They are astounding athletes who can run and jump like few other breeds.
She sounds like an Alpha like Honey. There have been several times when I wondered if we should have gotten her sweeter, more loving sister.
Sounds like you have the patience to be successful. My current dog has been the hardest dog to train that I’ve ever owned. However, she took to the canoe like a champ, and in a couple of weeks will be the real test with canoeing and portaging for 4 days in BWCA.
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We have Flat Coat Retrievers…they are water dogs. Qruiser did a training film on canoe training the dog. It is basically the feed the dog in the canoe on land. In her case it included tossing the favorite toy, a bumper, into the canoe to get the dog to get in, on land. It is a little “off” since both dogs love the water and boats. The young one likes to get out and swim for anything floating. So sometimes Qrusier will put the young dog on leash. She has them wearing PFD harness jackets now since black dogs don’t show up very well in the water. They see the PFDs and know they are going.
Full sized poodles were originally hunting dogs. There are some in the hunter retriever trials down here. They also have plenty of get up and go. Before attempting to train for canoe, tire the dog out a little. They sit better when a little tired.
Yes an alpha. Kinda. Actually although she’s generally unusually docile around other people and other dogs, the other day she was acting aggressively around a neighbor’s little dog and her owner says it has happened at the dog park so for sure at this point she can’t be trusted like the noisy/dramatic but sweet and gentle coonhound.
She has amazing agility. She has a very slight build and small snout and is under/around 40 pounds dripping wet.
She’s got amazing potential as an agility dog or frisbee dog…she goes crazy for tennis balls and catches throws you would not expect her to get.
My last 2 dogs were great canoe dogs. The black lab took to it immediately and would sit quietly in front of me for hours even in snow or rain. Coonhound loved it but had about a 2 hour limit before getting fidgety. Even if Polly was trained I’d only have rare opportunities to take her out so I really just wanted to see how naturally she might take to it while she was visiting and the local river was low and relatively safe.
Yes good advice. I’m not familiar with flat coat retrievers but have never met a retriever I didn’t like. Actually Polly has had some dietary challenges and has only recently found a dogfood she likes that doesn’t upset her stomach and it was only on the last day that I found that she’d really perform for little pieces of swiss cheese. She’ll often just pass on many treats like milkbones. But yes it would be good to take a little step back and practice jumping in the boat for cheese at home. And I fully agree about tiring her out; the only way I made progress in getting her to come to me after playing down by the river offleash is to throw sticks back and forth until she’s exhausted and then sit on a log and wait until she finally comes up to me to let me pet her and praise her and put the leash back on.
I took my cow dog Snuffy to the Boundary Waters a long time ago. On a portage trail about 45 miles in I met a guy who liked my dog. “Where did you get that dog?” he asked. “I ween her in a poker game.” I replied. He thought for a moment and then said “Did you win or lose?”.
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Dog trainers use different tricks with treats. The favorite with some is dried liver treats from the pet supermarket. The comformation ring handlers carry the treat in their mouth and pull it out to entise the dog to stand correctly. (Yuck)…like Westminster… We use string cheese cut in smaller cubes. Grocery store dairy section…Obedience trainers use a sililar thing, but they hold it or carry in pouch on belt. …and give to dog palm open.
Here is pic of dogs in jackets with bumper. If you use sticks they often get confused. Too many choices…
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