Off The Post

Breeze is doing very well with her Whoa. She is now off the post and just working off the check cord. She is also holding pretty well off the place boards. I can no whoa her almost anywhere.

She spent the afternoon chasing birds and playing with some other puppies. Every day she amazes me at how well she understands what I want her to do.

Tomorrow she and I will take some time off and check out a new hunting property. In the afternoon we will be back at it again!

Wednesday!

Haven’t had much to add the past few days. We are still traveling down the same path. Breeze is progressing well and seems to get smarter each day.

I can’t even begin to tell you how bird crazy she has become. This morning in our training I finally had to just quit and let her go over to the pigeon coop. She was so distracted and obsessed with getting over there.

She stands there and points and points. I think she would stand there for an hour if I let her.

She had some time out running the yard and is now crashed out. We’ll be back at it tomorrow!

A Day Off & Back At It

Breeze and I took Sunday off and spent the day hanging out and a little play.

Today we are back at it. We got snowed on yesterday and today and the field is covered with little paw prints. We worked on our whoa drills, pointed and chased some birds. All in all a very positive day.

Now she is wrestling around with some of the big dogs. Don’t know where all that energy comes from.

Working Hard!

Breeze and I have been working pretty hard the last couple of days. She is still on the whoa post with both lines and with slack in both.


I can now move her off the boards and whoa her in place almost anywhere. I still need to steady her up a little but that will come with time.

We have also continued with the gun breaking and the .22 has no effect on her at all now. I will move up to some shotgun shells with primers this week. She is pointing a lot now and is running the field with all the energy a 4 month pup can muster up. She seems to be always looking for that bird!

On Track

We are right on track now. We are still working off the whoa post. Breeze is doing really well and is still working with slack in the back line. We will soon try removing it all together. She is working hard each day and has a real desire to please.

She is just bird crazy now. She runs the field, nose to the ground looking for birds.

She and I will be hard at it again tomorrow!

Whoa Post - Day 2

I am almost shocked at how well Breeze is catching on. Today we moved off the platform, on to just a flat piece of wood on the ground. She was staying in place.


Then I moved the piece back so there was some slack in the back rope and it was lying on the ground behind her. As I pulled on the front lead she pulled back keeping herself on the board. This demonstrates that she understands the command and knows if she stays on the board she is safe and more comfortable. Same drills for tomorrow.

We have finished up for today and she is out back tussling around with Maya, Rio and Willow.

Whoa Post

OK, here we go. We start out with a post or something to tie off to. I am using a tie out steak. Our back rope is about 40 feet long. You can use shorter if you need. Use a fairly thick rope so it doesn’t cut into your dogs waist. Here I am bringing the back rope around her waist with a half hitch and then running it up and hooking it to her collar.

Then I am hooking a check cord up to her on a second collar that I have put above the other.

Here you can see the second collar.

Now I have set her up on a small platform and basically stretched her between the two leads. She did fight me for a minute or so but learned very quickly that if she stayed on the platform the tension would go away and she would be more comfortable.

Here you can see that I have some tension on her to hold her in place. I gradually lesson the tension as she complies with the command.

Here you can see the slack in the line as she stays in place.

If she gets off the platform I go over and place her back on. As she starts to do what I want of her, then I move further away and start moving around.

At the end always give her praise and a treat.

This is the first time I used this method with Breeze and what you are seeing here took place in real time over about 10 minutes. She really responded well, so we will continue down this path. As we progress I will show you how we change it up.

See you tomorrow!