[Andrew Fairchild]

After the little hishaps in training I decided to take things back. We haven't done formal obedience or yard or field work for a 10 days now. We've gone to the lake, and for walks, and to the park ect. getting a fun bumper every now and then. I'm going to start things back today with a short formal obedience session then about a 5 or 10 minute session of yard work just doing multiple guns in the field making him stay steady till it hits the ground and releasing him.

I'm going to jump back a couple weeks and fill everyone in on the problems. We had been on formal obedience for a little over a month and still doing multiple guns in the field but doing it on a pond as weel. Spook had a total lack of focus during his marks on land. He loves the water so the pond he did awesome. On land the first mark was average, second mark worse, and third who knew what was going through his head. He then became timid on sits during his obedience sessions. I let frustration get the best of me for a couple days so I just slowed it down and brought the fun back to things!

I have 2 questions:

First is there anything ya'll would do different during my training sessions today. What are things I should look for during my training session today.

Second, Spook hit 7 months on April 6. He was doing great I think my frustration and bad preparation was holding him back. I'm going to start things as they are today and if he does good and keeps it up, I'm going to start force fetch the beginning of May. I hear all these things about get a pros help and I will do that if necessary, but I'm going to atleast start on my own. Teaching hold starts it I mean come on I can do that! I'm getting extremely good at reading Spook and I'm going to try this on my own. There is now rush to do it I just want to get it out of the way! Should I wait longer I guess is my question!

 

[troy schwab]

Dont take offense to this..... but seriously??? ...... Why on earth are you running anything other than singles for marks??? If you dont have obedience formalized yet..... you are putting the cart about a quarter mile in front of the horse...... JMO

 

[troy schwab]

Im not even gonna touch the force fetch issue...... yet.

 

[Andrew Fairchild]

Multiple guns in the field is a single mark...theres just several possibilities where that mark might come from!

 

[troy schwab]

Multiple guns in the field is a single mark...theres just several possibilities where that mark might come from!

WHY???? KEEP IT SIMPLE.... why set the dog up for failure????

 

[Andrew Fairchild]

I'm following Lardy's program. Moving to multiple guns early isn't a bad thing. It is simple and it teaches the dog to look around a little more. We fire a shot with a 12 guage for every mark fired by the guner, or by me if I'm by myself! It gets the dogs attention and teaches him when guns are shooting better be looking around. Would you rather play catch with someone and keep it simple or go play a whole game of baseball learn a lot more, and have a lot more fun. Its not complicated from a dogs standpoint. Lots of people do it. People have 4 month old dogs doing multiple guns in the field. Thanks for the help but I'm going to continue to follow my program. I've seen great success from it thus far. The mishaps I had during training were human error and not k-9 error.

 

[troy schwab]

I'm following Lardy's program. Moving to multiple guns early isn't a bad thing. It is simple and it teaches the dog to look around a little more. We fire a shot with a 12 guage for every mark fired by the guner, or by me if I'm by myself! It gets the dogs attention and teaches him when guns are shooting better be looking around. Would you rather play catch with someone and keep it simple or go play a whole game of baseball learn a lot more, and have a lot more fun. Its not complicated from a dogs standpoint. Lots of people do it. People have 4 month old dogs doing multiple guns in the field. Thanks for the help but I'm going to continue to follow my program. I've seen great success from it thus far. The mishaps I had during training were human error and not k-9 error.

Really?? Werent you posting a few weeks ago about how your dog was having trouble focusing on land, etc...... My advice still stands....... Keep it simple..... Rome wasnt built in a day..... Been there, it dont get easier the more you hurry..... quite the contrary. Good luck to your pup!!

 

[Jerry Beil]

Would you rather play catch with someone and keep it simple or go play a whole game of baseball learn a lot more, and have a lot more fun.

Depends if you can catch and throw yet or not. If you're still struggling with the catch and throw, the whole game of baseball is likely to be an exercise in frustration, resulting in very little learning and less fun, with a likely outcome being a dislike of baseball and not wanting to play anymore.

 

[Andrew Fairchild]

Here's what ya'll aren't understanding. He's done multiple guns in the field for a month in a half like a champ. He knows what to do. It was a lack of focus from Spook because of a lack of preparation from me. If you remember when I posted two weeks ago, Spooks troubel with marks came when I took him out with another dog. He understands the concept. He knows what to do. I had bad organization and a bad temper! I could take spook out and have people in a 360 degree radius around me and Spook can do multiple guns in the field.

 

[Andrew Fairchild]

Yesterday went great though. I had his undivided attention during obedience. He ran directly over half the mark, slammed on the brakes, slid a foot or two before he could turn around and pick up the bumper and bring it back. And the other half of marks he ran right to it and right back. He booked...i mean booked it.... to the mark and back. Watched the bumper from the time it was in the air till the time it hit the ground. Stayed steady till I released him. Brought every bumper back to my feet. Just a great day all around. If I can keep calm we might be in business again.