A dog friendly blog run by the Blitzan family along side the Blitzan web site, ANYONE WISHING TO JOIN IN THE CHAT AND PHOTO SHOWS PLEASE E MAIL ME AT info@mudlarks farm.co.uk ALL WELCOME. You don't have to be owned by a Blitzan to join in, just a Munster lover & a Blitzan relation! We also aim to help and give advice to anyone who gets stuck or has any Munster related problem. www.blitzanmunsterlanders.co.uk
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Micro chipping and health tests.
Monday, 30 March 2009
Thank You
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Lovely photos everyone
All the puppies look fabulous, Elsa, Mazy, Bailey, etc are growing beautifully, i could take them all home :D
She's beautiful and it would eb lovely to meet her someday.
One thing i have been busy doing is laying our new artificial lawn. Which, by the way, is a massive hit with the dogs, they just love it - they keep taking themselves out to play on it and we dont need to worry about them churning up the dirt. I would highly recommend it to anyone struggling to keep a nice lawn. The photo below was taken this morning - we have yet to lay a new patio and path and then we can finish off all the lawn edges etc but we love it so far.
Who is the puppy?
Maggie us such a puppy herself still which is why she loves to play with Elsa I think. She was really showing off today running circles around Elsa.
Enjoying the sunshine
Maggie and Elsa have been playing for the last 2 hours in the garden. I will try and upload a video later - not sure who is more the puppy Maggie or Elsa! Now both warn out.
Tessa, I somehow missed the pictures of Evie yesterday - she looks very pretty in them - love to see all the Munster pictures so get as many as you can!
Karen, lovely pictures of Mazy too - she looks like she has grown in those pictures. I'm sure Elsa has as I'm having problems carrying her down the stairs in the morning. She can climb up ok but cries at the top to come down. I have put a stair gate up now because she kept going up and then crying for me to carry her down again!
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Mazy
Ali, I can't wait until you get some land and we can come over in the summer, and a training day with Peter sounds fab.
Two totally different Munsters
I bought a puppy dummy last week and today Elsa retrieved it for me - such a clever little thing. I held her back and threw it a little distance and then told her to fetch it. She darted off had a few problems trying to pick it up but when she did she bought it back and gave it to me and I gave her a treat - I was thrilled and left it at that. I have also started teaching her the leave it command. I put a pile of treats on the floor and blocked her when she tried to get to it. After a while she sat and looked at me puzzled and I clicked her and gave her a treat. I did it twice and then bought in the command. The third time I put the treats down and said leave it and she came and climbed on my lap - couldn't believe it!
She is such fun to teach
Lins: LOL - really made me laugh!
Flower pots - items to put on your nose and race around the garden with, whilst making noises like "sat on my piano the other day"
Newspaper - great percussion instrument which can be turned into confetti
Logs in the basket next to the fire - floor covering
Mum's handbag - treasure trove
Louis - big, noisy thing who guards all the toys and tells me off a lot
Cassie - big, noisy thing who has long furry things on the side of her head which make great swings
Laundry - stuff that flaps about in the wind and I can't catch it, unless Mum very kindly takes it off the line
CD's - another form of floor covering
Louis's bed - my bed
Cassie's bed - my bed
Mums feet - my bed
Broom - dance partner
Cuddly Elephant, Teddy, Dragon, Monster, Snake, Moose - items guarded by Louis
Kitchen - best restuarant in town
Microwave "ping" - alarm clock telling me that food is coming
Noise of cupboard door opening - alarm clock that tells me food is coming
Mum in kitchen - alarm clock that tells me food is coming
Bags rattling - alarm clock that tells me food is coming
Mum saying "bed time" - alarm clock that tells me food is coming
Mum - someone who loves me so much she could eat me!
Oh to be a puppy!
Friday, 27 March 2009
At 6am this morning I was out in the garden taking Elsa out for her morning pee and Maggie spotted an injured green finch hopping across the lawn. She pointed, like I've never seen her point before - quite beautiful. Long straight line, her tail straight out, her head low and she held it when I said leave it. I don't think I have every seen her point like that before. She also left the bird alone - so I was really happy with her.
Tessa, glad Evie is dry now.
Ali - I'll definitely be up for a BBQ and training session with Peter - love to!
Belly, recall and bbq
Recall i must say that i have not had a problem with this with my dogs. They are off the lead has soon as jabs are done and safe to go out.
