Puppy Culture

Puppy Culture is a complete resource for breeders or puppy owners on raising a litter. It’s the powerful first 12 weeks that can shape your puppy’s future. I never knew about Puppy Culture until my friend Amy got her new puppy in the beginning of the year and followed along with the Puppy Culture videos. I bred my Chesapeake Bay Retriever Glory back in May that is when Amy recommended that I watch the videos. I learned about raising a litter in Veterinary Technician school, had three litters with Glory’s mom Nellie now I didn’t follow a guideline but much of the stuff in the Puppy Culture videos I was already doing and some I didn’t even know about so this was a great learning experience for me and I was happy to introduce Glory’s litter to Puppy Culture.

Disc One started with The Puppy Culture Proposition and ended with The Communication Trinity.

It talked about the Pre-natal period,  Neo-natal 0-14 days, Transitional Period 14-21 days, The Critical Socialization Period 3-12 weeks.

Disc Two started with Fear and Fun 5 weeks old and ended with Why Not Just Punish.

It talked about Understanding Fear Imprint Periods, Breed Appropriate Health Testing,  The Puppy Party, Potty Training Fundamentals, Is My Puppy Normal, Biting, Resource Guarding, Body Handling, The Outcomes Of Reward vs Punishment.

Disk Three started with Career Choices 7 weeks old and ended with Is Socialization A Guarantee.

It talked about Breeder Evaluations and Relationships, 8-9 week old Fear Imprint Period,  Practical Training Skills, Setting Up Socialization for Puppies 10-12 weeks old, Balancing The Risks and Benefits Of Early Socialization, How To Find A Great Puppy Class, Closing.

Disc Four was a break it down disc which was a Chapter By Chapter Recap and “To Do” Lists.

This past weekend I set up the puppy play ground outside and watched the rest of the PC videos. The puppies decided they wanted to watch to. Hopefully they are taking it all in and help me out when it’s time to teach them.

I first got the puppies used to this Kong tunnel when they were 3 weeks old in the house. I didn’t even have to show them what to do they all went in it by themselves and love going in and out of it now.

We then moved to the outside so they could try it out there. This was the first day they were outside, some of the puppies went in it and hid because they were afraid of the new surroundings that they never seen before, it didn’t take them long to warm up to the grass under their feet, the brightness of the sun and all the different sites and smells. They became little adventures in no time and now I can’t keep them out of the flower garden jungle. Glory and Thunders puppies will be going on 5 weeks this Saturday. They are becoming more confidant in walking, running, playing and exploring, they will wonder off a little more each day. They are encountering new situations, different people, different sounds each day.

Since they liked the tunnel so much I got this cat cube and they also love this toy. Little green girl started playing in it and it got a little tippy and tipped over on her and she recovered really well after she got up she crawled back in it and fell asleep.

I am so glad Amy introduced me to these videos, if you would like your own copy you can order it at Amazon.com.

You can follow along with PC on Facebook & Twitter.

  

We are joining Linda at 2browndawgs and Jodi at Heart Like A Dog for this great blog hop.

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Weeds Can Be Beautiful {This Moment} While Staying Fit~FitDog Friday

Weeds Can Be Beautiful {This Moment} See Beautiful

Most people think that weeds are ugly menacing plant life. I’ll be honest and I think that way, I think that way when I am pulling them out of my garden of beautiful flowers, I think that way when I am picking my raspberries and they are overtaking my vines, I think that way when I am picking my asparagus in my ditch and I happen to touch wild parsnip unknowing to me that I did it until 3 days later when I break out and itch like mad, have sores oozing and open for weeks until they heal is when I think weeds are nasty……..

But you can see the beauty in the weeds when you plant a handsome Gambler in the middle of them.

{This Moment} See Beautiful is a once a month Blog Hop, every 2nd Friday of the month. simply create a blog post that made your day, week, and/or month … inspiring you in Seeing Beauty. Blog Hop inspired by See Beautiful. We thank Sugar and Miss Lydia from See Beautiful.

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Gambler was also staying fit this week as we have been continuing our hunt test training. We had our training session then he had some fun bumpers I call these pictures Now You See It, Now You Don’t.

Gambler has a hunt test this weekend. Lets hope he makes it through the three series so he can stay running while Glory and I stay home and have puppies. Glory doesn’t need her pesky brother home to watch her so Gambler how about you be a great big brother and go have fun and stay away now and bring home a ribbon Sunday night.

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

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A Chessie’s Determination~Obstacles

For this weeks FitDog Friday post I am going to show you a series of photos showing A Chessie’s Determination~Obstacles.

