27
February
2009
I’ve been ‘utfordret’ (challenged) by Ghita to find the 4th picture in the 4th folder in My Pictures and post the picture here and write about it.
So, here it is (even though I haven’t updated Mist’s training for a veeeery long time and am not going to get around to it for even longer as we’re off to Hovden for the week tomorrow). Have been ill with flu the last 1wk+ and am finally feeling almost human again - just in time for some skiing/fun in the snow.
The picture was taken on the top of Vedafjell (the hill behind where we live) on New Year’s Day 2008 - the day before Thomas was born. It took a little longer than normal to get there, but it was such a lovely day and we knew there wouldn’t be many such opportunities left before our lives would change for good! Mist had her first season and was caught up by a loose gordon setter on the way home. Fortunately she was downhill of me when I saw the dog coming, and I managed to intercept her and get her on the lead before they met! A few minutes later the dog’s owners appeared - and 4 or 5 days later we had another visit from the same admirer on our terrass (and could hear the owners calling frustratedly from the top of Ragnhildsnuten with no idea where their dog had disappeared to) 
.
Posted: Uncategorized
11
December
2008
Aud, Kaare, Steffen and I met up at Orrestrand on afantastic clear, cold and moonlit night. Mist was first out. We had three bodies and I wanted to train bark indication (spontaneous). Since she often strikes from a long distance I asked the bodies to let her bark a few times then play a little, then take the toy back and be passive to get her to bark again, and repeat until I got there. It worked well - she barked without help each time, and at Kaare she barked almost continuously until I got there.
She also barked (quite a lot!) at an information post in the dunes. I heard her soon after we started, but knew it wasn’t a find as the barking sounds quite different. I had to go and back her up so that she could check it out, and it was a nice coincidence that pretty much immediately after having ’solved’ this problem, she got the scent of one of the bodies and ran to find them.
Posted: Indication / Melding, Airscenting / Overvær, Uncategorized
6
December
2008
Yeah, yeah…. I know. It seems like I just can’t make up my mind. Today, with the relief of getting the obedience test out of the way, I changed my mind again about Mist’s indication method!
I’ve been thinking about it for ages - after finding out that the SARDA shuttling bark method isn’t an approved form here in NRH, and not wanting just a bark indication at the body, I started to train Mist in the ‘Swedish bit’ method. We’ve come a long way in the past few months, but progress hasn’t exactly raced along and it’s all been a bit like an obedience exercise (never my favourite).
All along I’ve had a gut feeling that it’s not for me or Mist, but I felt I had to try since it may be the only choice for me. I don’t want to use the standard Norwegian ‘bringsel’ because I worry that Mist could get a front leg stuck through it while in the terrain, and potentially injure herself (having found Thule stuck halfway up a cliff like that once 
). But Mist just isn’t a natural ‘retriever’ and has always, in the 1year+ that we’ve been training retrieve, struggled to a certain extent with a fairly loose grip on whatever she carries. She’s fine holding tight onto something when she gets to me, when I can test her grip, but it’s while she’s running that I haven’t managed to teach her to hold onto whatever’s in her mouth, that bit tighter. So, whatever she’s carrying often just ‘falls out’, and while she does always (so far) go back to get it, I just feel it’s not a good starting point for an indication method that relies on her taking the bit in her mouth at the body and having it in her mouth when she gets back to me.
I have also realised (when checking the rules for the obedience test 
) that the NRH programme/rules are due to run out at the beginning of 2010. Previously I thought they were up for revision during 2010, so didn’t want to risk having to A-qualify with ‘just’ a bark indication at the body. i.e. I want to have some sort of shuttling because I know that Mist will follow up a scent over many hundred metres, and I don’t believe I will be able to be 100% sure of hearing her (especially in bad weather, in mountainous terrain…). If the rules change start 2010, and assuming (a BIG assumption) that the SARDA method is accepted in the revised programme, then I could train in a barking at body indication through 2009 until I get B-qualified, and then begin with the shuttling and use the SARDA method by the time I A-qualify. It’s a risk, and I would want to encourage as much as possible, LOTS of barking at the body before she starts shuttling. That way, it may still be acceptable under the current regulations.
I talked it through with Sylvelin (thanks 
) and she gave me some good advice, and not least an ear to bend. When it comes down to it, I don’t think Mist enjoys fetching the ‘bit’ - it’s an exercise she does because she’s learned to. Whereas, as demonstrated when Nina went and hid for Mist this afternoon, Mist really does enjoy barking at the body to get them to play with her. I do think barking is a more difficult indication if the dog is unsure/scared of the body for any reason, as it requires more courage than to pick up something from around their neck and run back to ‘mum’/'dad’. And, as Sylvelin said, training a dog to bark at object (coat, rucksack for example) can be challenging. But I feel that, on balance, these things are more acceptable to me than a constant uncomfortable feeling that the whole ‘bit’ thing just isn’t going to work because Mist just doesn’t enjoy it.
