The weather was nice and sunny this past Saturday.  The sun was great, but it was in a position that made taking pictures difficult.  I am not complaining.  The sun was shinning and it was wonderful!

It was also wonderful to work with Freighter this past Saturday.  He is happy as a clam at the trainer’s place.  Since it was a nice day, a lot of people showed up and Freighter was bouncing around because he wanted to visit and play with every person and every dog.  I guess he still has a lot of puppy in him.

His handling is coming along very nicely.  The week before he worked great for the trainer, but not did not work as well for his owner.  By not working, I mean that he was not really taking the casts.  This past Saturday, he took his owner’s casts much better.  He put in effort.  He is not perfect because he is still learning, but he is coming along very nicely.  We were quite pleased.  His trainer Darrin is doing a great job with him.

One series we did required a remote send to begin a blind.  In Masters tests, sometimes the judges will require the dog to be a bit of a distance away from its handler for marks or to start a blind.  They call that a remote send.

Freighter At Heel
Freighter At Heel
Being Put In Position For The Remote Send
Being Put In Position For The Remote Send
Set
Set

At first Freighter was a bit worried about the whole thing.

What Is This?
What Is This?

He does not have the experience to know what he was going to be asked to do.  As soon as his handler blew a whistle to signal that he was going to work, Freighter relaxed.

OK I Guess I Am Going To Work
OK I Guess I Am Going To Work

Freighter moves nice and fast when he is given a cast.  He was a bit confused by being in a position he is not used to, but he made a nice effort.

Back!
Right Back Cast
Moving
Moving
Nice And Fast
Nice And Fast
A Little Off Track
A Little Off Track
Stopped Again
Stopped A Little Confused
Left Back Cast
Left Back Cast
Still Not In Line But More Confident
Still Not In Line But More Confident
Right Back Cast
Right Back Cast
Heading To The Pile
Heading To The Pile
Freighter Has It
Freighter Has It
Good Boy!
Good Boy!

Freighter did a very nice job on something that is new to him.  Once he has handling on land down pat, then he has to tackle handling in water.  Hopefully the ponds will open up and warm up in the next month so the dogs can get into the water.

I have a bunch more training pictures of Freighter and Thunder which I will share in future posts.

25 thoughts on “Training With Freighter

  1. I truly appreciate your photo telling skills. You capture the body language beautifully! Looking forward to seeing more of Freighter’s training! Plus, we’ve watched some competitions on TV and really had no good idea of what was going on… now I will!

  2. Good boy! I would be confused too but I would never have gotten the whole point and would have taken off on my own after some scent. He will pick it up and be comfortable, no doubt!

    1. Thanks for the award!

      Freighter does look pitiful doesn’t he? I don’t know why putting him out in front worried him. Maybe because we had run marks first? It worried some of the other dogs too, but none were quite as expressive as Freighter. Our trainer told the handlers to blow their whistles to let the dogs know they were going to work and once Freighter heard the whistle, the light bulb went on and he seemed to understand.

  3. You have great photos. If memory serves me, you started Thunder and Storm at older ages. Do you find Freighter is catching on faster than Thunder or Storm did? Or is working with an adult dog who already knows ‘the ways of the world’ easier?

  4. What a smart boy! I would’ve been so confused with all of that. He looks great in all the photos.
    *high paws*
    Oz

  5. So cute. You can almost see his little mind working to figure new things out.

  6. Question…When our DL club held January tests we had a number of Northern trainers who brought groups of dogs down south to compete. does your trainer do this? Would you let your trainer take Freighter on the road for tests?

      1. I though maybe DL was the club…lol. We are pretty lucky in Michigan because we have several hunt tests right in our state and there are also tests in Indiana and Ohio. We don’t have to travel too far to find tests. But to answer your question, I know our trainer used to go south for winter training. That was before we started working with him. There are pros and cons to going south. There might be a time when Freighter wold travel with him for tests. Usually he will only take Master level dogs and Freighter is not there yet. He did take Storm to Senior tests, but those were all in state.

  7. I am just floored! I’m STILL working on Max to master “come”…it seems a losing battle! Then I see this and think WOW! Plus he’s soooo adorable doing it! You have to wonder how he figured it out so easily really because I sure would be scratching my head…ha…maybe that’s why Max isn’t learning…his Mom isn’t too quick either ha! Let’s blame it on genetics…but wait…humm?! Don’t think Max is actually in my same bloodline 🙁 bummer, would have been a decent excuse! 🙂

    1. 😆 Freighter is with a pro so he is learning things correctly the first time. We can’t take credit for a lot of his training. 🙂

  8. Hi Y’all!

    What great pictures you got of Freighter handling.

    Y’all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

  9. Nice handling. I’ve found that with anything new, it’s mostly a matter of confidence and it looks like Freighter catches on pretty quickly.

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