The Trials and Tribulations of Chukar (a Brittany)

[10Key]

We have been laying pretty low lately, but we have been able to get Chukar out a couple of times.

He made his first trip to the dog park on January 31st...He did great. He is super friendly with dogs, especially bigger, older dogs. The only dog he really had "trouble" with was a lab puppy. The lab was playing rough and biting, Chukar didn't like that.



Later that day we went down to the water for some more socialization.



More of the same over the next week or so, here's a shot of Chuk nailing the sit command as some strangers approach.



Other than that, we have been working on fetch indoors and he has been doing awesome! I am particularly surprised at how he has been "dropping" after the retrieve. Initially, I would reach out and grab for the item that he fetched, that really didn't work. I would end up having to force the item out of his mouth. Now, after his retrieve, I praise him and command "drop it", he usually drops it right in front of meafter a couple of "drop its".

[10Key]

February 21st:

We haven't been doing much with the formal training lately, but with the weather we've been having, Chukar has been out and about more than ever. That being said, he has "unlearned" a few things that we had nailed in previous sessions, I attribute this to me slacking on the training...We hit the back yard for some basics. I threw on his collar and grabbed a short lead and off we went. Went through about a dozen iterations of sit/stay/come (vocal, hand signal and whistle for come). He really is picking up the stay command for the first time, I think it has something to do with his maturation, he's 4 months now.

After that, I took off the lead and we played some fetch, which has turned into Chuk's favorite game. Of course, he isn't perfect, but I was really surprised at how he is using his nose and eyes to find the object after I throw it, he used to be all eyes. There were a couple of times I threw the dummy out of site and Chukar got really confused, but he would head out with his nose to the ground searching, come back to me and I would point him toward the dummy and he would run back out in that direction. He stuck with it and each time was able to locate the dummy without me walking up to it. The funny part is, we have never really gone through directional commands, but I think both of us are "learning" together and figuring it out.

I am going to be heading to Pullman this weekend and we are going to stop off at Squaw Canyon Shooters and have him socialize with Allen's short-hairs and run the farm, it shall be fun. And by the way, Chukar is now 24 pounds, dude is a tank!

[10Key]

February 25th:

We headed over to EWa on the afternoon of February 25th for some Cougar BBall on the 27th. We had some extra time heading over, so we stopped as often as possible to run Chukar. It was so nice to be able to pull over and let Chukar be off leash, it doesn't seem like there are many places to do that on the west side. First stop for us was near Vantage, here is a shot of Chukar sniffing around during his first, non-backyard off-leash experience.


February 26th:

After a stop in Kennewick for the evening, we headed north to Pullman on Friday the 26th for Chukar's first WSU experience. Here is a shot of Chuk and I strolling campus and him showing off to a co-ed his "sit" skills.


We try and let him meet as many people as will allow, he sure does love that.

February 27th:

Saturday morning we headed down to Lower Granite dam so Chukar could stretch his legs in the BIG open country by the river, boy did he enjoy it, here's proof! Again, this weekend was really the first time that we have been in open areas with him off the leash/checkcord.



February 28th:

On our way back west, we decided to stop off at the Potholes and let Chuk run around there...He was definitely more skiddish and "shy" of this county compared to the open country down along the Snake. The sage brush and other vegetation threw him off as he couldn't see too far ahead of him.

In all, I think Chukar had a great experience over the weekend, he experienced big country for the first time and met a ton of people and dogs.

[jetjockey]

Keep it up.  You have no idea how much "training" you are actually doing right now!

[10Key]

Wow, I had my first traumatic experience as a first-time puppy owner today. To give a bit of background, I recently quit my job, so I am at home with the pup all day as my wife is out at work. Well today was the third day of this arrangement and I decided to clip Chukar's nails. We do this about once a week, so no big deal...Until I am on the third or fourth toe and I hit a quick! Chukar gave out a yelp and blood starts gushing from the wound. Of course, we are in the TV room and all I see is my pup with a bloody foot and blood all over the carpet. I instantly grab him and run off to the bathroom. I set him down and blood is literally spewing all over the place. I strip down to my scibbies to avoid the blood trail and call my wife as I have no clue what to do. She instantly tells me not to worry and heads straight to the drug store for a styptic pencil.

In the mean time, the blood has slowed and the bathroom looks like a murder scene. I sat on the toilet trying to console Chukar as he walked around the bathroom wondering what was going on. My wife arrived and the we attempted to apply the pencil, but it didn't seem to work...Eventually the wound closed up and we were able to clean up the bathroom. As it turned out, the wound opened up two more times as we monitored him the remainder of the day. The wound has been closed since 5pm this afternoon, hopefully it doesn't re-open.

The incident has definitely made me more "gun-shy" when clipping nails...Next time I will attempt to be even more careful, I do not want to recreate today's experience ever again.

