Rain, rain go the heck away...for a bit anyway

It was a drizzly day today. And it was a little cold too. Just my favorite type of weather. NOT! Gunner and I went for a nice run/walk and we also played with the retrieval dummy for our 10-15min class. Then we played with the tennis ball. He actually seemed to be doing better giving up the ball than the dummy?? Maybe that is because he gets access to the ball all the time and the dummy only when training. I am going to see if we can catch some wild pigeons this week to work Gunner with. I am going to be getting him a new training collar. His flat one or harness makes it hard to correct him. The flat one lets him drag me all over unless I really pull on him. Not good for him or me. I have the E-collar but will not be using that until I know he knows what I want and after we go to the NAVHDA training day. So I know how to use it.

But Mom, it's not really a bird

Todays first lesson was... I can come back to you but it is so much fun to run by and not stop.

Todays second lesson was..I guess I'd better mind or no playing with the weird orange bird-thing and no treats. So Ok I'll mind.

I just know that is what Gunner was thinking today as we did some yard work. It was still a bit cool outside but nice and sunny. I figured we'd work on some recall and retrive for fun today. He did pretty well but at about 15 minutes he just wanted to run around and be silly. In his big goofy way so we ended the lesson with a few, sit, come and sit again drills. Then just played at trying to get the robins, mockingbirds and any other flying bird in the area.

Study Day

Had a stomach issue today so we did some reading and studying.

I also had a chance to ask Ann of one of the great Weim breeder/handlers some questions. She was really great in helping me and pointing me..so to speak in the right direction. Gunner was very excited to read how to be a great Bird Dog. We also did some retrieving the Dummy and Recall work in the yard. It was a weird weather day here. This morning it was snowing some and this afternoon the sun was just beaming down but the dreaded wind was still blowing. Have I mentioned I do not love the wind all that much.

Some Pics of the boy working the bushes:

First day of blogging...

Welcome to the first day of blogging and my adventure with Gunner in training to Hunt/field trial. Gunner is my 8 month old Blue Weimeraner. I am a 49 year old Mom and Grandmom. So I don't know who has the biggest learning curve. I'll try to tell how wonderful it is to see Gunner learning to do what he was bred to do and what his instinct tells him is his purpose.

I have to tell you the stuff you have to learn and know to train a dog for this is alot and sometimes confusing. But the joy in just watching him run like water over the field and stop nose all quiver and little nubbin tail straight out and leg pulled up tight to his chest. It is amazing to see. I'll be posting some pics and use this as my training diary and note my results and the mistakes we make. By we I mean probably me. Looking forward....