Tuesday 9 December 2008

Jorja Updated

It's fair to say that the training methods used haven't had quite as much of a success rate as they did with Molly. The Wee Black Dug isn't fazed by such things as choke chains, harsh language or dunts on the snout to point out who's the boss. The Gundog Man was forced to admit that not only had she chased sheep the first couple of times he'd tried it, but she'd actually ran away from him altogether.

I didny get the impression that happens to him all that often.

She was so excited to see me when I went to pick her up that nothing TGM tried was having the slightest effect. The technique of getting her to sit and then putting a foot on the end of the lead attached to her collar to make her obey the "down" command sort of backfired when she lay on her back to get her tummy rubbed.

Still, fair play - she walks on the lead quite the thing, sits and stays, and even waits in the back of the car till she's told to jump out.

I need to work quite intensively with her on her own though, as the two of them together are too much to handle at this stage.

Molly's such a scaredy cat the the mere rattle of a choke chain still worries her, and I've managed to keep on top of her commands quite well - but you can already see that when the two of them are out together, they're feeding off each other's strength to try and disobey the commands.

So I think Jorja might be the first candidate for the "walk to heel up Glen Derry while ignoring the deer" masterplan. If I can get her to do what she's told, I reckon Molly would be happy to join in. That of course is the complete opposite to what I expected before they went to Lamington.

For the sake of completeness, the time in the kennels hasn't removed Jorja's thieving ability. She found a plastic bag on the worktop which contained a sealed packet of six Breakaway biscuits, and promptly snaffled the lot. Unsurprisingly, the biscuits made a spectacular reappearance - along with their plastic wrappers - an hour or two later. All over Marion's good rug.

It's nice to have the wee yin back.

2 comments:

  1. She's unstoppable.

    Gan yersel, wee Jorja!

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  2. LOL... Jorja beats the scary gundog man

    Not so bloody scary now, eh!

    :o)

    ReplyDelete