Winn hates horseflies and she has a good reason. At our very first water test, she was attacked by the largest horsefly I’ve ever seen. We could all hear it buzzing around her. She bobbed her head up and down watching it while it terrorized her, then she turned around and ran out of the water. Ever since then, she’s highly tuned to buzzing noises near the water. We’ve tested at 5 locations of which 3 of them have had horseflies. We’ve only returned to one of those locations because that one usually has high winds which helps to keep them away.
This post isn’t reallly about horseflies. On August 22nd, we brought home a Newfie puppy. Maisie was delighted, Winn was disturbed. Somehow she knew this puppy wasn’t just visiting. She came out to greet us, stopped in her tracks and looked at me, looked at the puppy, and then turned back around and went in the house.
Winn does her best to stay away from Zuzu. Whenever Zuzu comes near her, she literally runs away. Her dodge and weave to avoid Zuzu reminds me of how she moves when she senses a horsefly nearby. We spent the majority of time outside with the puppy for the first couple of weeks and Winn stayed inside by herself. She would come out occasionally, but once she spotted the puppy, she would go back in as quickly as possible. Winn loves to be outside, just not with that puppy!
We are trying to show Winn that our basic routines are staying the same. She isn’t going to miss out on the things that she is used to. Winn knows not to beg at the table, but she does make frequent attempts to make an exchange. When she knows we are done eating, she will go and find something that I have touched and will bring it to me hoping for a bite of whatever is left. She will bring bills, catalogs, magazines, gloves, my checkbook, hat, small packages and so many other things that I didn’t realize I left out. If she cant find something that might be valuable to me, she will bring me a water toy. She stopped doing this when Zuzu arrived.
That behavior has driven me nuts on many occasions, but once she stopped doing it, I missed it. On the fourth night of her staying inside while we ate, I stepped away from the table, called her out, gave her a bumper and then traded it for a bite of chicken. The next night I looked up and there she was, standing in the doorway with her bumper in her mouth, comtemplating making a trade. Since then, she has joined us outside, lying around while we eat and eagerly hopping up when we start to clean up.
I have kept them all under constant supervision. Zuzu has been persistent in trying to get Winn to like her. She slowly moves a little bit closer when they are lying down. She’ll rub up against her when she walks by, trying to give her a whiff of her sweetness. She has respected the distance that Winn wants, but will test things out each day to see if the rules still apply. It seems to be working, Winn doesn’t get up immediately if Zuzu plops down near her and has even approached her to give her a sniff now and then. There haven’t been any issues during feeding times or when I’m giving out treats. Winn knows they each get a share, and Zuzu waits her turn. Each day is getting better with all of them. Winn has even come outside when Maisie and Zuzu are playing and drifted in and out of the play circle.
Puppies are a huge amount of work and Winn and Maisie are so easy. Winn is now 5 and Maisie is 9, both are pretty low maintenance so it seemed like a good time to bring in a puppy. Last year I wasn’t ready, next year seemed too far away. My friend is a breeder and we have been talking about this for several years. I love the pair that were bred together. They both have sweet temperments, are good working dogs and each represent the breed standard beautifully. Zuzu is the first female that she has had with the white markings that I have always admired. She also exhibits the traits that she might be a good working dog. In other words, she’s the puppy I’ve been waiting for so now is the time. We are back to being a three Newfie household and I am so excited to see what this sweet girl and I can do together!
This was a two-day test, we had entered both days and had two chances to make it happen. Saturday morning was incredibly foggy and we were delayed getting started but then it turned out to be a beautiful weekend. Each day was considered its own test but I’ll recap each exercise including both days.
On Saturday, Winn surprised me with Take A Line. She grabbed it from my hand and then turned and started to march out of the ring with it. Fortunately, I was able to grab her and steer her back to the water, but that was a fail. Our training partners offered to stay late with us and put a long line on her to practice it at the end of the day and I took them up on their offer. They wanted to stay and practice jumping off of the boat with their boy so once everybody was packing up and leaving for the day, the three of us were back in the water and I’m so glad we stayed. Winn tried to do the same thing two more times but with a gentle tug from the line she got right in the water and then seemed to forget about trying to leave the beach. The next 3 attempts went exactly as they should. On Sunday, her Take A Line was perfect and she passed that exercise!
Swim With Handler was our big finish both days. We didn’t get a new Water Dog title this year but we came as close as I could have hoped for. Next year we will reinforce everything we learned this summer and train for the senior test as well. I loved being in the water with Winn and she continues to amaze me with her abilities.
When we arrived, she went right down to our regular spot, waded right in and was ready to go after her toys. What a relief!
We played with different toys for a while and I mixed in her bumper and life jacket just for fun. She wasn’t reluctant at all to go after anything I threw out for her so I was pretty confident the horsefly fear had been tucked away and as long as another one didn’t show up while we were testing, we should be fine.
If I couldn’t get her to pull the boat all the way in before dropping the bumper, we would still have a chance if she picked the bumper back up and pulled some more. It’s not a very efficient way of doing it, but I would be allowed to keep directing her to pick it up and pull as many times as necessary until the boat was beached. The telling sign is that the boat comes to a stop and the line is still taught. If the boat drifts in and the line is slack, she needs to keep pulling until there is tension in the line, then the exercise is finished. I decided to focus on that. My first choice was to have her keep coming toward me in one smooth motion, but I wanted to have a back up plan so that we would still have a chance of passing.
