Monday 25 April 2016

Gundog Training Adventures with Jazz: 3 months old



The above photo makes me laugh every time I see it because damn there is a grain (no word play intended) of truth in it ;) Jazz's play biting is becoming more and more controllable but there are moments when I want to run and hide ;) 
She was 3 months old on the 21st of April and it's fascinating to watch her grow and change. Today I taught her hand targeting in 5 minutes. More about this exercise HERE. She started to understand how to fetch (you can watch her in action on my Instagram HERE) and she is even containing herself enough now to obey "wait" command at times. 
She's clever, adorable and full of life. 

Home DIY is her favourite hobby...She likes to organise our stuff in her own order and most of the time she decides that we don't put the stuff in the right rooms. She likes the socks to all be in the front room, ideally spread evenly on variety of surfaces - chair, sofa, rug, some in the kitchen. 
She also likes to bring me my white competition gloves and stock into the front room a few times a day even though I explained to her I would rather they were in the box in my little office. 

She recalls on the whistle pretty reliably in all situations that I have tested her - I follow training tasks from Total Recall book by Pippa Mattinson (more on recall here: http://thehappypuppysite.com/11-top-tips-for-a-great-puppy-recall/) including horse shit. Yes, the last one has been most troubling but now she found a way to both recall fast and enjoy some shit. Namely - she grabs a mouthful of horse manure and then runs like a wind with it if I sound the whistle. If I sound it before she gets to the pile, she will turn around to me. If I sound it too late and she is a step away, she will grab some for the journey.
She loves poo.

In the last few days she started noticing birds...First she chased a little robin at work and at home we have some serious choice of birds around from pigeons through pheasants, kites to peacocks! She has not seen the latter yet, I try to avoid them as don't want to fry her brain ;)

From what I read about young gundogs I should not encourage any game chasing in a young spaniel. I should keep her entertained and focused on me on the walks, no free roaming and self-rewarding. So far I think we are doing well.

I learnt that when walking a gundog puppy one shouldn't just stroll in a straight line but walk in an unexpected pattern of zigzags so the pup is constantly curious about where we are going. Apparently such walking mimics their hunting behaviour so they find it naturally engaging as they are wondering what are we hunting.
Even though zig zaging through the fields feels a little on an odd side I must say she is rather taken by it and keeps an eye on me all the time. I don't dare to tell her I am not really hunting in case her great behaviour changes.

House training is going ok, as long as I take her out 7-8 times a day, all is good. She's pretty good with the training pads in general too but sometimes she seems to think that front paws on the pad will do...Thankfully she agrees with us that pooping in the house is a no-go and she consistently asks to be taken out if she needs number 2.

3 months on 21 April 2016


Mid evening on her last longer walk at about 7.30pm she usually goes bonkers and runs around like a mad person. Sometimes I manage to play enough with her so she calms down in the house but most of the time I do not succeed.
While making dinner tonight I heard her drinking water. I looked at where her water bowl was but she was nowhere near it. I looked from kitchen into my front room just to see her helping herself to my cup of tea with loud splashes of the tongue.

Puppyhood is intense ;)

Until soon! X


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