Puppies are agoraphobic so in a big safe field they dont tend to go to far from mum. If you keep taking them out off a lead everyday it becomes normal, so they always return to you.
Hope everyone is ok and the pups seem to be coming on nicely. Got a big week in work next week, big audit on Monday/Tuesday so i have to have all my paperwork and the hygiene (mill not me) up together. But i have worked 2 days overtime in the last week, so money is handy.
Just relaxing with a bottle of wine, think i may go and get another one, from the kitchen !!!
We will see what we can do for a meet up and get it sorted, how about finishing the day off with a BBQ! Well we may as well enjoy ourselves!! Anyone with a tent or caravan can always spend the weekend, we wont have room until the building work is done. but lots of room outside!!
Tetra and Darcy have been angels today, outside in the rain for the toilet, out in the car for an hour without too much stress, no sickness from Tetra and Darcy was a little but not until I was parked up outside the house!! I feel like I am a week behind all of you as until Willow left I have not done anything much as I didn't want to bond with Willow and didn't want to leave her out, and at the end of the day they are only 9 weeks tomorrow. Last night they disappeared on my at 9:45 little monkeys got through the barrier up the stairs and put themselves to bed in Jamie's room, they had decided it was bed time and gone for it, James joined them and didn't hear a peep until 7am, bless them.
Oscar is a gorgeous handsome boy, I have emailed Carol and suggested she kept an eye on the blog to see Jasper's son, she thinks he is gorgeous too!
As for chunky monkey Bailey he looks so well Lins, very content and happy, lovely for me to see thank you.
added..........
Well I said we......
Lovely photos of Osca he is cute and looking well yes his marking are similar to Ilka.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Mandy - Oscar is a handsome boy and getting so big! I was going to say a lunge rope might be a bit heavy for him to drag around but not sure - he certainly looks strong. It maybe that lunges have changed a lot since I used them too but the one I remember was long and heavy - but then I was a young girl and that was a long time ago)lol - sorry it's getting late .... Think they are a good idea though but be warned - I used one on Maggie last year - bearing in mind she was an adult by then. I had her in the middle of the field Iwanted to do some training in and had attached one end to her harness. I was busy unravelling the line when she took off after a pheasant - in the blur of the moment for some silly reason I held onto the rope and it was dragged through my hands at quite a rate - leaving me with a very nasty rope burn - taught me a lesson though - don't try and hold the rope when they are in full gallop!
It was so much easier reading this blog over the years, Ali what have you done? ( only joking)
The Gundog Club training guide is a well written piece and will hold most of the basic building blocks for your dogs training. There are a few other books that are now available (not when I needed them!) that take into account the differences of HPR training rather than general gundog training. One I found very informative with answers there in black and white, to problems I had with my first munster, that took me years to find out for myself, and lost a lot of hair in the process! Is `The Versatile Gundog' by Guy Wallace, he also brought out a follow up `The Specialist Gundog'. Both go a little deeper into the mental processes of the HPR and will give the trainer a little more insight into why these dogs need a different approach.
I have written a fair bit on other sites, and always mean to copy and file them away for future compilation, but at the end of the day I always think others write training tips so much better, and my skill, for want of a better term, is not in the training but in the `reading' of dogs, and I wouldn't know where to start in putting that into words. I have written the WAPSUK, which is a natural ability testing scheme, similar to what they use on the continent, and this is now moving into practice.
As I put in my introduction post, I showed, worked, tested and trialed my first munster,in the search for knowledge, but we had reasonable success, given I was swimming against the tide and not knowing how to swim! She won several tests right up to and including Open, and had several FT awards including ALL Aged. My second munster died at a young age just when he was doing well in tests ( I use GWT's as personal training assessments not as competitions) There then followed a period where I had no dog to compete, so I was more involved with Judging and NAT's, which drifted into the period that our FT's were in turmoil and I was not prepared to participate in them. My next munster had to cope with me moving alot and starting my own business, but she still managed to win the working munsterlander of the year trophy two years running. ( GWT's had now become a chill out day and get away from customers day, but I still keep my eyes and ears open ) My latest dog has done well in tests but I decided to spread my wings and train him for deer work and learn how to make these dogs truly `versatiles' ( its work in progress) I do like the Trial circuit though and the crac, so I guess my next one might just have to be trained properly!!
