Rusky the Labrador

2007-08-23T09:31:00.000+01:00

Two photographs taken today in the same boat as the original photo of wee Rusky at the start of this Diary.

Rusky:

Flight:

2007-06-27T17:32:00.001+01:00

Both Rusky and Flight are now getting used to a new activity - caravan holidays. They have crates that fit into the awning for sleeping in.

2007-01-27T21:10:00.000Z

Flight has the cute habit of looking for things under the water.

2006-03-12T21:13:00.001Z

Flight is now 7 months old and saw his first deep snow today.

"Now where is that dummy?"

"Must be here somewhere!"

"Got it!"

2006-01-06T19:23:00.000Z

Snow on the ground at Loch Rusky and here is the big boy with the little boy. Rusky is now 22 months and Flight is 18 weeks.

2005-10-15T22:36:00.000+01:00

Rusky now has a "wee brother" to educate. Here he is trying to persuade Flight (the 9 week old labrador puppy) that water is fun for swimming in.

Flight is a great, great, great, great grandson of Moy.

2005-09-05T12:43:00.000+01:00

Back on 26th June last year (see below) I explained how Rusky prevented a herd of cows from sinking our boat.

Well, a year and a bit later, his determination to protect me from hostile creatures is unabated. This morning we got out of the car in the pitch (and very foggy) dark and went to cross a field to get to the foreshore.

Rusky quickly cottoned on to the fact that the field was full of very large and threatening animals lying on the ground, presumably sleeping. Once again he decided that defensive action was required and ran towards them barking furiously. He stopped about 30 yards from the nearest one and only when he was satisfied that it was frozen rigid with terror did he return to heel, satisfied that he had saved me from a fate worse than death.

Only when we were returning from the flight in daylight did he see that the creatures were, in fact, large round straw bales.

2005-07-15T09:27:00.000+01:00

Black labradors were not designed to live in "tropical" Scotland.

A week of 30°C necessitated some drastic action to keep Rusky cool.

2005-05-11T17:00:00.000+01:00

Just a couple of recent photos:

Rusky is now beginning to look like a real dog rather than just a big puppy.

2005-03-01T12:48:00.000Z

Rusky is one year old today.

According to the supposed formula of canine ages, that should make him equivalent to a 7-year old human child. The formula must be wrong - he is much more like an unruly teenager!

2005-02-14T11:57:00.000Z

Just an example of how training can be situation-specific. (I remember a parallel being "If you train a dog to sit, in the kitchen, that is what you are training him to do - to sit in the kitchen" )

I went wildfowling with a friend this morning and took Rusky, who is now 11 months old, along thinking, correctly as it happened, that I was unlikely to fire a shot and that there certainly would not be much to retrieve. It should have been a good exercise in developing patience.

Rusky is fine when I am standing or even sitting on a marsh stool. However, this morning there was no cover at all so I had to lie flat on the marsh. New situation. Dog has never known me to lie flat on the ground. Result - he simply would not sit and stay but spent the whole time jumping on me, rolling on me, licking my face, etc., etc.,

Looks like this afternoon will see the beginning of a novel phase of training - sitting quietly while handler lies flat on ground!!! (I might get some strange looks if I do it in the public park! )

Here he is: caged with my friend's GSP after a morning of human trampolining:

2004-12-11T22:59:00.000Z

Rusky came to the shoot at Glamis Castle today. He is getting used to sitting (reasonably) still and marking the birds that are shot. At most of the drives he just watched but at two he was sent for birds - two partridges at one drive and half a dozen ducks at another. The ducks were easy because they were lying on a ploughed field, easily visible. But the partridges were in long rough cover. He picked the one he had marked right away and had to be handled into the area of the second fall. I think it's important that he does not get sent to retrieve everything he sees fall at this stage and he doesn't get sent for anything until the end of the drive.

2004-11-13T23:00:00.000Z

Rusky was at his first real shoot today. He came out, on a lead, on three of the drives and sat the others out in the car. On the first two he was well behind the Guns, just watching but on the third he stood close behind one Gun and retrieved six pheasants after the drive was over.

He has no problems with the retrieving business so, from now on, his training will be more to do with better obedience and tighter control. He is fine on a one-to-one basis but, when other people and other dogs are in close proximity, he wants to make friends with everyone.

