I once met a papillon that could balance a treat in his nose, on command he threw it up in the air and, here comes the one I was extremely impressed with, did not swallow until given an okay!

I tried to teach one of my American cocker spaniels that once, she was a wreck for a week, mentally after that... This is the utter most controlling thing I've seen a dog be okay with! The second one is sausage retrieving with spaniels.

But today we happened to retrieve a meatball. As we were playing with a toy, and throwing it to check our stop signal, I had a meatball as well in my hand. When Iza was really into the game I threw it, just to check that she stops and goes down. She did not lay down with out a signal, stopping yes, sitting yes, but not laying. So we have to work on that. But I happened to throw the meatball as well. Her solution to do a retrieve when there's a Not Okay object in the area close to the toy is, and has always been, to pretend it doesn't exist. But what happens if I ask her to retrieve the Not Okay object? I had to trie! Well first of all we both have to be close to that obect, second I naturally have an equal tasty meatball to change th Not Okay one with and I had to be okay with a lot of commands, positive talking and a hole or two in the meatball, but she actually did it!

I was afraid she would be a bit low after that, but it took about 15 minutes until she came and asked for a second go on that game. And when she figured it out she was very pleased with herself 😍

That was yesterday and to day we have managed to get a meat ball to travel 1 meter inside her mouth up to 3 times until it is too damaged ;)
​

Iza and I have been out playing and Becca is on restricted exercise, so she was not allowed to come and play with us. She has injured a paw, and is limping, so it will take some time until she's cured.

Yesterday I took Iza out in our garden to do some climbing and diving, up on rickety things to find treats, under, trough and over tarp, fences, narrow things. We had quite fun out there until it started to ❄️Today I took her to the playground and climbed up to the slide, on the balance board, up to the wheel slide. The first time she managed halfway in all of them, but the second time around she climbed them all. She was quite proud of herself afterwards ☺️

Indoors we've been working on three different little things, the square- or stepping up on to a newspaper, back - or from lie down jump backwards to sit, and to find the heel position with out a wall next to us. None of them is a sure thing yet, but there's no hurry - the important thing is to have fun.

I just been out kick biking with Iza, and wow, just wow!
First of all, I've only tried it once with her before and that was the first time she had a harness on, so it was more or less me pulling her around with a kick bike. That's 3 months ago, and she is not a baby but a strong young woman now. No we don't go far and no she doesn't have to pull much as it's quite flat and we either have Becca to do the heavy things or Martin kicks and run. But I can't run and as my pelvis is badly damaged I have a hard time to do the kicking as well. But as Martin took Tilde for swimming, Becca has a sore paw and Iza was like a wound up toy, the making Iza more tired fell on me.
And she is fast, very, very fast and strong. I had to walk her a bit in the middle next to the traffic and she pulled the bike off the ground when she took off! Well that's an experience.

The latest weeks has been a mixture of sickness, illness and lousy weather - so we have been heel working, meatball working and kick biking. Well to be honest, we have not been kick biking, Martin and the dogs has ;)
I´ve been reading the rules, bits and parts about the new obedience classes. Some things are quite natural for me and Iza, and some will be a real project to succed in. As it´s over 13 years since I even trained obedience and then with a really un motivated dog, so I´m not sure if we should count that as seriously ... Don´t ask me why I brought a cocker, who was running of to the gun owner everytime any one fired a gun, instead of any of the springers. I guess I didn´t really wanted to succed ;)

This time I have a clever and bright dog, who is trying to calculate my every move, and trying to do it befor I even ask for it. That is definetly a challange. Like when you plan to train her in 'sit - stay' for a longer moment. When I did that exercise with her as a puppy, I more often used the exercise trying to make her lay down and relax, so I i say Sit - STAY, guess what she does... Yup she lay down and relax 😅

so this time around I will have both brain and motivation in the dog, the thing is to channel it all in the right direction 😅

What I have done this far, is taking the different figures in class 3, broken them down to bits and pieces, to be able to use those bits from the start. That way beginners class is never a goal, but a way to check that the training are progressing and to keep the motivation up. If we every come to start is all up to me, the dog has potential though.

