We thought this would be a nice email to share with you all.
Good afternoon Philip
I thought I would leave it a few weeks before I gave you an update on Ross so that I would have lots to tell you.
You’ll be pleased to know that he settled in quickly and Basil and he get on very well – lots of play fighting followed by them snuggling up together in their outside area.Basil has only had to really assert himself once and that was when Ross decided to try and take Basil’s chew bone away from him and boy did Basil tear into him – Ross has not tried since !!
The boys sleep together downstairs (Ross in a large Lintran crate which I open when I come downstairs in the morning) and neither moves until I’m all kitted out for our 6.30 am walk – I then call them each by name with a good gap between names (Basil first) – Ross understands this and is very steady – at all our garden gates, field gates,the car crate and at feeding time I continue this practice and again Ross is very steady. He was a little sick when we left you but he’s been in the car every day since and is now fine.
During the first week I did very little retrieving work with Ross concerntrating more on sit / stay / heel / come. Sit, stay and heel were as expected good and have got even better (as Ross has bonded with me) – coming to name was a problem at first again because Ross did not know me, HOWEVER, I have spent alot of time on this and he now comes to me both by name and on the whistle even if he appears interested in something else !!
This week I started on hand signals and he is getting the hang of this – yesterday I buried a couple of tennis balls in long grass and with hand movements near the tennis balls and verbal commands “THERE” and “FIND IT” in an excited voice he watched Basil find the balls – so I tried it with him and he soon started to pick it up.
Today (with Basil) he achieved his first “BACK” commands having watched Basil – this was very rewarding and he really cottoned on quickly. I am currently doing all retrieving training with the dogs side by side and Ross is very steady – I’m mixing it up so that neither knows whos retrieve it will be. As a final retrieve today I launched two large dummies a long way into some really rough grass – Ross did a great job of finding his dummy as I thought he hadn’t marked it
I can also report that having delivered a retrieve back to me Ross now walks (with some encouragement) behind me and sits on my left hand side AND when walking both dogs on the lead Basil knows his place and that’s on the outside of Ross !!!
Ross and I have also been out on two occasions with other dogs – once with my friend Mark and his 1 year old Black lab dog where we used starting pistols with retrieves well away from our dogs and Ross did very well ; and secondly we attended a puppy training class with my trainer Dave Probert – this was all about steadiness and Dave actually used Ross for part of the demo on lead work and how a dog reacts to lead tension.Ross also came back to the recall whistle along a line of 8 other dogs without taking his eyes off me !!
Believe it or not, Basil has sharpened up his retrieving because there’s another dog in close proximity – result !!
All in all we are delighted with him ( puppy wappiness and all !!) – he comes into my TV room every night with Basil and usually falls asleep at or on my feet – Mandy just can’t believe how we have bonded.
Much of what I have written here is down to you and the time you spent with Ross and for this I am very grateful – be assured he is already much loved and will have a full and happy life with us here in Leicestershire – I have taken some photographs and will send them to you shortly.
I hope that you and your family are all well and that you continue to be busy. Keep in touch.
Best regards
Simon
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Ross
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Basil
