First courses

This weekend we started our long path on the road of learning. One Estonian kennel club (TAKO) organised Juha Karri from Finland to give a workshop about playing, rewarding with game and about natural instincts. We thought we are clever if Maarja participates on the first day and I the second. Some of the topics also overlapped so in the end we had a pretty good overview.

So what to conclude. Instincs are defined by genes and given with a birth. You can only take the full advantage of the amount that the dog has inside, no more. So that makes me wonder, which and how strong instincts Ruudi has? According to Juha's experience, it is not 100% possible to test instincts on a puppy because it can develop over the time once the puppy becomes older. But still, what can I read from Ruudi "face" at the moment.

Talking about food instinct - I believe Ruudi has it a lot. This is a good sign since it is claimed to be the basis of tracking (hopefully also blood tracking :).

Talking about prey instinc, there are three sub-categories:

1. Running after the prey
2. Catching, biting, killing
3. Bringing the prey back/home

Seems that Ruudi is quite interested in chasing and holding on (quite strongly) until the prey doesn't move anymore. The very first moment it doesn't move anymore it is not interesting and he looses it. And it is not interesting to bite and pull standstill items, even if a person is holding it. Bringing items back is not always interesting but still he never goes anywhere else with it. He always comes close to a person. So to conclude, Ruudi is quite average in all these categories to my mind. Let's hope the best, utilise the most and try to get the most out of him.

From Blogi pildid