Mist

B qualified - yippee!8

Well, I wasn’t expecting to write this for at least another two weeks! We didn’t know beforehand, but we got the chance to take our B-assessment on Sunday. And passed both tracking and rundering at the first attempt. Yippee!
Even better was that both Nina with Bina and Ola with Leo, who were on the same training weekend, also passed both assessments, and 5 from our district who took the orienteering test also passed (well done Krissi, Kai Erik, Trond, John and Frode). So it was full points for District06 (Sør-Rogaland) this weekend.

(and I have to admit to being very pleasantly surprised to get the feedback that Mist and I were the best dog-handler team of the day in rundering. I apparently chose well where to send her out, followed where she was and had a good overview of what terrain she’d covered. They teach us well in Dio06 )

B-qualification doesn’t mean anything externally (re: callout list etc), but it is a major milestone in NRH on the road to reaching A-qualification which is when a dog/handler team joins the callout list. It’s great to achieve it relatively early in the year as it means the most possible time until A-assessments next year, which should allow for good preparation. My goal was to qualify before the end of summer as I expect there will be little training from September for a few months, when number2 joins the family.

We were in Etne for a training weekend - Nina, Ola and me were participants in the B-course which, although not a pass/fail course, is still compulsory and involves an incredible amount of different training exercises in the course of 4 days.

We covered:
Tracking
- trail search from an object (rucksack, jacket etc.). Had never tried this before - maybe it was an advantage that Mist still isn’t 100% indicating on objects, especially when I’m nearby. I took her forward to the rucksack, she had a good sniff, then set off on the trail away from it, as if we’d trained it lots before! She did stop up and consider alternative options (wandered back to the rucksack and around) when I didn’t follow her immediately, which I interpret as being the result of her being very sensitive to what I do all the time. But when I gave the command to search for trail,

- trail search 300m. Didn’t go so well - Mist found at least one other trail during the 300m (no surprise as the area had been used the previous day for a tracking assessment), and I stopped when I got to a fence/gate in the road as I could see another handler and dog searching on the same side of the road just past the fence. When I found nothing else going up and down the stretch I’d covered, I passed the gate/fence and Mist found something. Unfortunately, it seems other trails were laid by accident in the vicinity, and Mist managed to switch to another and actually found the bodyusing sight. Not a particularly good ending - better to not have found anyone than to be rewarded for doing things wrong. But, it’s something for us to try more of….. now we have the rest of the year without having to take any more assessments (unless we want to - search square and rundering in the dark we can take this year or next).

- 24hour-old trail. Also a no-go. The start of the trail was along a fence line, with thick juniper on the other side. There was really nowhere else to choose other than along the deertrod by the fence. So, although Mist set off in the right direction I don’t think she even thought about tracking. I found an article dropped by the trailsetter, and then let Mist find it, in the hope she would then be able to pick up the trail. But it wasn’t to be. We have successfully tracked 24-hour-old trails before (once), so it’s just another thing to add to the list…. and it’s a lot more realistic than 1-2hour-old assessed trails which are almost never going to be a reality in a real-life search!

- multiple dog-handler teams following a newly laid trail, switching dogs every 100m or so after finding an object.
This came after the 24-hour-old trail, and I wasn’t expecting too much from Mist. But she turned out to be a credit to our group! We were 4 handlers and dogs (Line + GSD, Harald + BCxgordon setter, Ola + Leo, GSD and me+Mist). One dog/handler took the trail search from a car, which after a false start, went very well, and we were off. With hindsight, it would have been good to take my GPS (easy to say afterwards), both to compare trail log with the trailsetter’s afterwards, but also to mark where we found articles ‘en route’, which would have helped us get back to the trail when we lost it. We spent easily as much time off track, re-searching for the trail, as we did following where Gunnhild had gone. But I was really pleased with Mist who not only

- tracking through a group (in my case, with a group nearby, as they didn’t actually know where the trail was!)
Went fine. Mist glanced at the noisy bunch as we passed a few metres away, but otherwise was not bothered. Unfortunately though, she then went past the ‘finish’ and we spent ages wandering round trying to find the trail again. The instructor who set us off didn’t know where the finish was, nor where the trail was, so she couldn’t stop us!

- parallel tracking - 18 dogs/handlers, a few metres apart, simultaneously across a football pitch. I hope I can get a photo from Annette (instructor) who was the photographer.
Not sure how much was tracking and how much was a race to get to the other side first! But Mist (and most of the others) had her nose down well over half the time, and considering I think she’s often easily distracted, she did very well.

