Needless to say, we were a small group for training on Christmas Eve.  It was only us and another person from our group who brought his lab.  It was a good day to work on handling, specifically lining the dog up for blind retrieves.  This training was for the benefit of both the dog and the handler.

Four piles of bumpers were set.  First the dogs were sent to each pile to retrieve a bumper.  They were handled if necessary.  I made the line to pile #3 orange because that is the main line which all of the dogs who train on this property use for “T” work.  It is a well known, well worn path for the dogs.

After the dogs retrieved a bumper from each of the four piles, they were then initially lined up with pile #3 (orange line).  Then they were realigned to another pile, for example to pile #1.  The purpose of this training is to work on changing the dog’s mind from taking a well known line to a less familiar line.

This training set-up was also practice for the handler to efficiently realign the dog.  Many many times at a test the handler has to realign a dog and doing it quickly and efficiently is something that the judges will look at in Master level tests.  Once the dog retrieved a bumper from pile #1, the handler repeated the exercise by lining up initially to #3 (orange line) and then realigning the dog to #2, and so on with #3 being the last pile the dog was sent to.  If the dog took a bad initial line, ie was lined properly but choose the wrong line, it was recalled and resent.  Once on a proper line, the dog was handled as necessary to the pile of bumpers.

Pictures of Storm working.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After running through the above exercise, it was changed up a bit and the dogs were lined to a pile and sent and then handled over to the neighboring pile.  Again the purpose of this exercise was to work on handling, both for the dog and the handler.

Both Thunder and Storm did well on these.  The dogs and their handler need practice so it was a really good training session.  Perhaps because the handling was a little more complex than just a basic drill, Thunder seemed to really enjoy this work.  He had to be recalled and resent  a couple of times because he took the wrong line, (Storm did too), but it wasn’t long before both dogs understood what they were supposed to do.

Pictures of Thunder’s work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished by running a mark which is Thunder’s absolute favorite.

 

 

This training has been very beneficial for Thunder in restoring his enthusiasm.  He will never be a huge fan of drill work, but the last couple of training sessions  he really seemed to be having fun.  You might also notice that Thunder is holding his bumpers properly compared to Storm. 🙂

It is already Friday again and we plan to train tomorrow.  Puppy will be coming home soon and our training schedule may be put on hold for a bit, (we will play that by ear).  We need to get training in while we can.  🙂

Have a great weekend!  I am going to try to get the pictures from New Year’s Eve training up tomorrow.