Lottie's Diary - training diary of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever

As the summer comes to a close, we are making the most of the now glorious weather. Surprisingly, for these days stubble is usually ploughed in as soon as the crops are cut, this field has been left. It has been a great place for Lottie and Bella to stretch their legs and have a game. The surrounding woods are full of little streams and pools and Lottie and I have spent

Lottie enjoys a romp in the stubble with Bella

some time exploring these and getting her used to clambering over logs and up and down little banks.

Lottie’s training is still very basic and simple. Two or three minutes walking on the lead, with ten or twelve ‘sits’ forms the basis of our ‘yard work’. Each sit lasts a few seconds at the end of which I say ‘heel’ and walk a few paces forwards before repeating the next ‘sit’. Sometimes, I take a couple of steps away from her while she is sitting and sometimes I remain next to her. We have one or two of these sessions each day, usually just after her meals. We do this on the patio in my garden, and if it is raining hard, we will sometimes do it in the kitchen. It doesn't require much space and only takes a few minutes.

You can see from the photos that Lottie is at that awkward gangly looking stage. She is all legs and tail. Although she is less than five months old she is now nearly as big as my 16 month old lab bitch Bella with whom she is pictured above. She continues to be very rough with the other dogs and the spaniels won't play with her at all. Bella is very tolerant, though she draws the line at being bowled over.

We have been making some progress with Lottie’s retrieving, both on water and on land. Lottie’s confidence in the water is growing daily. Water retrieves are a great way to give her a little light exercise without putting strain on her joints, and provided I am selective about her entry and exit points, make it easy for me to help her practice a good delivery to hand.

Out in the field I still sometimes have to walk away from her to get her to bring in the dummy...

waiting to see what we are going to do next

Over the next week or two we will continue with our daily sessions on the lead, and start working towards a stay of fifteen seconds or so. This may take some time, but that is fine. There's no hurry, Lottie will be just the right age to start some serious training at the end of the shooting season next February. In the meantime, we are taking it slowly and having fun.

.....but more often than not, she is happy to bring it right in to me.

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