- tracking on gravel and tarmac
Gravel - fine. Tarmac - no chance! Have tried this before with minimal success. If I use food in the trail, she just starts searching for goodies rather than tracking…. probably due to me setting it up wrong way back when, when I first tried. Anyway, Karen Sofie showed me how to pretty much show Mist each footstep (we’d marked the tarmac with chalk every 2-4 steps), and make sure she then tracked a step or two before getting a goodie. Will try this at home (or in a carpark somewhere!)…

- terrain changes (gravel to grass to gravel)
Not bad - I know it’s difficult, so I was expecting her to have to work. Went ok though and she managed it even with crossing of other trails and other dogs tracking nearby at the same time. In fact, tracking on short grass seemed to be as difficult as gravel.

Rundering
- indication of body in tree. No probs.
- indication of rucksack. As often, I was visible so when she found the rucksack she sat down by it and tried to stare me out! I waited her out, and eventually she barked. Something to concentrate on, as it will be part of A assessment. I need to find a really good reward that I can fit into a rucksack, under a jacket…..as it’s clear it’s nowhere near as rewarding as finding a person. A dwarf perhaps?

- indication of inaccessible body (up on top of an enormous boulder)
Fine. Took a long while to locate, but that was the idea. Indication fine.

Lyttepost (have no idea what that should be in English - dog/handler sit in one place and listen….. when the dog registers a noise, it is released and should follow up and indicate a find.
As I suspected, Mist reacted immediately and very clearly to the noise. I said ‘ok’ to try to make it positive as I expected she would be sceptical. She ran out about halfway to where the person was hiding, banging a stick against a log, but then thought better of it and came back. With a bit of encouragement from me, and from the body once Mist was within sight, she ’solved’ the problem herself. But it’s not a strong point - she’s a chicken!

Area search
- Searching an area using air-scenting, dog running free
- Planning, setting up a search for multiple lost people.
For us, during the search phase, the biggest challenge was making forward progress in huge boulders, massive holes and juniper bushes. There were places that I had to lift Mist up crags, onto boulders….and then climb up myself. Not the best for a 5-month pregnant person with a knackered shoulder!! But hey…. We didn’t find anyone- good to hear afterwards that there was noone in the area we were allocated (the exercise was partly an exercise in planning how to divide an area in to smaller search areas, and the people doing the dividing didn’t know where the bodies were).

Posted: Indication / Melding, Airscenting / Overvær, Tracking / Spor, Rundering

A long overdue update0

Its been over 4 weeks since I last updated this. Life’s busy now I’m back at work and Thomas in nursery/barnehage 5days/week. We seem to have found some kind of routine, and working only 80% really helps as it gives us a bit more time for chores, dogwalking, training etc. etc.

Christmas/New Year was a good opportunity for some longer walks (and runs, for Mist with Jon!). Here’s Mist and Bina having fun at Alsvik:

And me, Thomas and Mist having a cake break (good pic, Nina )

So, a quick overview of training….

Sat 27th Dec
Rundering - Sviland
A rundering training that didn’t go as planned - I wanted to train empty loops but Mist’s loops were far too big for my liking (i.e. I had no idea where she was, and she was out a long time on some of them). Don’t remember exact details, but had a mix of probably 40:60 find:empty loop. Suspect I should have kept the ratio higher than that for now as Mist can be an independent little madam and clearly thinks taking in the whole forest is a good option when she doesn’t find someone immediately . Still, when I did get her back to me, there was no doubt that there was no motivation issue, as she wasn’t interested in any kind of reward from me, and just wanted to get out on the other side and search again.
In addition the lady with the puffin dogs (strange, 6-toed Norwegian dogs!) had parked in our rundering area and walked out with her pack of (?5 or 6?) dogs just as we were coming into the midline, and Mist was quite put off by it. Still, after a misunderstanding by me of what the others knew of where the lady and her dogs would be going, it became clear that she would not be nearby for very long and after a short break, we re-started and just ensured to have a body to find in the area where they’d just walked out into the forest.
I’d also chosen to use the rundering track ‘back-to-front’ and started up just past the junction, working back towards the carpark. Don’t know whether that contributed to Mist’s behaviour, but she should be able to runder wherever and in whichever direction I want!

Sat 3rd Jan
Rundering - Sviland
I asked Tone if she would help me with rundering today, as the previous rundering training didn’t go quite according to plan. Tone had control of the midline and set out the bodies and instructed me where to send Mist. And, of course, Mist was model student today . She searched well, she came when called, she found everyone she should, and indicated well. Problem…..? what problem?! I think we had about 50:50 finds and empty loops - I probably just need to be careful about increasing the number of empties I send her in a row. And feel confident about where the bodies are at this stage.