Finally we were ready to get back to practice with our training group and we met up on Labor Day. Technically Winn still wouldn’t be cleared to mix with other dogs for another three days but I would keep her away while the boys practiced and then bring her down after they had done everything they wanted to do. We always set up crates and keep the dogs separated when we practice since we act as each others’ stewards but I didn’t want her to be a distraction. This was an important practice for all of us and we all wanted to do our best. Our next test was scheduled for that Saturday and this was our first practice with the boat in over a month (she was completely confused during the test in Indiana which was the last time she had tried the exercise).
After the other dogs had all practiced I brought her back down for her turn with the boat. Our normally calm lake was pretty churned up with the wind and the storm and she wasn’t as confident as usual. She swam out short distances and did everything really well but when we moved out further to the test distance she didn’t want to swim out. I decided that we wouldn’t go to the test in Michigan on Saturday, our friends hadn’t signed up for that one and would be practicing that day instead. Our club’s test was the following weekend (at the same location where we have been practicing) and I really wanted us to be our best for that one since it was our last chance. It would be better for us to have a fun practice with our friends than try and do everything perfectly in a new location with the added nerves of being in a test.
I was glad I made that decision because when we went back on Saturday she did have a couple of issues that we worked through and by the end of practice she was doing Take A Line and Tow A Boat perfectly. I wasn’t concerned about the other exercises so we didn’t practice them, I just mixed in her favorite retrievals to break up “the work”, which for Winn isn’t work at all. She really loves being in the water and her energy level was great. She was swimming without her life jacket and was still really strong at the end of practice. We were as ready as we were going to be. She had mastered all six exercises in our first summer of training and I was so happy with all that she had learned. If we could pull it off in the test, that would be the cherry on top.
next post: test time once again!
For the Drop Retrieve, the stewards row out 50 feet with her life jacket and drop it on the far side of the boat. We have to wait for the boat to clear the area, then I point her to the life jacket and send her out to bring it back to shore. We stood on shore (she still refused to sit) and once I knew she had spotted it, I sent her out. It was all going really well until a HUGE horsefly appeared and started buzzing around her head. She started whipping her head right and left, up and down, trying to keep an eye on it and then she turned and charged straight toward me out of the water. I was able to grab her before she sprinted off of the beach (that’s an automatic fail and you must stop the test) but I could tell that she was freaked out. I wasn’t sure what I should do but the judge encouraged me to take her back out and have her try it again. I knew that was the right thing to do, I didn’t want her to now be afraid of the water so we went out together and when I was about waist deep she kept swimming on her own and retrieved her jacket. I met her back on shore and kept a good grip on her collar while we got ready for the next exercise.
Take a Line can be a difficult exercise for a lot of dogs but Winn has been solid with it all summer when we’ve practiced. I hoped that she would be confident with this one and we could get back on track but as we stood on shore I had a really hard time getting her attention and focus. The judge encouraged me to take our time, get her settled and let her know when we were ready. I gave Winn some rubs and talked in her ear, she wasn’t fully attentive but she was better so I signaled that we were ready. She didn’t want to take the line at first, but when she did, she turned and started heading away from the water. I grabbed her collar and then once again, headed into the water with her to get her going. Once I was next to her in the water, she seemed to register what she was supposed to do and she finished up on her own and I met her back on shore.
So far we had passed the first two exercises and failed the next two so we were not going to pass the test. You must pass all six exercises in one test to achieve the Water Dog title. We had two exercises left and I was thinking maybe we should just pull out since she was still nervous and looking for that terrible horsefly. I voiced that to the judge and she told me she would support whatever I decided but she encouraged me to keep going, Winn was doing well once she got in the water. In all of the exercises, once you let the judge know you are ready, you must have your hands off of your dog. You can’t touch them again until the exercise is finished and then you can grab their collar and gently lead them back to the set up point for the next exercise. If the dog leaves the beach, it’s an automatic fail and you have to leave the test. Since Winn wanted to bolt, I kept grabbing her so she wouldn’t leave the area. By putting my hands back on her, we failed the exercise, but we could still continue on with the test. It’s always a good idea to keep going even if you don’t pass an exercise because you don’t want your dog to think that’s how we do it. When she turned and left the water before completing her task (also a fail), I didn’t want her to think that was a good way to perform that exercise, instead I went with her and then she did what she knew to do and I met her back on shore and praised her that she had done a good job. Did I mention that I also had a severely sprained ankle? Chasing after Winn in the sand and the water without my full physical powers was painful, clumsy and not very efficient. I’m still amazed that I was able to catch her when she tried to run by me!
I was so relieved as I walked her back to the car. I got her settled in with her fan blowing on her, a fresh bowl of water and some of her favorite treats scattered around her and then I went to gather all of our stuff to get us packed up. I was sitting in the car with Winn, about ready to head home when the judge approached and knocked on the window. She wanted to let me know that she thought Winn was a very good working dog. She told me that the very best water dog she ever had approached the articles in the water in the same way that Winn had. She swims to the left of the article and then will turn towards the item to grab it before making another 1/4 turn back to shore. She said that’s not something that’s trained, it’s instinct. By doing that, she has less drag from the item as she turns to shore. I thanked the judge for her input, I couldn’t believe she searched us out, and she told me she looked forward to seeing us in future tests.
maisiethenewfieandcompany 