I am helping our farrier train his weim in return for free trimming for Dusty. Quite a nice arrangement as I enjoy training dogs and I enjoy helping others train their dogs. He comes most Sunday mornings and any other time he can spare in the week. As I wasn't available last Sunday, he came on Monday morning instead. Katie, had never pointed until 4 months ago. She is 3 years old. I could say I am the best trainer there is...but I can't , I just showed her how to bring her own instinct out. Sid comes into it as the farrier wanted to have one of my dogs out, as he has been taking Katie beating and she gets a bit nervous around other people and dogs and he thought it would be good to see how she reacted around me, with a dog as she knows me now. I thought I would take Sid out. Sid is 5 years old and I got him a couple of weeks ago for grouse counting. He's settled in nicely but he hasn't been "out" and I haven't had him out on my own. He has been trained and worked by men so think he must respond better to them. I let him off the lead, he did a very nice cast out, turned, and then got half way back and started running up the hill. He then went on point - very nice on a pheasant. I reached him, he flushed and he then ran off again. It took us 15 mins to catch him Very embarrassed lol Back to basic training to build up the bond with Sid, I think. After that, we concentrated on Katie who was working really well. She went on point, so we stood a little behind her for a little while to get her to hold the point. I then told the farrier to go up to her. He said that there is a cock pheasant facing her adn she was reluctant to go in. I told him to encourage her and then after 5 mins, I told him to go slightly ahead of her to either get her to move, or to flush the bird for her. There is a bit of history behind this as she has pointed a pheasant before and it pecked her on the nose. She has been fine since but this one was sitting very tight and facing her. As he went forward, so did she and flushed the pheasant. Wonderful to see! I actually cheered lol. I still get excited when I see a dog pointing and flushing well. Anyway, Sid and Katie. As you can see Sid is on lead! We are using our paddock for recall training. Helen
That's lovely, Helen. I did laugh about poor Katie having been pecked on the nose by a pheasant! I never knew pointing could be so dangerous.
Thanks I did think it would put her off completely when it first happened but it looks like it's just made her a bit unsure when they are sitting very tight. Very interesting to help train a weim as they are different to what I am used to. Helen
Not such a good training session with Katie today but I think her being in season was the problem. We both decided we may as well take her out as he was coming up here to trim Dusty's feet anyway. We started off handling her quite a bit but she backed down a bit so we just left her to do it. She missed a couple of very easy pheasants, which she should have really got onto. All was not lost though as she had a lovely point on a rabbit,which actually spurred her on a bit and we got a bit of nice work from her towards the end. Sid....is getting better. I'm taking him out on his own for a lead walk along the lane every day and doing some basic stuff while we are out and then recall training in the paddock. He is actually starting to respond and seek me out. Going to have a word with the headkeeper to see if we can get on the grouse (don't normally go on until mid-March) to see what he is like up there with me. Helen
