I mentioned in a previous post that Freighter’s marking has fallen off recently. Some of the things that he is doing is not driving to the marks, avoiding cover and failing to establish a hunt. His trainer instructed us to work on single marks in cover until they are solid again.
We spent part of the weekend at our cabin and went off to a nearby field to throw some marks. This field is maintained by the gas company to provide access to their natural gas pumps and lines. In the Summer and Fall this field is full of cheat grass so we avoid it. This time of year it has medium cover which is mostly brush and some grass. It has some dips and rises but is basically flat. We figured it was a good place to start.
Freighter did a nice job on these marks. He established a hunt and stuck with it until he found the bumpers. He took a nice straight line to the mark which is something he had not been doing in training recently. We only threw him a few marks before the mosquitoes and black flies, (which were horrible this weekend), drove us back inside.
Yesterday we went out to the farm where we have our training membership and found a field with a few small hills and grass for cover. The cover was kind of high in this field so it was difficult to get clear pictures with all that darn grass in the way. We used ducks and stretched out the distance for these marks.
Freighter did a good job on these marks establishing a hunt where necessary to find the birds. Again he ran in a nice straight line and didn’t appear to avoid any obstacles in the field such as grass mounds or brush.
Next we found a big clump of cover just at the edge of the pond and dumped the bird right into it. Freighter had no issue crashing through the high cover and hunting for the bird.
The last thing we did was a couple of water marks. We used bumpers for these and dumped them in a patch of grass in the pond. Most of the water was not deep enough to swim so Freighter kind of lunged his way through it.
We will continue throwing Freighter singles for the next couple or few weeks until he is good and solid on them. Hopefully his issues are due to immaturity, or transitioning from handling back to marking, or just being a bit of a stubborn boy Chessie. Once his singles are solid again, we can move on to doubles.
We also trained Thunder and Storm over the weekend. I hope to have those pictures later this week.
Glad you linked up cheater grass too – thanks as I had no idea what that was! You are always teaching me new stuff. I have a weird question…do you even need to worry about snakes there? I am big time terrified of them and wondered about that but then though maybe the pounding of the running pups gave the snakes enough time to get outta there so you don’t have to worry about that? I loved the pix of Freighter with the ears straight up – super cute! Also, do they ever try to eat the ducks?
No snakes thank goodness. One benefit to being North…lol. Thunder tried to eat a duck once at a Junior test. It didn’t go over too well. 🙂
Oh, sooo glad to hear that there aren’t snake worries. Now I can tell you why I really HAD to know…I was watching some tail end of a tv show and they started talking about snakes near ponds and all I could think about was your crew so I didn’t want to ask almost but then I was up worrying about them all! Whew! I’m sooo relieved! :0 Thanks!
Freighter seems to have done well! Let’s hope it is onwards and upwards. Have a terrific Tuesday.
Best wishes Molly
Freighter is probably just having teenage boy issues 😉 He looks good to me and looks to be having lots of fun!
Great job Freighter!!! Very impressive. Your parents must be proud! 🙂 Now, those black flies and skeeters… ugh… too bad they come at such a pretty time of year…. sigh
YAY Freighter! I sure did spot you in that high grass!
The joy in “Off to another mark” is beautiful!
Hi Y’all!
BOL! Freighter with the bumper after all those birds!!! The expression!!! Like he’s sayin’ “This is what you want me to bring?” BOL!
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Great job Freighter! I wonder if switching up the location a bit makes a difference like you did. Sometimes I think Finn gets bored doing the same things in the same parks all the time. Have a great Tuesday!
I really love the areas you have for training. I was wondering if maturity could be an issue. I remember when I was training Sampson I was told they don’t typically ‘get it’ until they are 2 to 2 1/2 years old. I think Sampson was closer to 3 (and he has no Chessie in him.) 🙂
Sounds like taking a step back was a great idea to get Freighter back on track. He did great this weekend! I guess the true test will come when he goes back to doubles in a few weeks. 🙂
Such handsome creatures! I’m close to having a couple of ducks to donate to the cause …
Hahaha!
I love watching Freighter hunt! Such a cool doggie. You know, sometimes we all need a refresher course every once in a while. Hopefully, that will do the trick for Freighter.
*high paws*
Oz
We just learned about cheat grass last week. Luckily we don’t have that, but we do have snakes. Glad you don’t have to deal with those. The pictures of Freighter are stunning, and the extra work certainly seems to be paying off. Good job by everyone!
Good job Freighter, he seems like such a smart boy to me! 🙂
Great photos and nice job. Don’t you hate it when doing handling and their marking goes down.
So since I don’t know much about retrievers and all the training, is it safe to assume that a double is when he retrieves 2 ducks in one trip? Looks pretty cool, very smart dog 🙂
As always really enjoyed the pictures! Looks like Freighter had a great time and did a terrific job. Bet he’s happy to be home 🙂
Perhaps he is being a rebellious teenager 🙂 Looks like he did really good with the single bumpers again though.
I’m glad Freighter did so well with his weekend training! It always looks like so much fun!!
Good training buddy! Do you get a lot of ticks there? What do you use to cope with them?
Wags to all
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
Back tracking is always a good idea when trying to fix and/or strengthen something in training, no matter what you’re working on. Hope this works for Freighter….looks like you had a real nice session, and a nice day for it! 🙂
Awesome photos, but I got totally distracted by Freighter’s coat! 🙂
Good boy Freighter, you got some great shots, I especially love the third one.
As the owner of a ball-obsessed Lab mix, I appreciate your blog. While I do not do formal retrieving work with Ace, and he is not a trained hunting or retrieving companion, we do a lot of obedience work. I incorporate lots of obedience within our fetching games, and he has a blast. I’ve always been interested in more formal training beyond obedience work, so I’m finding your blog very interesting.
Freighter looks like he’s doing a real nice job in cover training. I’ve heard of dogs avoiding cover if they’ve never been trained in it, and training in cover is a great idea. I try training in heavy cover as much as possible and recently transplanted a number of raspberries in the pasture to grow wild and create a little harsher brush to train in. In fact, Mia has shown a distinct preference for hunting heavy cattails as opposed to open terrain.