Tur Bo with a Dokken quail..
Blaze with the chuckar.
Luke
It was close to 80 degrees when I got up early this morning. I don’t like to run the dogs when it’s that hot so I worked them on retrieving. All of the dogs have been through force fetch so I worked them on the walking fetch.
Blaze has the run of the big pen because she and her 2 pup litter are in the shed. The shed is air conditioned and she is learning to like the cool air. I always work her first then put her in the kennel until I’m through with the others. I put 2 canvas retrieving dummies, a plastic dummy, a wooden buck and a Dokken quail dummy out for the dogs.
I put an e-collar on Blaze’s neck and flanks and heel her to the area that I have seeded with the retrieving dummies. It seems like, no matter which dummy I heel Blaze and Dolly to first, they can’t see it. I hold the button on the neck e-collar down on the lowest setting and circle around to the dummy. The second time they pick it up. Maybe, they think that this time I won’t make them pick it up. After the first one they grab all of the others and act like they enjoy it.
I have the quail dummy last. After they bring it to me I throw it several times. Blaze holds the dummies and stands directly in front of me and waits for me to say, “give” before she drops it. When I throw the dummy for her, as soon as she picks it up, I clap my hands really loud and call her to me. Her tail is always up and wagging. I put her in the kennel and bring Dolly out.
Dolly blinks the first one, I press the button on her neck e-collar and make a circle. She sees it the second time and picks it up. Dolly comes to me, sits right in front of me and waits for me to say, “give”. I heel her toward the next bumper. When we are 4 or 5 feet from it I say, “fetch” and she picks it up, brings it to me, sits and holds the bumper. I say “give” and she spits it out. When I throw the quail bumper as soon as she picks it up I clap my hands real loud and call her to me. Clapping my hands seem to motivate her and Blaze. After I throw the quail 4 or 5 times I put her back in the kennel.
I put the e-collars on Tur Bo and heel him to the field. I don’t clap my hands with Tur Bo. As soon as he sees a bumper on the ground he’s pulling to get it. I tell him to fetch and he scoops it up and returns. Usually, he will hold the bumper until I tell him to give but not always. He is always motivated. If I started clapping my hands for him he would knock me over when he returned. For all of the dogs I squat down. Tur Bo sits but he doesn’t look at me. He’s looking for something else to go get. I make sure that he retrieves the thrown quail correctly several times before I put him back.
I put the e-collars on Luke and heel him to the retrieving dummies. When I’m a few feet from the first dummy I tell him to fetch. He scoops it up and returns with it. He’s starting to enjoy retrieving. He retrieves all of the dummies and I throw the quail dummy for him 4 or 5 times. About the second or third time I threw the quail he ran to it and came back without it. I held the button on the e-collar around his neck down on the lowest setting and walked him back to the quail. He picked it up and brought it to me. I make sure he retrieves correctly 2 or 3 times in a row before I put him up.
I change places in the yard that I use for retrieving and I change some of the bumpers. All 4 of these dogs are getting better on retrieving. I enjoy getting them out and they enjoy me petting them. I don’t work Lucky on this exercise. He’s 12 years old and doesn’t seem to enjoy retrieving. He has been through force fetch and he will retrieve sometimes. At his age I’m not going to force him to do anything. I just go in his kennel, get him on his house and pet him. He’s happy and I am too.
Blaze’s puppies.
The male is white and orange.
The female is white, black and tan.