[Happy Gilmore]

Looks like a ton of fun....

Maybe someone here can help me remember....household remedy.....cornstarch? I think will clot the wound on a nail.

[10Key]

March 13th:

We went off to Packwood for some R&R over the weekend and Chukar of course tagged along. We spent Saturday wandering along the river, allowing Chukar and his girlfriend Sadie stretch their legs. You can see Chukar chasing her out of the framer here:


Here is an action shot of Chukar bounding along:


He is doing really well around strangers and new dogs, I have yet to see him be confrontational with either, which is awesome. He is in his element when he can get out in front of us 40 or 50 yards, he always seems to peak back to make sure we are still there.

March 14th:

We went out into the woods and shot some clay pigeons. Chukar stayed in the car, I don't think I am ready to intro gunshots, as I have no clue how to do it as of yet. When we returned to the cabin, we had guests. Here is a shot of me holding Chukar back from chasing after 4 or 5 elk about 40 yards out. There was a spike in the group that hadn't dropped his '09 antlers.

[Bandit]

Since your pup is young, I would start to use a dremel with a sand pad to trim his nails or file them down.  You can control the dremel a lot better than clippers.  I use it on my three dogs.

[Happy Gilmore]

Since your pup is young, I would start to use a dremel with a sand pad to trim his nails or file them down.  You can control the dremel a lot better than clippers.  I use it on my three dogs.

will you come over and do my two dogs? They don't like my vacuum, I'd love to see them getting dremel'd while holding their paws.....

[10Key]

Late March/Early April:

I haven't been doing any "new" training lately, just sticking to the basics for now. I am currently still game-planning heel and that whole methodology. Anyways, I did make it down to Cabela's on 4/13/2010 as I was in the area on business. Chukar tagged along and I kenneled him up inside, it is great that Cabela's has kennels inside for your dog/pup.

I am getting very excited for spring and summer to get here, it will be nice to let Chukar be outside for most of the day and the training opportunities will be much greater. At any rate, Chukar is now pushing 35 pounds, he has slowed down on growth. We had originally thought he may push 50 pounds he was growing so dang fast, but we are now thinking he will be more inline with a Brittany male, in the 40 - 45 pound range.

[10Key]

Things have been busy for us (the fam and the dog), between me getting the business up and running and Chukar having his testes taken from him, April and May have been a whirl-wind so far.

As for training, I bought a pinch collar recently (leather with brass pins) and I have yet yo use it. Chukar's "incision" is healing up nice and I figure that I can throw it on him next week and get him to correctly walk on a leash/lead. The dude is seriously a TANK now, tipping the scales at 45 pounds at 7 months, his size and strength make tug-of-war not so fun.

[adam.WI]

The dude is seriously a TANK now, tipping the scales at 45 pounds at 7 months, his size and strength make tug-of-war not so fun.

are you sure that's a brittany 

[10Key]

Sometimes we question it, believe me!

[10Key]

Memorial Day Weekend 2010:

We headed east early Friday morning in hopes of finding good weather and good times...The good times were much easier to come by. We fished, we hiked and we drove a ton, with Chukar in-tow the entire time. Chukar swam for the first time without me throwing him in the water. We were able to coax him into my buddy's pool that contained a single duck decoy...boy he wanted that decoy. We played that game several times, which paid off later in the weekend when we were fishing. He got into the lake we were fishing all on his own, he had never done that before.

Here is Chukar getting a drink (too cute not to post):



Here is Chukar wading around:



Chukar kissing a largemouth goodbye:



We then went up out of Naches to hike around and search for a group that was camping up there. We didn't find the group, but we did find this huge pine:



We let Chukar run free on his 50 ft check cord (he's done plenty of this, never in a heavily wooded area) and he did great. He really is coming into his own. Both he and I are becoming more comfortable with him running free or on a check cord.

[10Key]

June 12th/13th:

We spent the weekend outside and enjoyed the weather. We hit up Marymore on Saturday and Magnuson and The Cut on Sunday. At Marymore, Chukar had enough of standing on the sidelines and finally decided to get out and swim by himself. The wife and I were freaking out as he swam in circles out in the Sammamish "River", but he did great and made it back to shore. If it weren't for the other dogs around, I am confident that I would have had to throw him in again to get him wet.

On Sunday we hit up Magnuson for the first time. Overall it is a pretty cool park, but the people and dogs are bit different over there Chukar swam again and enjoyed going crazy with the other dogs.

After Magnuson, we hit up The Cut so I could cast a line, we brought Chukar along on his check cord. My wife was watching him when all of a sudden, he decided to jump in the water. This lead us to grab a stick and next thing you know, not only is Chukar swimming, but he is also fetching! Here is a quick iPhone video of Chukar in action. You'll notice that Chukar lost sight of the stick so I had to redirect him with a tug on the cord and a hand signal.

Chuk swimming