10 months ago, Rosie was an untrained, unruly, boisterous and disobedient Labradoodle who had become too much for her owner.
A friend of mine, Barry Overton, decided to take her on and, with a little bit of help from me, a lot of hard work, patience and a few sessions of pulling out hair(!), Rosie has now been transformed into a biddable, obedient and efficient gundog who now loves her work picking up on our local shoot. Her levels of steadiness, focus and responsiveness to whistle are testament to the endless hours of hard work that Barry has put in.
Here she is on her first day out being asked by Barry to find and retrieve a partridge. Her body language betrays the enjoyment she clearly has in taking direction and then retrieving the bird into Barry’s hands. It’s lovely to watch.
It’s great to see a training plan come together and to see such a partnership evolve! I’ll try and post another video at the end of the season to demonstrate just how much progress a young dog can make in the right hands.
Hats off to Barry and Rosie!