The brown dawgs had a great training day on Saturday.  This is Part 2 of that training.  Part 1 is here.

Once all of the dogs completed the first three series, the action moved to the center of the field. The next series was a tricky double with a diversion thrown from the line as the dogs returned.  Both Thunder and Storm were a little shaky on the double.  Thunder ran right over the go mark and had to be handled.  He ran the series again and did much better.  Once we can get out to train after work, we are going to have to work on throwing the dogs multiple marks.  Last year they were in the same boat because they only really get multiple marks once a week during the winter.  Of course if that bumper had been a bird, I guarantee that Thunder would not have passed over it.  🙂

Next we moved to the left side of the field.  We ran a mark (thrown left to right) and a blind at the far left corner of the field.  The dogs had to run in between a couple of trees to get the mark (the mark was fairly close to the line).  To run the blind, they needed to run to the right of the stand of trees.  To make this more difficult, there was some landscaping tubing in the field (an obstacle) and the handlers needed to try to get the dogs to go over it on the way to the blind.

Storm was up first.   She did fine on the mark.

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Next she got ready to run the blind.

This is where Storm sort of went off track.  When a handler lines a dog to a blind, he or she gives a command to alert the dog that it is going to do a blind retrieve.  For Storm the handler is using the command “dead”.  The dog’s job is to look out to different areas of the field and if it is not the correct direction, the handler says “no”.  The dog is supposed to look to another area and when it is correct, the handler will say something like “good” or “right there” to tell the dog that it is looking in the correct direction.  Once the dog is released, it is supposed to run in the direction it is looking.  Experienced dogs and handlers make this look easy, but it is not.  Novice handlers train a lot on the communication between dog and handler.

In this series Storm was looking to the gunner that was to the left and to the far right corner of the field where the she had picked up bumpers earlier in the day.  She needed to look in between those two areas and she just wasn’t doing it.  You can see in the video that the trainer is giving her handler some instructions of how to situate his leg so as to help line her.  Advanced dogs will take a cues from their handler’s body language to help them line up.  Once Storm is finally lined and sent, she did not run the direction she was looking, so she was called back and resent.  She had to be called back and resent a second time.  Ah Storm, our little rebel.  Once in the field, she was still determined to run where she wanted, so she was given a verbal “no!”.  I guess at that point she understood that her handler was serious, (because she rarely gets a verbal correction), and she worked better, finally getting the bumper.  Hooray!

A word on the video, her handler is using hand signals and verbal commands.  I have zoomed in so you cannot see her handler.  It sounds like her handler is yelling the commands at her and he is.  She is 60+ yards out in the field so you need to be loud enough so the dog hears you.  It would not be fair to the dog if it was not clear on what you wanted it to do.  I also found out that you cannot work the zoom on my camera too well with gloves on.  😆  Sorry, but my fingers were freezing and the quality at the end of the video is not good.  I did not edit the video so you can hear discussion between Storm’s handler and the trainer as to why this series was difficult for Storm.

Several of the dogs had trouble with this combination.  Thunder did well, but had to be called back once too.

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Tomorrow I will have video of the single marks the dogs ran to wrap up the day and hopefully some follow-up.