As spring approached, we worked out in the yard four to five times a week re-enforcing her training and starting to teach her to fetch plastic training dummies, as well as a dead pheasant trainer. Training dogs to fetch and release takes a great deal of time and patience.
Hey you threw it to me; now it’s mine. In their mind if they have it; possession is nine tenths of the law, you have to work long and patient at getting them to realize they aren’t supposed to run away with it.
No matter what we did during the day; we always had family time with our dog. The rule for her being off the couch and bed didn’t last very long. When she wanted cuddling she would get up alongside of Linda and place her head on Linda’s lap. That was the message.
Keep it up mom that feels great. I can lie here a long time while you rub my back. See I can even turn so you do my belly.
When she wanted to rough house, she knew Linda wasn’t into it so she could coax me into playing on the floor with her. She was really funny, especially if I had a long day on the road and she wasn’t about to take excuses, she would put her teeth around two fingers of my hand and try to pull me off of the coach.
I haven’t seen you all day and now you’re going to lie on the couch. Not if I have anything to say. See it wasn’t that hard for you to get up.
Needless to say, I gave in to her. As one of our other dog friends said, “She had me well trained.”
Every weekend in May through July, Tova and I would go out into the fields two towns over. I would tie her to a tree and drag a dummy soaked with pheasant scent around and across the field. She didn’t like being left in that manner. When I released her she would follow the scent trails where I dragged the dummy through the grass. On the opposite end of the fields she would have her reward a dummy soaked smelling like a pheasant. She would walk around with it in her mouth so proud of her accomplishments I could see the hint of happiness in her eyes.
You thought you were going to get away with hiding this on me didn’t you. You can almost see in her eyes.
In July, I started using a .22 caliber blank gun to see how she reacted to gun shots. It never phased her one bit. I guess it goes back to the breeder telling me they would fire shotguns so the puppies could get used to the noise and not feel threatened by it. I’m not sure if that was the reason but she definitely wasn’t gun shy, thank God. It can really be a bitch for a hunter to have a dog who is gun shy.
Next, we try real pheasants at the preserve.
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