Monday, August 17, 2009

Done with Summer!

We are both ready for summer to be over! The promise of approaching cool weather has me thinking about training and field work again, but while it's been a pretty mild summer so far, recently it has been VERY hot and humid. Conditioning might help her warm weather stamina, but generally she's just not a fan of high temps.

So we're working on some obedience things in the yard, and have started a program of positive training that I'll be talking about in the coming weeks. My goal is to have a reliable, enjoyable hunting companion in Winnie, and get her to that point without the use of a shock collar. We have much work to do, but I now have a plan and I think we'll be able to achieve that goal.

For now, obedience in the yard, whistle recall, things like that, then she gets spayed in a few weeks, and by the time that's over we might be having fun with birds in cool weather!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cassie's positive training is going great. We are using the clicker and she is responding well. It is fun to teach little tricks to keep her interested. If you haven't already read Reaching the Animal Mind by Karen Pryor, I think you would enjoy reading it. Any books by Karen Pryor are very helpful with positive training. I would like to do some field work with Cassie, and take the TAN test. I need to find someone to help me train. Have fun with Winnie's positive training...looking forward to hearing about it!

Anonymous said...

positive training is the best for the temperments on these guys-really all dogs- but some breeds are harder wired than these guys. I know she will respond very well to just about anything you ask her. She has already shown how much she wants to make you happy with her.
Peg