It’s the last day of May already. Can you believe it?
More importantly, it time for Follow-up Friday. The blog hop that:
Let’s you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.
Thank you to Jodi at Heart Like A Dog and co-host Misty Shores Chesapeakes for hosting the hop!
Catching Up
I am slowly catching up with the blog. I skipped a couple of hops this week because I knew I had no hope of visiting the other hoppers. I hope to get back to a regular schedule next week.
Follow-up Friday 5-24-13
Jodi commented:
Wow, Storm has a bald spot!! I didn’t realize when they blew coat they got bald spots.
Normally they don’t get bald spots. That is thanks to pregnancy. Her neck is mostly bald now, poor thing. Maybe you can see it in this picture?
I posted a picture of Freighter jumping. agatapokutycka asked:
I wonder how many attempt was needed for the jumpy one?
One take. Ducks will do that to a pup. Now that Freighter is older, jumping like that is not allowed.
Working In Cover
dogloverofmax@gmail.com asked:
I have a weird question…do you even need to worry about snakes there?
No snakes thank goodness, but in tall grass we have to watch for ticks. I am not sure which is worse. 😆
And:
Also, do they ever try to eat the ducks?
Yes on occasion some dogs do. It is a big NO NO. Thunder tried to do it once at a Junior test just to be a butt-head. That did not go over very well. Usually if your dog does that you want to march right out to them and take the duck away and remove them from the test or training. Mostly if Thunder is being Thunder, he just doesn’t give the birds up but has never tried to eat one after that first time.
Usually Junior judges will make sure the birds are in decent shape when they are shot, (no flesh showing). That also discourages a young dog from trying to have a snack.
Ann “Paws” Staub commented:
So since I don’t know much about retrievers and all the training, is it safe to assume that a double is when he retrieves 2 ducks in one trip? Looks pretty cool, very smart dog
Yes you are right. The dogs watch two marks fall and then retrieve each. Thunder and Storm can actually do triples, which is three marks, but since Storm has been off for a bit we decided to start on doubles for both dogs. This was the double we threw for them. Freighter ran this as “singles” which means he watched one bird fall and retrieved it and then watched the second and retrieved it. We changed the line a bit for Freighter’s second single.
snoopys@snoopysdogblog asked:
Do you get a lot of ticks there? What do you use to cope with them?
Not at our cabin, (the first field that we trained in). Long time residents have said that they have never seen a tick around there. But at the place where we have our training membership they are abundant. We use Frontline Plus for the dogs. So far it has worked fine. We wear long pants ourseleves and spray when we are working in high cover on these grounds.
Wordless Wednesday–Sitting Like A Statue
tylersat99 asked:
Is the sign a Chessie or just a generic sign?
It is a Chessie sign and says “Chessie Xing”. The wooden dog was left behind when we bought the cabin. It was black, but we couldn’t have that. I bought the Chessie sign at a Flea Market or something. 🙂 It is a reminder to watch for dogs when driving up our driveway.
Several of you asked what Freighter was looking at. I don’t know. I just told him, “Watch!”. It was up to him to figure out what. 😉
This ‘N That Thursday
Freighter’s eye is much better. It isn’t puffy anymore and no more gunk. Also, he isn’t squinting it shut anymore. It is still a bit bloodshot, but we have several days left to use the drops. It is also getting easier to put the drops in. I now think it may have been an injury which caused the problem. The first day or two, I think the drops stung a bit because not only would Freighter fight them, but he would squint his eye shut for a long time after we put them in.
That is it for this edition of FUF. We have a busy weekend planned which I hope to share next week.
Have a good weekend!
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Ok, so let me get this right…they can carry 2 to 3 birds in their mouth at the same time or one, bring it to you then go back for the 2nd or 3rd? I just really love these posts when you answer stuff! So interesting!! You have no idea how relieved I feel that the snakes aren’t an issue! I’ve gotten so attached to your crew that they are like my little virtual family members!
They retrieve one bird at time. The difficulty with multiple marks is remembering where they are. By the time they pick up the first one and bring it back, they sometimes forget where the others are.
Thanks for joining the FUF blog hop! Poor Storm, I noticed the baldness in a couple of the photos you posted this week, pregnancy really does wreak havoc!!
I take daily eye drops and I can tell you that some of them really do sting! Especially if the eye is irritated in any way. I’m glad he is feeling better though.
have a great weekend!!
The pups always looks so happy and proud doing their thing 🙂 Glad the eye is getting better! I think we want to move to your cabin if there are no ticks…they are so bad in our area, it is awful!
There may not be ticks, but there are mosquitoes, gnats and black flies aplenty. They keep me pretty much inside May-July.
Sad how those miniscule creatures can ruin the lives of beings that are millions of times bigger than they are!
Great news about Freighters’ eye. Hopefully it will be looking OK in a day or so. BOL not allowed to eat them, I would try but then again I am naughty. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
I’m glad his eye is healing. Putting in drops is no fun. Silas is small enough that we could lift him onto the dining room table when he needed eye medicine. Being up high made him too uncertain to squirm away. I’m guessing Freighter’s a bit big for that trick.
Hi Y’all!
Hey there Freighter! So happy to hear your eye is feelin’ better!
Ticks aren’t a problem here on the Southeastern coast. Mosquitoes are. Never saw a May fly. Flies generally are no problem. My Human says she never saw a May fly until she was in Rhoode Island visiting.
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
That’s pretty great that they can find a bird based on the handler’s directions and not even knowing where it is at. I bet that’s rewarding after you’ve practiced with the dog so long and are finally able to get to that level.
Great roundup! I’ve wondered about the bird eating thing too!
Hope you have a great weekend.
Great FUF. we have many ticks by us. i hate them.
Did you say that you use Frontline Plus too?
I use vectra 3 d. i used to use frontline since that is what we carried at the clinic but now we carry vectra since frontline went over the counter. frontline is a good product. vectra will kill and repel mosquitios.
Ticks…the bane of outdoor active dogs…the seresto collar is doing a good job for us this year and i’ve found a gadget called a tick key that makes removal fast and simple…Want you to know how much I love the photos of your dogs working in the field…they’re always so joyous and wonderful to see
I enjoy seeing everyone’s questions and getting the answers. We get answers to questions we did not think to ask. I’m happy Storm is back to work since I’m sure she missed retrieving while being a Mom 🙂
Great roundup! We have snakes and ticks here – I prefer snakes, ticks are loathsome!
Great FUF, thanks for joining, sorry so late in commenting. You always do such a great job answering everyone’s questions.
My vet said the ticks are the worse she has seen this year, the one vet tech said in all the years she has worked at the clinic (I think over 12) she had never seen ticks until this year. She showed me a jar of them, all sizes, ick!!