We had an awesome training day Saturday with beautiful weather and challenging set-ups.  All of the dogs did a great job, including Thunder.

First Darrin set up a water triple.  He said that this was Master level plus.  We were not sure how Thunder would do on it, but he did great.

Here is a very crude drawing to give you an idea.

The bumpers were thrown in the order I numbered them, (1-2-3).  The dogs picked them up in reverse order, (3-2-1).  They were nice long swims.  The go mark (#3) was fairly straight forward, the challenge being the length of the swim and the dogs had to exit the water to pick-up the bumper.  The second mark was closer, but the challenge of this mark was that the dogs were required to take the line as I show it on the diagram.  They needed to cut over that little strip of land and then re-enter the water.  No cheating the bank.  They also needed to follow the same line back.  The third mark was a challenge because not only had it been a long time since they saw it fall, (due the time it took the dog swim and pick up #3 and #2), but they had to cut close to the line they took for mark #2.  The way the wind was blowing, the dogs were catching the scent of the area where they had just picked up the second mark and it was sucking them over.  They needed to push past that second mark, not hook back into it, and swim to the far bank and exit the pond for the third mark (#1).  Also, the way Mark #1 and #2 were thrown in relation to one another had the potential to cause confusion for the dog watching them fall from the line.  If the dog started to go astray, they were handled to the mark.

Thunder Watching The Second Mark Fall - You Can See The Bird Boy Who Will Throw The Third Mark In The Background To The Left
Thunder Off To Pick Up The "Go" Bumper (#3)
On His Way Back

Thunder did great on the “go” mark (#3).  He swam straight out and back.  Well not straight back because he got his leg caught up on one of the decoy ropes at the far end of the pond.  He swam back toward the far bank, which got him loose.  Another recall whistle and he was on his way back.

Good Boy!

Now it was time for that second mark.  Thunder’s handler lined him and sent him and he took a straight line to the bumper.  Perfect!

Heading To Mark #2 - You Can See The Bird Boy That Threw Mark #1 In The Background

Thunder needed to be handled on the return because he wanted to take the wrong line back.  However he took the casts easily.  At a test, the correct line going is more important than the return, but this was training and it is nice to have the straight line out and back so in training, we train the return as well.

Thunder had to be handled on the third mark because he wanted to hook back to the area where he had picked up #2.  It took a couple of casts and he headed across the pond and picked up #1.  This was excellent training for him because we do not have this kind of water to train in and better a mistake in training than at a test.  🙂

Nice job!

Next we did a long channel blind.  It was about 100 yards, but with a lot of factors to cause trouble.  The dogs were sent from a mound and then had to swim the channel and then exit the pond, cross a small road and then enter another pond and swim to where the bumpers were placed.

This was a very challenging blind and Darrin said if they could do it with less than 15 handles, they were doing well.  I am happy to report that all dogs, including Thunder, did it well under 15 handles.  🙂

Thunder Being Lined
Off He Goes

A year ago when we were having the battles with Thunder and he was giving no-go’s into the water and cheating every bank he could find, I wasn’t sure he could ever do these advanced set-ups.  He has come such a long way, it was a pleasure to watch him work on Saturday.

We also saw Storm and watched her run a different blind and the triple.  She was not as cooperative for Darrin as Thunder was for Jim.  I guess she is still getting adjusted to being back in training.  Darrin says that all of the returning dogs go through it.  The first couple of weeks back are like boot camp for the dogs.  🙂

23 thoughts on “Awesome Training”

  3. Wow! These look like some very challenging tests for the dogs. I can’t believe how they can hold their concentration and swim so far. Thunder did awesome!

  4. Great job Thunder!! When you say that Thunder had to be handled on the return, does this require a second person to go in and correct him?

    1. No it doesn’t. It is all done by the handler. I think the answer would be easier in a post, so thanks for the idea for tomorrow’s post. I was undecided on the subject. 🙂

  6. I agree with Gloria, I would love to see this in person!

    When you look back at the training you have done with Thunder in the last year, did you think you were making the progress you did? I know sometimes when I’m working my dogs I think I’m getting nowhere, but when I think back to where they (who am I kidding, she) was last year I see the difference. 🙂

    Great job Thunder!!

    1. Like you, sometimes it looks like we are really making little progress, but then it seems to all come together. Even if Thunder back slides we know he is capable. Last year he tested better than he trained. Hoping for the same this year. Birds and gunfire seem to up the excitement for him. 🙂

      I wish you could come and watch too, because if you think Thunder is good, you should see some of the other dogs. Strider (in Wednesday’s post), is a very talented young lab and can run rings around Thunder. He is pretty amazing. For me the fun of training is watching all of the dogs.

  7. Im glad it was a good day! I love the picture of Thunder being lined, so awesome!

  11. Great job pups and handlers! These setups do not look easy in the least, I doubt chris will ever take Wyatt this far, but it sure would be nice to have a place like this to practice at. Thanks for your words on the ecollar training. 😉
    Anna
    http://www.akginspiration.com

  12. Hi Y’all,

    Just stopped by to say “hi” and see how y’all are doing. Looks like a great day and lots of successful runs for Thunder!

    Hope y’all are having a great week!

    Y’all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

  15. Wow. What great training…I’m impressed!

    Thanks for the kind comment about Toby. We will miss him, but blog furiends like you really help.

  16. I am always so amazed at how involved the training is and how well they do. It must take a lot of endurance for all those swims and retrieves. I think they look beautiful 🙂

  18. Also, I am genuinely curious, how did they train for this sport prior to e-collars? Or did this sport not exist prior?
    Is there a way to message you privately to discuss? I don’t think we got very far yesterday, mainly because I am trying to keep my blog about crossing over, not about arguments over e-collar usage. Let me know if you are willing to discuss more.

    1. Fair enough. 🙂

      I don’t mind answering questions or discussing. Field trials for retrievers have been around since the 1930’s. Hunt tests started in the early 1980’s. Before e-collars say up to the 60’s, the methods for training field trial retrievers could be quite brutal. For example, close work was done with heeling sticks or cattle prods and distance work with sling shots or bee-bee guns, (only some examples). The dogs had to be tough both physically and mentally. Many were washed out. Of course all of this was before my time, so this info is based on what old-timers have told me.

      The e-collar changed the sport. Now dogs that were smart and driven succeeded. They did not have to just be tough. Once the range was extended on the e-collar, the average guy could train his/her dog to run hunt tests and even field trails. The test set-ups became more complex as brains and trainabilty became desired qualities in retrievers rather than toughness.

      For the history of the development of the e-collar see this link. There is other stuff there, but scroll down a bit to the history part.

      http://dobbsdogs.com/library/obedience/rffintro.html

      1. Wow! Bee-bee guns!? Crazy people… I know there is a big difference between hunting dog training and just basic in-home or behavior adjustment training. I can see how it would be hard to train at that distance and why e-collars are used. I wish I was more educated on this field to give tips for +R training with distance. I need to ask my friend who works with hunting dogs and see what she has to say, there has to be a way to do it with +R…

  19. This is great! I wish I could see this in person, I bet it is a sight to see! It’s amazing how much a dog can pick up and learn! We are teaching Aladdin toy names and it amazes me how well they grab the idea and complete the tasks! You must be so proud! 🙂

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