And baby makes three!

[MysticExotics]

So much puppy fun! Great photos, as usual!

 

[diamondlil]

A triumph! Yesterday I was supposed to have a study day instead of working the nightshift. So up at 6 to walk the dogs, home to shower and off to work, having arranged for my eldest, Harry to give the puppy his breakfast and walk them again. The study day was cancelled (picc line training on the chemo unit, so you need 1-1 supervision all day but my trainer was off sick)
So home, cancelled my boy's dog-sitting, got changed and off we went.
We were on the open ground up near the war Memorial and as the dogs were calm I decided to let them have a run with their friend Toby, a Cavalier. True to form, within minutes Bertie ran off in a big circle. The other dogs all stayed with us, running up and down the grass paths and getting treats when I called Berts and he seemed to suddenly realise he wasn't having nearly as much fun, saw me waving the bag of treats and recalled beautifully! A good 15 minutes of sending him away and recalling for big praise!
The fun was cut short by an aggressive staff shooting over, meaning Toby's owner grabbed him while I grabbed both Flash and the Staffie after Rosie and Bertie bowled her over. Her owner caught up and leashed her, apologising, then both Rosie and Bertie recalled to get leashed and off for another half hour of very nice leashed walking.
(at that point I'd probably have leashed my dogs anyway to end on a high note before Bertie could get bored and run off)

 

[diamondlil]

Great excitement for the dogs last night, as Mick brought home a goose from his son in law. I'll take off the breast meat for us and the rest will get portioned up for the dogs.
So this morning after wrestling the dogs past the goose hanging in the hallway, off for a walk before it rains. As they were being so good I chanced some free-running again. I'm glad to say this time Bertie didn't even leave the pack at all and they had great fun bounding through long grass

 

[MegF.]

Lucky pups!! Isn't it early for Christmas goose!??

 

[diamondlil]

Lucky pups!! Isn't it early for Christmas goose!??

After I started plucking it, it was shot up pretty bad. So two nice breast pieces with the skin on for Mick and I, then I butchered out as much of the rest as I could for the dogs and cubed the meat up so I could check it thoroughly for shotgun pellets. Which is a real shame as it was nice and fat and a young enough bird that I was thinking about roasting it whole.

 

[MegF.]

I'm sure they enjoyed every bit of it. My ridgeback used to love the dove we would shoot. The lab would eat some of the heart and such but if given the chance, my ridgeback would steal the entire bird out of the bag and eat it whole....plucked a few feathers off with her teeth but otherwise ate those too!

 

[diamondlil]

No offlead time this weekend, Saturday there was a fun run across the fields and Sunday too many 'weekend dog walkers', so too much distraction. This morning though, after a very brisk circuit due to the cold and wet weather, I slipped the dogs for ten minutes running. Treats and praise for the recall....we're making progress!

 

[MegF.]

Sounds like fun!!! Gonna have to get that recall without the treats though.....

 

[diamondlil]

Sounds like fun!!! Gonna have to get that recall without the treats though.....

Meg if you go back a couple of months I never thought I'd get recall from Bertie at all! Right now I'll be taking baby steps in proofing him. If Bertie goes into mad hunting mode he can't even eat treats, I'd actually prefer it if he was food-orientated, it'd make life easier.
Today I couldn't try offlead, all 3 dogs were hyper with frisky squirrels running around. When I'm tired after a nightshift I just can't compete with the excitement a chase would give them, so we did more roadwork to make 'em think about heeling and waiting at the curbs.

 

[MegF.]

Yes I remember. For what it's worth, it's better that he isn't food oriented. Recalls based on food reward are not reliable. It's a step by step process where each step is proofed 100% before moving to the next level. The recall should be a no questions asked no matter what command. It can never be a negotiable one. At least not in the dogs I train. Come, stay and leave it are never negotiable....they are lifesaving commands that must never be ignored. Just the way I was trained. I do use treats for fun stuff like shaking paws and such as that. I have used them to help my feral dogs get used to people and to accept the leash. It's still fun to work with them on leash when you have lots of distractions like you had so that you can see how they do and how far they've come with that.

 

[diamondlil]

This morning, the rats were running across the path at the park and on his long leash Bertie had a huge amount of fun bouncing through the undergrowth. Then as we got home there was a terrific noise that turned out to be a Chinook hovering overhead!

 

[MegF.]

Sweet! A private airshow! How cool is that?

 

[diamondlil]

It was great! Bertie killed 2 rats so he was as happy as could be. Then the chinook was overhead for about 15 minutes or so. Flash didn't like the noise and wanted to bolt so getting him to relax and forget about it meant I couldn't take many photos.

 

[MegF.]

My beagle doesn't like it when occasionally the fighter jets fly over from the base....he stares up and runs around....my other dogs just look around in curiosity but don't really care. Send Bertie over here.....my dogs seem to like to mess with the mice but don't kill them right away...which drives me crazy.....squirrels they kill instantly....I guess the mice don't move fast enough to be fun. We don't have many rats. In California we had a ton...here it's mice and moles....

 

[diamondlil]

Rosie just missed a rat yesterday on our Early morning walk. Then we had a good long mid-morning walk in the sunshine. Then after the dogs' nap time and evening walk we got to try out my new toy, a clicker.
Charging the dogs is the first step, and it was amazing how they all 3 tuned into the new game. After 20 minutes I had all 3 doing a simultaneous sit-stay-come. Rosie took longest to catch on, as she thought standing and barking might just make the treats fly over to her!

 

[MegF.]

LOL! I just use my tongue to click if I'm going to clicker train. I don't use clicker training with the dogs though....only the horses.

 

[diamondlil]

First walk to the river for Flash. Obviously he's a growing boy so regular long walks are still off-limits. A slow walk to the river, then a bit of paddling (I had my wellies on!) then a nice slow walk home. Usually we'd go on to the Country Park, but that's much too far for now.

 

[diamondlil]

And I'm pleased to say our off-lead sessions and recall are coming along nicely. I'm picking my times and places, not too many other dogs around, get Bertie engaged before there's any chance he'll get to run, and in this case, carry the ultimate prize for coming back...........a fox tail on a string!

 

[tsst]

Great pics as usual J9!

 

[MegF.]

Look at that hair!!!! Poof!