Savi the savant

 Savi, turned on scent 20 feet from the bird and held point!

We've always known Savi was special and we're not just talking about her lovely conformation or sweet disposition. Between seeing her develop from birth (lucky me to be her breeder), the incredible performance during the temperament test at 8 weeks and now, at 8 months of age, she keeps impressing everyone with her boldness, birdiness, amazing focus and high level of trainability. Yesterday's field training session, which we are now calling Weimaraner Wednesdays, had our trainer Mike, not one to give false compliments, showing off Savi's hunting skills to those in the gallery.  He says he's never seen a Weim with such an amazing nose and holding steady at such a young age.  She then showed off her retrieving skills, bringing back a thrown chukkar to hand. A very exciting thing to watch and nice to see just days before we run her in her first hunt test.

The field is not her only area of talent.  She's already in an Advanced Beginner agility class and at our second class of the new session on Tuesday, just after we introduced Savi to all full size contact equipment, this puppy ran a 10 obstacle Novice course off lead and did it beautifully!  The instructor and I spotted her on the teeter and dogwalk and the weave poles were gated to form a chute.  Wish I had someone there to video Savi running her first full course.

 What has helped make this puppy so successful?  I attribute much of it to who she is, a confident pup with a great temperament (which is hereditary), and then starting her training while in the puppy pen with fun toys, games and lots of socialization.  She started obedience classes at 8 weeks and learning attention, impulse control and play skills, like tugging, gave her the foundation to do well in any venue.  It also helps to have an experienced owner/trainer, who has learned from past mistakes and prioritizing/setting goals for training the new pup.  In the field, she has had early and consistent exposure to birds.  For agility, attention, impulse control, making work seem like play and a solid stay, which I can't stress enough.  Obedience is just part of everyday activities and recalls and stays are reinforced constantly.