A dog called Lexy

[Sully 3]

Hi all, I thought I'd post and let you all know how things are progressing with my 18 Wk Hancock bred 3/4 GH x 1/4 BC, Lexy, weve been having loads of fun, in honesty Ive walked her for longer than the stated 20 mins, she's a big strong pup and if I let her she'd run all day.

 

Lexy and I have been playing lots of fun games, fetch retrieving, drop retrieving, find retrieving and I must admitt she has passed all expectations for such a young dog, I think the key is to make it FUN for both parties, we ve progressed from a bright pink dumbell (easier to spot) onto a rabbit fur dummy (took a day to get the feeling of the fur on her tongue) and now it comes second nature to listen to commands, again, repitition is the key, dont continually use different words, he/she wont ever be able to ascociate with get it one min and fetch the next, so for me it's "come" for her re-call, "fetch" to send her for what ever kind of retrieve and "up" for little jumps.

 

Her re-call still has work to be done, but this I expect to be on-going, Rome wasnt built in a day, when she feels a lil stubborn, I give her the "OI GET EAR" treatment and sheepishly she comes, however when other dogs are concerned, I simply shout "SIT" at the top of my voice, and she drops into the position as soon as she hears it, still working her to a whistle and comes readilly to that, again the assocition thing, as I blow the whistle before I feed her.

 

Im gradually weaning her off the treats when she's done good, just one treat every 3 - 4 times but Im heaping loads of praise on her instead, she is now getting very interested in anything moving, and takes great pleasure in caning it across a local playing field after sea gulls, thrush's and well anything that flys.

 

As you may recall I introduced her to a dead rabbit a few Weeks ago, and she wasnt impressed at all, in-fact it frightened the living day light out of her, so Ive not persued it further, my bro stumbled across a "just killed Fallow Deer" recently so, he asked me if I wanted it...well ya dont get that offered every day do you, and with her being on a barf diet anything like that is appreciated, so he put in into the van and dropped it off for me, well Ive never met a deer never mind gutted one, so armed with my laptop (watched utube "how to field dress a deer, step by step) and I started to gut, skin, and bone it out, this I did with Lexy hiding in the conservatory, im sure she thought she was going to be next, I expected her to be inquisative....er nope, scared stiff, that was until the skin was off and as soon as the tasty morsels started appearing, like a bit of liver she started to like deer much more.

 

I hope that you dont find this too boring, I'll keep you all updated every now and again, so you can see her progression,

Craig.

ps please exscuse the spelling mistakes as I wanted to run it through the spell checker first but it was unavailable.

Edited September 10, 2009 by Sully

[BITCH 135]

Edited September 27, 2009 by BITCH

[MuttleMcTuttle 21]

Not at all boring - interesting to follow Lexy's progress (and nice pic too, what a cutie) Don't let her run too much though... would be a shame to have problems with her later on, but it's so hard to restrict pups - they just want to play non stop!

[Sully 3]

Oh hi, I was starting to think I'd peed people off, thanks for your interest, er hi bitch, yes it's a viewing window into our conservatory, she loves it in there, her cage is in there so she lays watching them swim by and Im 100% sure that they watch her, nice to see you know your koi, Hi Muttle, I know Im really trying hard not to take her out for to long, problem is when I dont take her for a good walk, she's bouncing off the walls, I cant believe how much energy she has, but I do agree and Im keeping an eye on it, she's, scrap that we are having so much fun, learning, a mate of mine is bringing some shot birds round tomorrow, gonna do a bit of retrieving with them, hopefully get her used to feathers, would like her to pick up the odd pheasant, duck etc, tyhanks again for looking, Craig and Lexy