed.

I was very pleased with him as he got better during the lesson and settled rather than becoming increasingly headless.

He stayed in the open back of the car apart from a quick hello to my trainer when she arrived, I put him back and he didn’t come out again until I released him.