After Storm did her work on land, we moved over to the pond to work a water blind.  We were working on the back side of the pond and the blind was set up like this:

The purpose of this set-up is to work on the dog staying in the water even though their inclination would be to get out on the land they are swimming next to (called “docking”).  Hey running on land is faster than swimming, right?  In a test, the dog needs to be in the water to earn a qualifying score on a water blind.  In the higher level test, if the dog docks early they may be in the wrong spot to get the blind.  Staying in the water until told to get out is an important skill that goes along with going where sent.

This was a fairly long water blind which required Storm to swim along side of the land for quite a distance.  You will notice the break in the land where the front and the back of the pond meet.  The spot where the land picks up again is a tempting spot for the dogs to dock.  (I have marked red “x’s” along the area where you really don’t want the dog to dock.)

For this blind Storm was given a long land entry before she got to the water.  Once in the water she kept swimming toward the right side of the pond (the bumpers were to the left).  Maybe it was because she saw something that interested her, (like a frog), or maybe it was because our van was parked there with Thunder inside, or maybe she was testing her owner/handler because he hasn’t been handling her the last week.  What ever the reason, each time she was given a whistle sit, (which in the water means she must turn around and look at her handler while treading water), and given a left “over” cast  to move her into the center of the pond.

After a couple of whistle sits and casts she was back on track.  During a test, it would be nice if you lined the dog up and they swam in a straight line until they got to the spot you wanted to cast them over to pick up the blind.  But that doesn’t always happen, especially with an inexperienced dog.  The dog doesn’t have to swim in a perfectly straight line as long as the dog will stop each time the handler blows the whistle and take the casts given it, (which in this case would be back towards the center of the water).  This set-up is to train those skills.

Storm did a good job of staying in the water.  Any time she headed toward the land to the left, she was given a whistle sit and cast (right “over”) into the center of the pond.  The trainer also noticed her handler’s tendency to give her casts very quickly.  He suggested that her handler slow down giving her the casts so as to help Storm take the correct path.  There is a lot to learn about handling and his suggestion helped Storm to take the casts more easily.

Eventually Storm swam to a spot even with where the pile of bumpers were set.  At that point she was given a left “over” cast onto the land where she picked up the bumper.

All and all it was a good training session for Storm.  Hoping for a good result at her test this weekend!