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 for inviting me to co-host this week.  I always enjoy co-hosting this hop.  If you haven’t met Jodi from Heart Like A Dog stop on over and say “Hi” or better yet, grab the badge and join the hop!

Lots of follow-up this week!

Follow-up Friday 9-13-13

thatjenk commented:  I wonder if there would be a way to train a dog to just move forward in a straight line – and put that to a verbal cue/whistle. That would be tough, I think, but would be an interesting way to try to get around it – teaching them to go straight vs. going for bumpers.

In a nutshell, that is what we are trying to teach when we teach handling to blind retrieves.  We are trying to teach the dog to run or swim in a straight line until their handler stops them and directs them to go in a different direction.  We work on the long straight lines as much as we work on anything else.  The command we use is “back”.  But as you say, it is not easy because so many different things draw the dogs off line.

I took some video of Storm and Freighter running some land blinds, but I have to edit it a bit.  I hope to have it ready soon.  It may give you a better idea of what running a blind looks like and how they can be pulled off line.

Rosa Caldwell asked:  Loved seeing their runs and houses. Those are real nice. Do you bring them in your house often especially in your winter when it gets so cold.

They never spend nights outside.  They spend part of the day in their runs.  We put lots of straw and the houses are insulated so unless it is really cold, they can be outside for part of the day even in the winter.

Pam | Words With Wieners asked:  But something you said leads me to another question… you said, “Thunder will be neutered either this year or next so we figured we would put him in the ring one more time.” I assume that means one more time before being neutered.  So this begs me to ask, what changes after that? Are altered dogs not allowed to compete in show? Must show dogs be intact?

A conformation show is to evaluate breeding stock, so yes, all dogs competing must be intact.  There is a small exception for Specialty Shows (all one breed).  Spayed and neutered dogs can be entered in the Veterans class (age 7 or 8 and up) if the club putting on the show wants to allow it and they put that information in the show premium.

Monday Mischief–Dog Show Mischief

Gosh you guys are a tough crowd and maybe just a bit partial to Freighter.  🙂  The dog that won is a very nice dog and he finished his Championship on Saturday.  Congrats to him!  He is more mature than Freighter and moves really well.  Freighter’s day will come, but he needs to mature a bit.

Gizmo asked:  The photo of Freighter and the Winner brought up a question…They look very different in build to me…Freighter looks taller and sleeker while the winner is more compact…I know that for years there’s been a gulf between “field Labradors” and “show Labrador” with the field dogs being slimmer and leggier and the show dogs being shorter and bulkier (maybe not the best word)…my question is whether there’s a similar gap in Chessies…do you also divide the dogs between field and show?

Chessies still produce Dual Champions.  Not many retriever breeds can do that.  A Dual Champion is both a Field and a Conformation champion.  It is a huge achievement.  I would say that there is no real split because many show dogs also hunt and/or run hunt tests.  (There are not as many running field trials, but they are out there.)  However, there are tensions with field and show breeders or maybe more correctly those that breed a conformationally correct hunting dog and those that just breed for the ring.   Some show breeders are ever so slightly attempting to change the breed to more of a cookie cutter type show dog.  It will be a shame if that happens,  (but that is a rant that I won’t get into here…lol).  You might be interested to know that the dog which took Best of Breed Saturday went out hunting with his owner and retrieved some geese after the show.

The difference you see between Freighter and Winners Dog is one of maturity.  Winners Dog is 4 years old.  Freighter needs to mature and he will.  He still looks very young to me.

Several of you asked about co-ownership.  I am asked all the time about it.  Last February I wrote a post all about it.  You can read that post here.

Picky Eaters

This was a fun post.  I loved reading all the comments of picky vs. non-picky eaters.  I am glad I am not the only one with a picky eater.  🙂

Jodi commented:  Sampson is more of the picky eater vs the Inhaler. Once upon a time he wouldn’t eat Milk Bones (hell I guess I don’t blame him much on that front) the thing is the bank hands out Milk Bones. One day the teller gave him a Milk Bone and he politely took it and then I found it in my purse later. He has gotten better as he has aged, willing to try more things if you will but there are still some things he won’t eat. Milk Bones is no longer one of them though, I recently discovered that is what our vet has in there treat jar and he noms the heck out of them. LOL I guess their tastes can change as well as ours.

Sampson is a silly boy.  Remember Storm with the Milk Bones during her pregnancy?  Those junk-food cookies saved her from being sick all the time.  She scarfed them up.

I purchased a few other flavors of Platefulls to try.  Hubby had the idea to empty the pouch into a small storage container and scoop out each serving.  Hubby is so practical.  That is what we will do.

I plan to post about Nestle next week including how she came to live here, and how she gets along with the doggies.  Stay tuned for that.

Wordless Wednesday–Father And Daughter

Hawk aka BrownDog commented:  Smokey’s coat looks a lot like mine…all wavy…like what my Human calls “the old time Chessies” with which she grew up.

I am anxious to see what Freighter’s coat ends up looking like.  He should start getting in his adult coat this season.  He coat is pretty sparse at the moment.

This ‘N That Thursday

I mentioned that antlers were a big thing in our house.  Well they are to Freighter.  He can be a bit too possessive of them.  We stopped giving them to him for a time, but he still wants to chew after meals and they help keep teeth nice and clean.  We gave him this antler and are working on him cheerfully giving it up.  He will trade the antler for a cookie.  It doesn’t have to be a fancy cookie or a big cookie, any cookie will do.  He hears the bag, drops the antler and comes running.  We will see how it goes.

That is all I have this week.  Hunting season is upon us and someone is anxious to get out and try his luck.  The dogs should enjoy their weekend.

Have a nice one!

Thanks so much to Jodi from Heart Like A Dog for asking me to co-host her hop this week!

See who else is hopping along!
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