Weds 7th Jan
Tracking/practical - Dale
Parallel tracking - Nina, Ghita and I put out three ‘parallel’ trails on the big grassy field at Dale and Nina/Bina and me/Mist tracked at the same time. KristinM and Athena started soon after and caught us up at our ‘finishes’ as her trail went a lot further. It was interesting to see both dogs a little confused at what we were doing since they are very used to going for walks/playing together. But, despite many stops and looking over to see what the other one was doing, they both found and followed their trails to the finish (with a little help from a headwind near the end ). Still, the point was tracking alongside another dog, and they both managed it .

We also shared a search square (30m x 30m) with Nina/Bina - the dogs took turns to go out and search. Mist was somewhat embarrassing, Bina was model student, so I knew there was something I needed to work on! Mist zoomed out and ran around like a loony, inside and outside the trampled area (she ought to know by now that she only finds things inside, and I thought she’d learned that pretty well). We also think she chose not to bring back some object(s) she found as she was stationary at one point a couple of times. Since it was dark I couldn’t see to be sure and tell her to pick it up. So, not the best planned exercise for us - I thought she was more capable/reliable than that. But, since it was working with distractions (another dog) that I wanted to train, we did get something out of it. Mist did ‘visit’ Bina once or twice when I called her in, but she was willing to come to me and be sentout again.

Sat 10th Jan
Tracking/practical - Dale
I chose to do a ‘practical’ exercise this morning as I think it’s important that Mist understands that she is searching for people even though she doesn’t have a find within minutes (as is normal in rundering training). Aud walked up the farmroad to the top of the valley and went up to hide in the big scree on the south side of the valley. I started searching with Mist from the Dalevannet path, up through the forest and then down into the fields at the top, and round the back of an old electricity building, round to the other side where there is lots of scree, and finally onto the scree. I’d hoped to be able to send Mist to search up there and keep my feet on solid ground! But, the wind was variable, and on that side of the valley, it was blowing up the hillside so I had to go up onto the scree too, in order to get Mist high enough up to find Aud.
It was interesting to see Mist’s confidence increase on the scree, from a little whining at the first big rocks, to jumping confidently ahead of me after a few minutes. She’s got good balance and isn’t particularly wimpy in most terrain, but she can get a bit nervous when she has to jump from rock to rock with big gaps inbetween! Excellent timing then, when she got scent of Aud just after we came off the worst of the scree. Indication was good. We’d searched for just over half an hour. I hope I can train this kind of search perhaps once a month, or 1 in 4 trainings so that we can increase the time to the find and Mist learns that we’re not just out for a walk if she doesn’t find someone immediately.

We also got to join Ghita/Tara training search square with Paul instructing. He was showing Ghita how to get Tara to slow down in her search, but getting someone to walk about in a small area in front of Ghita/Tara, pretending to put objects on the ground and placing only one or two in fact, within just a few metres of Ghita. It helps encourage the dog to search, nose down, from the word go, instead of legging it 30m+ out into the forest before starting to search.
Aud/Speedy and me/Mist had a go afterwards. We took both dogs out at once and took turns to tie one to a tree - neither of them liked that idea, but neither was bothered by another dog nearby either. I think it’s good to take opportunities to have more than one dog out at once, so that they do get used to having to watch, and to working side by side with others.
Both Speedy and Mist are a bit too quick in their searching and bound around the area which isn’t as effective as those who walk/trot calmly with nose to the ground. Hopefully both of them will learn that it pays to pay attention from the start!

Weds 14th Jan
Sviland
The parking place was packed when I arrived, just after 6 ( ) so I chose to train search square in the Arboret instead. Ritva put out two ’squares’ for us - one 5×30m, one 10×10m. I’d tried the technique Paul showed Ghita on Saturday a few times since the weekend but wasn’t sure whether it had worked or not as Mist was sometimes still sprinting out, and sometimes searching from the start. I’d also got her to lie down before starting (therefore nose is closer to ground before setting off….).
The search squares were about 30-40mins when we started. We took the one in open forest (pine needles on the ground) first. And it went very well! She searched from the word go. Ok, so she bark indicated at one corner because I’d had the wise idea to hang up the reflective triangle that she wears when she’s working, so I could see where the corners were . But once I’d rewarded her for that, and brought in the triangle, she searched well and found all the articles in just a few minutes.
The second square was in more difficult terrain - lots of long grass and a gravel track that someone had actually walked along with a dog between when Ritva laid it out and Mist searched. But she managed well - she found 2 of 4 objects and I threw out another one so that she’d have another find before we gave up. She searched close to me when I set her off and worked her way out well. So, perhaps the previous few days of training had paid off!