2004-11-06T15:28:00.000Z

2004-11-05T17:04:00.000Z

Rusky retrieved his first real birds today. Mirren was a wee bit surprised when I asked if I could have an old pair of her tights!! I had a couple of partridge that I had frozen, in their feathers, a few weeks ago, so I took them out of the freezer last night to defrost.

One was wrapped in the leg cut out of the tights and the other one kept unwrapped. First of all I gave Rusky a single retrieve with the one in the wrapping. No problem. So I then threw the wrapped partridge one way and the unwrapped one the other way. Rusky was sent for the wrapped one first and then for the feathery one. No problems with either, so we did a few more variations.

The next step will be retrieves with warm, freshly shot birds, but that can wait a week or two.

His directional control is coming on in leaps and bounds, whether for marked retrieves, blinds or just ranging.

We now seem to have made up the set-back that occurred when he spent nearly three weeks in kennels in September.

2004-10-26T19:02:00.000+01:00

This has been a good week for Rusky. He now sits smartly to the stop whistle at long distances and that allowed us to move on to directional control. He will now follow hand signals to retrieve dummies thrown to right and left.

He is still not too happy with his kennel, especially when it is raining. For a puppy that loves swimming, he has a strange aversion to rain!

2004-10-18T13:59:00.000+01:00

Finished.

I guess it took a full day to erect and paint on the preservative. I hope Rusky appreciates it!

2004-10-16T15:05:00.000+01:00

Got this one on Ebay.




.... but if this puppy does not stop growing, maybe I'd be better building a stable!

2004-10-03T18:03:00.000+01:00

End of an Era - Ashes to Ashes

The time has come for Rusky to get a kennel of his own. Unfortunately the kennel that served his seven predecessors well (Meg, Moy, Flight, Teal, Moss, Meggie and Bess) had deteriorated beyond repair, so it was time to wield the sledge hammer and have a bonfire:




The first picture shows the cleared site and the second shows the remains of the fire.



Now it is on to Ebay to try to pick one of these up for £150:

2004-09-19T19:08:00.000+01:00

Rusky got back from his holidays on Wednesday. Nearly three week in Boarding Kennels saw him get much bigger and a lot wilder (and with an infestation of ear mites)! He is beginning to settle down now but I think we are going to have to go back to scratch with his training.

2004-08-26T16:35:00.000+01:00

Rusky had his introduction to loud bangs yesterday. I shot 50 sporting clays at Cluny and, while I was shooting, Mirren walked Rusky round the site, starting about 100 yards away from me and gradually brought him closer.

No problems. He ignored the shots completely. Now that we know that gunshot does not worry him, we'll be able to start using the dummy launcher. This week has also marked Rusky's transition from the light puppy dummies to full-size standard dummies.

2004-08-20T23:21:00.000+01:00

On a lighter note - and maybe just a wee bit apocryphal.

Rusky is now known as the "Coconut Dog".

As a result of his habit of lying on his back with his legs spreadeagled and his willie exposed to the heavens.

As Mirren might have said, "Wud ye just look at the cock oan 'at dug!"

lol

2004-08-12T22:51:00.000+01:00

Now that the weather is warmer, Rusky really loves swimming and, every time we go fishing at Loch Rusky, he has a couple of retrieves of his puppy dummy thrown out from the bank.

2004-07-14T10:00:00.000+01:00

An interesting training aid has appeared unbidden - a rabbit has taken up residence in the garden. Although it has ravaged my cauliflower plants it has provided Rusky with the opportunity of learning not to chase small furry animals. Now he just looks at it and comes back when called. And, of course, the rabbit provides some high-fibre dietary supplement for the puppy!

2004-06-26T10:17:00.000+01:00

Two great achievements last night. While fishing at Loch Rusky, wee Rusky saw a group of cattle stampede down a field to the shore of the loch. It was obvious (to him) that they were going to charge on into the water, swim 100 yards to us and sink our boat. So he stood up his full height in the bow and growled and barked at them. His warning obviously paid off as the cows stopped at the edge of the water and we escaped without getting sunk.

Then after we stopped fishing I found a blue plastic buoy, about 5 inches diameter, with a few inches of rope attached. I threw it into the water and told Rusky to fetch it. He swam out to it but it was too big for him to get it in his mouth so he swam round and round pushing it in front of him and trying to "shepherd" it into the shore. But it didn't want to come and Rusky was not going to give up! Just as I was thinking that I was going to have to relaunch the boat and go out to rescue him, he discovered he could pull it by the rope and brought it ashore. Never seen his tail wag so vigorously - he was clearly very proud of his achievement!