More walking backwards

I'm still working hard at lead training. I've found that walking backwards is still a great help when he's really starting to freak out and get over stimulated by the environment. I've also gone back to working him more on the gencon. He's less reactive to traffic on the gencon. I can't seem to get him to relax on it though. It's like I have to do as much work on that as flat collar training. if I have him on a short leash on the gencon he never ever lets up pulling into it. No wonder he hates it. So I have to do lots and lots of reinforcement now to get him to stop pulling on that and making it unpleasant for himself. Kind of makes it hard to have that as my from A-B tool. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

He does seem stressed when I put it on him. Even though it's put on with food. He grinds his teeth for the first part of the walk. By the time we are homeward bound he's ok.

We went back to the park this morning. Had a run around then more walking backwards in the center with him following me. He lunged at a line of mounted posties which was a shame as he'd been really good outside the sorting office the day before. But I think the difference was that he was already very excited at the presence of other dogs round the perimeter of the park and that he was on the lead and couldn't go and say hello. I managed to calm him down, put on the gencon and walk nicely home.

This afternoon we headed out on foot again. I decided not to take him in the car to see if we could lower his energy levels that way. It seems to make a difference. We went to the beach at the lido, walked along to the harbour and through the old town. I'd picked up lots of nice bones today at the butchers so he spent a long while chewing bones and farting under my desk. Lovely. Might be a hangover from being wormed yesterday. Who knows, but it's kept him busy.

Other bits of training was more 'up up' and 'off' yesterday.

Woohoo! A Great Day!

Very excited and happy with how today went. I tried out the technique of delivering the treat behind my heel directly on the floor. Placing it on the floor, not dropping it. This placed me slightly ahead of him and I was able to encourage him to follow me and click him when he was at my side. if he forged ahead I changed direction gently and clicked him when he was heading back to me, the treat again on the floor behind my left heel.

I think a huge part of the success of today was incorporating Ian Dunbar's method of getting out the house by waiting for a series of sits and working the hallway to the outside with the front door open. So in general, excitement levels were lower by the time we were outside and if things got too much again, we just stood and waited. I guess I often forgot the rule that you can't train if the dog's not in the game. I was struggling how to get him in the game at all.

So we just went up and down in front of the house. Going nowhere was a relief too. No pressure to get to the park for a run. We just came back into the house for a while before then going out in the car for a really fun walk on the beach. He had a play with a collie pup a bit older than him, got filthy muddy in the grassy boggy bits and then the sun came out. I wasn't stressed about his recall because of the terrain and I managed to get hold of him nicely or distract him from cyclists and on lead dogs. The other great thing was that the beach was right next to the parking space. I even managed to do some LLW training in the car park which is a real challenge for him as it's probably his most exciting place evah!

I was very proud of him today. Love that pup.

We met Obi!

Swoon, feel bad now that I didn't get a piccie, but we were so excited to meet Obi, the new slovak on the block. He's six weeks younger than Grey and lovely. Funny to see his head pop over the wall as we were on the beach yesterday. Like Grey, a hairy one, but younger. So like seeing how much Grey has changed in the last month or so. I have a feeling that Obi is better behaved than Grey!

They had a good play together, so the first meet went really well. It bodes well for the future.

We had a nice weekend of meeting other dogs. Bumped into the spinone pup that we'd met six weeks ago. He's come along beautifully. Hope to see him again.

I think the sand definitely is behind Grey's gunky eyes. If we've been on the beach he'll always have gunky bits the next morning. I wiped his eyes with a used tea bag to see if that settles it.

Grey meets Gunner

I'd tracked down one the owner of one of Grey's litter mates. His brother, Gunner. Who it turns out is even bigger than Grey! Now there's a first. He lives about an hour from where we live which is brilliant. It was so very strange to see two slovaks together. Two youngsters the same age expecially. I'm so used to being the only slovak in the village. I suppose if the breed takes off then this might happen more often, but it's still rare. I don't even come across many HPR (hunt point and retrieve) breeds at all. In the last few months I've seen about three weims, one viszla, one spinone pup and that's it.

Anyway, Gunner is lovely. Less hairy than Grey, but then Grey is possibly too hairy at this stage. He's taller than Grey. Both have lovely temperaments, which is great to see. I'd love to know if there is some kind of residual recognition from when they were pups. They only lived together until they were seven weeks. They had a lovely play on the beach and for once I managed to get some great pictures.

Gunner is going to start gun dog level one training soon. I've begun enquiries about finding an HPR course for Grey too. I think half his leash issues are from him naturally quartering. Certainly don't have a problem sending him away from me to hunt. It's getting him to walk by my side that's a pain.

Here are some more pics from the big get together: