It’s 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 from Heart Like A Dog and co-host Kari from Hound Girl for hosting the hop!

Follow Up Friday 6-14-13

Thank you for all of the kind words about Thunder.  I am glad that so many of you found that post helpful and informative.  Some of you shared your experiences of the dogs who did not survive GDV.

Dogs like marie olson’s  daughter’s German Shepard who sadly passed just the prior weekend from GDV.  Gizmo’s person  shared that she had also lost a GSD.  And Misty Shores Chesapeakes shared that one of our Chessie friends, Robin Z, lost a Chessie to this, (I did not know this).  I am sorry for all of you who lost a dog or know of a dog lost to the condition.

I asked the ER doctor at the time of Thunder’s surgery why they did not study the condition more and her response to me was that they could not find a common link.  There were so many variables that they just could not duplicate it.  Although we know some things to do to try to prevent it, the causes are still a mystery.

For those of you interested in learning more about the preventative surgery, Ann at Pawsitively Pets  recently wrote a post about it titled: Gastropexy – Surgical Bloat Prevention in Dogs.  This is well worth the read.

Monday Mischief–No Connection

Wireless router died.  Not a good time.

Emmadog commented: No internet, no good mood at my house! Mom would be at Sam’s or Best Buy getting a new router as soon as the store opened. Hope you are back up and running soon!

I had to wait until after work, but that is exactly what I did.  Off to Sam’s, purchase made and we were back online.  🙂

Gizmo asked: Curious as to what make Storm hesitate at the water…Was there anything strange going on along the shore?

We are curious too.  There was a bit of cover along the shoreline.  Since the babies she has not been tackling hazards like she used to.  Even the strip of cover on land  made her hesitate.  We figure that it could be a hormone thing, (she is still a little squishy personality-wise), or maybe she just needs a bit more time to heal from having the babies.  We hope she will get over her tentativeness before the test.  Stinker has started breaking this week.  (Going before released.)  She may be on her way to being back.

Cover? No Problem

Gizmo asked:  When you added that second strip of cover did you significantly increase the distance that the dogs were used to running?

No we did not increase the distance.  In fact when you add hazards, you can almost decrease the distance because their presence makes it more difficult for the dog.  We did move Freighter up to run this double.  For a young dog, you want to get the angle between the marks as close to 90 degrees as possible.  It makes it an easier double.  Also the quicker the dog can get to the mark, the less likely to forget where the others are in the field.

slimdoggy asked:  Thanks for answering all these questions – having retrievers it’s really fascinating to learn about their true calling. Unfortunately neither of my guys retrieves anything…not even balls. They are both rescues (at ages 8-9) and it seems either never learned about the joys of retrieving or it was discouraged. Any ideas for getting them back into it? I’d love it if they just fetched a ball – although maybe I’m putting my own sense of what should be fun onto them?

This is a bit hard to answer because I do not know your dogs.  Retrieving is a trait that is bred into a dog.  You never know how a dog is going to turn out (even with selective breeding), but if you look at a pedigree you can get a good idea.  The problem with a lot of the more popular retriever breeds is that the “drive” to retrieve has been bred out of them.  A driven dog can be a challenge to live with, especially when they are young.  Many breeders have elected to go with dogs that are more passive and obedient.  If you have a dog with an unknown pedigree, then you really do not know what is behind that dog retrieving-wise.

That is not to say that a rescue dog, or family pet cannot be a credible retriever.  When Thunder was a pup, he trained with a gundog trainer who could go to the pound and pick a dog that would turn into a fabulous retriever.  I also know of people who acquired a dog (either from a breeder or rescue) which they thought would just be a pet.  These people became interested in hunt testing and were off and running and doing quite well.

If your dogs will chase a ball, then you may be able to get them to retrieve.  With young pups, one of the first things we get them to do is chase a ball.  Then hopefully they pick it up and finally we work on bringing it back.  For young dogs the going is way more important than bringing it back.  With older dogs (8-9), you may have a bit of an uphill battle.  But you never know until you try.  Just keep it positive and have fun.  🙂

Wordless Wednesday–Focus

I really do love that picture of Freighter.  I try to get these kinds of pictures all of the time, but with cover, they are rarely in “focus”.  I was really happy to get that one.

Hawk aka BrownDog asked: Did he run over top of the camera person?

No such luck.  The camera person was standing behind a row of cover and there was a duck between me and him so the duck stopped him cold.

slimdoggy wrote:  That Freighter is like a freight train….look out!

His nick name just happens to be “Freight Train”.  🙂

This ‘N That Thursday

Emmadog asked:  How much time a week do you spend training and do you train several days a week?

Sue at Talking Dogs asked:  You may already have addressed this, but I’m curious about how much time you spend in training. And when you have a dog with a professional trainer, how much time a day is that dog actually in training activities?

This time of year the dogs get out 4-5 times a week.  It depends on the weather of course because we train after work most days.  I do not always have to go along.  If my husband is working blinds, then there really isn’t anything I need to do to help.  My husband will also work obedience with them in the yard or basement if he doesn’t go out to a field.

If we are throwing marks, the time involved depends on the set up.  We need to rest the dogs between runs.  With three dogs, that is easier to have the rest time while the other two are running.  During the work week we usually keep training to about an hour.  it may go longer or shorter depending on how the dogs do.

When we go to the training grounds, we usually take the field for 3-3 1/2 hours.  We can pack a lot in and spend a bit more time setting out our equipment.

But over all, it is hours and hours, which add up to years.  Getting a Chessie to Master level tests requires a lot of time and patience.  A lot.  Many people think you can do a bit and the dog is good to go.  That has not been our experience.

The pro trainer that we use trains 6 days a week.  Three of the days are spent at the same training grounds where we train.  Again the actual time the dog is running depends on the set-up and what the trainer is working on with that dog on that particular day.  The actual time involved is not as important as the concepts they are learning.  Some dogs learn certain concepts quicker than others.  An average Master Test set-up may take 10 minutes if you are running a triple and blinds.  You may run 3 or more set-ups a day.  Singles would go much quicker.  Long swims could take much longer.  You fit in what you can.

FleaByte asked:  How and why did you end up with Chesapeakes and doing retrievals?

My husband wanted a hunting dog.  Chesapeakes seemed the way to go for the type of hunting he does, (cold weather duck hunting and upland).  As for how we got involved in the hunt test game, last summer I wrote a post about it: From WD To WDQ.  I invite you check it out for the whole (long) story.

We are supposed to hit 90 degrees this weekend.  Have a nice one!

Thanks again to Jodi from Heart Like A Dog and co-host Kari from Hound Girl for hosting the hop!

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