Teaching the SIT/STOP at a distance:
The sit is taught from day one, remember this is a `command' initially it is taught as fun and must always be rewarded, however once the command is given it must always be acted upon, the dog must sit. I teach three signals for my two commands, vocal, hand and whistle, The voice and hand or whistle and hand are taught simultaneously by me ( although most novice trainers teach one at a time). You want to practice the sit and the signals as much as possible when the puppy is young, what your aiming to achieve is an instinctive response from the dog. i.e. the dog acts without first thinking about it, and this can only be done through repetition.
Remember to increase the distance from you slowly and stay within your ring of control. Also don't repeat too often in one session, as the dog will start to preempt. If the dog disobeys the command, DONT repeat it, quietly go to the dog put the lead on and take it back to the point where the dog was when you gave the command, then repeat the command and make the dog sit and reward. Normally I walk the dog on the lead and give the command a few more times to reinforce the lesson.
For older dogs that start to `resist' the sit, be it the `slow motion sit', or the `I'll just finish what I was doing before sitting if you don't mind!' sit, or the I'll just take a few more steps before I'll sit. I will start keeping them sitting longer, usually as a multiplier of three. i.e. the time taken for their arse to hit the floor from when I gave the command, multiplied by three before I release them from the sit ( this focuses the mind beautifully of a hunting dog, especially if you then walk past them onto unhunted ground!) Note this is often a symptom of the dog being at the limit of your control ring so pay attention to the distance, work the dog closer and give the command, if it gets quicker release immediately and the dog soon learns that a quick sit gets a quick release and again your well on the way back to it being instinctive. I forgot to mention, you must release a sit command, don't let the dog decide when to break it, and you won't need the `stay'.
Can I have my tea now?
Peter
Thought I should just warn anyone planning to see 'Marley and Me' at the cinema. I went with a friend on Friday night planning to have a good laugh -not so -we spent the last half hour of the movie sobbing. It is very touching - would touch a nerve of anyone who has loved and lost a dog.
You have been warned!!!!
I don't intend to work Evie but what I want to achieve is an understanding between us so that I can take her anywhere and know that we can have a safe and enjoyable time. It has only taken 6 years but now my Flat Coat Murphy trots along the side of me the whole walk and isn't distracted by anything (except a nice pile of fresh horse manure). I'm hoping it won't take quite as long with Evie but like you pointed out it is an ongoing thing. Thanks again - loving this blog Ali!
Hi
And lovely photo Karen.
My two girls / recall / stop training
Maggie and Elsa are becoming the best of friends.
Peter - thanks for that. When Maggie was about 5 months I bought the Gundog Training Guide - grade one and it is full of useful information. One of their Golden Rules - think there are nine altogether is 'Never give away your greatest secret'. That secret is that you cannot catch your dog in open country if he does not want you to. So never chase your puppy. Luckily common sense when Maggie was young told me not to do this anyway but I also had to tell my kids not to either.
The three rings is similar to something I read in it also. Having a certain distance where you have control and training to make this distance further away. I know the distance I have control with Maggie and like Elspeth when I lapse and she is out of that ring there is no way I can get her back. If she is in that circle though she will stop even when chasing deer.
The sit/stop at a distance I found difficult too Elspeth. I got advice and Maggie will stop at quite a distance now although not half a mile away. To do this when I asked her to sit I ran towards her to start with at the same time as blowing the whistle shouting stay and using my hand signal so that she knew I was coming to her and I didn't want her to come to me. I had to be quite forceful but she soon got to know that the long whistle meant sit and don't move. Don't think I have ever got her to do a somersault like Peter though! I agree though training obedience is an ongoing thing and with every walk I do with Maggie I always do at least one recall and one stop and also some heal work off lead. To be honest it makes the walk more fun for me and Maggie.
The Gundog club also do a book called The Right Start for puppy training which I have ordered.
Lunging at Cars: Ceilidh used to do this as a pup, I was advised to distract her when cars went by, treats, a toy, a bit of sit/trick traing. Anything that will distract them from the cars. It worked after only a few walks, I do still keep an eye on her just incase.
Sorry i have been off and not put pics up yet, been so busy at Uni, rather manic so exhausted this week, bring on the weekend!!!
