Confidence – 18th July 2009
This week has been very hectic. Work has taken more time than I would have liked leaving me with little time in the evenings to do more than the basics. We have spent a few evenings by the river and one on the racecourse but these were purely for exercise only. Today eventually came around though so this morning I took both dogs to the racecourse. We have settled into a bit of a routine up here now where both dogs are hupped and one is released. I expect the dog that is released to ‘get on’ when told, and by ‘get on’ I mean run straight out, flat out, until either the dog starts to lack confidence and turns or I whistle him/her back. The dog is then sent away again and if it doesn’t run, it is dropped, picked up and swapped. The message is ‘run or you are on a lead’. This seems to be working. Archie is an absolutely different kettle of fish to Grace though. Grace will run but is often distracted by smells from the hedgerows. She doesn’t run flat out from a standing start preferring to work her way up to it. Archie, however, does. I tell him to get on and its like letting loose a cannonball, he thunders off into the distance, running in a straight line and on a mission. He goes out I suppose about 200 yards, maybe further, before turning and heading back. If it looks like he may turn left or right on his way out I recall him and he comes thundering back. It is an absolute joy to watch.
I took a risk this morning though, telling him to ‘get on’ after a group of ramblers had passed us, walking our way. They were about 70 yards ahead of us and I let Archie go. He ran flat out towards them, ran straight past them, carried on for another 50 or so yards before I pipped the whistle upon which he turned and headed back. He ran past them again, flat out, and returned to me. As he came close I raised my hand and dropped him on the whistle. He skidded to a halt on his belly next to me. I couldn’t have been more pleased. He didn’t pay the walkers a blind bit of notice.
I have really worked hard to build Archie’s confidence. I need him to get out as far as he can within the range of the whistle and to do this I have had to bite down hard on my whistle and resist the temptation to call him back as he reaches the limits of my confidence. So far this has worked. I will really only find out how confident we both are when we reach the heather in August. The beginning of August looks like it will be busy. We will be counting on two moors, one over three days the other on only one. I have a few people coming with me, who will be staying, so I am glad I invested in kennels. My only hope is that it is warm and the sun shines in the evenings. I feel a few barbecues coming on. Obviously Archie is too young to work on the count but he will be given a chance to run on heather and find birds if only for short periods. When the count is over training will move on in earnest. The only real problem is that in reality Archie is better trained than Grace, but this may all go out of the window once Archie comes across grouse. At the moment he doesn’t know what lies ahead or indeed what its all about.
Roll on August.
July 19, 2009 at 8:32 am
“Obviously Archie is too young to work on the count”
“in reality Archie is better trained than Grace”
Is there not an element of conflict between these two statements?
July 19, 2009 at 10:03 am
I am not sure that there is…in that Archie is still growing and I am still limiting his exercise, so in this respect I would be hesitant about sending him across heather (some of which is very deep) for more than five minute bursts at a time. So in this respect I feel he is too young to make any meaningful contribution to a count…plus the fact that he has had little idea of what is expected of him just yet. With regards the training he is without doubt more responsive to the drop whistle and the command ‘get on’ than Grace. This is a product of training and I think I have made a better hash of it so far than I have done with Grace.
Accepting the fact that Grace has more experience, quarters fine most of the time, generally works the wind with little intervention from me…and most importantly knows what I want of her, i.e to find birds, then I would have to say that Grace is better suited to a count all round. She has a level of maturity that a pup couldn’t have but all of this has come from experience, not training. I have just put her in a useful environment and she as worked out the most effective tactics to employ. Unfortunately this still involves failing to drop to flush and chasing, even if only a few yards now. This is, without doubt, a product of my lack of skill as a trainer and not instilling the drop when I should have done…a problem I have had for a while of which you are aware.
So, I do feel that Archie has been better trained so far. I have concentrated on the drop and as such feel that I have a reasonable chance of success using it as a ‘get out of jail card’ should things start to go wrong. Archie, is though, too young to spend any extended period out on the heather. If he was 18 months old I would think differently. He has absolutely no experience though, and this is what I will try to help him gain this autumn. Grace will come counting, do all of the things I ask of her, find birds if there are any to be found but I am sure, let me down with a refusal to drop come the flush…a reflection of the way I have actually let her down by failing to ensure she wa trained properly when the time was right i.e. very early on.
Whilst there may be an apparent conflict between the two statements they relate to two different things – Archie is too young to work on the count but he seems better trained. Grace is the right age, has been trained less well but has more experience, so manages to execute those tasks that make a count possible with little problem. I will however have to ensure I am on top of her before the flush. I guess training accounts for only part of the package – embedding the tools needed to maintain some control over the rest. I am not sure that any amount of training can make a dog hunt hard for instance, although I am always willing to change my view on this…I have such limited experience. All fun and games.