Winter has arrived people!
Bring on the snow I say at least then everything is pretty.
The words 'drowned' and 'rat' spring to mind - and I didn't fare much better but I wont be putting any photos of me that early in the morning on here!
Monday, 8 November 2010
Cold wet and windy
Today has been the first time we've been out for our early morning walk and the weather has been truly horrid. Up 'til now yea it has been cold, or wet or windy but not all at the same time! Needless to say our walk at 7am this morning was not a long one.
Winter has arrived people!
Bring on the snow I say at least then everything is pretty.
The words 'drowned' and 'rat' spring to mind - and I didn't fare much better but I wont be putting any photos of me that early in the morning on here!
Winter has arrived people!
Bring on the snow I say at least then everything is pretty.
The words 'drowned' and 'rat' spring to mind - and I didn't fare much better but I wont be putting any photos of me that early in the morning on here!
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Long Overdue Post
Apologies for the long overdue post but juggling the children, husband, dog, house and everything else has taken its toll!
We finally managed to complete our 3 day intensive gundog training a few months ago - what an eye opener that was! By that I mean my eyes were opened to how much hard work it is to train a gundog!
We spent the first two days at Paul's (the trainer) gun club. Paul is a man of infinite patience both with animals and humans and he took us through basic obedience and some simple retrieves.
Jynx on the whole did very well the only real indiscretions were running of while we were trying to perform a recall from a distance (in her defence it was sweltering hot and she ran off and jumped into a pond but she did come back after she had cooled down) and making off with Paul's dummies (she was especially partial to the duck shaped one and was happily careering around the fields with her trophy for a good ten minutes or so).
By the end of the first two days Jynx had walked beautifully to heel on a short lead, on a long lead and off the lead, she had performed sit stays and recalls and simply retrieves on a long line. We also taught her that the lead coming off is not an invitation to disappear off in the wide blue yonder as fast as you can. We also discovered that she has a quite severe seperation anxiety when it comes to me (this is something I was aware of but not to the degree that she displayed it during those two days - whether this was just to do with the unfamiliar surroundings I'm not sure but we have continued to work on this at home since the training).
On the third day Paul came to our house to work with Jynx's prey drive - mainly her obsession with the chickens - Paul was able to get her to back off the chicken run and also sit quietly next to one of them it was amazing to watch but unfortunately not something I have been able to recreate since! The nearest we have got is that she ignored one of them when it jumped over the fence not realising she was there - Jynx did have her mind on other things at the time she was busy devouring a slice of bread I had left out for the birds so I think it was just the chickens lucky day.
So since the training I have continued to do all the right things to curb her separation anxiety and we have a short training session everyday in the park or back garden, but she gets bored and is very easily distracted (a clear case of a dog taking after her owner!). We have good days and bad days and things have not be helped by the fact that she came into season and we have had to deal with all that entails. Thank goodness its over now and the hormones are settling down. (Both hers and mine!)
We did very briefly in the early days think it might be nice to let her have a litter - that madness lasted about a week - she is already booked into be spayed in February!
We finally managed to complete our 3 day intensive gundog training a few months ago - what an eye opener that was! By that I mean my eyes were opened to how much hard work it is to train a gundog!
We spent the first two days at Paul's (the trainer) gun club. Paul is a man of infinite patience both with animals and humans and he took us through basic obedience and some simple retrieves.
Jynx on the whole did very well the only real indiscretions were running of while we were trying to perform a recall from a distance (in her defence it was sweltering hot and she ran off and jumped into a pond but she did come back after she had cooled down) and making off with Paul's dummies (she was especially partial to the duck shaped one and was happily careering around the fields with her trophy for a good ten minutes or so).
By the end of the first two days Jynx had walked beautifully to heel on a short lead, on a long lead and off the lead, she had performed sit stays and recalls and simply retrieves on a long line. We also taught her that the lead coming off is not an invitation to disappear off in the wide blue yonder as fast as you can. We also discovered that she has a quite severe seperation anxiety when it comes to me (this is something I was aware of but not to the degree that she displayed it during those two days - whether this was just to do with the unfamiliar surroundings I'm not sure but we have continued to work on this at home since the training).
On the third day Paul came to our house to work with Jynx's prey drive - mainly her obsession with the chickens - Paul was able to get her to back off the chicken run and also sit quietly next to one of them it was amazing to watch but unfortunately not something I have been able to recreate since! The nearest we have got is that she ignored one of them when it jumped over the fence not realising she was there - Jynx did have her mind on other things at the time she was busy devouring a slice of bread I had left out for the birds so I think it was just the chickens lucky day.
So since the training I have continued to do all the right things to curb her separation anxiety and we have a short training session everyday in the park or back garden, but she gets bored and is very easily distracted (a clear case of a dog taking after her owner!). We have good days and bad days and things have not be helped by the fact that she came into season and we have had to deal with all that entails. Thank goodness its over now and the hormones are settling down. (Both hers and mine!)
We did very briefly in the early days think it might be nice to let her have a litter - that madness lasted about a week - she is already booked into be spayed in February!
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