Today was a good training session. Started out with some BB Blinds across a pond having different bottom features. Some of the pond was running water, some of the pond was swimming water. It's very interesting to watch dogs develop through this drill. There is a lot of hesitency when starting this drill. As a dog progresses through this drill and understands it, it neat to see the wires connect. If one (the birdboy) pays attention the animals eyes, you can pick out when things are connecting and when they aren't. I've heard it said before, "They eyes are the windows to the soul." I will also say "They are the windows that show understanding.".
After working dogs through this drill, we then moved to another field and created a set-up with three (3) marks and three (3) blinds. One (1) of the marks was identified as the main memory mark. The weather was tough. Strong winds from the West, Northwest, and drizzling rain made for a tough training session, on both the handlers and dogs.
In this set-up, the dogs would come and run the main memory mark as a single, then we would repeat the mark as part of the triple mark set-up. All of the bird stations had white stickmen placed at them. The two shorter marks were on the outside of the main memory mark. One of the marks was a short breaking bird, only approximately 30 yards on your right. All of the dogs worked through this set-up very well. Each one of them showed a strong understanding of where each of the marks fell and executed picking them up successfully without assistance from the handler.
The three (3) blinds were well placed. One of the blinds had the influence of the lefthand mark. The dog was required to run past the gun station, on the right. All of the dogs ran their blinds strong. The blind past the gun station was very strong for all the dogs. I believe this had to do with the BB Blind drill performed earlier. The BB Blind drill builds confidence to run near or past gunners to find a blind retrieve. Yesterday, you saw the dogs look out, pick out the gun station, and associating the blind retrieve ques really dialed the dogs in for the blind. All of the dogs took strong initial lines and picked up the blind with minimal whistles.
Today's objective: water marks and blinds. This is one area (water marks) that appears to need improvement. Why is that?... Is it partially because water training takes longer because of the resistance water presents to the dogs? Are we too impatient to make strides in success with our animals we only spend a small amout of time on water work? That's the $50 question.
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