We went over to our friends place who has a cleaner pond then we have at our house. Our pond is full of green slim so I don’t let the dogs swim in it anymore. My friends pond as you will see is cleaner but has some down trees in the water. Since Gambler is still training for hunt tests we went there to run some blinds which are retrieves that Gambler has to do with John helping him by giving him hand signals. Gambler doesn’t know where the bumper is and John has to guide him to it.

Gambler has swam across the pond and John is guiding him to the bumper.

As you can see the bumper is off to the right and there seems to be a tree in Gamblers path.

Hmmm a fallen tree, I wonder what Gambler is going to do?

Gambler is going to attempt to crawl over the tree.

He almost has it.

Just a little more shoulder strength and kicking with the back leg.

And he is over the obstacle.

Here’s my bumper, I knew it was here all along.

I got it!

Now from this position wouldn’t you think Gambler would just swim out a little bit and go around the tree?

Nope not Gambler, the chessie in him takes him over the obstacle again.

Because that is what chessie’s do, can’t do anything the easy way they have to do it the hard way.

The hard way is great for training thou as it helps build up muscles because I’m sure he has to use muscles he doesn’t normally use to do that type of work and it also gives him mental stimulation. He has to figure out how he is going to get up and over that tree.

A chessie’s determination is like that of no other retriever that I have seen. Which brings me to this story a friend of mine told me about a Chesapeake he saw run at a test.

His words

I will never forget the shear , size , strength and desire of a Chessie .

At a Master Hunt Test in Mississippi I encountered the determination and pure tough desire to retrieve .

The Master Test was a water triple with a double blind . This was the second series and the Chessie was returning with the second bird when it looked back over it’s shoulder , slowed momentarily in the water , then proceeded to complete the retrieve .

As it came out of the water , the judges and complete gallery gazed in shocking amazement at the tar-coated lines and large trotline hooks imbedded in it’s chest and shoulder .

The Chessie retrieved the duck to hand dragging two forty foot lines out of the water , each with a brick anchor , and large ball of grass in tow .

The dog never grimaced or whined as it heeled up to the handler facing the third bird of the triple .

The judges at this point were standing , and insisted that the handler immediately care for the dog .

Then the most unlikely thing happened unless you know Chessie’s ! The dog heeled up , ignored the hooks , and remained totally focused on the third bird .

The handler reached down with his knife , cut both lines at the hooks and sent the dog for a perfect retrieve of a memory bird .

The hooks were removed , and the dog titled as a Master Hunter in the third series !

The largest , strongest and most determined of the retrieving breeds demonstrated his Genetic Roots , as if to say to the gallery .

After the freezing waters of the Chesapeake Bay , the six foot waves and frozen rocks I was bred to hunt amongst , a few fish hooks and a Mississippi mud bottom are No-Big-Deal .

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

 

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Set Up And Test Dog~FitDog Friday

When you train for hunt test competitions you need to set up your training tests. You need to set up holding blinds (for throwers or remote launchers to hide behind), need to set up blinds (stations set up with just birds to practice handling skills yours and your dogs for blind retrieves) and set up decoys out in the field to distract the dog running. There are many different things you can use to set up a training test and many different ways to set up a training test. Since Nellie is retired from competitions but still hunts she doesn’t get to train with us on a regular basis since my car only holds two dogs so when we are at home training she gets to be the set up dog as well as the test dog because everyone needs a test dog to run first and make sure there are no “bugs” with the test you set up for the other dogs running. If there are now is the time to change the set up.

This day we were setting up blinds at the pond so Nellie got to walk along with carrying her bumper after she retrieved it from me throwing it.

Ok mom throw the bumper already! I will throw the bumper in the pond to give Nellie some swimming exercise which is great exercise for a older dog with joint issues.

She still likes to fly into the water.

Blazing a trail through the pee soup.

Nellie you need to leave the bumper there for the other dogs.

After we set up the blinds at the pond we set up a test in the marsh and Nellie got to be test dog for the live flyer we were shooting during this training test.

Here I go, here I go.

I got it.

 

Since Nellie is 10.5 years old we don’t want her to have to do difficult tests but she still needs to get out there and get some exercise and why not be set up and tests dog because there has to be one and she fits the job perfectly.

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

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Keeping Muscles Warm When Training In The Cold~FitDog Friday

This past Wednesday was not the “normal” warm day for this time of year. It was cloudy and 54 degrees. We started out training on land and then moved to water. By this time it was the afternoon and the temps were dropping. After the dogs ran their water marks I brought them back to the car, toweled them off and then put their furdry jackets on them to help wick the water out of their fur and keep them warm. They wore the jackets all the way home, got out of car and they were full of spunk again and wanted to play so we played.

