Alter several hundred shoots, here’s the new posing photos.

Eddie:

Alfie:

We have been training in order to pass the test on October 3rd.

Last Monday Eddie did extremely well: the game came straight to my hand.

We were training with 2 crows and 1 seagull with our friend Donna.

On Thursday I went to the basic obedience training with Eddie and after coming back home I did a short retrieval training with the seagull. It went well. As there is a bond in my plot it is quite easy to train the dogs to retrieve from the water.

This Saturday we will have a guest and will do some training with her. There’s 2 crows and 2 seagulls melting since Friday for it.

Then on Sunday (tomorroe) we will go to the local lake and do some “serious” water retrieving (with longer distance).

Also some training planned for Monday. There is still need to train after the Monday.

Hopefully this will give Eddie confidence to succeed in the test next Saturday.

Hi,

Yesterday was Finley’s grade 1 & it was abysmal.  After practicing it “paw perfect” for three days he decided to break his sit stay & go to meet & greet the examiner & the dummy thrower.

The first retrieve he did well.  However the second retrieve he tried to give to the dummy thrower who was hiding in the bushes.  At this point Finley dropped the dummy, went to the loo & sat & waited patiently for Martin the dummy thrower to come out the bushes.

During this I was whistling & calling him back.  I am sure he was saying “Whatever” and “speak to the paw.”

Today we relaxed with swimming in the river.

Baxter starts training for his KCGC Gold next week.  I am hoping this will be less traumatic.

Rgds

Michelle

It has been a while since my last post here.

Donna is now happily home. She was very happy to be here and spending a week with my boys, cats & goats. She really got used to them all.

Last Sunday we were training together (Donna & the boys + also Donna’s sister).

Eddie is enrolled to field trial on October 3rd so I’m hoping he will be picking up crows on his own by then. He is still not quite sure if he wants to pick them. If I throw the crows, then he is picking them up but if he needs to retrieve them without them being thrown, that might cause some problems.

So please keep your fingers grossed that everything will go fine next month and he passes the test. Donna’s owners have already given us champagne for it.

It has been very busy for Donna, the visiting lab.

She has seen goats and cats at my place, and Wednesday I took her to the horse stable.

Today was her 4th day here and the walks are getting longer for her. Here you can see the tour (map) with photos.

When I moved here last year, Otto the neighbor dog, (RIP) was quite fat but during his last year he was getting fit & lost lot of weight and wasn’t fat at all.

Donna isn’t overweight at all, but she is getting fitter here

My boys are very fit. I have tried to make them tired by taking them for a long bicycle ride (15 km) but after it they were not tired at all. You cannot say the same about me…. I need to get more fit. I used to be very fit but I’ve been a bit lazy lately. At least I’m back in the track again.

We have a brand new whistle.

The pink whistle supports the cause of breast cancer.

A good whistle, just like my “orginal” one with the same tone too. I already tested it on Tuesday when we went for a walk with the dogs.

Here’s more photos of the “Jäkälä” , Lichen, that Michelle was asking about

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