Becca is much easier to keep motivated, to have in a high energy level and who doesn't proceed my directions. The negative thing is that we can do the same things over and over again and it will take much longer time until she does not need double, triple, quadruple commands and she's still surprised and gives me a look of
Wow I didn't see that one coming even after the 35th time 😜

I really tried to capture Iza when she did her own studies of the obedience competition regulations, but she did quite intense studies 😅😜🤓 #epagneulbreton #epagneulbretonlovers #brittanyspaniel #brittany #obediencetraining #gundogtraining #gundog #gundogsofinstagram

We finally got time and weather for som work in the fields today. Longer days and no snow seemed way too tempting to be ignored. So we took the dogs to Lanna and my parents fields, which Iza obviously thought she had outgrown when she exploded and was all over the place. Not just the fields, but the stables, and everything with in reach (and she does have a wide reach range 😅)

As she was a bit (more than suitable) over loaded energy wise, I knew that her hearing might be a bit selective to begin with. What I did not expect was the increase in speed that she had gained the last three weeks. It was like she had gained yet another gear or an extra turbo! Like a bouncing ball and airborne! Well we have a lot more to work with now, but we have a plan and the aids to get there.

The hard thing is never to get the direction ability back, well if you once have had it, the trouble is to do that with out loosing speed. You can always "tie" the dog harder to you, and through that get better control,  but you will loose speed by that, and width. So we got to work on the TRUST thing, I have to trust that she listens, and she have to trust that my commands are wise.
Through doing both traditional heel work , she gets to know my signals and she is more sure in what I ask for.
Through climbing, resquing and helping each other out in new and a bit scary or un usual situations we learn how to trust each other in different situations. And that combined with just direction training in a larger scale, separated from the field work, we hope to be able to get there.

So we separate the direction training from the fields for a period now, as we have a time in this country that dogs are not allowed to run or train free in the grounds, that will be the only option soon any case. We aren't allowed to be out working the dogs, out of leash, from the 1 st of March to the 20 th of August, not even on your own grounds, as birds are nesting and mother nature needs her nursery. So we will have to be either behind fences or in a leash soon.

My plan for the trust area is a few at the moment, a lot of them needs a car and a bit of travel to be arranged, others is easily done. We will walk on suspension bridges, metall stairs, trampoline, jump down from hights to my lap, climb things together and so on. As Iza is quite comfortable with what ever, it might not be as successful as if she had been a more hesitant dog, but it´s a way to get the bond stronger.

Becca, well I tried to do the work with her  first in the fields- we switched dogs... Well I will just put it like this, we switched back, but Becca listen when I argued with Iza. And she worked soooooo good. I´m so proud of her, eventhough she thinks I´m a gnat and ignores me most of the time in the field. At least she listened very well to Martin  now and did a great work. Naturally a bit lower in speed, that vcomes with the asking for if it is okay, but the pattern, the eagerness to get it all right. She was great!

Now I really have to work, after yet another night of sickness, this time our eldest daughter. At least they take turn and so do the parents here. But unfortunately taking turns with work does not apply. So Martin is of to the kennel Club for yet another study weekend and I will work on our family buisness =)

Så fick vi äntligen tid och väder för lite arbete på fälten i dag. Längre dagar och ingen snö gjorde det mer än frestande att ge sig ut. Så vi tog hundarna till Lanna och mina föräldrars fält, vilka Iza uppenbarligen tyckte att hon hade vuxit ifrån när hon exploderade och var överallt. Inte bara på fälten, utan även stallplanen och allt annat inom räckhåll räknades visst in (och hon har en stor räckvidd nu mera 😅)

Nu hon lite för (mer än lämpligt) överladdad energimässigt, så jag visste att hennes hörsel skulle vara lite selektiv till att börja med. Vad jag inte hade en aning om var ökningen i hastighet som hon hade tillskansat sig de senaste tre veckorna. Det var som om hon hade hittat ännu en växel eller försetts med en extra turbo! Som en studsande boll och med vingar! Jo vi har mycket mer att arbeta med nu, men vi har en plan och hjälpmedel för att komma dit, tror vi.

