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>>>The
first retrieve was, uhh, well, "tentative." My impression was perhaps
the
deficiencies were a training issue - not so much lake of training, but
the kind of
training - the dog did not appear happy with close approach
to the handler.
Been there, done that myself. I suspect that might
be Cj's take too, if he were
still with
us.
Jere>>
The sloppy delivery is more or less a standard
among the Scandinavian setters ( I do not know the pointers enough to have an
opinion). Our late Sunnie, that came to be only 6 months old, was a very rare
exception. She had a for setters very unusual will to please (co-operation) and
would have made wonderful deliveries in the future, had she been permitted to
live on.
With the new puppy Larka we are back to the
Scandinavian basics. I do not think we can depend much on cooperation
here but force fetch will be the name of the game and that does
rarely produce "happy like a spaniel" - like deliveries. The delivery might
be technically proper but if you study the eyes of some setters you will see
that the dog thinks something like a war hardened soldier might think when
he for some unexpected reason has to guide a bunch of rich and
spoiled New York ladies through a modern art gallery; I HATE this
crap!
The unsteadiness at flush is a much
more serious thing. Most dogs are trained to be "just" steady at
flush when the hunting is relaxed. The vicinity of a video-camera might be
enough to put so much strain (performance anxiety) on the handler so that
the dog senses it also, gets tensed and bolts at flush. And since there are
no re-takes in the mountains, that is what you have to show if you want to show
something. So as always: If you want the handler and dog perform well in a
certain situation - train for that situation!
We photograph a lot of dogs and some for
photography untrained combinations of dog and handler are totally
impossible to get a reasonably good photo of. Not before the dog and handler are
entirely used to the vicinity of a camera, and no longer take a notice of it,
will you get the best pictures.
Torsti
BORTA MED VINDENS KENNEL
"Ask not what your dog
can do for you,
ask what you can do for your dog"
www.rospigan.net
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