Piper is on the ground!!!!! After last weeks breakthrough things progressed a bit quicker and Piper got down from the table and transitioned to the ground. She is currently doing “walking fetch” drills with 3 sizes of bumpers and today started with birds. She once again had her moments this week but Butch was pleased with the progress. Hard to believe that this LBD has such a stubborn streak when looking at her but there is no question she does. At this point I would say it far exceeds anything I ever experience with my Chesapeake Reina and they have a reputation for being stubborn. I personally don’t believe it is deserved but none the less they have that stigma.
So next week they will continue with the walking drills and start extending the commands out further until they reach the end of the lead. This will be the very initial stages of the back command and a key building block for her training down the road. So all in all it sounds like Pipers “episodes” of defiance are decreasing in number and duration so that is a good thing because before long she will be back home and I will need to learn how best to work through them. The good thing is that Butch will be available for one on one training sessions and I plan to take advantage of that on an as needed basis so that Piper continues towards our goal of a performance gun dog. The goal all along has been to possibly head to SC for the Boykin Spaniel Nationals to run in the puppy division but at this point I’m not sure she is going to be where she needs to in order to make that cross country trip worth while. There will however be HRC events all spring and summer and I do plan to see if I can hang a Started Title on her and possibly more if all goes well. But before I get ahead of myself I need to keep my fingers crossed that that stubborn little brown dog continues to cooperate.
The good news is that we are one week closer to getting her home!
I’m glad Piper is getting with the program. It’s so hard to have them be away, so it’s good to hear the good news that can make it worth it. I hope we keep hearing more good news as Piper progresses.
Yeah, it was hard dropping her off and worse getting three weeks of she is being very stubborn. Am very happy she seems to have made the turn and realized that life is better for all involved if we just try to do what we are told. Hard to believe looking at that little brown dog that she could be that stubborn. Have a great Thanksgiving. Mark