Sunny day in Blean Woods

We headed out to Blean today after I'd finished work at home. Sun was shining and it was positively spring like. Better not speak too soon! We had a great walk just mooching through the woods. I played hide and seek with him to keep him from running off too far. He generally roamed about 5 metres to the side, but mostly about 20 metres to 50 ahead. Stopping on every bend. He was mostly out of sight for just a couple of seconds.

Here's who we came across:
A lady with a young entire male lab. Bouncy greeting, some chasing of each other and we went our way. Grey was really muddy by this time and the labs owner spied this!

Loan man bird watching. Did a slow wide berth of us and we did the same. No tension from Grey, which was great.

Lone man wood cutting. Grey had a look but didn't go over.

Couple eating picnic on tree stump. Alert! Alert! But was fine. Grey didn't go over when I told him this way. Sandwiches were safe!

Here are a couple of pics and videos:

Whistle Recall:





General mooching about:

Snow has come

Finally snow has come. Tonight it has snowed big fat flakes that land on your tongue and melt on your eyelashes as you walk. I hope it lasts until the morning when we can get out into it, have fun and take photographs. But mostly run about like loons.

Today in the morning there was only a light dusting while the rest of the country has ground to a halt. Grey and I went out to Botany Bay at about 10am. It was peaceful weather. No wind, very still and not really too cold. But then, I'm a northerner and perhaps hardier!

I waited for Grey to stop barking as I do every day. I opened the boot and waited for him to sit down before opening the crate door. You can see the anticipation in his eyes. He's so waiting for this. The chance to run. We head off to the left of the top field and across to cliff edge side. There was a small brown poodle who ran up to us. Grey was really sweet and play bowed and the usual chase me routine started. Grey came away and we moved towards our sandy slope down. We did three turns of the wait and run game and then carried on the top field. I acted silly for him and chased him and got him to chase me. I recalled him back up the main slope to the beach too which he did Dave with Ivy and Kass on the beach. Grey was really good with them.

Blackberries and learning

I've been going blackberry picking with Grey this week and it was really interesting to see his behaviour. Two things came up. One that he learned how to pick blackberries. Previously I used to give him a blackberry and he never picked one for himself despite sniffing them. But when I was just picking for myself and ignoring him, he started picking off the lower branches and ate quite a lot. So I wondered do dogs learn at all from copying humans even though we have different tools? We have hands they pick from their mouths. Or is it just opportunistic?

Second he behaved differently while I was picking than he normally would in the same field that we would go to on a walk. Effectively I was ignoring him and stationary. He stayed very close and often was laying near me or just pottering close by. He didn't do a quarter of the free running he would have done normally. So different energy from me really affects him. Interesting. I'd already seen the week previously that one way to get him to bring an object back when playing fetch is if I sat down on the ground. He was much more likely to come to me than if I was standing.

Mmm... new stuff!

Two new things arrived in the post today. A scrummy new collar from Lupine, the Combo collar in a nice camo pattern called Bone Hunter. His leather martingale had pinched his fur out on his lower neck. The nice thing about it is that it has two D rings, so it can be put on as a standard collar, or attached in the martingale function. Lupine also guarantee the collar so if it breaks or gets chewed they'll replace it. Not had chance to try it on him yet as he's gone into kennels for a few days. He was really happy to see the guys at kennels again, so that was great. Still hard leaving him there though.

Second thing to drop through the door is the DVD by Leslie Nelson called 'Really Reliable Recall' bought from Canine Concepts. Great delivery service btw! I've heard great things about it, so will give that some viewing tonight. One thing I miss from not being in class anymore is seeing how other people do stuff timing wise.

When I'm calling you!

Grey's recall has now gone to pot. We're definitely in the realm of the teenager.

This morning in the park he wouldn't come back when I tried to call him off going up to an old lady and a yorkshire terrier on a flexi. Grey was very very very friendly and decided it was ok to try to squeeze through the lady's legs. This is the first time he wouldn't come back when called off another dog and me running in the opposite direction.

So this calls for more stringent management of free running. I got the long line out for the next park visit this evening. Was a bit of a shock for him but was a good move. He came back without having to be reeled in on the line. Have to watch out for friction burns and that I don't break a finger if he decides to run off. I'm thinking of getting this dvd. Leslie Nelson's Really Reliable Recall.

A good day

We had a brilliant couple of sessions trying out the about turn walking yesterday. I must have looked mad in the park and it's certainly going to keep me fit! I kept it up for about an hour the first time. I just kept walking in the exact opposite direction from him as soon as he came past me. He started to range shorter and shorter distance and got the idea that he had to keep an eye on me. It really tapped into the thing that he really likes to be 10m ahead of me. We finished off the session with a game of hide and seek round the big trees. Then the best bit, we walked home on the flat collar and lead and more or less made it home with no pulling. Yay!

So will do more of the same today. I think I have to come up with a range of activities where I'm more fun and interesting than what he can get up to on his own devices. Popping out with L this morning with him to do the come game that we used to play when he was little. It's so easy to forget to do this stuff once you've got used to them.

The about turn walk

Interesting method via the Gundog Club forum that I think will work with to turn around Grey's recall. I have sort of developed this myself with him over the last month as one of the ways to get him back is to change direction. But I often call him. So this method means doing lots of about turns away from the dog without calling him.

The teenager is arriving

I've noticed the last few days that Grey has started to change when out and about in the outside. From what I've heard, it could be the start of adolescence. His recall has suddenly developed into over shooting and running just out of reach. So we've gone back to working it so he comes back in reach so I can touch his collar. I'm not going to ask for a sit when he gets to me. Need to lower the bar, so that he does come back when I call him. He does react very well on the whistle for recall, it's the arriving at me that's now iffy. So when we're playing fetch with his tuggy toy, I'm blowing the recall whistle as soon as he's reached it. He doesn't have time to think and heads quickly back. If I then back up and change direction if I think he's not going to come back to me fully, we can more or less negotiate that he does get back to me. He's keener to keep up with me than to chase away on his own.

The other hard work is still loose leash walking. It's a constant battle of reinforcement when out on the street. I've switched him back to trying out the halti rather than the Gentle Leader. he seemed quite unhappy in the Gentle Leader. The halti he seems to mind less. Yesterday we tried heelwork round the house and garden and he managed it fine. Nice and close and good attention. So he can do it. It's out on the street that the outside is more exciting than me. But today, we managed to loose leash walk down the street to the park and back with the aid of sausage and liver cake. Hardly any of his eat the treat and boing forwards activities of the last week. So we hopefully have something to work on.