but now that I'm sitting her up and asking her to hold (particularly smaller items, like a pair of socks), she'll have a wee chew, not all the time, but more often than I'd like!
The thing to do is to not allow it to become a habit. And to that end I would drop the things she is likely to chomp on and concentrate on the things which deter the mouthing.
I'm starting to appreciate some of the points made in other threads myself and others have asked about trying to raise a pup to be a working dog in a typical, pet household.
I'm not aiming for the stars (which is just as well! ) so I'm just going to have to do the best I can with the lifestyle that I have and that Mouse has landed up in! I really enjoy watching my dogs hoolying around with each other, so that's not something that I will nor want to, intervene in, and having allowed my other 4 dogs to play in that way for the last 10 years, I'd have to really nag and change the bounderies to stop it.
At the moment, I think I'm making it as clear as I can to Mouse what and when we are training and when it's free-time. I train Mouse alone and normally in a field away from home, unless I've put the other dogs indoors and train in the garden alone with her. I think this is about as much as I can do realistically to differentiate between work and play.
My aim and pleasure is just to really enjoy training her to a level where I can take her to a khaki-event and us not look completely hopeless, and to learn as much as I can on the way there. I'd be far too chicken to compete in anything other than hay-bale jumping anyway! AND I still want to be able to mince around the floor to a bit of Abba with her too!
Best not start making a space on my mantlepiece for the Field Trial Silver cup just yet, eh?!!!
Thanks for the information, opinions and advice. It's all a learning curve for me and much appreciated.
Hi John,
I have just visualised you on a motorbike a very dude . Nearly working 'c' in obedience is quite an achievement , was it with a Labrador ? I have only know one person work a Lab at that level and sadly that person is nolonger with us , that was along time ago and it was her first dog , she changed breeds after that. I have not done obedience because I have never been able to walk in straight lines ( that is without a drink ) however the more free flowing atmosphere and the challenging nature of working trials has ment that I have found what suites me .
I am not against gundog work by the way ( even though I am a bunny hugger ) It comes down to what rocks your boat really .
Becs if its any help (but not wanting to tread on Di's toes at all) my dogs all have toys and play together. The only difference is that I don't normally play with them.
God forbid anyone that plays with Rocky anyway because he will pester the life out of them .
It's raised a question from me..... I think I'm getting there with training my dog to hold, but I have noticed that she tends to have a bit of a chomp while she's holding. Is there anything I can do about this, or is she destined to always be hard-mouthed? Initially I thought it was puppy stuff, not picking items up properly and having to re-adjust en-route, but now that I'm sitting her up and asking her to hold (particularly smaller items, like a pair of socks), she'll have a wee chew, not all the time, but more often than I'd like!
You can usually see if a dog has a hard mouth by the teeth marks it leaves in the dummy, although saying that it could hold game differently. Bracken has not got a hard mouth, I think she is probably just readjusting the dummy in her mouth to get a comfortable hold, which is quite normal.
I am not against gundog work by the way ( even though I am a bunny hugger ) It comes down to what rocks your boat really .
It's all about where we get our pleasure. I probably look at it differently because of being brought up at the time of food rationing, and the gun provided most of the meat in the house in those days. We also kept Chickens for the eggs, but again, I was brought up to look upon them as food, not pets. (No names allowed! (except Percy the bad chick!!)) At 5 years old I was watching my father wring the old birds necks and pluck them for the pot without batting an eyelid. So what does the shooting season bring me? The pleasure of working my dogs and good wholesome food free from chemicals and without water injected into it. I know exactly what I'm eating because I've been feeding them.
Quote:
Nearly working 'c' in obedience is quite an achievement , was it with a Labrador ?
Yes. In those far off days I was "Match Secretary" at the club I was working at. Normally I worked "A", but in an emergency I'd do a "B" round. But my claim to fame was working "C" as competition to Barbara Hills on her last warm up before she won Crufts Bitch with Greyvalley Honey, would have been around 1975. Not much of a claim I know, but I enjoyed it.
Jill no toes trod on, its horses for courses, and I think my particular decision to remove toys from the equation came from a bitch I took in that had been played with frantically and throw items for and had no hold and would spit and run backwards for the next throw.... so for a time (at the time!) I left nothing around she could do this with.... as she would do it with ANYTHING to provoke a response... and then it just continued really... and for me remember, working showbred dogs, you have to make training magical, exciting, probably double as interesting as you do with your seriously driven dogs.... and so making that the only time they had 'stuff' you could deem as 'retrieveable' seemed to take the bar up a bit on the value they placed on work items.
I can completely imagine a highly driven dog could have toys AND then think his retrieve articles were the centre of his world too.
But to answer you becs too... how do dogs play if they don't have toys...? They play with one another... they do, of course, pick up bits of this and that off the ground and chase each other, and I don't interfere if they are free running. But to have a squeaky pheasant that honks... or a tuggy rope which BEGS for three gobs on it and HEAVE.... that for me, personally, just doesn't work...
Di
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The boys!
Read: Wylanbriar Dog Blog on the website: Updated! 1st February 12´!
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) so I'm just going to have to do the best I can with the lifestyle that I have and that Mouse has landed up in! I really enjoy watching my dogs hoolying around with each other, so that's not something that I will nor want to, intervene in, and having allowed my other 4 dogs to play in that way for the last 10 years, I'd have to really nag and change the bounderies to stop it.
dude 
. Nearly working 'c' in obedience is quite an achievement , was it with a Labrador ? I have only know one person work a Lab at that level and sadly that person is nolonger with us , that was along time ago and it was her first dog , she changed breeds after that. I have not done obedience because I have never been able to walk in straight lines ( that is without a drink 
) It comes down to what rocks your boat really 
