Grady and Retrieving

Although Grady has always been a natural retriever, he likes to take his time picking the darn birds up. Once he does, he has always brought the bird right to my hand. The delay at the senior hunter level isn't as much of a problem. At the master level, well that's a different story. With the next hunt tests 6 weeks away, I have decided to work on cleaning this up. Today we started our "take it, hold, give it" training. It went pretty well. Strange how he and Dixy are so different in how they take to training. No matter, hopefully we can clean the retrieve up in both of them in time to be ready for the last 8 hunt tests of the year. Grady seemed to have a good start today.

One Master Hunter Leg down...Nine to Go

Well, another weekend of dog field events has passed. Grady and Dixy were both entered in the master hunt tests. I was anxious to see how they both would do. It was Grady's third and fourth try and Dixy's first and second try. Grady did a great job on Saturday. He got through cleanly. He found three birds and stood through all. I was thrilled. His first master leg earned. Dixy had an awesome run on Saturday but broke on her honor. She stopped beautifully, the problem was that she broke when the other dog's bird was shot. Damn, she never breaks. But it wouldn't have mattered, she didn't retrieve to hand. After the runs, I took Dixy out and she retrieved every tossed bird to me. Go figure.

Sunday was another day and another attempt with both. The weather was not ideal. It was really windy and the birds were everywhere. Dixy was the second brace in. Again, nice run. She found a back course bird and stood rock solid. Great! We get into the bird field and she goes on point. She is steady, steady, steady. Gunners come up, the bird is flushed, bird is shot. What, is that Dixy. Damn, again with the leaving. So uncharacteristic, maybe it's time to take a break with her. Okay, well we still have Grady. Maybe we can get a second pass on him. Not this day. He too broke. All I can do is shake my head. The training grounds are closed in June. We will take a break and enjoy some hiking and walks at the beach.

Back from another Training Weekend

I headed out to Hastings Island with dogs in tow on Friday afternoon. There was just enough time to run the dogs before the fields would close. Along the way, the dogs pointed six chukar and a cat. You read that right, a cat. I had no idea the dogs were pointing a cat so I went to work it like they were pointing a bird. When I got there, I found no bird. When I looked down, to my surprise there was a cowering cat. Before I could rescue the poor soul, it broke to a full out run. Unfortunately, the dogs gave chance. Before I knew it, the cat was in a bush. Dixy decided to stick her nose into it and when she came out, her nose was a shredded mess. At least the cat was fine. What in the world a cat was doing in the middle of a hunting preserve is a mystery. I could understand ferals but this was definitely not a feral cat. It had beautiful markings.

Saturday we set out for a true training session. The goal was to work with Dixy and Grady. I have entered both of them in a hunt test May 22nd and 23rd. And as is with all dogs, they each have their own weaknesses which makes for interesting training sessions. Nothing is ever boring. Dixy was the first in line for training. My friend Walter help me out by simulating the shooting of the bird. I wanted Dixy to stand through the flight of the bird as well as the shot. As you can see from the picture below, she passed the test. This is one of Dixy's strong suits. Yeah! We will deal with her weakness (retrieving) later.

Now on to Grady. Unlike Dixy, Grady has some problems in this area. Let's just say, he gets a little anxious when he sees the bird fly away. He has been know to leave a wee bit early. Fine for senior hunter but not so much for master. No matter, we will work on it. At least on this day, he did fine.

Now back to working on Dixy's weakness. We have been diligently working on this at home, in the field, more at home, and more in the field in hopes of having her retrieve the bird to my hand in the Master Level Hunt test. Below are a few videos of our progression on Saturday and Sunday. Still some work to do but we have made a tremendous amount of progress. Below is our starting video.

We did this a total of ten times before quickly. She loves to please as you can see from the progression.

Finally, our last retrieve was an unbridled success as you can see from her happy demeanor of bringing the bird back to me with her head up and tail wagging.

Oh how the little successes keep us coming back for more.

The Trials and Tribulations of a Hunt Test With Grady

Prep work-We practice, we praise, and we practice some more. We think he is ready. He does what he is suppose to in practice. We work diligently to prepare him for the next level. Everything works as planned. Okay then, let's enter that Master Level test and see where we are.

The Day of the Test-We are up early. Feeding the dog. Taking then out for their bathroom break. Do I have the blank gun loaded? Water for the dogs in vest? My nerves are on edge. What will he do today? Can't eat...oh well, after.

At the Line-The moment of truth is about to come. Did the training really sink in? Will he mess up the other dog? Will soon find out.

They Are Off-The brace has begun. The dogs are on there own now. Training, corrections, opportunities are gone. It's up to them. Just don't let me screw things up.

Fifteen Minutes In-So far, looking good. Found a back course bird. Grady handled it great. No problems. Maybe this will be our day.

