Last week the field we used for training had high cover.  We ran the dogs on a double which was a challenge for them because of the cover.  It was good training though because when they are upland hunting they will often run into that kind of high cover.  At a hunt test you would probably not use a field with that type of over all high cover.  The simple reason is that you can’t see the dog.  We noticed that they cut the field this past week.

This week we picked a different area because we wanted to use the pond in that area.  There is a small field next to the pond and we couldn’t resist running some land marks in the field when we were finished with water.  The field is smallish, but it has some nice features with medium grass and two strips of high cover running across it.

We set up the line so that the cover was about 2/3 of the way across the field.  We used the winger to launch the bird so that it fell in the grass beyond the second strip of cover.  Breaking through strips of cover is something the dogs are likely to see at a test.  They need to have the courage to do it and then hang in there and hunt up the bird.

Freighter had no problem breaking through the first strip of cover but thought the duck was most certainly in that high cover.  He had just picked up a mark in cover like that last week.  He hunted and hunted, periodically sticking his whole head in the cover.  He broke through the second strip of cover and hunted and hunted.  Back to the first, back to the second.  Where was that darn duck?  We let him hunt.  Finally he broke through the second strip of cover, stopped and caught scent of the duck.  He hunted farther back and over a bit and found it.  Good dog.  He showed great perseverance and stayed in the hunt.

We set up this double for the big dogs.

They had a bit of trouble on this double.  That far mark was tough because of the cover.  Thunder had no trouble crashing through the cover to get Mark #2, but he had trouble with the memory bird, (Mark #1).  Go figure?  Storm had no trouble with Mark #1.  She had trouble just getting into the cover for Mark #2.  She had to be handled through it to get to the mark.    I guess that distance is not in her comfort zone right now.  We need to continue to stretch her.

Freighter has been doing so well on his singles and we have thrown a couple of simple doubles on cut grass for him that we could not resist trying him on this double.  We moved the line up and reversed the order of the marks.  Mark #1 was thrown first and Mark #2 second.  His handler let Freighter go just as Mark #2 fell which made it a bit easier for him to get to that far mark.  The challenge for him would be to remember where Mark #1 fell.

Freighter had no trouble with this double.  He pinned both marks.

His marking is really good right now.  I have been pretty impressed with it.  We are doing a bit of handling with him too.  He has a way to go with handling since he is just doing pattern blinds, but we hope to be able to get him on some cold blinds in the near future.

I purchased the new wireless router and set it up so I am back online!  Now just to find time to catch up.  🙂