Sat 17th Jan
Rundering - Vigreskogen
a.m. indication of rucksack/jacket in the ‘baby’ forest. Chose to send out to a ‘body’ first, but we’d not understood correctly where he was, so Mist didn’t find him, did an enormous loop coming out onto the path way ahead of me, got scent of the rucksack on the other side, and despite trying to call her in, she went out, ‘found’ it and indicated. Well, it was what we were training so was actually very pleased! Alternated between bodies and articles. All went well except for a pair of mittens hanging in a bush, which Mist managed to get hold of and bring back to me (she’s indicated successfully for gloves hanging in a tree before, but I think they were probably out of reach).
p.m. rundering (finds and empty loops) in the ‘grownup’ forest. We did about 400-450m with about 50:50 finds and empty loops (FBFBBFFBBBF). She ran out well, at least 50m each time, ran reasonable loops, a few times she took a while to come in when I called but it is her job to search and she wasn’t so long that I suspected she was doing other things (!). Even though it was blowing a hooly and it was very noisy in the forest with the trees and masts whistling and creaking away, I was pleased to be able to hear Mist’s indication each time without any problem.

Weds 21st Jan
Tracking - Dale
Just Paul, Steffen and me tonight in wet windy weather. I put out a trail for Paul, up the big field and into the woods and then managed to get disorientated and ended up clambering up wet slippy rocks and crags to get up to the path to walk back to the carpark! Steffen put out 4 trail searches for Mist - i.e. short trails that I would start at a distance from and get Mist to search at rightangles to, until she found them. Then she had to decide which way to go, and be rewarded pretty soon for finding/choosing correctly. It’s something I need to do more of as we need to be able to search 50m for B-assessment.
It’s a while since we’ve trained this specifically, although I always start Mist searching at least a few metres from a trail, so that I never set her straight on it. So, I was very pleased when, the minute I gave her the command to search for a trail, she set her nose down and walked calmly forwards, concentrating on her task and not darting off in other directions as I’ve experienced her doing before. When she found the trail she turned immediately in the right direction and pulled steadily on the line indicatng to me that she was onto something! Steffen asked if she was always so calm and concentrated? I admitted that no, not always, but I have to say she’s pretty good when tracking, to maintain a steady pace and it’s seldom she wants to go faster than is comfortable for me to walk. I made a big effort when I started training her tracking as a puppy, to keep her pace down, as I was pregnant and knew that if I wanted to be able to train with her as long as possible during pregnancy she would have to not drag me along!
We did 3 of the 4 that Steffen had put out -they went so well, that I didn’t want to risk getting it wrong on the 4th. She didn’t find the finish on one of them, so I just threw a toy to reward her since she was still on track. And she wasn’t too keen in picking up paper articles, so I need to train more of that (thinking about it, I rarely use paper/card, so it’s not so surprising). But, her search was really good and I was very happy with her

Posted: Indication / Melding, Article search / Feltsøk, Tracking / Spor, Rundering

Bags in trees on a windy day0

NRH training was off (for us) today as I’ve just been away for a week on work training (not half as fun as dog training, that’s for sure). Instead, Mist got a 70+minute terrain run with Jon while he collected in orienteering controls from a training event. Always a winner - she pretty much flaked out on the sofa for the day afterwards.

Still, it didn’t take an awful lot of persuasion to go for a walk in the afternoon. We decided to go while it was still daylight and take Thomas in the ‘backpack’, and just went up Ragnhildsnuten (behind our house). I took a rucksack with me with a view to doing some article indication training. First, Jon went straight up the hill through the trees while Mist and I went the longer way around (downwind) and once into the field I set her off to ‘find’. She immediately veered off towards the houses and I realised I could hear kids playing - oops Anyway, she did come when I called her and we just hurried on so that Jon would/should be the next scent she got! The wind was in a different direction by the hill, and we had to go a lot further onto the hill than I expected before she got wind of him. And then of course, there was a fence in between. It was interesting to see, though, how she reacted when she couldn’t just run straight to him. Lots of whining, tiny barks and trying to dig her way under the fence . In the end I found a place she could go under and she shot off to find her quarry. No problem barking, continuously until I got there.

