I cannot tell you why a light bulb has come on for her at this age. But it has!!!
Good job both of you.
First let me Sophie has never really had much retrieving drive. Every now and then, she would show some interest, but for the the most part, she was just as happy to walk around sniffing out bunny poo while Bruce was retrieving. About a month ago, we were out on our evening walks, and I took a puppy sized Dokken duck with us. When we got to the park, I got her attention and tossed it. She was off like a shot, picked it and and came right back. I tossed it again, a bit farther. Same result. DW and I looked at each other, and I kinda shrugged my shoulders. I tossed it again, even farther. Same result. Four or five more tosses, out to about 30 yards, and she was pretty much straight out and back.
Next day. Same results. Next 7 days, same results. She did more retrieves in that week than she had done in the past year. I started to think maybe she finally got her retriever gene in the mail or something. I started working on "hold" and "fetch" with various items. Within a week she'd pretty much pick up anything I asked her to fetch and would hold it until I asked for it on a very consistent basis.
I shot these this past Friday night. She is far from perfect, and will still stop and sniff every now and then. I have no delusion that she could perform at a hunt test. But, she has come a long, long way in a little over a month. Mind you I've never given up on her, I worked with her pretty much daily over the past 4 years trying to get her interested. Why now?? No idea, but I know both of us are enjoying it!
I cannot tell you why a light bulb has come on for her at this age. But it has!!!
Good job both of you.
barry581 (04-25-2016)
I will tell you that my instructor, who has several OTCH dogs under her belt and lots of success in rally, agility, tracking, and herding, and now some retriever work under her belt, will not trial any of her dogs (in obedience or rally -- lower level agility and other "fun" stuff like lower level hunt tests are a different story) until they are four and, with few exceptions, will give her blessing to any of her students to trial a dog under the age of four. Mind you, these are all dogs that have been trained consistently since they were young. She feels there is a certain something that, with four years of experience under their belts, happens around that age. I think she is onto something!
She looks good!
barry581 (04-25-2016)
Aye Barry,
Nice work with Sophie. She is steady and well mannered on the line, goes when sent, is holding and not mouthing the bird / bumper dysfunctiomally, and presents to hand, all important elements of a good retrive. It would be interesting to see her with an actual bird (it might pump up her drive / desire) with the scent factor. I would work on phase out of edible rewards and make the retrieve itself the reward.
Cheers,
Irishwhistler
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barry581 (04-25-2016)
Awesome this gives me hope that one day I can throw a ball for Molly and she will bring it back. She gets everything else for me lol.
doubledip1 (04-26-2016)
Good for Sophie!!
I wonder if part of it is being an only dog now? I know Sassy retrieves MUCH better when the other dogs are not around - she finds them very distracting, LOL. Cookie and Chloe are retrieving machines no matter who is around, but Sass seems to need to be the only dog to really perform well.
Annette
Cookie (HIT HC Jamrah's Legally Blonde, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015
Sassy (HIT Jamrah's Blonde Ambition, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015
Chloe (HIT HC OTCH Windsong's Femme Fatale, UDX4, OM6, RE) 6/7/2009
And remembering:
Scully (HC Coventry's Truth Is Out There, UD, TD, RN) 4/14/1996 - 6/30/2011
Mulder (Coventry's I Want To Believe, UD, RN, WC) 5/26/1999 - 4/22/2015
And our foster Jolie (Windsong's Genuine Risk, CDX) 5/26/1999 - 3/16/2014
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barry581 (04-25-2016)
This makes my heart smile Way to go Sophie!
Julie & Jake, Bacon's Humans
Instagram: @mrbaconthelab
Born: 9/02/13
Gotcha: 11/08/13
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In memory of Lily 1/1995 - 2/2/2012
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barry581 (04-25-2016)
Mike - My plan over the next couple weeks is to phaseout the the treats unless we are working on something new. I've gone from a treat every bird, to a treat when we are done what ever exercise we are doing. Last night we went out and did marks, and several doubles. In the middle of the session I set u[ a baseball field drill, Sophie on the mound, a bumper at the bases about ten yards away. I'd have her pivot heel facing a given bumper and send her. Once all four were in hand a quick treat on to the next thing. We did this twice and mixed up the order the second time.
I took her to our field training group this morning. I had her sit and watch the other dogs, and she was very focused watching them, show no signs of gun shyness. When the group was resetting for the next set of retrieves, I walked around the field with her do short tosses, 10-15 yards, and she did pretty well. I had one of the ladies there toss one bumper for us at about 20 yards, and Sophie did well with it. I ended the session there on a positive note. She got one small treat when we were done. I considered this a very big step, as Sophie had never done a retrieve at this site when we had been there in the past. She would just look and go back to sniffing around.
I'm going to continue with repetitions of what we've been doing the next two weeks, then try some real retrieves with the group in two weeks. Since I have no end goal right now, I have no schedule, I just plan on going as far as we can.
Annette - Even before Bruce's arrival, she had little to no interest. I really think it's her sires lines. They are and always have been pure show dogs, so i think that's why she has such little drive.
woohoo! congrats! thats kinda like Scout too, no retrieving drive at all, until suddenly, the light went off - HEY BIRDS ARE FUN!....and that was at 8yrs old! he still doesn't get at all enthused with bumpers, dokkens are a bit better, esp if i've freshly scented them, he does enjoy his "modified" bumpers with the pigeon wings on them. But real birds, now, there's what its all about in his world.
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Scout CD RAE6 WC March 6, 2007; Tullemore Browning Superposed PCD RN RI "Trigger" Nov 11, 2016
Missing:
Castelleja's Dual Mags "Mags" March 1993 - March 2008
"Pocco" the chocolate wonder August 1993 - December 2007
barry581 (04-25-2016)
barry581 (04-25-2016)
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