When I left off last post, Storm had been running blind retrieves.  We were going to run the series one more time, but someone in the training group asked how to get their dog to focus on where it was being sent instead of swinging its head all around.  That brought up poison birds.  Remember we worked this drill a while back.  Since the dogs were now very familiar with where the blinds were set, (necessary for this drill to be effective), we worked poison birds.

The point of poison birds is to train the dog to go where it is sent.  We had been working poison birds with Storm so she understands to look off the hand thrown mark (poison bird) when she is told.  To make this a little more difficult for Storm she was handled to pick up a bumper from Pile #1 and then a bumper from Pile #2 before she is allowed to pick up the Mark (#3).  The other dogs were just starting out with this drill, so they just used Pile #1 and the Mark (#3).

Storm did very well with this.  She had no problem looking off the mark to get a bumper from Pile #1, but wanted to pick that mark up before she got her bumper from Pile #2 because that is what she was used to doing.  With a few handles, she swam past the mark and had success picking up a bumper from Pile #2.  A lot of what Storm needs to work on to improve her handling is to give up on where she wants to go, and go where she is sent.

But Storm was not finished yet.  Some people left the group at this point and more arrived, and we stayed.  To run single marks.

The first mark was thrown on the back right hand side of the pond.

To retrieve Mark #1, Storm would have to go over the place she had just picked up several bumpers.  She got hung up in that area and needed a “back” cast to drive her back to the mark.  Maybe she was getting tired and figured someone just might have left a bumper in that spot?  🙂  She did take the “back” cast and got the mark.

After all of the dogs ran that mark, we did it again because all of them had trouble with it.  Storm, did the same thing the second time around, stopping to hunt on the shorter bit of land.  Another “back” and she got it.  Oh well…

By the time she ran Mark #2 (back left side of the pond) she was pretty pooped.  She had done a ton of swimming (including a fun bumper at one point).  She looked at her handler, like “Again?”.  The last mark was 110 yards.  She swam out and got it, but it was a sloooow go.

Needless to say, she slept well that night.

At the end of last week, we left her with the trainer for a month because she has another test coming up.  As soon as Thunder is released to swim, we hope to resume Saturday training with the trainer and if all goes well, maybe run him in some tests in August.

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