I will get pics up on Saturday morning, I have deliberately not made plans so I can get them up. Hope everyone is well and dogs and puppies too. Sorry I have probably missed loads but I have got to run to a lecture.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
What you always have to remember is that training the recall ( and the STOP) never ends, for those who say there dog is trained to the recall ( and the STOP) your either a liar or delusional. Unless your dog has experienced every eventuality in life how can you ever say that something someday will have a stronger lure away from you than your authority to bring it back in the same instance. As an example, my dog has literally done a somersault when I gave the stop when he chased out a roe deer a yard in front of him ( his brain told him to stop, but nobody told his back legs!!) But I do not consider him trained on the stop as he took twenty yards to stop to a hare!
As others make up names for training techniques, and seem to make money out of it, I think I should start one myself ( I can but hope the cheques will follow!) This is the `Three ring principle' , when I had my own web site I did a cartoon that shows how this works, but I'll try to explain it.
Both you and the dog and a distraction have a ring some distance around you all. Your ring is that of control, the dogs ring is that of self interest and the ring around the distraction is that of temptation. When you have trained a dog to do something and it is succesful, it is because your ring of control and the dogs self interest are overlapping and the distraction ring is beyond the dogs interest ring or weakly overlapping. As the dog moves further away from you your control ring and the dogs self interest ring start to move apart, as the overlap of these rings becomes less so does the likelihood of the dog not responding to your training command. If the dogs ring then starts to overlap the distraction ring the lure becomes stronger, and there comes a point when the temptation exceeds your control and the dog breaks away.
The object of training is to constantly increase the size of your ring of control until it can cover both the dogs ring AND the ring of temptation, in this way no matter how close the dog gets to the distraction he will always obey your command.
In order to increase your ring of control you need to first realise how far around you it actually is, for some it is on the end of a lead, or dare I say it, less! and for a grouse hunting dog it could be 1/2 a mile or more with an experienced handler, and of course everything in between.
Your ring of control is where the dog obeys all its training without hesitation, the moment the dog wavers its on the edge of control. ( This is without any distractions) You should always train within your ring of control and once you are gaining success then and only then start to increase the distance between you and the dog. Remember as soon as you change the environment of your training, you must shorten the distance once again as the rings of distractions will be bigger and stronger.
Thus if your dog recalls in the home and garden, you must visualise those distances when out in the fields/parks and not exceed them until the dog is compliant. It is very important never to give a command unless you can enforce it, and this is where a stop becomes essential. ( A dog will always consider you stronger smarter and faster until you prove otherwise, so never chase your dog to catch it unless you can!) A simple exercise would be to sit the dog and walk the distance away and then call the dog to you and do this before letting your dog run free, thus the dog remains focused and has no distractions, this also means that not only does the dog get rewarded as you deem fit at the point of success, but more importantly in the dogs mind that compliance ultimately gets rewarded with a bit of free play afterwards. Of course non compliance can be quickly checked and free play can be withheld and training on the lead could be substituted. This method also allows for the use of a long line so the dog is not free to bog off if you have really over estimated your control!!
I can't help with the `lunging at cars' senario, as its a behavioural issue, and is one that you need to see first hand, and find the trigger to get the correct solution. I would add that of the dogs I've seen this in, both being collies and terrier breeds, those that were not sorted ended up under the wheels of a car!
Peter
Hi
Peter that's another interesting post thank you, and that's is pretty much what my Dad has said to me that the most important things are to teach the stop and recall as they don't come naturally to hprs so that's what I've had to focus on, but the rest should pretty much come though their instincts (if there instincts are strong enough).
Elle think it was me who commented on the puppy photos from Ulrike, they are cute and so are the ones on here so would love to see some more photos (love the one of Elsa and Maggie that Elle put a link of) and I'll put up a couple of photos of Ilka on here tomorrow, Sid and Ilka are in love at the mo (Ilkas in season) Sids been done and is to short but he still loves her.
links and stuff.
Jo has just added a couple more Crufts photos to the above site, that we have the permissions through for, she has "inserted" them in the Crufts section though!!! so - to anyone wanting to see them - go to the photo spot - link above - then go to Browse on top right hand side, and choose Crufts 2009 as the category...
also - someone (?) commented on the puppy photos from Ulrike in Austria on http://www.owners.thelargemunsterlander.com/ - we have added some more cute puppy pics to Ulrikes' page - and - there are still pups available from that litter. Anyone interested - I will pass on their enquiry.
Race for Life
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Before I start giving out advise, I must stress that without seeing your dogs first hand there is a limit to the advise I can give online, because of the risk of misunderstanding of all the circumstances which will effect your individual dogs. The onus is ultimately down to you as the dogs owners whether you first understand exactly what I mean, and whether or not you want to take the advise given.
