Mist

Home alone, wee beasties and NRH nannies…4

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

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

Progress at last!3

Well, after months of incredibly slow, at times backwards, progress with training a retrieve…… we have finally got somewhere. Incredible what you can achieve when you choose a training method that suits your dog!! I’d been trying to teach Mist to retrieve in the way I learnt with Thule (who also took a very long time…. she clearly thought it was boring…. and can’t say I blame her ) - teach her to hold an item for 1 second, then 2 seconds then 5, 10, etc. etc. Then teach her to hold it sitting at my side, then get her to take it from my hand while standing at my side and sit down….. this is where we got stuck! And it took months to get that far. She could hold an item I gave her as long as I wanted, but didn’t ‘offer’ anything more. If I indicated to her with my hand that I wanted her to sit, she dropped the item and sat!

So, in frustration, I decided to ’shape’ the retrieve instead. A few evenings ago, I took 4 items (a sock, a knotted piece of fabric, a small plastic child’s toy and a piece of hosepipe) and laid them on the floor in the hall while Mist watched through the glass door. Then I opened the door and waited to see what she would do. She went straight over to the objects, tail wagging. I clicked/treated for sniffing, then picking up an item, and within 5minutes, she had progressed to picking up each object and holding it still in her mouth while looking at me - this earned her a good game of tug! Not bad for a first try . Next evening, I did the same again and within the same time, she had brought each item towards me a few steps. The third session, she was bringing each item to my feet!

Ok, so I need to work on the ‘delivery’ and ensure she is good about not chewing them, but her enthusiasm for this new ‘game’ is such a relief after seeing her become less and less excited about holding things I gave to her in my ‘old’ method.

Not being too patient at the moment (I’m just so happy to be back to training again!)…. today, while we were out for a walk, I thought I’d try a little test. I got Mist to sit on the gravel road (Vedafjell), while I tramped out an area about 6m x 4m, showed her that I was holding a glove and then dropped it at the far side. I went back to her and said ‘ok’. She shot out, clearly searching for something. Whether she really knew what she was searching for, I don’t know but anyway, it wasn’t long before she found the glove……. AND BROUGHT IT BACK TO ME I rewarded her when she was about a metre from me, as I was fairly certain she would otherwise drop it before getting to me (I can work on that last bit). We did the same thing again with the glove and again, she searched, found it, and brought it back to me! After a short walk, I set up the same exercise although with a ~10m x 5m area and using a cardboard tube from a firework that I’d found on the way and put in my pocket. Even though the item was totally ‘new’ for Mist, it had my scent on, and she searched as before, found it, looked up as if to say ‘hmmm, is this really what I was supposed to find’ and then picked it up and brought me it.

So, I’ve found a fun way to train Feltsøk (article search) and retrieve. I’ve even noticed that she’ll bring a toy back to somewhere near me too…. something she hasn’t done for months ( )…. so I’m feeling quite pleased with myself (and Mist, of course!)

Posted: Article search / Feltsøk, Obedience / Lydighet

Tracking in the sheep fields0

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

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

High-speed tracking with Thomas0

Met up with Ghita, Nina, Krissi and KristinM at Sviland. Nina had kindly laid out two trails for Mist and while they ‘aged’, and after Thomas had had his mid-morning feed, we joined the others for rundering training. After disturbing Krissi and Snuppa by suddenly turning up on the path looking very odd (to Snuppa at least ) with Thomas on my front in the carrier, Snuppa took the bringkobbel and ran the few metres back to Krissi to tell her she’d found someone and got the handful of goodies in my pocket as her reward (sorry, Snuppa…. they weren’t really top-quality treats ). Next up was Nina/Bina, and we managed not to distract Bina too much! I then took Mist to do her tracking (below), and finally Thomas and I were ‘bodies’ for Ghita and Tara (who loves babies, but was still a bit surprised to find one in the forest ).

The first trail started near the carpark and went into the birch towards the stream, across the marshy area and ended in the open forest near the forest road. It was about 1 1/2 hours ‘old’. Mist was keen and pulled much more than normal (probably due to the insufficient exercise she’s been getting recently ). She found the article Nina had laid down and actually picked it up and started to come towards me with it . I was really pleased about that, and she got a good play with the rope ball for her good work - she does usually stop and at least sniff articles that have been put down, but she rarely comes in my direction with them (we are struggling with retrieve training). She lost concentration a bit after that - maybe because we’d played, but I still think it was right to really reward the article indication with a high-quality reward. Back on track, she dragged me towards the open forest, and I had to let go of the line. She then lost the trail again but fortunately found it again before getting too close to the finish. Nina had left a glove (?) plus a pile of treats as the finish, and I had a toy at the ready. Despite starting to eat the treats, once the rope ball was in sight, Mist forgot all about them and just wanted to play .

The second trail started just before the marsh by the forest road and went up onto the ridge, down the other side, up again and towards the forest road - main road junction. Generally went well, a couple of times Mist lost the track and wasn’t as careful in finding it again as she has been in the past (much bigger circles), but she did pick up the article Nina had left (can’t remember what it was!) which she was well-rewarded for and found the finish ok.

Posted: Tracking / Spor

Fun in the snow!1

We spent the week in Sirdal with friends from Scotland, in one of the Shell hyttes. So much snow !! It took a while to find the hytte, since the ‘normal’ road was completely snowed in. It snowed every day we were there and Mist thought she was in heaven Although the hytte doesn’t have any fenced area, we were able to let Mist out on the veranda since the snow was so deep and soft all around she’d have had to ’swim’ to get anywhere, and after a tentative step or two she decided for herself to stay on solid ground!

I managed to get out each day on skis - my first ‘real’ exercise (i.e. more than walking) since last September! Mist came with me, with her Ruffwear harness the first couple of days, then with her ‘backpack’ as well the last 2 days. I’ve used the Ruffwear harness a few times when we’ve been out in the snow, to get her to associate it with skiing/snow. I was still surprised though, that she accepted the backpack with next to no resistance. We did 45 minutes one day, and 1 1/2 hours the next, and she sensibly kept to the trail most of the time.

* NOT FOUND *
* NOT FOUND *

Posted: Miscellaneous / Diverse