Yesterday, I shared some of our water training from last weekend.  After we finished those marks, we ran a couple of long singles.  The first was about 110 yards and the second was around 160 yards.  As you can see on these videos, there were obstacles in the way of getting clear video.  There were small hazards on the ground, such as standing water.  There were also trees intermittently in the field.  We like to mix things up a bit, and not always train only on a wide open field because you never know what will act as an imaginary stop to a dog, or what will draw their attention from focusing on a mark. 

Storm was first up.  If you look way out in the field, you can see a splotch of white.  That is the gunner who was throwing the bird.  I wasn’t able to get great video of her going to the mark, (if you make it full screen you can see a tiny dot which is Storm…lol).  I was able to get a better view as she came in though.

Storm had no trouble with that first mark.  She did have a bit of trouble with the second one though because she took her eyes off it (darn robins landed right in front of her).  She was sent, but popped.  That is no good.  The mark was re-thrown and she was out and back.  She is still not solid on those long marks and needs more of those.

Thunder was great on both.  Both of the videos I took of him are about the same, except he had to hunt a bit on the second longer mark.  We are very happy with his progress on these long marks.  He used to routinely hunt too short on long marks, but now is fairly solid on those.  It would be nice if he ran out in a straight line, but it doesn’t seem to interfere with his knowing where the mark is, and maybe that will improve with training and longer marks.  We also still need to improve his memory on doubles and triples, but that is definitely improving with training.  This is video of the shorter mark and much better than the video I took of Storm.

Slowly, slowly we are making progress.  Each training bits and pieces come together.  Once we get all of them, we will be ready for tests!

On a side note: the laptop I use for work had to go off to the repair shop (2-4 weeks…ugg! Darn those computer gremlins!).  For a bit, I won’t be able to sneak a peek at your blogs during a work break.  If I am tardy reading or posting a comment, please forgive me, it is only temporary.  😀