I ran my dog this past weekend, this was his first test since we had his left rear leg amputated due to cancer. The amputation was on April 8th, he's been doing great in training, and I wanted to get him back in the saddle. The good news is he did great on the working part of the test, the bad news is we have a new problem.
We were running the master at keystone and my 6 YO dog froze on the bird. The first series was an open triple, he did a nice job, no problem on giving the birds up. The second series was a double blind, one whistled the first blind, 5 or 6 whistles on the second blind. When he came back with the second he was really sticky, he wasn't chomping down, just wouldn't release. I finally got the bird after about 20 seconds and was called back. The third series was a double with a diversion, he picked up both birds of the double, then the diversion bird and when he returned he was locked tight, K9 were sunk into the bird. I tried everything I could to get him to drop, but no luck, ultimately (after maybe 90 seconds)I grabbed both ends of the bird and yanked downward and out with as much growling and force and meanness as I thought I could get away with, needless to say we were out of the test. After his initial return, with him at heel sitting, I tried the regular drop command, no luck. I reheeled him, no luck, moved again and tried tricking him with mark and dead bird, tried holding a little piece of the bird, tried taking the bird with my hand near his mouth, tried taking the bird by going down, almost had his nose touching the ground, I kneeled down in front of him and looked in his eyes and begged. I didn't notice his eyes, but someone else told me later they usually get kinda zoned out, eyes glazed over or rolled up. He was somewhere else, but like I said I didn't notice his eyes.
He was excited and happy to be out there, anyone who watched could tell he wasn't stressed or dragging, tail was wagging, same old intensity. Marking was great, desire, speed, momentum, I was pleased with everything, and it's what I've been seeing in training. I've never had any mouth/delivery problems before, outside of fun/happy bumpers he always sits at heel for delivery. I'm thinking this has something to do with his being on 3 legs, but I don't want it to end his career.
I tried searching the past post and could only find one, so thanks for any help, advice or previous post links.
Also THANKS to the Keystone retriever club, the judges and help. The weather was great, especially for june. The grounds, help and judges were awesome. Thanks for a fun weekend.
Brad
We were running the master at keystone and my 6 YO dog froze on the bird. The first series was an open triple, he did a nice job, no problem on giving the birds up. The second series was a double blind, one whistled the first blind, 5 or 6 whistles on the second blind. When he came back with the second he was really sticky, he wasn't chomping down, just wouldn't release. I finally got the bird after about 20 seconds and was called back. The third series was a double with a diversion, he picked up both birds of the double, then the diversion bird and when he returned he was locked tight, K9 were sunk into the bird. I tried everything I could to get him to drop, but no luck, ultimately (after maybe 90 seconds)I grabbed both ends of the bird and yanked downward and out with as much growling and force and meanness as I thought I could get away with, needless to say we were out of the test. After his initial return, with him at heel sitting, I tried the regular drop command, no luck. I reheeled him, no luck, moved again and tried tricking him with mark and dead bird, tried holding a little piece of the bird, tried taking the bird with my hand near his mouth, tried taking the bird by going down, almost had his nose touching the ground, I kneeled down in front of him and looked in his eyes and begged. I didn't notice his eyes, but someone else told me later they usually get kinda zoned out, eyes glazed over or rolled up. He was somewhere else, but like I said I didn't notice his eyes.
He was excited and happy to be out there, anyone who watched could tell he wasn't stressed or dragging, tail was wagging, same old intensity. Marking was great, desire, speed, momentum, I was pleased with everything, and it's what I've been seeing in training. I've never had any mouth/delivery problems before, outside of fun/happy bumpers he always sits at heel for delivery. I'm thinking this has something to do with his being on 3 legs, but I don't want it to end his career.
I tried searching the past post and could only find one, so thanks for any help, advice or previous post links.
Also THANKS to the Keystone retriever club, the judges and help. The weather was great, especially for june. The grounds, help and judges were awesome. Thanks for a fun weekend.
Brad
