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I feel like this slide show needs a bit of explanation (so not wordless today I guess).  This is Thunder last Saturday watching the combination land water triple marks fall.  (This is a rough drawing of the set-up.)  In the higher level AKC tests the handler has to use a handler’s gun.  In HRC the handler must shoulder and fire the gun (with popper loads).  It pays to practice once in a while.  One of the members of our group brought this cap gun and allowed anyone in the group to borrow it.  (Sure beats the broom handle we use in the park. 🙂  Thanks Karen!)  You hope the dog swings his head with the marks.  Thunder doesn’t really need a gun to cue him to swing his head, but sometimes it helps the younger dogs.

35 thoughts on “Wordless Wednesday–Watching The Marks Fall”

  1. Oooh you should do these slideshows more often. It is a fun way to see what you are talking about. We have to shoulder those cap guns too… hoping I can just borrow my friend’s rather than having to carry an actual shotgun. I know it will be hard enough for me to keep up with Luna in the field, without lugging a shotgun too. This is why I mostly prefer to be the handler lol.
    I should test this with wyatt though, I guess he does swing his head as he is used to us using the bumper launcher with him. He is big into using his eyes to find bumpers rather than smell past a point so we are working on that with him.
    Keep up the good work
    Anna
    http://www.akginspiration.com

    1. Using eyes rather than nose is not a bad thing until you get into cover and then it becomes hard to see the bumpers. I was surprised our dogs did as well as they did finding bumpers in cover (Friday’s post). The optimum for us is eyes to the area of the fall and then nose to dig it out. Thunder can rely too much on his nose and that has gotten him into trouble (hello hot blind). In HRC some of the women bring their own guns because the guns provided are too big and heavy. Of course they just have to use them at the line and not lug them to the field.

  2. I agree with Anna….the photos coupled with the caption worked great! I always take away something new from your blog. 🙂

  4. It is neat to see in the slide show. It helps us non-hunters understand what you are training for.

    1. Thanks. I am not always in a position to get a nice series of pictures, but sometimes I am. I will try to get more of them.

  11. Very nice addition to (nearly, ok not really nearly) wordless Wednesday. LOL The slide show is great, it almost looks to me like Thunder already knew where the drop was going to be though. Do the dogs figure it out?

    1. On that last one he could see the thrower. They can’t always see them. Sometimes you have them visible and sometimes you don’t. Depends on what you are training. Testing they would usually not be visible. Sometimes they can pick them out though.

  14. I like the slide show. Thunder looks cool sitting so alert.

  17. Hey Browndawgs – Loved the slideshow – how did you do it? Is it a plugin?

    Have fun guys,

    Your pal Snoopy 🙂

    1. On free wordpress it is an option when you upload pictures for a post. You can insert the pictures one at a time, as a gallery or a slide show. It has always been there, I just have not used it much lately.

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