It was really fantastic to see Mist run after Nina and bark without any ‘help’ despite not having trained this since the summer, and then go really quite crazy when Nina had disappeared and she could go and search for her, only to bark immediately on finding her no problem whatsoever.
I’ll take the risk with what happens to the rules and regs in the next couple of years, and let Mist do what she so obviously thinks is fun (me too 
). If it ends up that the rules don’t change I will have to find a way of ensuring that Mist barks long enough first time to ‘count’ as a ’standhals’ (barking at body) indication 
.
At the end of today I feel relieved both to have passed the obedience test, and to have made the decision to go back to what I always felt was right for Mist
Posted: Indication / Melding, Uncategorized
25
March
2008
Well, Easter was supposed to be a holiday - we had tickets to go to the UK for 5 days, staying with family and friends and competing (Jon) in the JK orienteering comp. But this little evil creature changed all that 
* NOT FOUND *
Lice!
Although she’d been treated, Mist was/is still contagious and so Marie couldn’t look after her as planned, and no kennels would have her (no surprise). So, Thomas, Mist and I stayed at home while Jon flew to England and caught up with various friends and ran his races.
Not looking forward to the prospect of an itchy, frustrated dog becoming even more frustrated and unsettled, I sent out a plea for help to some NRH friends for a little babysitting, so I could give Mist a decent walk each day. And they came up trumps I am very very grateful to Tone, Ghita and Krissi who were so kind as to look after Thomas for an hour or so on Thurs,Fri and Mon. It helped me keep my sanity, and Mist’s too! Seems Thomas had saved up one of his ‘madras specials’ for Tone - sorry 
, and I need to learn the song Krissi sang to him which promptly sent him to sleep. THANKYOU! Also thanks to Nina and Kristin who looked after Thomas while I trained with Mist on Saturday - I really appreciated it
Training on Saturday was a bonus - I’d gone along more for the social side, and given the gorgeous sunny cold weather, thought if nothing else I could go for a little walk. Anyway, Nina and Kristin offered to take Thomas off my hands so I chose to do a little rundering, with indication. Bjørn and Ghita were ‘bodies’. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to use cues or not, but Mist’s focus was so definitely in the right direction when we got ready for the first runout, that I sent her without… and it went fine. So, I didn’t use cues at all and all runouts went well. She was a bit overexcited to find Bjørn lying on the ground and got a bit carried away with jumping on him and trying to lick his face (we haven’t tried with bodies on the ground before, only standing and squatting), but for the next go, he asked her to bark before she jumped all over him, and by the third time, she barked without ‘attacking’ him first . I asked Ghita to use 2 tennis balls as Mist’s reward - Mist has not been good at bringing back any toy, for quite a while, so I’ve been using mainly tug toys as her reward. This works fine - she loves the game - but I’d like her to be able to play throw/fetch/swap with other toys too. As I suspected, Mist was more willing to bring a toy back near Ghita than she often is with me. So, will do more of this when the terrain suits - i.e. open enough that the ‘body’ can easily move around to pick up the ball that Mist has dropped a few metres away. Hopefully she’ll eventually be as good as she was when she was 3 months old!!
In total we had 8 runouts. One go Mist failed to find Bjørn, but we just took it as an ‘empty circuit’ (i.e. no ‘body’) and sent her out the other side…. well, that was the plan - she actually ran out of her own accord when she saw Ghita moving in the forest . On one ‘find’ Marshall, Hugo’s (8-month-old?)GSD, came to join us - they were rundering on the other path and we were a bit too close. Mist was not impressed at the intruder and was quite clear in her body language that he wasn’t welcome, but Marshall just bounded around trying to get her to play! It’s the first time I’ve seen Mist like that - she normally wants to play as much as the other dog. But maybe it was the fact she was ‘working’ - it was interesting to observe…she tried turning away and ‘freezing’ first, but that didn’t work, so she showed her teeth and growled at him and tried to chase him away from where her tennis ball had been (we’d actually removed it to avoid any arguing). Fortunately, Hugo came and dragged away the disappointed Marshall without any further issues.
It’s Mist’s turn babysitting
* NOT FOUND *
Posted: Miscellaneous / Diverse, Rundering, Uncategorized
15
March
2008
It’s months since we last trained rundering (10th November!), so I was quite unsure of how things would go today - rundering training at Vigreskogen.
