Diva back from Boot Camp
Posted by Todd Chrisman at July 25, 2006 and is filed under Diva,A Litter,Hunting,Dog Training,NAVHDA 
Diva is back from a month with John Murphy. I had him tighten the screws. She's been a bit easier around the house and the 90 minute run we had over the weekend was very good. She handles like she's on a string.
She's standing birds at least until they get off the ground (to flush) which will make her functional as a hunter this fall. It might be dicey in a flight of woodcock, but I probably won't get into that. (Will pick her up if I do, and put Colt on the ground.) I suspect her natural retrieving will make for some lost time afield, but I don't suspect she'll be force fetched before bird camp. Maybe I can do it myself over the winter. I hate the FF training, but it's the foundation for all retrieving work and solidifies all other areas of training.
Training for hunting makes GSP's better pets. Diva has found her "special purpose" (see The Jerk if you don't know how funny that is) and I've actually witnessed her sitting calmly and confidently in the house.
She's standing birds at least until they get off the ground (to flush) which will make her functional as a hunter this fall. It might be dicey in a flight of woodcock, but I probably won't get into that. (Will pick her up if I do, and put Colt on the ground.) I suspect her natural retrieving will make for some lost time afield, but I don't suspect she'll be force fetched before bird camp. Maybe I can do it myself over the winter. I hate the FF training, but it's the foundation for all retrieving work and solidifies all other areas of training.
Training for hunting makes GSP's better pets. Diva has found her "special purpose" (see The Jerk if you don't know how funny that is) and I've actually witnessed her sitting calmly and confidently in the house.
Welcome back to Diva in Marshfield! I'm sure it didn't hurt the little Queen to have some of the screws tighten in her little brain, just like her sister Roxie... But still the work is never done on these girls...
Regarding Force Fetch, I started on Tilou. His registered name is Mozart Van Haege, there is a reason for that name. The little boy is a prodigy. The training is going so well that no pro-training will be needed on him for the FF. He looks at me saying o.k. what else to you want me to do? Should I point that thing to make you happier? Since he's been a 5 weeks old puppy, he's been so "connected" to me. He always looks at me on each command before "breaking" it as if to say "Am I aloud?" He got 110 points on his NA with a Prize 1, got 98/100 - 96/100 and 94/100 for his FDJ (Canadian version of JH). He makes people's head turn when he's at work. If the training keeps on going that well, it looks like I will have a very fun and productive bird hunting season with him. When I say birds, I talk about ducks, Canadian geese and land birds. We live on the Ottawa river where migratory birds come every season. Tilou swims and retrieves like a dream come through.
Therefore, when you have a dog like Tilou and you look at Roxie, you kind of wonder... It's like the second child that wants the attention and wants to prove she's better than the first child. She bosses around Tilou, steels all of his toys, gets on top of him to put him down, never lets him have a bone, etc. And Tilou just bows to Her Highness. When Roxie is in the field, she covers 3 fields at the same time, she doesn't want to miss anything. She runs like she was after the last bird on the planet. She looks in every corner of each fields, which is good, but not when she doesn't listen to the handler. She seems to think that she knows it all. "Oh! I can't go back to Ray now, I'm not done my job! I'm sure there's a bird over there...!"
She does as she pleases. She's the real Alpha in this house. We call her our little ADHD Child (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder). If she was in a class room, they would give her Ritalin (a medication to calm down kids).
Therefore, we're doing walk at heel training every day, whoa, come, sit, stay, etc. Just to calm her down and have her connected to her handler and not herself... The pointing and swimming is NO problem with that girl, getting her out of the water or off the bird is a problem.
Since she will be RE-doing her NA in late August, we are concentrating on her running closer to Ray in the field and having her being aware that she's not alone hunting. She has to know that she's hunting for Ray and not herself...
Therefore, just like Diva, Roxie will not get any Force Fetch training before hunting season.
We just hope that when we start the FF, she will not hate us for it. She just might because it will be a VERY HARD task on our Princess...
Pointing First,
Pascale,
Du Champmarais Kennel