It's been an absolute age since I posted here, so thought I'd better come back with a bit of an update really. Nutmeg's our little Sprocker, turned a year in June - this is her:
Nutmeg by David_Williams, on Flickr
I think the last time I posted here was around the New Year mark. Just prior to Xmas, she turned in to a devil-hound. On one occasion it took us around an hour to get her in from the garden - absolutely everything we'd done with her seemed to have been lost - and her progress has been great to date. So we had a thoroughly depressing couple of months until her first season in February, she was on a normal lead and even getting her to come up to me in the garden was a nightmare, let alone proper recall! If she was indoors with the back door open, and I moved an inch on the sofa, she'd be outside like a shot, and again a nightmare to get back in!
She hit her season in February, and immediately got all clingy. Still skittish to not be caught, but she seemed to enjoy being around us again. Not long after, we went away to our cottage in Yorkshire with the intention of letting her have a good romp over the moors. We knew she behaves a little better in unfamiliar territory, so I bit the bullet and locked her extending lead out and letting her run. Very cumbersome, but it gave us a bit of confidence and she was very good. So I bought about 30 metres of very fine, but very strong rope and a dog-clip. We tried this the next day - much, much better when we went to the beach, with the added benefit she could go and swim in the sea whilst we stayed dry!
We've stuck with this everyday now, allied with perfecting her feed, she loves her treats again now and the behaviour seems to have really turned. She mostly comes first time when called, comes in from the garden(!) I'm periodically cutting a couple of metres off of the rope as confidence grows. As a rule she'll walk to heel off of the lead as well. She does go totally off of the lead as well occasionally, although we're trying to get 100% confidence first (she doesn't quite behave as well with the wife).
So all good really. I wish dogs could understand conversation - those few horrible months could have been avoided if she understood me saying "life can be 100% fun when you behave!" The next challenge for her along with continuing her training is a baby due at Xmas!
Nutmeg by David_Williams, on Flickr
I think the last time I posted here was around the New Year mark. Just prior to Xmas, she turned in to a devil-hound. On one occasion it took us around an hour to get her in from the garden - absolutely everything we'd done with her seemed to have been lost - and her progress has been great to date. So we had a thoroughly depressing couple of months until her first season in February, she was on a normal lead and even getting her to come up to me in the garden was a nightmare, let alone proper recall! If she was indoors with the back door open, and I moved an inch on the sofa, she'd be outside like a shot, and again a nightmare to get back in!
She hit her season in February, and immediately got all clingy. Still skittish to not be caught, but she seemed to enjoy being around us again. Not long after, we went away to our cottage in Yorkshire with the intention of letting her have a good romp over the moors. We knew she behaves a little better in unfamiliar territory, so I bit the bullet and locked her extending lead out and letting her run. Very cumbersome, but it gave us a bit of confidence and she was very good. So I bought about 30 metres of very fine, but very strong rope and a dog-clip. We tried this the next day - much, much better when we went to the beach, with the added benefit she could go and swim in the sea whilst we stayed dry!
We've stuck with this everyday now, allied with perfecting her feed, she loves her treats again now and the behaviour seems to have really turned. She mostly comes first time when called, comes in from the garden(!) I'm periodically cutting a couple of metres off of the rope as confidence grows. As a rule she'll walk to heel off of the lead as well. She does go totally off of the lead as well occasionally, although we're trying to get 100% confidence first (she doesn't quite behave as well with the wife).
So all good really. I wish dogs could understand conversation - those few horrible months could have been avoided if she understood me saying "life can be 100% fun when you behave!" The next challenge for her along with continuing her training is a baby due at Xmas!
