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20.5 Lbs Rosie's last week has been packed with new experiences. Our trip to the field gave Rosie her first chance to experience some really long running water. Well long for her anyway. We did a couple of water marks in the 35 yard range and She was looking for more when we called it quits. This was a truly satisfying thing to see. She also has a new favorite retrieve item. It seems she truly loves the dokken dead fowl bumpers I use for the big dogs. She is quite a sight to see when she is trying to carry something that is almost as big as she is. The best part is that she manages to do so just fine. Over the weekend we also set up some big dog, test type scenarios for Rusty. We used the 4 wheeler to do this a Rosie went along for the ride. As expected she was a bit apprehensive at first but soon decide it was OK. We had a chance to release six live quail for her to hunt up in some light cover. Not as marks but simply released for her to find. The first was a complete surprise to her. The second was also stumbled upon but after that she actively started searching for another. She found the next on her own and the remaining three were left for Rusty. Yes, we have discontinued live birds as marks for Rosie. The released quail were a simple way of promoting nose use and to encourage pup to get in the heavier cover. Both of these things are habits we will want with a finished dog and I do believe it is easier to turn this down a notch sometime down the road if we need to than it is to add into a pup. For now we will encourage it. Rosie continues to increase the distance that she is willing to go for a retrieve. On land and in open cover she will pick up anything I can throw by hand. Our next step in increasing distance will be to use a tennis ball on hard surface. The ball will roll quite a distance past where I can throw a bumper and will set the stage for her first launched dummies. As already mentioned table work was put on hold for a few days. We will resume table work after our hunt test this weekend and I expect that it will last another week or two. The sit command was put to the test in the field and I am very happy with the results. Only final conditioning of this command remains to be done and that happens much further down the road. The "kennel" command is not being forced but rather it is simply uttered any time Rosie is asked to enter/exit anything. It will take care of itself. "Come" is our next required command and it will be handled on the table next week. A note on feeding: Rosie is now being transitioned to twice a day feeding. This is something I like to do when pups are around the 20 pound mark but prior to that food is always available. We will be out of town for a hunt test this weekend and I have decided Rosie will enter the puppy stake if there is one at this event. Something tells me she will do just fine.............. For the next diary entry, please visit Week 13 of Rosie's Journal. |
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