Off Season

[Anna Scott]

Our HT and FT season is over next weekend so I have begun to think of what M and I can do during the off season. This weekend was absolutely beautiful and with everyone doing the family thing I had 3 days to review some of the drills we have been neglecting. Started Saturday with 8 handed casting. She did very well with the vocal and silent backs with slight change of direction. It was the true overs that gave her the most problem. Guess we don't use it very often. Sunday we did a key relationship drill. Her first time through the outside blinds were a little hacky but the long middle blind under the arc of the mark gave her no problems. I had to throw it over the line because of the field situation. Today we did wagon wheel lining and casting. The lining was good but I noticed something I was doing that cause problems on the angles. I was not keeping my body square to the dog and this was causing her to turn and take a back.. This is something I will really have to work on. Bill drilled the body position on the back and over into me. I now need someone to rag on me when I shift the shoulder forward on the angle cast. After the wagon wheel we did a chinc drill with 2 legs on land and 2 in the water. The outside left was the hardest line for her as she wanted to cheat some cover along the shore line. I gave her some help with the initial line and we ended on a happy note. Tomorrow I am hoping to add 3 more legs to this drill and work on the split drill.
I got out Lardy's chart and Don's homework so will work at setting up drills that we can do indoors once the snow comes. One winter project is to build some small wire cages that will hold a duck or chukar so that she gets really confident in running by scent. Wednesday she will get some pheasants.
What are others planning for their off season, if they have one?

[TuMicks]

Well Rocket Dog and I are going to Doggy class at the local PetSmart. Her obedience is actually really good (it better be since we've worked so HARD on getting from the truck to the holding blind to the line and steady as the birds go down, sitting on a whistle, taking casts... whew!) But it's fun to do obedience again in this context. I can feel pretty good about what we've done obedience wise (RD is the class star!) but also discover some weaknesses she has involving social settings.

But... alas, I've been very, very involved with my 91 y.o. mom who lives 280 miles away from us. We thought she had a serious case of the dwindles and might be failing. The good news is 1) she found a wonderful, young internist she likes a lot 2) we fixed some serious constipation and got her fluid intake and eating habits more regularized and 3) a CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis showed she had no obvious disease. Her blood chemistries are also enviable.

Sadly, I'm going to miss class this Monday. I have been pleading with hubby to take her and be her partner for the night. He's so relieve mom is doing well... he might actually do it. I hope I'll be able to make it to the rest of the classes.

[Anna Scott]

I wish your mother well. It is not easy looking out for a parent. My mother-in-law is 90 and see her failing but I can't seem to get that point across to either my husband or his sister. Right now I am the one doing the worrying. So my thoughts are with you.
Took M and Huggie to a jh yesterday and passed them both. That is M's title and Huggies second pass. I was a little worried about Huggie as they were using chukar and she had not had one before. Once they get wet the feather start to come off and they are not great for a young dog (Huggie just turned one). She wanted to play with the first bird and then on the second bird some fellow walked through the test and I thought she was going to go over and greet him. She was good with the ducks on the water. I don't know how using chukar saves the club any money. They are 7.50 each and you need 3 times as many as you would ducks as they break down so fast. After 2 retrieves they really are in no shape for young dogs to retrieve.
Will now start on our fall training schedule. Huggie need to complete the T and double T and get into wagon wheels etc. She is my sister's pup but as Eden is tied up with her pheasant duties I will be doing her training.

[TuMicks]

When winter sets in, do you have an indoor training option, or do you just bag it and relax over the winter?

[Anna Scott]

We will train in a horse arena. It is good for drill work and teaching honouring and steadying on real short marks. We take the holding blinds and do some holding blind drills. Work on obedience as well. I intend to take the shot gun and get M used to hearing it rack and moving with it, Of course we can't fire it. We also use the parking lot of an historic site that is closed on Sundays. It is big enough to run some marks but we have to be careful that it is not slippery. We belong to a Kennel club with a nice indoor facility for obedience. We do some formal obedience and rally there. It is about an hours drive so those days are dependent on the weather and driving conditions. For me I have a pile of books, a colouring book for adults, computer games and logic puzzles. Iit can be a long winter and TV stinks.

[ZEKESMAN]

We will hunt untill February. And let me dogs cheat water, Hunt on his own on the end of blinds, and let his general obed go to heck. Then in March we will try to fix it all by April.

[TuMicks]

You and almost all the serious hunters I know. I was telling the pro I met in Ireland about out HT/FT's (which differ hugely from theirs). I told him that early in the HT/FT season that dogs are really lose, and when one breaks on an honor (or slips whistles or has cast refusals), the handler usually says something like "Yeah, she got a lot of ducks this year."

[Anna Scott]

Duck hunting is on hold now because husband is off moose hunting. The pond that is best for ducks is off limits right now as the township hired a trapper to take out some of the beaver that have been flooding the road and damaging trees. This weekend he took out two. One of them weighed 55 lbs the other was around 30. He wanted to know what we were feeding them. I guess no one has bothered with them for the last 25 years. I think he got another one today.

[windycanyon]

Wow, those are some obese beavers!!!
I just finished 100 days of work w/o a break, and now that apple harvest is on the downslide, I did start Hold work w/ the baby (8mos) and will transition into FF if she appears to be mature enough that is. I at least want a nice hold since I plan to get her and Kanzi ready for JH over the winter at least using my field and wingers, so as soon as my field friends can get back out training (they have litters or are hunting), we can join them. Otherwise, I was able to finish a couple obedience and rally titles w/ the youngsters ~3 wks ago, so not all momentum was lost w/ work. I'm also hoping for a couple of litters over the winter, so always a juggling act here it seems! Anne

[Scoutpout]

We're still training Tuesdays after work in water (everyone bailed yesterday for the game though...it was such a nice warm day, Scout was so bummed, he'd seen and smelled the thawing ducks and pigeons in the garage on Monday) but that will only last another week till the time change happens. And Saturdays we're starting back up meeting as a group with the folks that are helping us, except Scout and I will miss this Saturday because i have to fly someone to Ottawa for the day, drat. Not sure how much longer that will last though, will depend totally on the weather. We don't have a large area inside to do any kind of drills unfortunately. The hangar is big enough to do some, but is usually filled with planes, so thats out. I am working with him a bit on hand signals in regular obedience class (casting left and right), so that will hopefully carry over to field stuff.

Inside work my goal is to finally teach "hold". I've been very very bad in not teaching it up to now. We're going thru a series of steps, and he is to the point of reaching for and picking up the object (using a dumbbell, dummy and a basic rope toy), now the real work starts. The "hold" is holding us back from doing better with the field work (ideally like to try and do his JH this coming spring/summer) and the Obedience work (i need it for Intermediate and anything onward).

We have one more Rally trial weekend the 2nd weekend of November, after that its time to winterize the trailer, and concentrate more on other fun stuff for him. Plus, I'm seriously looking to ad a dog (pup?) this coming year, so watching and talking to various folks about that...I haven't had a puppy since my 1st dog back in 1993, so it will be a major shock i'm sure. The 1st and 2nd dogs lived such good long lives together, and then Scout was almost 2 when he came, so it will be a re-education for me. Lots of reading/videos etc to take in over the winter. And I really want to get Scout's muscle mass back up to where it was before the coyote attack, and a good way to do that over the winter is lots of good hikes. And a side bonus, it'll help me shed the 15 lbs or so i've gained since my brother passed away.

So i don't think this winter will really be a "down" time, lots to work on, and learn!