Another great day organised by the Norfolk and Suffolk HPR Field Trial Club! These days are always a brilliant experience and today was no exception. Was really pleased with Faith as, unlike both her parents, she’s always been a little under confident at entries. The moment of no return where legs leave contact with ground has always been overthought by her leading to ‘faffing’ on the entry but we’ve worked hard to give her confidence and used loads of positive training to help her make good choices.
Well, that all paid off yesterday when she didn’t hesitate right from the off, she was in and retrieving consistently all day long, in fact she ended up being retrieve dog for the others when they couldn’t get theirs!
We started with simple straight out seen retrieves then moved onto more challenging things, included in Faiths day were:
- Seen retreives that increased in distance as day went on.
- Blinds that were other dogs dummies that they had not managed to retrieve.
- Sit dog off lead, throw dummy in water as seen, call off, walk to heel for distance, sit dog facing me then ask for ‘back and fetch’
- Steadiness training, sat off lead watching others retreives
- Split retrieves of a throw to water, memory to land (dog walked in dummy dropped, walk to heel away from dummy), on this she was sent to land first then to water afterwards.
- Little land work to break up the day was a long distance memory, a seen followed by call away to heel sit dog, leave dog and walk away further still, recall dog but stop her on whistle then send for ‘back and fetch’ of dummy.
- Lots more but at the moment not springing to mind!
All the above were completed with little or no problems. The only failed retrieves of the day were when they were far out on lily pads and Faith either was doing it blind (as we havent taught directions yet this created an issue) or long and she lost track of it (again without directions this left her lost).
Was also lovely to see Debbie and Dottie from our Charmed litter, they had loads of success throughout the day and loads of positives to take home to. So very proud of these two especially that Debbie always works so positively with Dottie, it was a joy to see a dog working because it wanted to (as it should be) and not because it was being pressured into anything (as it really shouldnt be but sadly often is).
Really enjoyed the day, so did Faith, highly recommend!
