Macabre dog training

 The other day, on our morning walk, Eddie and I found a dead ptarmigan. It had apparently died violently, but apart from blood on its head and being a little eaten by some crows on one of the legs, it was in good shape. My first thought was "jackpot!". You might find this odd, but Ive been training my golden as a gun dog, and until now I had not had any real game of fowl to train him with. The closest thing I've had before was some pheasant and ptarmigan wings, and the plumage of a pheasant. So this was much better, this had the right weight and feel, since it actually was a real bird!

A pheasant wing I've used for training

 As I didn't know if the bird was full of parasites or not, I took the precaution of freezing it before starting to use it in dog training. To my great relief and joy, Eddie only slightly hesitated the first time I asked him to retrieve the frozen bird, and in most instances he has retrieved the bird without hesitation when we have practiced.

The plan for this summer is to train Eddie to do something that in Norwegian is called "blood tracking" and in Swedish it would translate to "game tracking". Basically what you do is create a trail of blood drops and you also drag a deer foot behind you. This trail is then followed by the dog. The practical purpose of this is to train dogs to find hurt animals, like deer that has been hit by a car or wounded but not killed during a hunt. Game tracking is also a sport however, and that is what I hope Eddie and I will be able to participate in before the year is over. So when Eddie isn't retrieving whole frozen ptarmigans, he gets to locate dried deer legs or drops of blood that I have hidden around the house. I can't wait for the snow to melt so that we can finally begin proper training outdoors!

My previous dog Link and I doing some tracking.

 I do realize that this isn't everybody's cup of tea, but for me it is as fun as it gets! Although the macabre part of it isn't lost on me...

My gun dog is scared of birds

Link retrieving a dummy during the gun dog course we attended this summer

 I finally brought home my newly purchased pheasant wings today. I'm going to use them to train Link to retrieve fowl and not just dummies. I figured it would be fun to see what his spontaneous reaction would be to them, seeing as he has never seen nor smelled anything like it before. So I set up the camera, grabbed some treats and put the wing on the floor.

A pheasant wing.

His reaction surprised me. He was afraid of it! He was very interested and wanted to check it out, but something about it spooked him so he decided to try barking at it...
Not exactly a desired behavior for a future working gun dog, but as perseverance is key to success, I was not about to let this slight setback deter me. I tried using the clicker at first, but Link gets a bit too eager when he hears the click, so instead I decided to use a verbal "good" ("bra" in Norwegian) and treat. I did 6 sessions with 10-15 repetitions per session, where I praised and rewarded him for smelling/pointing at the wing with his nose. In the 6th session I felt the behavior was reliable enough for me to add the cue "bird" (or "fugl" in Norwegian). The goal is that he will find and retrieve the wings, but in the beginning I will settle for him showing me where the wing is by pointing at it.

Link pointing at the pheasant wing.

Being a Golden Retriever and not a Pointer, pointing is something he has to learn, it does not come naturally for him. This is where his hesitant behavior actually comes in handy. He will stop and smell it before doing anything else, which gives me ample opportunity to mark and reward the pointing behavior. Another positive side of Link's hesitation it is that Link most likely never will try to tear a bird to pieces, at least not if I do the training right. Right now he has way too much respect (or probably fear, not respect) for the "bird" even to dare to mouth it, let alone chew on it.

I've also bought a "pheasant dummy", i.e. a dummy with the plumage of a pheasant on it, but I think I will train Link with the wing for a while before I introduce it. When we've gotten further in the training I will make a video about it and show you all.

Gun dog training my Golden Retriever

Lexie, the 4 year old golden retriever female attending the gun dog course last weekend.

 This weekend Link and I attended a three day course in gun dog training for retrievers. In addition to Link there were three Labrador retrievers, one female Golden retriever and one Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retriever. The instructor of the course, Vera Verlo, is a clicker trainer specialized in gun dog training. She has three Labrador Retrievers herself, that she competes with in gun dog trials for retrievers.

Link waiting for me to send him to retrieve a dummy.

 Friday

 Firday evening the instructor held a seminar. We learned the basic steps of gun dog training:

• Obedience - Not the dog sport, but basic gun dog obedience like heeling, being quiet and only retrieve game/dummy on cue
• Marking - Seeing where the dummy falls and remembering it
• Sending and directing - The dog should be able to be directed by the handler in the direction of the dummy. If the dog walks too far away from where the dummy is, you should stop it and direct it towards where it is.
• Delivering the dummy/game - Without shaking, chewing, spitting out on the ground or dropping one dummy to pick up another. The game or dummy should be delivered by the dog unharmed, right into your hand.

Todd, the second youngest participant of the course. He is a 1 year and 8 months old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.

Saturday

 Saturday it was time to get out into the field for some basic "hunting obedience", how to correctly use the dog whistle, how to search for dummies in a field search and how to direct your dog to find game that it has not seen where it fell.

Lexie and her owner showing us a perfect "hunting heel".

Link showed me that even though he can heel and retrieve under controlled conditions (indoor or somewhere outside where we often are), he was more interested in all the smells in the forest and running around with the dummy, than working with me. He was the youngest dog participating, so it was not so strange that he was the dog with the least previous training (well, him and Todd the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retriever that was just a couple of months older than Link). Learning our limits is also important though, that is the only way to find out what we have to work on.

The chocolate lab called Iver retrieving a duck-shaped dummy.

