New Pups Ginny, Arnie, Rogue, Jay And Rebel Enjoy Ther First Training Session

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IN BLOG 21/2018

Jay Has Big Boots To Fill

5 Month Old Nico, Nero And Nicki  Enjoy Their Visit To Saundercroft Farm And Are Also Making Excellent Progress In Their Training

A Wet And Windy Day For Their First Training Session But That Didn’t Worry Ginny, Arnie, Rogue, Jay And Rebel.

Pictured from left to right are Ginny, Arnie, Rogue, Jay and Rebel on their first training session at HQ. Ginny, Rogue and Rebel are 13 weeks old siblings from Lorockmor working dogs and Arnie and Jay are 11 week old brothers from Kazzardsway German shepherds.

The first job was introducing the pups and puppy walkers to each other. 

This group of pups will be on the January 2020 Initial Police dog course.

Rebel was a little unsure of a couple of the pups to start with but that soon changed as the session progressed.

We started the pups on the ramps and tunnel to see how adventurous and confident they were.

They are a very confident group of pups and took it all in their stride.

We don’t do any agility jumping until they are around 12 months because of their developing joints. However they enjoy the ramps and tunnel which are great for resilience and confidence building provided the pups are taken up and down in a controlled manner. ( Show Vid 3 )

With hindsight we shouldn’t have used the ramps as they were slightly wet and a couple of the pups did slip but it didn’t seem to worry the pups at all.

I then instructed the puppy walkers on obtaining a fast recall.

We then did some sits, downs and the early stages of heelwork.

The excitement started to take its toll and so there was time for one last play together before everyone made their way home.  

Ginny has settled into her new home with first time puppy walkers Marian and Keith. They have been getting her out and about visiting Killerton and Exeter city centre where they bumped into Police dog handler Darryl and Boris.

I look forward to seeing them all again in 2 weeks’ time.

Jay Has Big Boots To Fill

Jay’s puppy walkers Alison and Stuart Fleming met whilst serving in the Royal Signals over 40 years ago. They married and after a variety  of deployments and Stewart serving a spell in the Police they  eventually moved to Crediton over 20 years ago.

They had two sons Rory now 30 who lives and works in Crediton and younger brother Jamie who just like his parents served in the Royal Signals. Here is Jamie on a tour of Afganistan.

Alison and Stewart have previously had German shepherds and their last German shepherd called Bomber died in 2013.

Tragically the following year in 2014 their son Jamie was killed aged just 21 whilst travelling home to Crediton on leave in a collision with a lorry on his motorbike.

Needless to say their world was turned upside down and it is something that the family will never fully recover from.

Stewart now retired didn’t feel the time was right to take on a new dog long term but liked the idea of raising a Police puppy and making a contribution to the Police and the community.  Welcome Jay.

Stewart asked if he could name his pup ‘Jay’ as a tribute to his son Jamie. Naturally the force would consider it an honour. Stewart fully understands that there is no guarantee that his pup will become a Police dog.

They are already joined at the hip and I have no doubt that regardless of whether Jay eventually graduates as a Police dog or not their time together will be special.

What I can say is that Jay is a very strong character with the temperament and working attributes needed to be a Police pup.

 Here he is on remembrance Sunday with Alison, Stewart and Jamie’s friend Tom Bell who served with him in Afganistan paying their respects . Jamie’s brother Rory was on the parade in his role as a retained fireman.

Jay was not in the slightest bit bothered by the noise of the band or the loud bangs going off. In fact Jay doesn’t seem to worry about very much at all.

Jay certainly has big boots to fill but I like to think there might be a certain someone watching over him to help him on his way. 

Nero, Nico And Nicki  Enjoy Their Visit To Saundercroft Farm And Are Progressing Really Well With Their Training

This group of pups are now 5 months old and they were incredibly calm meeting all of the different animals during our visit on Sunday to Saundercroft farm.

It is my favourite training day and I learn a lot just watching the reactions of the pups meeting the animals.

We started as we always do with the sheep. There are several sheep like AL who have been hand reared which make them much less jumpy and with Andi and her bucket of feed the pups are usually more interested in stealing their food.

We usually start doing some sit and down’s with the pups for titbits just to stop the pups getting over excited.

We are in no rush and after a period of time the pups usually get bored and  when they are in this state of mind this is the best time to introduce them.

I would say that this group of pups bred by Bernard of Kazzardsway German shepherds are probably the calmest group of pups I can remember on a farm visit.

Next it was off to see the cows and calves.

Nico is pictured here calmly weighing up the situation and in the back ground you can see we were joined by Andi’s son Will and Andi’s mum Jean. Will is always very entertaining. 

For me it was a pleasure to see such calmness in young German shepherds. Excitability is endemic in the breed and to see such quiet confidence and calmness made my day.

It was exactly the same with the horses and the chickens and as always young Will was never far away from the action.

One last team photo before another thoroughly enjoyable visit came to an end. My thanks as always to Jean, Andi and the entertaining young Will for allowing us to visit.

Those of you who follow the blog will know that as a young pup Nero had a severe skin infection ( Puppy Strangles) around his muzzle which required daily medication and bathing from the breeder and Chris his puppy walker.

I am happy to report that as a result of their dedication and support it has nearly completely cleared up.

I was very impressed with the training standard of these 3 pups on their previous puppy class up on Exeter race course when they were only 4 and a half months old.

We started with a lesson on how to lay a track or trail and the puppy walkers all had a go themselves. 

After laying it they all got their pups to complete the track. They used liver titbits in every other footstep for the pups to follow. 

We then did some puppy heelwork and some sit and down stays.

 I can’t remember a previous class being able to carry out a group sit stay and a group down stay at such a young age. I was extremely impressed so well done to the walkers for the hard work they have obviously put in.

In my next blog I will be reporting on the boldness assessments taking place with the January 2019 Initial course dogs tomorrow.

I will also give an update on the E litter.

From Ella, Larry and me bye for now.