Det svåra är inte att få dirrigerbarheten tillbaka, inte om du en gång har haft den, problemet är att göra det utan att förlora hastigheten. Du kan alltid "knyta" hunden hårdare till dig och genom att få bättre kontroll, men du kommer att förlora hastighet genom det och bredd. Så vi ska arbeta på förtroende biten istället, jag måste lita på att hon lyssnar, och hon måste lita på att mina kommandon är värda att lyssna på.
Genom att göra både traditionellt lydnadsarbete, där hon får lära känna mina signaler och bli mer säker i vad jag ber om.
Genom klättring, räddning och hjälpa varandra i nya och lite läskiga eller ovanliga situationer, där vi lära oss att lita på varandra i olika situationer. Och det i kombination med ren dirrigeringsträning på större ytor, halt separat från  fältarbetet, så hoppas vi att kunna komma dit.

Så vi separerar dirrigeringsträningen från fältarbetet under en period nu, eftersom vi har en tid i detta land att hundar inte får springa eller träna lösa i naturen, så det kommer att vara det enda tillgängliga alternativet snart i alla fall. Vi måste hålla hundarna inom staket eller i koppel från den 1: a mars till 20: e augusti, inte ens på dina egna marker får hunden vara lös, eftersom fåglar häckar och moder natur behöver sin barnkammare. Så vi måste vara antingen bakom stängsel eller i koppel snart.

Min plan för arbetet på förtroende området är flera just nu, för en hel del av dem behöves en bil och lite resor ordnas, andra är lätt gjort. Vi kommer att gå på hängbroar, metalltrappor, studsmatta, hoppa ner från höjder till mitt famn, klättra på saker tillsammans och så vidare. Eftersom Iza är rätt bekväm i de flesta situationer nu, så blir det inte riktigt lika effektivt som om jag gjort det under en period när hunden är mer instabil i sin mentala utveckling, samtidigt kan sådan arbete under en mognads fas få motsatt effekt om man inte lyckas med varje moment men det är ett sätt att få ett ökat förtroende för varandra.

Becca, jo jag försökte att göra det första arbetet med henne på fältet - vi bytte hundar en stund... Jag kommer bara säga så här, vi bytte tillbaka! Men Becca lyssna när jag hade ett allvarssnack med Iza. Och hon arbetade såååååå bra, med Martin. Jag är så stolt över henne, även om hon tycker att jag är en irriterande mygga och ignorerar mig för det mesta på det området. Hon lyssnade mycket väl till Martin nu och gjorde ett bra arbete. Naturligtvis i lite lägre hastighet, vilket kommer automatiskt i och med att först måste be om lov eller kolla av att det är okej innan hon utför det, men mönstret, och viljan att göra rätt. Hon var kanon!

Nu måste jag verkligen att jobba istället för att skriva, efter ännu en natt av kräkande, den här gången vår äldsta dotter. De turar åtminstone  om med det hela och det gör föräldrarna med. Men tyvärr har jag ingen att turas om med vad det gäller arbete. Så Martin är med Kenneln klubben för ännu en helg med studier och jag får arbeta med familjeföretaget =)

Some things fell and look so simple, and still when you come to practise it in real life situations they might not work at all. Like the stop, sit, lay down signal and Becca. At our last hunt, she was like deaf, and first we blamed it on her being in heat, then I worked with her silently, no sound and well, her contact was really lacking. Now I´ve tried with the whistle signal again and all of a sudden found out, that indoors on her way towards me a long signal mean lie down. On a long signal outdoors beside or towards me it means sit, but a long signals means nothing outdoors if she has her back to me and indoors it´s more of an itch than anything else. Okay she is one of a kind in another way than other. We have a new project ;)

Iza and I have a new little project to. We started with the word "heel", if I want to compete in obedience some day in the future it is a must, so we have tried it twice today. The first session I showed her the way in to my side, the second time around is started with showing and then just gave her the command. She tried if it could be the jump command (She has figured out that Jump can be upwards in thin air as well as over a fence) but as she did not get the treat she did the right thing, twice. So now we have two commands to work on, plus all the others that we need to keep in mind "Jump and Heel". It might be a good idea to actually look in to the rules for the easiest obidience classes before I do anything else...