There are umpteen methods of training a dog, and it seems every year a new trend, or rather a new name or title is given out and about for what I would have been doing for years but not called it anything specific. There are some methods that raises a smile from me and others that appal me, but they do work! ( I personally would like to think that I could get the same results using a different method!) But you should all remember that in training a dog you should never limit your knowledge and dismiss training methods out of hand, as they all give you an insight into how the dogs mind works differently to your own. Putting your principles, reasoning and morality into the dogs mind and therefore in its understanding or your perception of its understanding is inherently dangerous and misleading during training. Which ever method you use will be personal to you, you will not gain a partnership with your dog if you are unhappy ( and therefore inconsistent) with a particular training method, but this must be balanced with reality when something clearly is not working.
All my training ( and writing) is geared towards a working gundog, but those who are not interested in attaining this level should still pay heed, as with a Munster like it or not the dog WILL be working when off lead to some degree, the difference between a `working' munster and a pet munster is basically a level of control and whether the dog is working for you or itself!
Some of you already realise that these dogs pick up things quickly, and think they are `smart', they are but not in the way you think. They are smart in communicating, not directly in learning a task/command. The first people realise this is usually some months down the line when Fido bogs off after something that has caught his attention, and doesn't respond to any of the commands flowing from its handler in ever increasing volume! Ring a bell does it?
The dog has only actually learnt an action to a signal, it has not learnt that the signal is a command to be obeyed. Similarly people often think that when a dog disobeys a signal/command but then obeys one given in a harsher tone it is learning the difference between the signal and a command, its not! its only actually teaching the dog to ignore the first signal!
I actually only teach two `commands' The first is the SIT ( which in later training flows into the STOP). Remember if a dog is sat, unless its scratching its arse, it has to be stationary, hence the sit/stop effectively being one command. The second command is the RECALL, where the dog must return to me without hesitation. If you have these two commands, clearly understood by the dog, you have control, if not should you really be letting your dog off the lead?
That might sound a bit harsh but believe me when you see your four month old puppy heading for home with a prize myxy rabbit he just caught, and between him and home is a busy main road which he has no comprehension of, and only a last ditch launch through the air after an exhausting wide arc run to cut him off at a gap in the last hedge, the shock of which was enough to make him drop the rabbit and stop! You may just begin to realise that running free, which munsters do relish, is a privilege not a right! and as such has to be earned through training and obedience.
This all may sound like I am a disciplinarian and do not let my dogs have fun, far from it, I would argue that my dogs have far to much fun ( often at my expense) and they would be much better workers if I was more strict with them. The difference is I'm consistent in my handling, there is no grey area when a command is given, especially from the dogs perspective, they understand things only in black and white ( very appropriate for a munster!). I don't constantly control my dogs actions but I do set their boundaries, and when they push for more ( as they do) I reduce them to make them appreciate what they had and this keeps them honest and respectful!
I haven't answered the specific questions put for me yet, I'll do that later this week...I hope, as I thought it better to set out the basic principles on which I operate.
Peter
Anyway is anyone else a fan of the Dog Whisperer ( it is on the TV as I write this) - I think he has an amazing understanding of dogs and dog psychology. We had a few issues with our old flat coat Jack which was all our doing in hindsight - we treated our dogs like humans and gave him too much status as a result. I then read the Dog listener (similar principles as the dog whisperer) and realised that I had got it all wrong - I was not being an effective pack leader. We changed a few simple things which transformed his behaviour. We have now lost our wonderful boy but his legacy will stay with me forever and all the dogs that we will share our lives with - he taught us so much!
Tessa
As for recall - Peter is the best person to give you advice on this. He will probably want to know how old she is - I can't remember. I do remember though Maggie being great as a puppy and then when the hunt instinct kicked in - fairly early if I remember - I lost all control. To be truthful it was a battle up until the last few months when I now feel more confident with her re-call. Maggie wasn't interested in treats - especially if there were pheasants around. If she got into that hunt mode - I put her back on the lead and did some basic training like asking her to sit and go down - just to get her focus back on me. My only other secret weapon is her ball as she will do just about anything for a play with it. So even now I keep it in my pocket and it comes out if she has come back instantly to recall. Her reward is a chuck or two of the ball and then it goes away again. I'm sure Peter will have some better advice - but it worked a treat for Maggie. So if there is any toy Evie likes best of all - take it away from her and only take it out when you are playing with her - this way you will make it more special and then you can start using it as a reward. Hope that helps. I will look forward to Peter's advice though as I'm sure I will have the same thing again with Elsa.
