Rip & Basil Day 44 10-18-2022

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but here is an update on how each dog has been doing thus far. 

BASIL: We have continued to work on retrieving on the ground and have added different kinds of bumpers that varie in texture, size, and weight and we have also added fresh birds and frozen birds into the drills. He has been doing great and is loving doing it. Very seldom does he require ecollar pressure to retrieve. As per the owners request we have also been working on reinforcing the whoa command and have been working him on pointing birds as a refresher and to tighten him back up. He knows whoa with the ecollar already from a previous trainer. The first couple sessions with the pigeons I had him on the whoa barrel for better control and to get an idea of how well he knew whoa, as I was not the trainer who whoa broke him. I dropped pigeons so he would watch them fly off. He did good so the next session I had him on the ground and would whoa him and drop the pigeons. He did but wanted to chase some but would stop when "whoa'd" with the ecollar. We have had a few sessions of pointing birds in the field and he did good. He is pointing at first scent good. He has a tendency to take a couple steps while I'm walking up and he gets ancie while flushing. The way we work to correct both is to launch the birds when the dog moves. This trains them that their movement is what causes the bird to flush. Once we get Basil tightened up we will kill some birds over him. 

RIP: Rip has had a few setbacks on the retrieving. He was doing good and picking the bumper up ok but then we hit a plateau and quit progressing and actually regressed a bit. So I bought a canvas dog toy that would be more inviting for him to want to pick up. After a few days of using the new toy he was doing good with it so I decided to try to move to the ground. He was not ready for the ground and since he doesn't like taking pressure he sulked and didn't want to do it. After visiting with some other trainers I decided I needed to start doing several really short sessions a day, like 3 minutes or less, to keep him happy and engaged. So I started each session of by using the canvas toy and when then ask him to pick up the regular bumper, however I would not ask him to pick the regular bumper up off the table, only to grab it out of my hand. He did great and I would end each session with him happy. I have kept up with that and have included the canvas DT launcher bumper as I figured since he liked the canvas toy so much he might like the larger canvas bumper. I was right and he picks it up off the table great. The regular bumper is still part of each session and he is picking it up off the table with my hand on it good. He ends each session happy and gets treats after each session. He even goes and jumps on the table when he is let out as he looks forward to the training session which is something he wasn't always about. We will continue with this until he is retrieving the regular bumper off the table good before we move to the ground.