Vissa saker låter och ser så enkelt ut, och ändå när man kommer till att praktisera det i verkliga situationer så kanske de inte fungerar alls. Liksom stopp, sitta, ligg signalen och Becca. Vid vår senaste jakt, hon var som döv, och först vi skyllde det på hennes löp, så jag testade ju att jobba med henne tyst, utan ljud och väl, var hennes kontakt verkligen dålig. Nu har jag försökt med visselpipe signalen igen och helt plötsligt upptäcker ja att inomhus på väg mot mig betyder en lång signal ligg ner. På en lång signal utomhus bredvid eller mot mig betyder det sitt, men en lång signaler betyder ingenting utomhus om hon har ryggen mot mig, och inomhus det är mer som klåda i örat än något annat. Okej hon är en av ett slag på ett annat sätt än andra. Vi har ett nytt projekt ;)

Iza och jag har en ny liten projekt. Vi började med ordet "fot", för om jag nu vill tävla i lydnad en dagdet är ett måste, så vi har försökt det två gånger idag. Den första sessionen så visade jag henne vägen in till min sida, den andra gången startade jag med att visa och sedan bara gav henne kommandot. Hon testade om det kunde vara kommandot hoppa jaag var ute efter (hon har räknat ut att hoppa kan vara rakt uppåt i luften, lika väl över ett hinder) men eftersom hon inte fick belöniningen så provade hon det rätta, två gånger! Så nu har vi två kommandon att arbeta på, plus alla andra som vi behöver komma ihåg "Hoppa och Fot". Det kanske vara en bra idé att faktiskt titta på regler för de enklaste lydnadsklasserna innan jag gör något mer...

The silent training has given me a lot more information and knowledge about our two dogs. Becca becomes more aware and in touch with me when we work silently, she actually looks for my signals actively and asks for more work. Iza is always keen on working and comes to get me out of the office at least every second hour to do something. Becca has started to do that to after our silent days.

The silence is lacking a huge piece of the spectre that Iza and I use to communicate, but it has made double commands unnecessary, that is good!

Today we wanted something different to do, and as I've been using a cardboard box to hide things behind yesterday, I decided to use that. Iza has heard the word jump before, when she's been behind a fence or in and out of the car, but it has not had an exact meaning to her. Now I asked her to sit next to the box and told her jump. She tried all different things she could come up with but nothing in the right direction, so I added on finger pointing in the direction I wanted her to go. After two jumps with finger pointing, I stopped to show the direction. She jumped up on my leg, and was awarded for that. And then she jumped and jumped over the box 😂
Tilde who was there all the time said:
- Mum we have to hide that box now or she will be so disappointed when there will be no treats coming out of the air when she jumps back and forth while you work 😝
​That is our Iza, give her a quiz to solve and she will have the time of her life 😍😍😍

So now we have booked the X-ray for Iza & Edda, the 31st is the date we drive to Kalmar for that very importent health test. Fingers crossed!

The entries for Malmoe the 18th of March is official, 5 Braccos and 1 Brittany... Great number of Braccos, less fun with the Brittanys, one would whish that the interest in evaluating the exterior in the breed would be a bit bigger. Well we will be there to promote the breed and that is better than none =)

We are still working on the same little details in the heel work, "the Square/rutan, Back and Heel in differrent situations". The Back and Heel has had a great progress, she corrects her her position and due to the Backing signal she follows both backwards, forward and to the left. We are still working on side stepping to the right and the Square/Rutan, but one piece at the time. And indoors is one thing, outdoors is another, but you got to start some where =)

Now a bit of retrieving and marking and crawling under things and than just plain work for the human!

Oh Edda was to the SPA haridresser yesterday, and "a thousand times" thanks Jens, for taking your time with showing Pernilla how to do the essential stuff in between the SPA treatments. Pictures will follow...

Today's project, silent signals, it's as hard for me as the dogs. What's your signal for Yes? And stop, from behind the dog? We have to work on that 😂😂🤓


Dagens projekt, tysta signaler, vilket visade sig vara lika svårt för mig som för hundarna. Vad är ditt tecken för Varsågod? Eller Stopp, när du står bakom hunden? Vi har ett projekt att jobba med vill jag lova 😂😂🤓