Bruce 1/6/24
Bruce is coming along an absolute treat! 6 months old and happily picking up pigeons!
Each dog is different and takes different times to happily pick up birds, Bruce here is showing exactly what his breed is meant to be doing and will one day become a great companion to have on the peg. 🐾
Keep following along to watch his progress!
Bruce 18/5/24
This week we worked on Bruce’s retrieve and delivery. He brings it back beautifully to hand every time!
Now at the moment, our sessions are very relaxed and calm as he is still young. They are kept simple so we don’t overwhelm him and involves a lot of play and praise to keep him interested.
We have also been working on his walking nicely to heel on lead as well as being able to walk past other dogs without feeling the need to run up and say hi or shying away from them. 🧡🐾
Bruce
Last week saw me with this little stunner, 6 month old Bruce. First session and he already has lovely recall! With the added distraction of ducks too. He is being trained as a Gundog to work along side his house mate (big brother) Ray.
His owner, Rachael and I will be doing weekly videos of his process if you would like to keep up to date with him 😁🐾
Ray
All our hard work has paid off fantastically. Ray has been out on a couple of pigeon shoots now and today he did us all very proud by marking and retrieving 5 birds.
You can hear the proudness in Tye’s voice 😊 Go Ray!
This young man is Jasper.
Now Jasper has been on a journey learning how to heel and walk nicely.
We couldn’t use the figure of 8 method for when he pulls to much as he would grind his teeth. If he carried on it would cause issues down the road.
He is also very prey driven so he would pull on the lead if a car went past, he saw a bird, cat or another dog.
So doing boundary walks as well as clicker training we have managed to get him to this point.
Progress has been slow but now you can see he is paying attention to his owner and returning back to a beautiful heel position when he goes for a sniff.
He is a smart boy who knows what needs to be done 😊
Not only was Stella doing retrieving today but we are also working on socialising her with other dogs.
Last week she studiously ignored Remi, today however, she jumped right out to give him kisses. 🧡 Best buddies in the making
Retrieving
Today was the first day doing some gundog training for Stella. She won’t necessarily go out on a shoot but Collies are an exceptionally smart breed and this will give her something else to do.
As you can see she already retrieves very nicely. For her first ever time doing this she did amazingly 😊
This boy never fail to impress me! 🧡
Last week he dropped short on his delivery of the bird, but this week, with every single retrieve, he came right up to Rachael.
We are working on him delivering to hand with a nice sit.
We made it a bit harder this week by adding wings to one of the dummies that I had previously thrown out. But as you can see he only had eyes for the partridge.
Proud is an understatement!
Ray - Direction work
The last thing Ray worked on this week was his directional work.
Here we placed two dummies to the left and right of him. Standing in front Ray, his owner Tye, had to direct Ray to the right first, call him back and then send him out to the left. All by using hand directions.
The hand directions are simply leaning and holding your arm and hand out straight to your right and again for the left.
Ray - Dummy retrieves
After we finished playing with the cold game, Ray was sent out to pick up the 6 dummies that were laid out as decoys.
He did some beautiful pick ups without swapping the dummies over!
Still needs to learn to brink them straight back, but you can easily see how eager and happy he is doing these retrieves! 🧡
Ray - Introduction to cold game
First session for Ray after the Christmas break and he did a wonderful job!
As this was his first time with cold game we kept the introduction short with three easy retrieves.
(You don’t want to do too much too soon when it comes to this sort of work as it can over excite them and cause issues further down the line.)
For this task, we hid behind a hedge and played the sound of a shot before throwing out the retrieve, between 6 dummies I had already put out, and then sent Ray out. As you can see he did very well with picking it up and carrying it back.
There are some things that need work, but for his first time with game and the first session after the break he did fantastic! I’m very proud of this pup!
With Rachael Warnes
Ludo and Hoggle came out with Rem today.
Ludo has become a big brother to Hoggle and is now very protective over him.
As sweet as this can be it can also become dangerous quickly.
Ludo has become reactive to other dogs whilst he is being walked. This video is near the end of the 1 hour session, where he can be walked near Remi without the little grumbles he did to start off with.
It takes a lot of patience to handle a reactive dog and it took us doing some groundwork before the video was taken.
But all dogs did very well as did their owners 🧡
The next thing Ray learned was directional work. This he has done fantasticly and we will build this up nicely 😊
Saw Ray this afternoon and to start with we worked on his steadiness.
As you can see he is very eager but with the work that we are putting in he will crack this beautifully like everything else he has done 😊
Sometimes it’s important to have a friend nearby.
My Rem joined Holly on this session. Holly can be a bit reactive with other dogs but by pairing her with Rem (who is a chilled as a cucumber) she was able to relax and only barked a few times at all the other dogs I found.
Hollys owners now have some tips and cues to put into practice when they see other dogs out and about on their walks.
Hopefully this sweet girl will relax more and they can all enjoy a nice walk together.
In the meantime Rem The Emotional Support Dog will be joining her on their sessions. 🧡
The gorgeous lad is Ray.
In this video he is learning a few things, the main ones being:
1) Steadiness to the drop
2) Marking the dummy and where it lands
3) Retrieving
4) Recall.
For his first time doing it, he did well.
There are things we need to work on (like swapping the dummies and more steadiness) but he shows a lot of promise.
Each thing he works on here will be worked on separately.
However he is a fast learner and his owners definitely do their homework and work with him at home too.
I love watching his progress and can’t wait to see the end result 😊🧡
This sweet boy is Henry and he is learning some manners on the lead, the main one being how to heel.
It takes time and your patience to train a dog and now Henry can walk nicely using the routine we are working on here.
He still has a little way to go but today he showed both himself and his owner that he can in fact do as he is asked.
Look at Joey go!
It has taken time and patience to get this lovely boy to the stage he is now, there are still a few things to work on BUT we are getting there!!
He still does love the chase of a bird but we are able to get him back now and more importantly he wants to come back 😊
With Sue Cowie
Today we had Izzie doing her first proper swimming lesson! Look at her go!
She learnt how to swim with and without the life vest on.
She was brilliant 🧡
Socialisation is very important and with nervous dogs even more so.
Here we have the beautiful Lola and my Rem. By meeting this way before we start the session, both dogs get used to each other and relaxed in the others presence.
By the end of the session both dogs were walking side by side and were nose to nose.
The important thing for us humans to do when greeting another dog is to stay calm and be confident. They read our body language! If we are calm so are they! 🐾
With Paul Massey and Carly Massey