Tessa
Ilka used to go towards cars and things quite a bit when we walked down the road when she was younger but shes grown out of it and has lost interest in them and has got used to standing up against the hedges while they pass (narrow country lanes)
Love the photos of Jumble and the one on lm photos.
Monday, 23 March 2009
Advice Please........
Evie is a true country dog but I still want her to feel confident when out of her home environment (and safe). One more point of training I am struggling with is the recall. As a young pup she was wonderful at the recall and still is in the house and garden but when in our field or out on a walk she will never come back right to me. We worked on the 'with me' command to whistle and voice which she responds to every time - by this I mean she has to change direction and be with me not come right to me. When I ask her to come to me she will head towards me but can not actually stop as she is just too busy, she is not interested in lures/treats or me on bended knee calling her excitedly. Evie has to run the whole walk.
Would appreciate any tips as I am rapidly learning that HPR's seem to need a different approach to training and I am very keen to learn so that we can work well together. My Flat Coats have never had the incredible hunt instinct that Evie has - she is very intelligent and I don't want to let her down. I think this may be one for Peter with all his experience (please).
The pups all look very happy in their new homes - lovely pics.
Brilliant photo
Elsa looks as if she is having fun in the paddock, Mazy loves our garden which is a kind of landscaped paddock and has been exploring all weekend. Will put up some more photos later or tomorrow. The weather has turned colder here now, so not so nice for playing outside.
Peter, I have now managed to read your intro, lovely to know more about you.
Jumble
Started back at work this morning - which was very hard after a week off. I was worried because I didn't know how it would go with Elsa here now but in fact she was a little angel and slept most of the time I was working. The weather has taken a turn for the worse and is now howling a gail and raining. I got caught in it while out with Maggie so glad to be home and dry again. Elsa, who is always very excited to see us return even helped was Maggie by laying next to her and licking her - sweet.
My daughter has gone for a week's holiday with the school this morning too so going to be very quiet without her and I'm going to miss my little helper. The trip is in Wales so I hope they have better weather there.
JUMBLE
Hi everyone,
We fetched Jumble on Saturday and has been busy playing ever since!She has settled in so well and has met our horses, sheep, goats hens and ducks. She has not been fazed with any thing except perhaps our 2 cats. They are all treating each other with respect, but i am confident they will be good friends soon. Matt loves her and she loves him and follows him every where.
Yesterday we were going swimming and she decided to get into the swimming bag! We left her for an hour and no crying or problems.
We are all so happy to have a dog again.
Hi
Lovely photos of Maggie and Elsa and been looking round the lm website and saw these cute puppy photos http://www.owners.thelargemunsterlander.com/ulli-austria.html
Sunday, 22 March 2009
Born Free Elsa
and Maggie looked after her.
We didn't keep her out there long but she is zonked out now fast asleep. Maggie loved having her out there and I can't wait until they are two big girls together having a run around.
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY DIVA
This morning while I was waiting for an opportune moment to take Maggie on a walk Maggie shot off across the garden at some speed and then jumped the 4 foot fence at the back of the garden! She has never jumped it before. She then shot off into the distance like she was on some sort mission. I ran up the garden and called her back and she came. But thinking am I going to have problems now keeping her in - hope not!
Later when I was coming back from the walk and Frank was looking after Elsa I was coming across the field and saw Frank with Elsa in the field. She was really excited when she saw Maggie. I hope it's ok to take her out in to the paddocks Ali - but I can't see it's much different to our back garden and we don't get any stray dogs in there. Do you think it is ok? She stayed close to Frank and just sniffed around for a bit. Trouble is now she keeps going to the gate as she knows what it lead to.
and love all puppy videos and photos and really love the one of Bosco on http://photos.thelargemunsterlander.com/ fantastic photo.
Happy Mothers day
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Practicing Re-call to name
Elsa is such a bright little thing - already mastered sit and starting to retrieve things for me and she is getting better at coming to call now too. From the video you will see that Elsa would rather go through things than round them!
Lovely photos Ali - looks like they had a great time. I've thought about taking Elsa out into our paddocks as no other dogs go in there but want to be sure she will come when I call her first - she is very fast!