Training last Saturday showed us that our senior dog Thunder (age 10) can still mark bumpers thrown for him even under less than idea weather conditions.

Saturday was the official opening of training season for us.  I say official opening because the farm where purchased a training membership for the season opened for training.  However, the weather did not cooperate.  There was a strong (25-30 mph) sustained wind and intermittent snow flurries.  To say it was cold would be an understatement.

Normally we would have passed on training in such weather, but we had to be there to sign our liability waiver for the year and get our membership cards, so why not bring the dogs and train.

Of course everyone else had the same idea and although we could have trained with another group, we needed to keep it short since we were heading up to the cabin afterward and the weather was predicted to deteriorate.

We ended up setting up a nice long single on a strip of land parallel to a pond.  It was much too cold to put the dogs in to the pond.  We threw the bumper so it landed well away from the pond.  The wind was blowing from left to right as we set up, so across the field and toward the pond.

Thunder was up first he pinned the mark both times. No hunting or searching for him.  He went right to the spot where he watched it fall.

Storm and Freighter both struggled with these marks.  I think the strong wind confused them a bit and pulled them off line so they missed where the mark fell.  The strong wind made it tough to use their noses once they were pulled away from the bumper.

Thunder is hubby’s duck hunting dog.  He has a lot of seasons under his belt.  Duck hunters like windy conditions so Thunder has had a lot of practice marking the fall of birds in such conditions which is probably why this was an easy set up for him.

Our senior dog got some exercise and showed us he can still mark.

How was your weekend?