Into the Bird Field-Bracemate goes on point. Grady gets his honor. Things are looking good. Again I think, maybe this will be our day. My fingers are crossed. All I need is for Grady to stand through the shot and not go until I tell him. Can he do it. Okay, he is on point. We shall soon see. He's holding. I work the bird....bird flies away...gunners shoot...Grady stays through the shot....wait no, there he goes. He left on the downward trajectory of the bird...AARGH!! At least he retrieved the bird to my hand. We need to find another bird so our bracemate can get an honor. Well, he found another bird. Will he hold this time...quick answer no. Again, I can only say at least he retrieved to hand.

Postscript-You think you have trained the behavior you want in your dog but they are beings too. Apparently they have minds of there own too. Oh well, back to the training drawing board.

Great Weekend

What a great weekend. I went out on Thursday and just got back today. I was able to get multiple days of training in AND enjoy our annual VCNC Fun Field day. What a great turnout we had. People seemed to have a blast. I also entered Grady in his first Master level hunt test. No pass but mostly because of my ineptitude in the handling arena. No worries though, he is young and enjoys the work.

The above picture is my friend Mary's dog "Retro". He had just come out of the field and was cooling himself off in the tub.

7:30am...37 degrees..Yea, Let's Go to the Beach!

Everyone else was busy today so it was the dogs and me off for a walk. I am an early bird. I was up and out of the house by 6:20am. It was cold here in Antioch. The thermometer read 33 degrees. Brrr! I could not find my gloves anywhere. No worries, my mind said. It will be much warmer at the beach. Well you can see from the title of the post, not by much. But I am stubborn. We went on the walk anyway (I got no resistance from the dogs by the way.). The tide was going out so plenty of shore to walk on. I couldn't imagine getting caught in the tide today. It actually was a beautiful day. The sky was clear, the sun did not hit the water directly so the lighting was soft. I had the chuckit and tennis ball knowing Dixy would pester me the whole way if I hadn't brought it so there was plenty of ball throwing and Dixy running. Unusual, I know. Dixy does have the occasional dilemna. She asks herself, am I a tennis ball chaser or a bird dog. The above picture shows her trying to sort this question out. She is focused on the birds but hasn't quite committed to the task and still has the ball in her home.

Finally, instinct takes over. She drops the ball and it is off to chase the birds. I do believe she chased these birds for a good half mile before she returned. But not before she picked of the tennis ball from where she left it.I took this picture of the seagull because I really like how the bird was perched on the rock and the rock was surrounded by water. The bird was able to soak up the sun yet was set away from the dogs.
Here you can see Grady was not as deterred by the water as the bird my have thought. He is doing his best at sneaking up on the bird.

In addition to all this, I was able to find a bunch of really cool sea glass. Not only did I find great shapes but I also found some really cool, unusual colors. Again, it was another of those days where I am just so grateful to be in the bay area.

Grady STINKS!

Went on a 6 mile hike today with Tanya and her dog Malbec. Within the first quarter of a mile, Grady found the most disgusting stuff to roll in. He covered the entire half top and sides of his back. I could smell him from 100 feet away. Anyone who has met Grady knows what a forcefully affection dog he is so after he rolled in whatever it was, he regularly attempted to get hugs and pets from both Tanya and me. It was a chore to keep him off. I had hoped by him running through the tall, wet grass it would take some of the stuff off. Well if it did, it didn't make much of a difference. Halfway through the walk we came to a water trough. So I picked him up and threw him in. It barely made a dent in the smell. Once we finished the walk, I pulled a gallon of water out of the truck, poured it on him, and then attempted to towel dry it off him. Again, helped a little but not enough. Finally got home and washed him with soap and water. Can you believe the scent is STILL lingering on him. Wow...I don't know how he can be in his own body. I guess it smells good to him. :-)

Another Win for the Duna Man

Well here I am again sending a big congratulations to Christine and John Vermes again. Duna won for the third day in a row. He looked fantastic out there with his handler. What a striking picture they make. Duna now stands at 13 points, two shy of his championship. It is a shame there aren't more shows in the very near future. You hate to stop the momentum. Anyways, this little guy will be finished in no time. Then it is time to let do what he does best, be that wonderful companion animal.

Below are a few pictures from the day.

Grady (front) and Duna (back) in the ring competing.
Christine and Duna celebrating the win.
Duna in Mom's lap. Jean (his handler) giving Duna that thumbs up look.

Oh No I didn't...

Oh yes I did.

Grady is wondering what the heck Dixy has on her head. It's an elf hat and ears my dear boy. Little does he know...It won't be long until he has his own head ornament.

Here he is with with his reindeer ears. Heck, between the two of them, we have the start of the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer cast. Dixy would play Herbie the elf wanna be dentist and Grady as Rudolph.
As you can see by the above picture, Dixy is none to happy with this situation. Shortly after the photo was taken, she hid under the table. That is until....

