The weather has turned freezing again and the east coast is bracing for a blizzard.  However, for our group training on Saturday at Farpoint Retrievers the weather was in the mid-30’s, pleasant weather for January in Michigan.  The weather was so nice that we were a decent sized group with Labs, Goldens, Chesapeakes, and a couple of Standard Poodles in attendance.

Freighter Waiting In Line For His Turn To Run
Freighter Waiting In Line For His Turn To Run

The first set-up of the day was a mark in combination with a blind.  A mark is where the dog sees a bumper or bird fall in the field (or on water), and then is sent to retrieve it.  A blind is where the dog is sent to retrieve a bumper or bird that it has not seen fall in the field (or on water).  To make the first set-up more difficult, the dog watched the mark but was pulled away from it and not allowed to retrieve it right away.  First the dog had to run a blind.  After the dog completed the blind retrieve, it was allowed to retrieve the mark.  We call this kind of mark a “poison bird” because the dog must leave it alone to run the blind.

Set-Up 1 Poison Bird Mark And Blind
Set-Up 1 Poison Bird Mark And Blind

This is a higher level set-up which all the dogs training for Master tests ran.  (The lower level dogs ran a modified version of this set-up.)  The difficulty with this set-up is that the mark is fairly close to where the dog will be running the blind.  We were running over a frozen pond and the blind was up on the opposite bank and back a bit from the edge.  It can be hard for the handler to pull a dog off a mark and get them to pay attention to him/her since the dog’s preference is to retrieve the bumper they just watched to fall and that is visible in the field.

Storm was up first.  She has run Master tests and has a couple of passes, but we haven’t done all that much training since hunting season started last Fall.  She did a decent job on this.  She took a bad initial line to the blind but her handler put her back on line and she finished the blind with a couple more casts (or hand signals to direct her to the bumper).

Storm Watching A Mark
Storm Watching The Mark
A Cast (Left Back) To Get Her Heading To The Blind
A Cast (Left Back) To Get Her Heading To The Blind
On Line To The Blind
On Line To The Blind
She Has It.  Good Girl!
She Has It. Good Girl!
And She Has The Mark
And She Has The Mark

Even though Freighter is still working on his Senior title, he ran this set-up too.  Normally we train to the next level of difficulty.  Unlike Storm, he took a nice initial line but needed a few more casts than Storm did to get to the blind.  Freighter is still learning so for his level, he did an acceptable job on this.

Freighter Watching The Mark Fall
Freighter Watching The Mark Fall
He Is Stopped And Is Waiting For His Handler To Cast Him To The Blind
He Is Stopped And Is Waiting For His Handler To Cast Him To The Blind
Back Cast (He Needs To Turn Around)
Back Cast Up The Bank
Another Sit Whistle To Cast Him Again Toward The Blind
Another Sit Whistle When He Gets To The Top Of The Bank And Waiting For A Cast To The Blind
He Has It
He Has It
Good Boy!
Good Boy!
Lining Up For The Mark
Lining Up For The Mark
He Has The Mark
He Has The Mark

The second set-up was another mark in combination with a blind.  This time the dogs picked up the mark before running the blind.  However, the blind had to be run under the arc of the mark and right past the gunner (the kid throwing the bumper).  The blind was way back in the field up on a mound.  This set-up can be very difficult for dogs.  The dog’s tendency is to go back to where they just picked up the mark and they can tend to avoid passing so close to the gunner.

Set-Up 2 Blind Run Under The Arc Of The Mark
Set-Up 2 Blind Run Under The Arc Of The Mark

Storm was up first.  Her bumper landed in a big pile of snow and was buried.  She had to put on a big hunt to come up with it, but she hung in there, used her nose, and literally dug it out.  Her blind got a bit messy at the very end, but on the whole we were happy with it.

Storm Taking Off For The Blind
Storm Taking Off For The Blind
Storm Returning With The Blind
Storm Returning With The Blind

Freighter did great on the mark.  His blind was a bit of a mess but in the end he got it.  He needs to work this kind of set-up because it is a weak area for him.  He tends to ping-pong when there are factors in the field (like a gunner, or passing that island where the gunner was sitting).  When he is out at a distance, he tends to break his sit and go into hunting mode which you don’t want.  It was ugly but it was an improvement from last year because his handler was able to work him through it without having to shorten it up by walking out to him.

Freighter Stopped On His Way To The Blind Way Back On That Mound
Freighter Stopped On His Way To The Blind Way Back On That Mound
Oops Freighter Why Are You Behind The Gunner?
Oops Freighter Why Are You Behind The Gunner?
After Zig-Zagging And A Bunch Of Handles Freighter Has it
After Zigzagging And A Bunch Of Handles Freighter Has it
Good Boy!
Good Boy!

Freighter’s marking has been really good and I will have more on that in a future post.

9 thoughts on “Pleasant Weather For January

  1. Glad you can get out and train. Bailie has been doing lots of winter tracking too with the mild weather but we really wish it was colder and we had more snow.

  2. Wow, that’s impressive! And looks like they were having a great time. But oh how I disagree with the use of words like pleasant and nice to describe mid-30s weather! 🙂

  3. So glad you got some decent weather for training. Our weather has improved recently too, not so bitter cold and we’re finally getting some snow instead of ice.
    It sounds to me like the dogs did very well. Some of those exercises sounded pretty complicated to me! Great photos and diagrams to illustrate it too.

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