Welcome Home!

After spay surgery yesterday, Winnie spent the night at the vet. I picked her up this morning and am SO glad she's home. She feels like poop, no question. But I can't recall when I've been more happy to see her.

Back Seat Driver

Just had to share this picture because I like it. The yellow ribbon hanging from the mirror, by the way, is the ribbon that Winnie wore when all the pups in the litter were color coded. I'll never forget the day I learned that Yellow was mine!

The Center of Attention!

Sandy and I took Winnie and Gromit to the Scottish Games and Festival today, and it was a very dog-friendly event. Gotta have junk food at a festival, of course, here we all share some potato pancakes.

Winnie's been in quite a few crowds before, and it's not unusual for her to get a fair amount of attention, but she got comments all day long! What kind of dog is she? What a sweet face! What beautiful eyes! And for everyone who stopped to meet and talk about her, there were more who I overheard talking about her.

I love the Scottish games - feats of strength in games with a lot of history behind them.

Also traditional is a pint of Harp or two!

Love this picture of Gromit, who got his fair share of attention too. They of course are EXHAUSTED tonight!

YAY!!

With just a few minutes before dark I realized that I bought a pretty cool quail dummy at Bass Pro a few weeks ago and forgot all about it! Just for fun, I added some quail scent and hid the dummy for Winnie to find.

Well, quail-in-a-bottle may or may not smell like Actual Quail, but Winnie humored me and excitedly found the dummy. Her reward was playing fetch with it, which she LOVED!

I have to say, I don't really know what I'm doing, and Winnie may or may not know what she's doing, but what I've noticed in recent weeks is, she is extremely excited about our little training sessions. And that just has to work in our favor.

Much of our 'field' training we've been doing in the back yard, opposite the fenced-in front yard where they spend most of their outdoor time. So any time I get her and we head in that direction, she just gets really psyched! We're keeping it fun, and working at something - even just a few minutes - each day.

Working on our TAN

The oppressive heat of summer seems to be fading a bit, and we've enjoyed training in the yard more often. Primarily right now I'm working on the recall (3 whistle blasts and/or the 'Here!' command), Whoa (as discussed in an earlier post) and we've been working in some gun sensitivity training.

At the UHWVA Specialty show in Michigan in May, there will be an opportunity to take part in the UKC Natural Ability test, called the TAN. The object of the TAN is to evaluate the natural hunting ability of the pointing breeds, and there are three criteria.

First Criteria: Hunting Instinct/Handling. The judge will evaluate the dog's enthusiasm and desire to search for birds. The handler can use verbal/whistle/hand commands to handle the dog but excessive use of commands results in failure of the test. So she needs to be enthusiastic about searching for birds, but generally be under control and recallable. I think Winnie will be okay on the enthusiasm front, and we have a lot of work to do on recall and other controls, but we have a lot of time too.

Second Criteria: Demonstration of Pointing Instinct. The dog must establish a point on at least one designated game bird during the TAN hunt, and hold the point for three seconds. I think if she can find a bird, she will point it and hold it for that long.

Third Criteria: Reaction to Gun Fire. The judge must determine that the dog is not gun shy. At the flushing of the game bird pointed by the dog, a starter pistol or shotgun will be fired. She can acknowledge the shot but gun shyness will not be allowed. With Sandy's help, I've been introducing her to the sound of .22 blanks from a distance, and closing that distance as she demonstrates she's okay with it. I think we'll be okay on this criteria, but again we have a long way to go. I just want to be really careful about this step.

So, pass or fail, the upcoming TAN will be very useful if for no other reason than to push me toward specific, challenging, yet attainable goals, with a timeline. Also, if she can do these things for the TAN test, she is absolutely ready to hunt with. She may not be everything the experienced bird hunter wants in a dog at that point, but if I can control her with a whistle, I know she will find and point birds. Will she retrieve one after I shoot it? Who knows, but we can work on that.