Sunday is the Winter Solstice which marks the shortest day of the year. Starting Monday the days will start to get longer and that means that it is time to get the brown dawgs back into their hunt test training.
Hubby has done some training with them over the past couple of months so they haven’t just been sitting around, but now it is time to get more consistent about their training. I know it seems a long way away, but hunt test season will be here before you know it. Trust me.
All of our snow melted away and we have been having temperatures in the 40’s which is perfect for the brown dawgs to run a few marks. Remember that a “mark” is an object (training bumper or bird) that the dog watches being thrown for it to retrieve.
We used a neighbor’s open lot so we did not have a lot of space. We threw the dogs two sets of double marks and a long single mark. The doubles were pretty straight forward, but with a bit of difficulty.
The first double was thrown from the center of the field left and right; however, one of the bumpers fell behind a pine tree so the dogs could not see exactly where it hit the ground. That made it a bit harder than if it was thrown in the open.
Freighter did perfect on this. He really is a good marker. Thunder had to hunt Mark #1 a bit and Storm put on a giant hunt for that bumper. Of the three she seemed the most rusty.
The second double was thrown so that the bumpers fell in a line. Hubby wanted me to thrown the closer one first so that is what I did.
Generally the dog will pick up the last bumper thrown first, but when they have to run over another bumper to get to that one, sometimes they will abandon that bumper and pick up the first one they see. That can make for trouble when it comes time retrieve the farther bumper (in this case Mark 2) because they can get confused as to where it is in the field.
Both Freighter and Thunder retrieved these in the reverse order that they were thrown (Mark 2 then Mark 1) which was what we wanted. Only Storm was different and retrieved the closer (#1) before going for the farther one (#2). She got them both with no help and no hunting so that was good at least.
Overall we were pretty happy with their work. They all ran hard and seemed happy to be back in the field.
Here are some photos. Freighter first:
Thunder really ran hard and had fun.
Storm also ran hard and had fun.
Tomorrow we are starting back up with our Saturday group training with a professional trainer. We train through the winter, weather permitting. It is a great way to keep the dogs sharp and in shape through the winter.
Have a nice weekend!
Thanks to SlimDoggy, MyGBGV Life, and To Dog with Love for the FitDog Friday Blog Hop!
They sure look happy to be back out in the field and love those action shots. Have a tremendous Thursday.
Best wishes Molly
Opps foolish we are it is Friday.
Molly
Oh, such HAPPY faces on the Brown Dawgs as they run for their retrieves. You can tell that they enjoy the hunt so much! Happy Friday to all.
I would agree – they all look to be pretty happy back in the field!
Good job getting back into training. We haven’t done a thing. It will show to later on.
Hi Y’all!
Whoopee! Great action shots! Hope my Human gets a faster camera soon!
Have a holly, jolly weekend!
Y’all come on by,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Oh I just love these photos!
Your snow melted already? EEK, my huskies would not be happy about that!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
That is awesome that you train all year. We never understand those that stop life in the winter. We train for nose work and tracking in the winter with or without snow too. Love all those action shots. They are working hard and having fun! Thanks for joining the hop.
Bravo! It’s pleasure to see you and I love your photos, they show how much power you have!
Sunday is my favorite day of the year. Before you know it, I won’t be walking dogs in the dark anymore. 🙂
I love watching how your dogs love what they do.
Yay! Thanks for reminding us about the winter solstice. I’ve always loved that it falls so early in the winter so we can look forward to longer days coming! Then, we have more hours to get out and play!
Back to work and loving it should be the title! 🙂
Nice! Pretty advanced stuff, that! *wags*
Pawsome action shots!! Certainly a great way to keep your pups well exercised 🙂
Great photos! The dogs look very happy. I enjoy your diagrams, too. It helps me get a feel for how it all works. 🙂
Great shots of the dogs getting back into training. I’m just as excited for the longer days too!
They sure look excited and happy to be back at it. It really has been a crazy season so far when it comes to the weather. We got a little blizzard in November and not much since then; a far cry from last year in Michigan so far.
I bet it felt great for all of you to get out there working again! We’ll be glad to have the shortest day of the year behind us now too!
Nice work!
They all look to be enjoying themselves very much running there! 😀 Nice!