As it turned out, Mist was on top form! After a quick walk with Krissi and Lara to get rid of at least some excess energy, we were first out in the open/’easy’ forest. Ritva and Ronny were ‘bodies’ and Sven Magnus kept us all under control from the track. I opted for a sound cue for the first run out. It seemed this was enough to remind Mist of what she was doing and on the 2nd and later goes, she was clearly focused out into the forest, and I sent her out without any further cues. I’d chosen to get her to indicate at the ‘body’, but without running back to ‘tell’ me. I’d also asked the ‘bodies’ to give Mist her bark command if she didn’t bark immediately. Overall, she needed ‘help’ (command) about 50% of the time, but given how long it is since we last trained rundering, I don’t see this as a problem at all. Much more important that she gets it right rather then being allowed to wander off, or start digging… It was clear, though, in the morning session, that she tired quickly and so I chose to finish after 4 runs.
After lunch, we had the same setup - run out, bark, reward. Henning and Ritva were ‘bodies’. Henning asked whether he should get her to bark again during play, by stopping the game and being passive. This was something I’d thought of doing before, but hadn’t crossed my mind today. It worked really well - really getting Mist excited, and it gives her more and more opportunities to practise barking at the ‘body’. Must remember to do the same next time. This second session also went well. I sent Mist out without any cue each time (6x in total) and she ran straight out every time . On the last run out, I asked Henning to run away from her when she found him - to really get her excited. It worked well - she sprang along after him and she barked enthusiastically to get him to play with her. All in all a really good day… and the sun shined for most of it too
Posted: Indication / Melding, Rundering, Uncategorized
9
March
2008
Jon laid out a short (100m?) trail for me in the sheep fields below Ragnhildsnuten, with 2 objects (a bike reflector and a sock). It lay for about 1 1/2hours. I wanted to practice tracking on short grass, especially where there had been sheep as an added challenge. She started well, turning onto the trail in the right place (Jon had drawn a map for me to show me where it was). The ground was waterlogged, making it extra difficult in places. But, Mist tracked fine, only going ‘off’ in really wet areas, but I was really pleased when she found and picked up both objects (without encouragement) and even brought them in my direction, although not right to me (with encouragement).
Posted: Tracking / Spor, Uncategorized
23
February
2008
I wanted to train specifically searching today as we’ve only trained tracking and indication for quite a while now (over 2 months, maybe more…). Given there was a reasonable wind, I decided to train airscenting, letting Mist work freely. I also wanted to test whether she would indicate (bark) when she found the ‘body’, since we haven’t tried this before. I thought it was more likely to work in an open search setting, rather than trying for the first time in a rundering session. I’d hoped to use the open grass/gravel area, but as it turned out, a group turned up to ‘play’ paintball at the far side of the area, exactly the direction the wind was coming from.
So, for the morning session, Aud and Krissi hid in the forest area on the right-hand-side of the main rundering track. The wind kindly died down quite a lot just as we started, so it was more difficult than I’d expected. The moment I let Mist off the lead, she sprinted off down the track, and suddenly veered into the trees. I thought she’d ‘got’ someone already, but a while later she turned up again. Off she went again and was gone a few minutes without me seeing her (one of the reasons I’d wanted to use the open area was so I’d be able to see what she was doing ). But then she was back again and hadn’t found anyone. I wondered if there were walkers on the other gravel road, but fortunately there didn’t seem to be (at that time anyway). Soon enough, while we walked along the road, Mist suddenly lifted.her nose and dashed off into the trees/bushes on the right. A few seconds later I heard barking - proper barking too Mist had found Krissi, and had started to indicate without needing any ‘help’ (I’d asked Aud and Krissi to give her the bark command if she didn’t bark of her own accord).
We went back to the road and continued. Mist heard ‘bodies’ playing with Bina in the forest on the other side, and I was worried she was about to take off to join in! But fortunately, a quick whistle brought her back and I walked in the terrain to the right of the road to try to show her it was there we were searching. The next distraction was the sound of a child on the other gravel road. I breathed a sigh of relief when Mist decided it was ok to come with me instead of running off to find the source of the voices! Luckily the wind wasn’t blowing from them to us, or else I think it would have been more difficult. Or maybe her recall is getting better
The wind direction had changed, and Aud had told me over the radio that there was next to no wind at all where she was hiding. We therefore worked along the stream by the road, and up the track to the right where the road divides. It wasn’t long before Mist dived off again, and soon I heard more barking. Yes! Just at that moment, the voices we’d heard earlier appeared on the track above where Aud was hiding. Good timing, since Mist wasn’t to know that they weren’t the ‘right’ people to find.
