Thread: Not a hunting dog as such

Pup is about 8 months now. Coming along quite nicely. She loves her kennel and run and is more than happy to hang around in it for most of the day wihen the miss and I aren't home. Pretty lucky to have a dog that doesn't bark or whine when we aren't there.

She is pretty well socialised and loves nothing more than running around with another dog at the park.

Have just been doing mostly basic obedience stuff with her so far. Long extended sits, sits with distraction, wait, come etc. Havent trained heal yet. Have done a couple of skin drags and one session walking into the wind with a skin hung in a tree. Need to do more deer specific drills.

Have been having a few issues with sorting out her range. Trying to get her to keep a consistent distance in front of me when we are walking around.

I have her on about a 4.5m long line and as she gets around 4m away and isn't focusing on me, I have been trying to do a sudden change of direction and then get her walking out in front again. Have been doing this pretty consistently for about the last 3-4 weeks and she isn't really picking it up. I have been walking with the longline loose (with a big belly in it) so she cannot pull/feel when she is getting to the end of the line as I don't want her using the longline as a gauge of distance.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

I have been wondering whether it has anything to do with the area I have been walking her in. It's s massive park with not a hell of a lot around and I wonder whether this pushes her to move further out in front of me. The reason I say this as she tends to stick a bit closer to me when we get into bush / tighter stuff as she doesn't like going out of view of me.

Also been noticing that she spends a ridiculous amount of her time when she is walking in the park with her nose to the ground ground scenting.