Then I put the rucksack in a tree (about 1.5m above the ground) and sent her to find it. Barked immediately she found it, and stayed there barking intermittently until I got there. I try to keep to the rule that, while she’s barking I run/walk towards her, when she stops I stop. My intention is to teach her that the more she barks the quicker she gets what she wants.
I experimented a bit with hanging the bag lower, and placing it in a place that was accessible. Then, the barking was difficult, although I was pleased that she didn’t leave the bag, but only barked once then sat there looking at me. Still, her barking is intense and ongoing as long as the object is off the ground (and still if it’s reachable, i.e. only a metre or so above the ground). So, need to keep going with this - generalise with different articles - and gradually reduce the distance from the ground. What’s really good is that she’s confident enough to stay at the article rather than coming back to me. So far so good

Posted: Indication / Melding

Free search at Orrestranden0

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

I used to think I was indecisive, now I’m not so sure…1

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

Back to Weds night training0

Now that the evenings are long and light, it’s nice to be back to regular Wednesday night training. This week it was split training, for Group1 at Dale. Since the Tjørn weekend, I’ve been moved into the same group as Bjørn and Sylvelin since they both are training barking indication too. So there was the 3 of us plus Ola, all to train rundering.

I wanted to try out the shuttling in a rundering situation (all the weekend’s training was open air-scenting). Sylvelin was the body on the right-hand-side and Bjørn on the other side. It went generally well, although Mist needed quite a bit of help to get started at Sylvelin, both times (she went out to each body twice before I called it a day). At Bjørn she barked spontaneously, and even came running back to me without me calling on the second go . Hard to know whether the ease with which she indicated at Bjørn and relative difficulty at Sylvelin was due to her being used to Bjørn as a body, from the weekend, or the terrain. Sylvelin was sitting near the terrain boundary of the forest and the open field/rough ground. I’ve seen lots of dogs distracted here, and Krimp showed the same tendency today. Never mind, she needed help and she got it, and we had a good session. I stopped while we were ‘up’ after 4 finds.

Posted: Indication / Melding, Rundering

Tjørn training weekend with SARDA (Lakes) instructors 1-4 May0

I’d been looking forward to this weekend for some time…. 4 days with instructors from SARDA (Lake District) at Tjørn, training open air-scenting in the extensive open hill terrain around the Rogaland Friluftsliv hytte. The idea began last October when Jon and I were in Keswick (Lake District) and I joined an evening SARDA training session at Grizedale. Over the following few months we agreed a plan, and last Wednesday I drove to the airport to collect the 3 instructors, Kaz, Benny and Les.

* NOT FOUND *

Posted: Indication / Melding, Airscenting / Overvær

Rundering again after a long break0

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

Hiding in a tent and some indication practice0

An exercise had been arranged at Alsvik for the B-qualified handlers and I was one of the ‘bodies’. Nina and I were shown on a map where we were to hide and off we went with warm clothes, flasks, food, and a tent to stay dry in. 2 others were hiding elsewhere in the area (separately). We found the area we were to hide in, set up the tent and made ourselves comfortable. Just as Nina was starting to pour her coffee, we heard something nearby. Seconds later, paws were scratching at the tent as Clara tried to find her way in. Kristin followed soon, and so we were ‘found’. We were supposed to act hypothermic so that Kristin would have to treat us before getting the ok from HQ to continue searching. So, once Clara disappeared to tell Kristin she’d found someone, we threw ourselves out of the tent to lie on the ground shivering Kristin took good care of us and offered us chocolate and nuts - which were very welcome…thanks (not sure we were supposed to eat quite so much of them ).

This quick find meant that Nina and I had some time to train our own dogs. We agreed to have a quick turn each of indication training - Nina/Bina with bringkobbel, Mist/me with bark indication. I wanted to practice her running back and forth. I let her see Nina go out and then sent her to ‘find’ her. Her initial barking was excellent - keen and continuous. I called her back to me and asked her to bark, but she was too excited and ran back to Nina. But, getting no result there, she came back to me again and barked, and so I sent her back to Nina, she barked again (without prompting) and was rewarded. We repeated this 3 times. Once she tried to bark only once at me, but I insisted on more and although on her way back to Nina, she came back to me, barked a few more times and I let her go! I’m really pleased with the progress with this part of her indication training. Hopefully with a couple more sessions under her belt, I can get rid of the prompting for barking at me….. watch this space!

Posted: Indication / Melding, Miscellaneous / Diverse

Back at NRH training….0

…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