We were also taught the basics of a "close search". I'm sure there is a better term for it in English, but what it means is that the dog searches for the dummy close to where it is. It is used for when you send your dog out to do a so called "blind retrieve", you give it the "stop" signal, followed by the "close search" signal, when it comes to the place where the dummy is.

Link learning the basics of "close search".

Sunday

 Sunday we were also out in the field and that day we learned more about marking both on land and in water, and how to send the dog straight out to the dummy. We also got a chance to try the "qualification test", which if you pass it gives you the opportunity to participate in proper gun dog trials for retrievers.

The 6 year old black labrador felmale called Kimmie, retrieving a dummy. She is also a therapy dog that we got to know during the first weekend of thearpy dog training in May.

Link and I did extremely much better this day. He did really well when we trained sending out. We trained using a bowl with treats, so he was instantly rewarded for running straight out. Between his turns we trained being calm and quiet. It was hard for him to sit there and watch the other dogs work, but he did really well.

Here I am sending Link out to retrieve a dummy.

Next time it was our term it was time to try retrieving on land and in water. We tested what Link would do if he was sent to a dummy on land (he wanted to get into the water so badly!), and then to the other one that was in the water. Link went directly out to the dummy we sent him to, ran back towards me, ran past me, dropped the dummy and leapt straight into the water to get the other dummy. He eventually brought that dummy back to me though. So somewhere inside him, he feels good about running/swimming out to things and picking them up. But taking them all the way back to me is something we have to work on.

Beautiful Eine, a 4 year old black Labrador. He is like Link, aspiring to become a therapy dog.

 We also trained directing to left and right using hand signals. The dog is then sitting in front of you and there are one dummy on each side of the dog, some distance away. Link responded well to these signals, even though we have never consciously trained this before.  

Cute Todd.

He did surprise all of us in the end though. He was sent out to retrieve a dummy out on a small pond, but instead of swimming back to me with the dummy, he got out of the pond on the other side. There he dropped the dummy and went away to... well.. shit. Just hang in there, that is not the impressive part! I called him back to me, and sent him to retrieve the dummy from the other side. He didn't manage to do it on the first try, but the second time he swam over, found the dummy and retrieved it right back to me! I was ecstatic! I could not hope for more. Considering that this is the first time in his life that he has been asked to do this, I think it is really impressive that he grasped the idea and preformed so well.

Eine retrieving from the water.

 We also got to go through a walk through of the qualification test. We did it as training, with rewards all the way for Link. We definitely was not ready to do it then and there, but it was good for us to see how the test is done. The things that you preform during the test is:

1. Sitting next to you while the judge greets you 
2. Heeling on leash
3. Heeling off leash
4. Stay
5. Recall
6. Sitting while dummy is being thrown
7. Retrieving dummy
8. Sitting while a shot is fired

Me walking 50 meters away from Link while he stays on command next to the instructor. The mountain in the background is Tromsdalstinden, the mountain Link and I climbed the previous weekend.

 We didn't fire the shot during our walk through of the test, Link was already exhausted, so I didn't want to put him through more. We had already trained getting used to and liking gun shots, both on Saturday and Sunday.

These are the things we have to work on:

• Heeling in different locations and terrain, both on an off leash

• Retrieving into my hand (first while on leash so that running away with the dummy isn't an option)

• Using the whistle: 
• Close search. Starting by teaching link the signal for it by putting treats on the ground around Link and letting him find/eat them on the signal (double whistle on the dog whistle)
• Stop. Blow the whistle once and the dog should stop. You start teaching this by blowing the whistle once and then throwing a ball or a treat to the dog. The dog thus learns to stop what it is doing and have all of its attention on you
• Recall. This I have already taught Link, but we still have to practice it under varying conditions.

•  Sending out to the dummy (using bowls with treats in the beginning), and directing the dog to the left or right using either whistle or hand signals.

When we can do all of this, it is time to start putting everything together and to increase the difficulty. And maybe then we could pass the qualification test.

The pond where we practiced retrieving from water.

Dogsitting the neighbour's Bichon Havanais

Daisy wearing her cone collar, also known as Elizabethan collar. She is a Bichon Havanais with "wrong" type of coat. I think she is prettier than the dogs with correct coat.

 This evening we are dogsitting our neighbour's Bichon Havanais Daisy. She had surgery on her eye 2 days ago, so when her owner had to leave her for a few hours tonight, I said I could watch her. She is wearing a cone collar to keep her from scratching her eye. She is used to the collar by now, because this is the second time she has had this surgery (but last time it was the other eye). She had a condition called Cherry eye, for which the treatment most often is surgery.

Going for a walk.

We went for a walk down to the store where my boyfriend used to work. I waited outside with the dogs, while Mads went in to the store. Being the dog lover that he is, of course he bought treats for the dogs too.

Both dogs waiting to get treats.

 Link and I have been attending a gun dog course all day, so Link is exhausted. To keep Daisy from trying to get him to play all the time, I had to let Link into our bedroom and up in the bed where Daisy can't get to him. Poor Link, too tired to play, but too much of a gentleman to say no to Daisy's play invites.

Link and Daisy while we waited outside of the store.

Tomorrow Link and I are going to attend the second day of the gun dog course. I can't wait, it is so much fun! Even though we are among the least experienced participants of the course and have hardly impressed anyone today. We have a lot to work on, to put it that way. I will tell you guys more about it tomorrow. Hope you have a lovely weekend!