I’m sorry that I haven’t written a post in a long time. Part of the reason, my camera quit working. With no pictures the blog doesn’t look right. I had my camera at a field trial, to watch my puppies, Annie and Stormy, run. There was just a light mist most of the day. I didn’t think about it being hard on the camera but the next time I tried to use it, the telephoto lens popped when it was extended or retracted.
I also had a litter of puppies to keep me busy.
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
I knew I had bought it at Best Buy and I remembered buying a warrantee. I took it back to Best Buy and they checked the records and told me I didn’t buy the warrantee. But they showed me what I had paid for the camera and I was surprised. It was more expensive than I thought. I decided to buy another camera but not pay as much as I had on this one. So I ordered another. When I got it it wasn’t much.
But I tried it for a couple of days. The more I thought about the good camera the more I thought I had bought a warrantee. Carrying a camera while hunting I have run through a lot of them. I started looking in my closet for the box the camera came in. When I found it I had written, 3 year warrantee with Sony. I even found the receipt where I had paid for it. I got ahold of Sony and sent them proof of everything and they sent a mailing label. I sent it off and in about a week I got it back. I think they replaced the lenses. In any case it works now.
I had a litter of puppies and before they all went to their new homes I got Annie and Stormy back. They have been running field trials, in the puppy class. When the trials start this fall they will move up to the derby class. That means they will be expected to be steady to wing and shot and honor another dog that is on point. I won’t have them long enough to get them steady to wing and shot but I can get them started. Stormy for sure and maybe Annie, have backed another dog but I will work them on the backing dog.
I had worked Annie and Stormy on whoa, heel and here before they went to the field trial circuit. They had the basics but were not even close to being well started on the commands. As soon as I got them home I started again. My 4 point whatever acre lot is long and narrow. Approximately 165 feet by 1400. I put a metal pinch collar on them with an e-collar around their flanks. I have them pull a 20 foot check cord.
Vince walking in with Mann on point Sally and Boss honoring..
I had them wear the e-collar for about a week before I turned it on. I walked them all the way around the lot heeling them and whoaing them about every 30 feet. That makes a lot of heel and whoa commands. Some of the time I stand right beside them and after a few seconds tap them on the head and say, “heel”. Some of the time I walk a circle around them, sometimes I go behind them and then to the front. I kick the ground, shake bushes that are close and pick up sticks from the ground and toss them. Sometimes, I go to the end of the check cord in front of them and say, “here”.
Once I turned the e-collar on whoa command was quicker. Both pups knew the command but there was nothing to cause them to stop quickly. The first morning, I started with the handheld set on 1. I walked the pups just a few feet, pushed the transmitter button and about a second later said, “whoa”. They knew the command but they figured out, quickly, that the quicker they stopped the quicker the stimulation stopped.
It wasn’t long before they were stopping as soon as the stimulation came on. Well before I could say, “whoa”. After a few mornings like this, I started whoaing them, putting a pigeon to sleep and placing it right in front of them. I let them point the pigeon for a minute or so then turn it over with my foot, waking it up. I held the check cord and made them stay where they had been whoaed.
Boss on wild quail.
We had worked on the whoa command so much before I started using the pigeons that they knew they needed to stay on whoa, maybe. We took it up a notch. Before I took either pup out of the kennel I put a pigeon in a release trap and hid it where the wind was away from where the pup could smell it or see it. When I got close to this hidden bird I whoaed the pup and put a pigeon to sleep in front of her. I walked a circle around the pup holding on to the check cord. I stroked her sides and told her what a good girl she is. I flushed the hidden bird. The first time they both wanted to move then went back to pointing the close bird asleep in front of them.
After a few seconds I rolled the pigeon over waking it up. Both pups wanted to move more on the close bird than they did on the pigeon from the release trap. Each time I had two birds in release traps and I put two pigeons to sleep in front of them. Both pups did really well on them except for one time. I was working Stormy and she did fine on her first set of birds. On the second set I put a pigeon to sleep in front of her, stroked her and walked around her. She was really steady. I flushed the hidden pigeon and she stood and watched it fly away. I took my eye off her for about half a second and she reached down and picked the pigeon up that was asleep in front of her. I pulled on the check cord and the pigeon flew away, unhurt.
Mann pointing quail on a foggy morning.
I normally walk them all the way around the lot but when she moved and grabbed the pigeon I took her back to the kennel. This morning I changed it a little. We still circled the lot heeling and whoaing. A few here commands and a few times I had them on whoa and called them to me. When they started to me I held my hand up like a cop stopping a car and said, “whoa”. This is hard on the dogs mentally but it reinforces the whoa command.
But this morning I just hid two pigeons for each puppy. I still used the check cord on each of them as we went to the hidden birds. Each pup pointed too close to the bushes on one of the birds, I had hidden it too far into the bushes, for me to walk around them. But on the other I held the check cord, with there being slack, as I circled them. Neither of them moved until I flushed the pigeon. They wanted to chase but I set them back, said, “whoa’ and stroked their sides. I heeled them back to the retrieving bench.
Sally ,Gracie and Beth pointing with Mann in back honoring.
When they were young I put them on the bench and fed them chunks of hotdog. They still check my hands, occasionally. Now I just pet them and tell them what good girls they are. After the bench we go to a chair I have sitting in the shade of a hackberry tree. Some of the time I get them to sit in my lap sometimes they just rear up on me as I sit. Both me and the pups enjoy these quiet times before they go back to the kennel.