Colvin had her turn as a Christmas Carol extra.

Oh, the holidays. :-)

Grady and Colvin

Grady seems to have really become attached to Colvin. He always wants to be near her. The really sweet thing is that Colvin is perfectly fine with him in her space. Normally, this is Colvin's chair. Grady jumped up into it with her and it didn't seem to bother her a bit. She is a wonderful old girl.

Grady-Truly the King of the Pride

I always think Grady is the bottom of the totem pole in the household but I think he is smarter than I give him credit for. In this picture, he is letting Colvin clean him. It reminds me of Lions in a pride. It was sweet.

Red Dawn Grady's All Wound Up JH Wins!!

I am happy to say that Grady won Winner's Dog at the show Woo Hoo! It was a three point major. He just needs two more points to be a finished champion. I was thrilled as you can imagine. Below are a few pictures from the show today.

Stephanie with Grady and Erin with Jasper (Grady's brother)

Stephanie taking Grady around the ring.

Stephanie preparing Grady for the judge to go over him.

Grady standing for the judge and doing it well.

The judge moving Grady up to the head of the class.

Back to the Tide Chart

So when we got to the beach today, the tide was higher than I had anticipated. Not to worry though, I brought my Muck shoes. I figured my feet wouldn't get wet and all would be good. We walked along for an hour or so and all was going as usual. Dixy was chasing tennis balls, Grady was pestering Dixy, Sara was trying to get Grady to chase her, and Colvin was enjoying her leisurely walk. I was so focused on watching Dixy and Grady run up and down the sides of the cliffs chasing after the tennis ball that I completely lost track of where the tide was. With my back to the water and my eyes on the cliff, I was suddenly overcome with ocean up to 15 inches on my legs. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) the muck shoes do little good if the water goes into them. So I proceeded to walk another 45 minutes back to the car with squishy, soaking wet pants socks and shoes. All in 57 degree weather...Good times. :-)

Weekend of Dog Shows-Grady's Nightmare

Mom made me do it again. We had to spend another weekend going to the dog shows. I keep expecting for it to be over but it is not. Yuck! I do not like it. Mom says I only need 5 points to finish (whatever that means). I just want us to go out and have fun. I don't much like the Judge going over me part. I always sit down when he checks out my rear end. Wouldn't you?! I mean who really likes that? Mom said I have to let the judges do that or we will never "finish". Yesterday, I sat so when the judge went over me so mom took me to our trainer last night. I guess she is trying to have me get used to it. Mom said I did much better today. I didn't take a step when the judge went over me. Didn't help though. We still didn't win. Oh well, at least a nice dog took the point. I don't like losing to ugly dogs. Mom put together a little show of what we go through at the shows. Look at my ears. See how happy I look? Not!

Grady on Point

Here is a picture of Grady on Point. He was hunting pretty seriously, covering a lot of ground. I knew he was on a scent. I can just tell by the way he quarters back and forth and how his tail moves. About 30 seconds after this picture was taken, a jackrabbit came tearing out about 5 feet away him. Grady thought about chasing it but I commanded him to wait and he didn't take a step. I was very proud. This is the stuff he loves. Can't wait to start the training for his senior hunter title.

Grady's Weekend at the Dog Show

Our weekend at the dog show didn't quite go as well as planned. On Saturday, Grady showed wonderfully. He stacked out like a champ and floated around the ring. He looked beautiful. Unfortunately the judge didn't agree and Grady took last in his class. I don't believe that was the right place but judging is subjective. Still it does get discouraging when it is hard to understand how the judge made their decision. Sunday was a completely different story. He would not even stand for his exam. For whatever reason, he did not want to stand and no amount of coaxing would change his mind. He ended up being excused. The judge was very nice about it and just suggested I work with him. It really is hard we the judges only see the dogs for a short period of time. I know he is the sweetest boy and I wish all could see the same thing in him. I am a little bummed.

Boy Dog Behavior

This is my sweet boy Grady. He is a little over 2 and a half years old. You couldn't ask for a sweeter boy. He knows his place in the house (girls rule). I will preface this by saying, I have never owned a male dog before. I own three girls so I am unfamiliar with the male behavior. He has been acting pretty silly lately (the last two weeks). He chases Dixy around and acts very amorous with her. He licks her ears, bites her neck, and yes air humps her. Dixy is spayed and 4 and a half. It makes me laugh really. He is so persistent. That is until Dixy has had enough and tells him off. The interesting thing is that he only stops briefly. It is like he has a short circuit with this lesson. The funny thing is that he doesn't even think about behaving like this with Sara (his mother who is also spayed). I am really fascinated with the differences in their behaviors.