This week I have been trying to work the young dogs twice a day on the retrieving bench. Monday, after I worked them on the bench I let them run for a while and put them back on the bench. They were panting, so their mouth was already open. There was no reason to squeeze their jowls but with this system squeezing their jowls is necessary. So Tuesday I started doing the retrieving bench morning and evening.
Bodie circling the multi-floral-rose.
Bodie pointing a pigeon.
Bodie on the whoa board.
This has been a good week for working the dogs. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I worked the 3 young dogs, Abby, Boss and Bodie, on retrieving on the bench and the other 2, Sally and Mann with thrown dummies. Thursday, Vince Dye and I went to Kansas and ran our dogs on a big ranch. Then Friday and Saturday I worked the 3 young dogs on the bench twice a day and threw some bumpers for Sally and Mann.
I have only been squeezing the jowls on the young dogs for a short time, I think since Monday, but they all 3 learned to open their mouth when my hand covers their jowls. This is the first time I have used this method to teach force breaking but it should make the ear pinch go much easier.
Usually, I work Bodie first. Monday and Wednesday, I had him pull the chains hooked to a roading harness. He spent 31 days in a cast with a broken hind leg. My plan is to have him pull about 15 pounds of chains to help build up his hind quarters. He ran a long way at the big ranch Thursday and was sore the next day. I will let him rest until next Monday. He ran for quite a while really well then started limping on that leg. He never carried the leg or quit but he was really limping by the time we got back to the truck.
When I hook the chains on Bodie’s roading harness we go toward the highway in my front then across the front and back to the shed where I keep the chains. This is less than a half mile but it should help his hind quarters. When I take the chains off we go to the three place boards I have in my yard and I have him whoa on each. Usually, I whoa him a couple of times before we get to the place boards then on all 3 places boards. I drop the Wonder lead and walk all around him each time I whoa him.
When we get to the retrieving bench I have him jump on. He could jump on by himself but he doesn’t have the confidence without my help. He’s a chow hound and I feed him some treats as I walk him back and forth on the bench petting him. The book I’m using for force breaking, Tom Dokken’s “Retriever Training”, says to only squeeze their jowls 4 or 5 times but I usually do 6 because it works on my bench. I do 3 times, the start, the middle and the end of the bench on one side then the end and back to the start on the other side of the bench and back around to the front and do 1 at the start again. Then I give a couple more treats.
Bodie pointing a pigeon.
Bodie is getting better about coming to me but still isn’t great so I have him drag a check cord. I lift all my dogs off the retrieving bench because I don’t want them jumping off. I don’t want them to decide when the session is over. That’s my job. I set him on the ground and let him run to the back while I walk all the way to the back then to the kennel. I have moved a chair into the big pen, part of the time, in an empty kennel and part of the time into the yard. I have each dog come to me and I give them a couple of treats and pet them. I want each one to think he’s my favorite.
After I put Bodie up I bring either Boss or Abby out and work them just the same other than I just heel them over to the place boards whoaing them a time or two before we get to the place boards. I whoa them on the place boards and walk all around them. They both have been whoa broke but I want them used to working on the place boards so when I start walking them with the retrieving dummies, I can have them stop on the place boards for a better delivery, of the dummy.
Abby the first time she jumped onto the bench, peeking around the tree at me.
Early in the week I started whoaing Boss a short distance from the retrieving bench, taking the Wonder lead off and tapping his head and saying, “up”. He run to the bench and jumps on. I had always helped Abby because she was bigger and heavier she didn’t jump on without a little help. About the middle of the week after I worked her on the bench I let her run to the back. She was ahead of me when we got back to the bench and she jumped on without my help. As I came up she was peeking around the tree at me.
So now her and Boss both are whoaed just short of the bench and they have to jump onto it. Mann sometimes jumps on just to get me to pet him but Sally never does.
I have a Dokken quail, chukar and dove full body dummies that I throw for Sally and Mann. Both of them have been force broke to retrieve. I paid someone to force break Mann and he put a lot of pressure on him. Mann retrieves really well in the field when he sees the bird drop. He would really rather go find a live bird as to hunt dead. I can make him but he doesn’t like it.
Sally retrieving the Dokken quail.
As soon as I heel him out with the Wonder lead he tenses up. I thought the treats would free him up some but they haven’t. When I throw a dummy and he starts after it I wait until he’s on his way back and toss another dummy, just a short distance, to the side. Sometimes one on both sides of me. I have Mann hold until I tell him to give. I’ve learned that he will occasionally take a treat but he would rather that I just pet him for a long time between tosses.
Late in the week he was less tense than where he started the first of the week. I think I will get him through this soon. After I let him run I take him back to the kennel and sit in the chair and pet him. He stands without moving. All he wants is to be petted. Boss is about the same way but he crawls into my lap. And he’s a lap full.
Sally does the retrieves really well but she will do about anything for a treat. I throw the dummies to the side farther for her because she will search harder than Mann does, right now. I think as Mann gains confidence he will hunt harder. Sally also likes to be petted but she will bowl me over for a treat. Sitting in a plastic chair has it’s drawbacks when there is an almost 50 pound dog trying to get at the treat.
Boss pointing a pigeon.
The way I’m working the dogs here at the house I walk about 6 miles a day average. Not only is it good for the dogs it’s really good for this old man.