Breeze is coming on strong in every way, she has no real weak points at present but I’m sure she will come into difficulty eventually like any other gun-dog. She’s so into you and eager to please, which makes her a real pleasure to work.
At this early delicate age we are still having loads of fun when training nothing to serious, im sure to get the basics right before i move on to fast.
Lord louis is the son of Amber and Rudy who we had the privilege of having back for a few days why his owners were away. At 16 weeks old this little man is amazing hes got the looks conformation and most importantly the brains. The new owners have done a fantastic job of getting him to a very high standard at such an early age, they are a real credit to louis, themselves and us.
The time is coming when we have to say good bye to this fantastic litter and let them settle into their new homes. We are extremely pleased with this litter and how they are looking. We think they are a very even litter with fantastic heads and good conformation. Its still early days but i think this is a litter with large show and working potential, so hopefully we will see this progress in the near future.
Buzz is a young English springer spaniel who is starting to find out what life should be about!
These early stages of training are very delicate, all training should be fun and within capable reach for success form the puppy.
As you can see from the video Breeze is very happy when working there is no obvious pressure on her at any point.
What i look for when i start training is a keen eye for myself and the retrieve.
At this early stage I’m starting to steady breeze with out her knowing by teasing her by pretending to throw the dummy, but its always a game.
I wouldn’t want her steady to a thrown dummy for at least 6 – 8 weeks, i want to keep her keen with drive and enthusiasm.
Always giving plenty of praise.
We have been continuing Breezes training and are very pleased with her progress, she is a very biddable bitch who is very eager to learn and succeed. She is retrieving tennis balls, puppy dummies and pheasant wings. At this early stage we don’t use the pheasant wing too much for 1 main reason, being the wing is a lot more intriguing and may put her off retrieving tennis balls and dummies which would make early training difficult. Why then do we use it? It is important for any dog to get use to picking up all kinds of objects, if you give the command for her to retrieve you want your dog to make the pick.
As she walks with us to heel off the lead we reinforce the command “heel” just as we would if she was on the lead.
Breeze is now 10 weeks old and we have been socialising her within our family environment getting her use to family life and finding her place within the pecking order. Breeze is very bright and extremely laid back, she is excellent with the children who are very hands on.
At this early stage of training it should be done within play drive with no pressure. Everything should be easy for her to achieve and made enjoyable. We are talking to her all the time in play training giving her plenty of encouragement.
The main steps at this moment in time are her retrieving and recall, her recall at present is fantastic, as soon as you call her name she comes back to you, or when you are play retrieving she also comes straight back to you, but we are never to quick to take the ball or sock off of her, as we don’t want her to get into the habit of dropping the retrieve.
We are also starting to lead train her, we put a collar on and attach a lead then let her run around the house. We will occasionally tread on the lead so she gets use to sudden pressure. We also let the children walk/pull her around to get her use to walking on the lead.
So many owners teach a dog to walk with a lead but not on a lead!