In the afternoon the paintballers had gone, so I was able to use the gravel/grass area. Aud and Ritva hid just into the forest at the far side of the grass and Mist and I started searching from the near side of the grass. It didn’t take long for Mist to pick up the scent of someone…. and off she went. Soon, the barking started and she’d found Ritva. We searched a little longer and Mist found Aud too. Both times she didn’t need any command to start barking.
I was really pleased that Mist indicated as soon as she found the ‘body’, even though we haven’t previously put this part together with the search.
Posted: Airscenting / Overvær, Uncategorized
10
February
2008
Jon ran with Mist again and laid a trail on his way back (still with Mist) on the fields below Ragnhildsnuten. Mist therefore had already ‘done’ the trail (!) although he made her wait a little way off when he put out the finish. The field was super-wet and it was dark by the time we went out, about an hour later. Mist struggled with the trail search, and I’m not convinced she was ever properly on track, although she went in overall the right direction (but then she’d done it before, hadn’t she ) and found the finish.
Think perhaps it was too difficult - Mist was alert to any noises given that it was dark, the terrain was completely waterlogged and she was tired. Whether the fact that she was with Jon when he laid it out had any effect, I don’t know. Will try to do some more training in those fields, in daylight. We haven’t trained much recently on grass.
Posted: Tracking / Spor, Uncategorized
9
February
2008
…just!
Having made plans based on Thomas waking and feeding at 6/7 as he has done the past 2 weeks, he kindly ’slept in’ till 8.30 today!! So, I was a bit late arriving. Still, we managed to get there by 1030 and, although I couldn’t be there for quite the whole day, was able to join in with most of the day’s training.
Mist got two short indication sessions. The first, I tried to do what I’d trained with Jon last Sunday - she would bark at me, then I’d give the Show command, she’d run to the ‘body’ and bark, and get to play. However, she was very submissive with me and although she did what I wanted the first time, the next time it was a real effort to get her to bark at me first. I took the ‘barking at me’ part alone, and rewarded her with the rope ball, and she seemed keen again, but was still half-hearted when I stood on the path and tried to do the same thing as before. So, the second session, I decided to just try to motivate her by getting her to run back and forth between me and JohnS, barking each time, and getting rewarded by each of us. This worked well, and she sprinted back and forth, bounding over branches and bushes and barking with little encouragement needed. Think I will do the same again before trying it from the path again. And I need to be very conscious of my body language - Mist is very sensitive to it at the moment (seems to be much more than before Christmas - related to the new situation at home? or just her maturing, given she has just had her first season?) - and be as non-threatening as possible.
Posted: Indication / Melding, Uncategorized
9
June
2007
Well, having had a week off work to introduce Mist to her new home, and supposedly having lots of time on my hands, I suppose it’s about time I actually posted something on my new site! I’ve spent much of the week trying to work out the basics of Wordpress, Gallery2 and other web-related things - I still don’t have much of a clue, but things seem to be up and running, at least in a basic form. Hopefully, I’ll find time (and help) to improve things as we go along .
So, on to the subject of the website/blog. Mist (officially Kewstock Pagan Pearl) came home to Stavanger on Sunday 3rd June, aged 8 weeks + 2 days. I took an early (far too early - had to get up at 4.45!) flight to Copenhagen, then a 3hour train journey to Horsens where I was met by Kristian and driven back to the home of Kennel Kewstock. I got to spend a couple of hours there watching and playing with the 5 remaining puppies - 3 had already gone to their new homes. And then it was a 45 minutes, very hot car journey with Mist on my lap to Billund airport. The flight back was only just over an hour, and Mist, in her ‘doggy bag’ borrowed from a friend, was quiet despite the vibrating and very noisy aeroplane (perhaps she wasn’t quiet, but I couldn’t hear her at least!). Customs at Stavanger seemed to not really care less about the paperwork that I’d spent so much time in previous weeks concerned about getting ready in time! The customs officer was happy enough that I had a puppy in the bag, and that I had an official looking letter. Anyway, it was nice to get through quickly and 20 minutes later we were home.
Mist has settled in well in her first week. She is a lively and very friendly character. She loves everybody - there is nothing better than an opportunity to nibble someone’s earlobes or lick their toes! ….and she’s quite a feisty little madam - anything scary is warned off with growls and yapping (it has been questioned whether she’s actually a BC-terrier cross!)
It’s a tough life!
* NOT FOUND *
Posted: Uncategorized
