It is Friday already! Time to join Heart Like A Dog and co-host Dogdaz for the Follow-up Friday blog hop.
Monday Mischief–Making A Splash
Thunder generally makes a big splash because he is a big dog and hits the water hard. Maybe you can see the bumper he was going for in this picture. It was the first mark of a double.
Thunder wasn’t the only one making a splash last weekend. Freighter did a good job too. His training is coming along slowly. He is at the point where he tends to over think things. The jump from running marks to handling can be a big one. His marking is not as good as it was and he was back to running on singles. That is not unusual for a dog at his stage of training. Hopefully it will all come together for him.
Taking pictures last Saturday was a bit difficult. It was a bright sunny day and the sun was reflecting off the water. I could not make the camera do what I wanted and I could not see any detail on the dogs. You can see what I am talking about in the last picture. I did a little research and found that this is a common problem with digital cameras and has to do with how my camera meters the light. More settings to play with in the future. 🙂
A Visit With Storm and Her Babies
We are counting the days until Storm comes home. We miss her. But just to be clear, we are not getting a puppy from this litter. I think it is going to be a nice litter, but we have enough dogs with three. Besides as I understand it, all the pups are spoken for. 🙂
This ‘N That Thursday
After reading the comments, I guess we are not the only one with park woes. Normally people are very accommodating and give us space. So far this year that has not been the case. I blame our late Spring and people being in the parks who normally wouldn’t be and just not having a clue about manners.
I thought I would post a picture of the set-up we were trying to run. It was a good set-up and it is a shame Thunder didn’t get a fair shot at it. I marked the soccer fields and the big hill. This hill is quite high. If I stand at the bottom, I can’t see over it. The line was at the edge of the parking lot to make use of a small ravine. The lavender squiggly lines are where the kids were running around. We have had so much rain, we tried to stay off the soccer field as much as we could.
If you remember, Thunder was on lay-off last Fall due to an injury. He is running hard now and we haven’t seen any limping. We would like to try him in a test because we have also been working on his stickiness with the birds which seems to be much better. Unfortunately Thunder is very rusty on multiple marks on land. These have always been difficult for him. He does fine with multiple marks on water, but land is a different story, especially if the marks are long. They have increased the maximum distance of the marks to 150 yards. We have been trying to stretch him out which is hard because we do not have that kind of space available. At this point, Thunder does not need extra distractions when he is trying to mark multiples.
Gizmo asked:
What exactly is that winger? What’s it look like up close? It doesn’t look like the normal training bumper…
A winger is like a gigantic sling shot. We can throw bumpers or birds with it. It has two settings which allows us to adjust how far things will go. Bumpers will usually go farther than birds since they are lighter. The bumper is an Avery Jumbo HexaBumper. It is a flasher and has white and black which is supposed to make it more visible for the dog. We use these bumpers when we want the dog to get a good look. I hate to admit how many kinds of bumpers we have. 🙂
Thanks so much to Heart Like A Dog and Dogdaz for co-hosting this hop!
Thunder and his handler have a training seminar this weekend so maybe I can catch up on my blog reading. 🙂
Have a nice weekend!
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Wow, what a great follow up. The pups are so cute. My fav is the first big splash photo though, going for the bumper to the left. