SCRUMPY was my first black labrador.  Well, my first dog really.  We already had an older labrador, called Cider, so Scrumpy seemed like a good name.  She certainly lived up to it!  And I was very ignorant.  We arrived home with Scrumpy in the car, put her on the ground and brought Cider to meet her.  Well, Scrumpy – 8 weeks old – had never seen a yellow dog.  She’d only met black ones.  She was straight under the car in fright.  Coaxed her out fairly quickly, but poor little thing was terrified.  She got over it very quickly though, and Cider – a very kind dog – quickly looked after her and played with her.

Well Scrumpy was soon on the go.  Having mad zooms all round the house.  At one point she came across Cider lying in the way and she hurdled her like a steeplechaser.  Very funny.    But  … and it quickly became evident that we didn’t have any toys for her!  Only excuse is that we’d not had a puppy for about 15 years since Cider was an ex-guide dog.  Someone had to sacrifice a cuddly toy and my sister stepped in with hers.

It’s good to start young.  Introduce your puppy to the household cat as early as possible.  Scrumpy was still smaller than our cat (Butterball).  Even so, he weighed about 6 lbs whereas she weighed about 12!  When you picked her up, she was far heavier than you expected.  Scrumpy wasn’t sure what to make of Butterball, who took the whole introduction in a very relaxed way.

We didn’t expect this to happen!  And so many mistakes.  Scrumpy shouldn’t have a stick to chase (too easy to get stuck in her throat), and she was way to young to take to the water.  She was so funny with her little front paws splashing at the water – not a proficient swimmer.  Fortunately it was Cider to the rescue, positioning herself so that Scrumpy couldn’t be swept away by the river. 

TRAINING TIP:  Be ready for the unexpected with your puppy, not all of them are careful!

Since my mother makes so mistakes, this is me, Scrumpy.  Here I am on my very first walk – I’m only 14 weeks old, just had a visit to vet yesterday, which was OK – not too scary, just a little prick in the neck and off we went again.  I’m not at all keen on the car though – it does make me feel sick.  The grass in this field is soooo loong.  I almost disappeared completely, so I stuck by my friend Cider.  Now we get in the car every day to go to this field – it’s a very short time in the car and such fun in the field.

TRAINING TIP:  Get your dog used to the car by taking a very short drive (100 metres is fine) and then a fun time in a nice walking place.  Then, as they get more confident about the car, very gradually increase the distance (you can always take a longer route to the same place). 

So today I went to my first show.  My mother has AMBITIONS.  Just 6 months old, and allowed into the show ring at that age – can’t go any earlier than that. I have to confess, I spent most of my time upside down on my back trying to wriggle upside down to play with the other dogs.  In fact, one kind person came over and told my mother to get me to stand up, since I was in with a chance.   Didn’t know I had to be on my legs!  All the other dogs and owners were very professional, and I fear that we made fools of ourselves. Still, not bad, 3^rd prize out of about 20 dogs. 

WHAT BIG TEETH YOU HAVE GRANDMAMA

It's a very good idea to train your dog to 'stop' playing.  You act as a referee.  Just quietly say 'that's enough' and give both dogs a treat.  At first you will need to put the treat close to each dog's nose, but they soon get the message.  Then let play commence again (I usually say 'go play') so that they can restart.  By refereeing play in this way at an easy level, you will be able to manage more intense games , even if only your dog is trained!

You can do this even if you only have one dog.  When they are quietly playing with a toy, teach them 'that's enough' and give a treat to them.  They quickly learn to break off and get the reward.

HERE I AM ALL GROWN UP

Everyone says I’m very beautiful, but some people say to my mother – “too much dog for you”.  So, we went to the Alton Show, this is in the UK in Hampshire and there’s loads of stuff going on.  Most interesting of all (for me) was the terrier racing.  Not the terriers, but … what are they chasing ….!   Then I got to have a go.  There were 4 of us.  The ‘object’ went tearing away from us and no one said – ready steady go, so everyone let go of their dogs at different times. I  was last, but it didn’t matter.  Two of the dogs just went into a ball of fur, one started running back to its owner, but I was FOCUSSED.  Straight through the ball of fur, and straight over the hay bales at the end to grab the lure, break the cord, and come tearing back with it.  The announcer was most impressed by my retrieve.  After that the lure was being pulled with a large knot in the rope.

So, it turns out I am soooommmme  jumper! 

Over my career, I entered 3 high jump competitions for dogs.  First twice, and joint second once!  So there  (and the joint second was only cos they couldn’t put the bar any higher)

My talent was on display at an early age.  4 months old and over the 4 bar gate for our house, around about 3 foot 6 inch (106 cm in new money).  ‘They’ put a stop to that, not sure how, but the next time I tried it I hit my nose on something.

OK, so I never tried it there again, but anywhere else, was just fine.  Over the stiles round the walks, over the field fences, over the rivers and streams.  Then one day there was a dog competition at the local fete.  There were dog and spoon races (you don’t balance your dog on the spoon, it’s a potato as usual), bucket races and a HIGH JUMP for dogs.  This picture is the early stage.  That fence went up to over 4 feet. 6 inch  We did it off the lead as you can see in the picture.  My mother is a rotten jumper and gave up at about 18 inches  (oops, sorry that 4 '6" feet = 145 cm and 18 inches = 45 cm).  So she had to stand beside the jump and send me over by myself.

As you can see it is a horse fence, very easy to knock off.  AND as it got higher there was huge gap in the middle, very easy to jump through.  This was the downfall of a trained agility dog that was there.  BUT NOT ME.  I was over that top bar every time.  As it got higher I showed off my superior balance by jumping onto the bar, and off it, without knocking it off!!!  (still within the rules).

TRAINING TIP.  Keep your dog on your property. For the high jumper a really good fence is the green plastic-covered wire garden fencing.  You can put this about 2 feet above the normal fence and the dog won’t see it against the green background.    Don’t mess around raising the fence 6 inches at a time, you can do that forever as your dog learns to jump higher and higher!

My mother has just become ADDICTED.  We went to the local fete where there was something called a gundog scurry.  We saw other dogs doing this ….  (this isn’t me, but you might come to know her later as you keep reading).  Well, she (my mother) wants me to do this too!  So I was entered in the competition.  Strange, they threw TWO of these green sausages, and I had to remember where they were.  First go, well, I didn’t remember the second one – had to be taken out and shown it.  But, well it turns out I am smarter than the average bear.  On the second go I could happily remember the second ‘dummy’ (that’s what the green sausages are called) and in fact I was the fastest in the competition once I’d had a good practice at what to do.  Only thing is, we then found out that I should be getting the first dummy FIRST, and the second thrown dummy SECOND.  (I was doing it the other way round, but then I didn’t know that and it was my mother’s first time too).  Still I think we did well, and now my mother is trying to find out how to do more of this.  But so far, no luck. 

So, now I have a new friend.  I was on my own for a bit but then this new little thing arrived.  I just love her to bits!  We play games together (I have to be careful to be gentle) and I wash her regularly. She’s called Pella and she’ll have her own story later.  Still, the other important thing is, that when we went to get her, the man who bred her had one of those green dummies!  My mother was thrilled, and I did a great retrieve.  Now she knows where to get some more fun with these things and we seem to be on the road quite a lot.  More next time.

I am going to take over from Scrumpy now for a bit.  I started doing some retriever training with her.  Quite a challenge! Scrumpy is 3 years old and as pets go, very good (comes back usually when called, sits, stays and walks on the lead with minimal pulling). 

But this … !  What they want you to do has blown my mind.  I don’t know if I can do it. 

First thing is, Scrumpy has always been used to running after anything that’s thrown, as soon as you throw it.  She brings it back (which is a good start), but now, she has to WAIT UNTIL I TELL HER TO GO AND GET IT.  Ultimately this has to be done without a lead on!!!  I’d think it was impossible, but all the other dogs at training can do it.  So, if they can do it …  then so will I. 

So, first of all, base it on the ‘stay’ command.  Scrumpy is so keen on retrieving that my first try meant I had to leave her staying, walk all the way out and slowly put the ball on the ground, then try to get back to her before she went to fetch it.  It took a while for her to get the idea.  In fact, at first, she would run past me to fetch the ball, before I could get back to her to send her.  We were reduced to having another person put the ball down, and pick it up quickly if she went for it before she was told.    This required a quick reaction, because this dog is fast and she would go through you to get the ball.  OK, we succeeded and proudly went off to our next training lesson.

I have to say, they were very patient with me and Scrumpy.  The number of times that Scrumpy would ‘run in’ and get a retrieve that was meant for another dog!  She had to go on the lead then, but I was determined to succeed. 

NOTE:  This story contains lots of mistakes by me!  I should never have trained her this way, and we should have started much younger.

OK, I get it.  I have to WAIT until I am told to go and fetch the ball/dummy/stick … whatever.  Every fibre of my being is ready to go! 

And now. There’s more!  I have to learn to stop when I hear a long whistle.  Why?  I’ve no idea, doesn’t seem to have any purpose to me.  Not doing it. So there.

This has put a great strain on my mother’s (very novice) training abilities.  Eventually she’s worked out that I need to have a REASON for stopping.  So I am learning how to take directions to find the dummy (it’s mostly those these days).  There’s right and left – that’s easy, and back – go further away, which is also pretty easy for me because I’m always going further away.  Now, when I hear the long whistle, I stop, and she’ll tell me which way to go (although I generally speaking know best already!)

It’s water I love the most though.