Every year we go to an estate to retrieve pheasants and ducks. last year during the summer I was teaching my 4 year old dog a cue ("in way" as in "you are in the way") for when we are on the cart driving from shoot to shoot. Space is very limited there and I wanted her to sit between my legs facing forward. I worked fine at home, but in "RL" it fell apart... she doesn't really want to sit down on the moving cart, and as soon as we arrive she goes into higharousal - she is whining and climbing all over me. I forgot all about the "in way" cue.
This year on the first hunt she was rather fine for her standards - less whining, but on the second hunt she went through the roof. Ok, on the tird hunt, as the rest of the doghandlers were listening politely to the gamekeeper telling the guns of the day how to behave I sneaked off behind a building (at least that way people couldn't hear my darling dog) and we went through some of her clickertrained tricks. She likes the spin, so I started out with that. She jumped on me (when aroused she tries to climb up, apparently to get inside my earcanal) I turned my back for a few sec. to shake her off, and we tried again. This time she did a jumping spin (lol) On the third try she did the spin. In the few minutes we had I got her to where she could actually sit down and lift one paw at a time without jumping up. Which is quite amazing for her in that enviroment.
Ok on to the cart. As the doghandlers were getting in it was the usual mess of people and dogs (that day there were 16 handlers and 18 dogs present), and when somebody tried to squeeze through to get to the front (*sigh*) my dog was standing in the middle og the walking area.. with out thinking I said her name and "you are in the way" and wupsy.. she spun right around and sat down between my legs! to say I was amazed would be an understatement. i had completely forgotten that we had ever worked at that behaviour. Obviously she hadn't.
I won't try to claim that I had a calm, silent dog that day, but I did have a quieter-than-usual dog, she was able to take treats even in the first shoot and we had contact even when things went really fast. As usual she got better and better as the day progressed. all in all a good day, she had 40 retrieves during the first 3 shoots, unfortunately she had an accident and started limbing, so I had to let her stay in the car after lunch - (don't worry, she is fine, it was nothing serious) - which annoyed her very much indeed... lol
but I was amazed that doing the silly tricks that so many "serious" dog handlers scoff at had such a calming effect... I look forward to trying it again on Friday!