We had a good morning of hunt test training so when we got home the gang got to have a little playtime fun.

Even the cat got into the afternoon play time. She would race in and out by the dogs. She was getting in her daily exercise routine also.

John, Gambler and Glory are headed to a AKC hunt test this weekend. I’m staying home so Gman doesn’t have to look for me. I don’t think we have done enough “not everything is free in life” training to have Gman respect me enough not to act up during a test so John is going by himself. If this is what we need to do to get 4 more passes then this is what we will do. It breaks my heart that I can’t go and watch my dogs compete as this is “our” life but I’m getting so frustrated spending money and not getting this title finished on Gman. If we can just get him through this then I can go back to running him and participating in it all as it will be just for fun.

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

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High Flying Gambler~Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday is a community linkup of bloggers. Visit our host, BlogPaws, and you can use the icons below the post to hop from site to site. It is a great way to discover new blogs…..or even just a convenient way to find all of your favorites in one place. When you visit each site, be sure to leave a comment and let them know you found them through Wordless Wednesday.

Training With Friends

“We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun”

Ruger

Waylon

Clay

This past weekend our friends Dana and Pete stopped over and did a little training with us. They brought their three Chesapeakes Ruger, Waylon and Clay. I get to train with Clay each week so it was nice to see his brothers out training with us on Saturday. We did some water work then moved on to some land work. The dogs got live pheasant flyers on land which they thought were the bomb. What’s not to like about a live bird? This was great pre hunt test training for the gang. It’s so much nicer to train with friends than it is alone.

 

 

Technical Blind And A Birthday

When we were at the American Chesapeake Club Minnesota Chessie Day training last weekend the advance dogs could run the technical blind they had set up. A blind is where the dog doesn’t see where the bumper or duck is placed and the handler has to handle the dog to the blind using a whistle and hand signals. The dog needs to stay on as straight as line as possible and it needs to take the correct casts when given a hand signal.

Gambler was the only one to run this blind and you can tell from all the photos he had a hard time with it. After finding out this week that Glory came into heat I now know why his mind wasn’t on his blind. John stuck with it and got it done but it sure wasn’t pretty, and that’s why it’s called training.

John and Gambler walking to the holding blind.

Waiting in the holding blind.

Follow the black line from Gambler to the tree across the way. This is the path he should take.

Gamblers initial line was off, he went to the right instead of going straight.

John let him get out of the water and then signaled him to go left and get in that second pond.

Stopped him to give him a cast.

Left hand cast to get into the water.

Taking the cast and getting into the water.

On the right track.

Got off track and was too far to the left, had to cast to the right to get back in water.

Get in the water.

Was drifting off to the right so John stopped him and gave him a left hand back.

After that cast Gambler started to swim back to John, he was panicking, so John ran out there by him to get him to stay in the water and finish the blind.

Took his cast and got to land.

Gambler was to the left of the blind (tree with white ribbon) so John casted him to the right.

Bingo finally got to the blind.

John had Gambler sit and stay until he got back to the original starting point so Gambler would take the correct line back.

Coming back on the correct line.

Back into the second pond.

John guiding Gambler into the first pond.

He made it! Boy was that a tough blind!

John stuck with it, Gambler stuck with it and they finished it. Gambler definitely needs more of these types of blinds so he can be proficient in it.

Now your probably wondering who is having a Birthday?????

Marsh Kitty – MK is having her 2nd Birthday. She had a one kitty party complete with a can of tuna.

Let me help myself!

Bloopers

Last but not least it is #NationalPurebredDogDay so I need to thank the AKC for recognizing the Chesapeake Bay Retriever so long ago as a purebred dog. Without that I wouldn’t have the breed that stole my heart.

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

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John And Glory~Wordless Wednesday

 

 

Wordless Wednesday is a community linkup of bloggers. Visit our host, BlogPaws, and you can use the icons below the post to hop from site to site. It is a great way to discover new blogs…..or even just a convenient way to find all of your favorites in one place. When you visit each site, be sure to leave a comment and let them know you found them through Wordless Wednesday.

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ACC Minn Chessie Day 2015

This weekend you all know we went to the American Chesapeake Club Minnesota Chessie Day which was on Saturday the 25th of April. Here is a video of the pictures I took of the land series. There were a great number of people there with all kinds of Chesapeakes, big ones, small ones, light ones, dark ones, males, females you name it. They all did a fabulous job. It was nice to be at a place with other chessie lovers who are there to meet other chessie owners and show off their love of the Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Thank you Tim Bonnema for setting up this fun day and thank you to Fischer Kennel’s for providing the great property with the beautiful technical pond for water work.