Over the last couple years, our pup Willow had some puppies. She actually had 20 puppies in two years. That's an insane amount of puppies. We had kept a pup out of the last batch but unfortunately, Mango had a farm accident and we were heartbroken.
Originally, I had said to wait until fall to get a dog because I absolutely did not want to drag a dog everywhere.
Obviously I immediately found us a puppy. Obviously.
She is a Springer Spaniel/Chesapeake lab x. This is new to us since we've only had labs and then Lab/Poodle. I had messaged Corey about it and he was like ... yeah sounds good. So the kids and I went to get her. She was WAY smaller than I was expecting. And ADORABLE. And stinking cute.
She came with us to the lake and was sweet and pretty potty trained - for the most part. My memory is kinda fuzzy on some aspects (trauma block probably). She came with us in the boat everywhere too. We soon discovered she had an umbilical hernia but we were already in love with her so it was monitored. It has actually almost completely gone away so it'll be repaired when she's spayed if it's still there.
Fast forward to the fall. I forgot how hard it is to train bird dogs to not bring you the birds that live in the yard. Benelli is an excellent bird dog. And rabbit dog. We have done ALL things and her obedience on leash is perfect. The moment she senses freedom though ... that girl is like ... I will retrieve all the things for you - dead or alive.
Now, we have even tried TWO separate shock collars and ... I kinda think she likes it. Here's how that went.
I got the new shock collar and put it on because we thought the other one just didn't work properly for her. We got it on nice and snug and then tried the 'buzzer/bell' sound. She would look at us. Perfect. Tried the vibration. She didn't like that. Perfect. Okay let's get outside.
Mistake #1: should have kept her on the leash.
She immediately takes off. So I use all my commands and when that doesn't work, I send the sound to her. Nada. She keeps running around. Okay I do the vibrate. That makes her a little uncomfortable but absolutely not enough to stop. I turn on the shock.
Absolutely freaking nothing. Just kidding. Not nothing. She stops and looks at me and I give her the command 'Here.' She's usually really good at that when there's nothing to chase.
Benelli: Got it. Run around some more.
So I raise the setting and she ignores me. You guys we got it all the way up to 30 and she was bouncing and jumping and I kinda think she liked it.
Corey: Well ... um ... we need a new plan.
Me: Yeah we sure do. (pause a moment) dammit I think she likes it.
#awesome, #dogtrainingabirddog, #definitelyretrieves
