We haven’t done any bird work in a long time — like since last March, long time. We know it’s pretty bad. In our defense, Karma was very busy last year. Busy to the tune of 10 new titles (RN, RA, CGC, NA, NAJ, OA, OAJ, CH, AX, AXJ if you are keeping score.) So with the occasional weekend we were off of agility and dog shows, we decided to hang out with each other or do something fun like actual hunting (doesn’t count as bird work because we don’t enforce rules.)
ANYHOW. Point is, the dogs were a wee bit rusty, and poor Halo hasn’t seen a bird since our hunting trip over Thanksgiving. At that time, it was just the typical let her run, find the bird, see if she wants to retrieve. Basically, just have fun.
Today was the day though, we were going to get serious about training…after all, Halo has a JH on her goal list this year 😉 And if we are going down train, why not do it on Super Bowl Sunday so the dogs will be nice and chilled out during the game? So that is what we did and we were joined by our favorite Weimaraner clan — Stoli, Caymus, and Gavi, and of course their owner/our good friend, Tim.
Gavi and Karma went out first. Karma had a beautiful honor (very thankful this was something she learned naturally) which is one of her most reliable behaviors. Jenny collared her for Gavi’s flush and retrieve while Tim and Marc worked the bird. That naughty 12 year old Gavi broke on the flush, and Karma whined and struggled a little to go after her. Then she didn’t like watching Gavi get to retrieve either, but all in all, not a bad first bird after 10 months off of rules. The next bird Karma pointed and Gavi honored from a good 50 yards away. Karma was very well behaved with no immediate pressure, but sadly, this wily bird evaded the shot so Karmie didn’t get to retrieve…and then there was a slight delayed chase before she started hunting again. She has quite a bit to work on…but she sure is happy out there working, so I don’t think she will mind.
The Master Hunters were up next — Stoli, Indy, and Caymus. Three birds, three flawless performances. Nice stop to flush, great points, beautiful honors, and perfect retrieves to hand. And THEN…(we should mention that scenting conditions were awful…zero wind) Caymus slammed around to do a wrap-around point and her chukar flushed RIGHT at the same time Indy was starting to point a pheasant (which we didn’t put out/know was there). The chukar flushing encouraged the pheasant and it was all a bit too exciting for the boys…Indy and Stoli took off in a fabulous chase for about 40 yards before they remembered their manners and came back — looking a little guilty, but very satisfied. Have to say it was pretty hard to get very mad at our veteran Indy for acting like a puppy — we hope he stays young forever!
Finally, it was time for Baby Halo. The first bird we put out for her, flushed up and away, as she came barreling at it, just following her nose. She chased for a bit and then stopped. You could almost see the wheels turning, “now why did that happen?” We worked on retrieving, but she wasn’t too keen on mouthing the shot part of the bird (it was a bird we had harvested earlier) so she picked it up by the head. It’s a start, and she does LOVE to retrieve. Her next live bird, she spent a good time stalking, watching as it flushed and then re-stalking. After a few tries, she figured out how to point! And once she figured that out, she was unstoppable. Point, point, point. So cute!
Wanting to keep Halo’s session short and fun, we went back to get all the dogs for a final run through the field. Little did we know Indy would go on point, but what happened next was amazing!! Karma stopped to honor Indy, and then Halo crested the hill and stopped to honor too! (See photo below) We were all really far away and then tried to praise her and hustle up there to work the bird while she was holding her honor so nicely. It was crazy — a natural honor at 5.5 months?! She got a bunch of praise for that one. And since we had another bird, we decided we’d let Indy and Karma show Halo how to properly retrieve. Sure enough, after watching them pick up the bird by the body, she abandoned her retrieve-by-the-head method in favor of the body carry. Good girl (worth mentioning that we never train with an e-collar — just positive reinforcement for offering the right behaviour.) We are really excited to get her out again…hopefully, it will happen sooner rather than later!
And yes, our goal was achieved — puppies were nice and sleepy for the football game, including Halo who fell asleep across Marc’s chest. It was a really good day 🙂
