Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:07 pm Post subject: Crisis of Confidence!
Rowan is now over 2 years old, came on well last shooting season, reached a bit of a plateau towards the end and then the pup came along in March and has basically been going backwards ever since!
I’ve continued to work on her, but something happened last weekend that I’ve not come across with her before. She’s not a nervous dog at all, quite the opposite, doesn’t get upset if told off, pretty thick skinned and independent.
We were at a game fair on Sunday and entered a simple scurry, a send across a small mill pond to a thrown dummy on the other side. She loves water, but doesn’t see much of it around here, so it is a bit of a novelty. Anyway I sent her off, she entered the reedy water which immediately turned black with silt and she started to sink in the mud before getting out of her depth and she didn’t like that at all. She came straight out and started looking anxiously for another way around. She knows better than that, so I tried to force her out on command but she wouldn’t have it. I whistled her up and sent her again, but every time she sank into the silt she came back instead of getting out beyond it.
After the third go, we pulled out gracefully. The scorer offered to throw one out into the water for us, but I wasn’t confident that she would go out to it, something she would normally take on her stride with enthusiasm. By her body language it was obviously the silt that was putting her off.
Ever since this episode she’s been all at sea. I’ve had her out a couple of times this week and she’s been looking back at me all the time, recalling on the stop whistle, clearly we are not in tune with each other at present.
If not and it had happened to one of mine I take them out with my tennis ball catapult and as soon as the ball hits the ground on the first bounce I send them for it. It really gets them flying and they forget all that silly checking back on mum and dad stuff!
I've just had an email from a very nice person who saw this and thought it was me. I'm sure she wont mind me reproducing it here and it could be useful to you.
John, is it you on Lab Forum that is talking about problems with your lab bitch, and her lacking confidence and being out of sorts?
If so, have you considered the possibility of a phantom pregnancy, brought on by the arrival of your new pup? This happened to my Open bitch last year, and she ended up becoming a bit of a 'basket case' until I realised what was happening.
The best way to break this is to keep her away from the puppy, not housed together. Don't overfeed and keep giving her regular exercise.
Of course, this might not be the reason but I thought it worth mentioning. I resolved a future phantom by giving raspberry leaf for the next season.
Good luck, I hope she comes right again.
If she reads this I'd like to thank her very much for taking the time to contact me.
Jill. She came out of season about 2/3 weeks ago and is still a bit under worked from that.
John & the person who contacted you. Many thanks, both of you, for taking the time to post that. I’m pretty sure it’s not a phantom. Our older dog has taken up the role of mother (as she always does) and is very sensitive about these things. Rowan is about as sensitive as rhino and if anything has taken up the role of litter sister, with all the playful bounding and puppy mayhem.
She was fine until the mill pond incident, which in itself didn’t amuse me, it happened just like that and ever since she has been very hesitant and slow to pick up on what she’s being asked to do. I didn’t harshly correct her in any way at the time, as I don’t do that and also there was about 60 people watching.
Well I'd definitely go for lobbing tennis balls with no stop whistles or handling just easy to find marks that she can run straight out to pick to get her confidence back. It may take a while though. It only takes one experience to lose it but a fair while without handling to put it back!
I've become a bit of an expert in putting confidence back in having Darcy on my hands .
I know it's not particularly relevant for gundog work, but in the past when one of mine has had a wobble over something, I start training them something completely different for a period of time, that has nothing in common with what they 'failed' at. I think that learning something very different and from scratch with lots of opportunity for it to be fun and loaded with praise is a good way of making a dog start to feel good about itself and life in general again, as well as building up their confidence. It also renews and strengthens the bond and the trust with the handler.
(John- get those dancing shoes out and get dancing with Rowan! If she's not a different dog in a couple of weeks then I'll eat my twirly-baton!)
Thanks for the advice folks, we will try a bit of tennis ball wanging later on today, I’ve just got to find some ground that isn’t waist high in undergrowth and thanks Ian, but I don’t think she would notice any difference to normal.
I’ve been musing on the phantom thing and I’ll be keeping an eye on that, the whole thing is quite out of character and quite sudden. As said before, Honey is susceptible to this and the signs are very obvious, both physically and in her behaviour, but maybe I’m just not seeing it with Rowan.
Becs wrote:
John- get those dancing shoes out and get dancing with Rowan!
Oh dear Becs, I can see your conversion to kaki isn’t quite complete.
John I would definitely not rule out the phantom thing either as Darcy had this problem last year, but the cure is much the same.
I have found that you really need to work them through and out of a phantom but without putting pressure on them, so lots of nice easy marks, and the raspberry leaf tablets definitely seem to work as well (from Dorwest Herbs). Darcy did not show any outward signs apart from lying in the pups crate quite a bit. It was all mental .
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If she's not a different dog in a couple of weeks then I'll eat my twirly-baton!)
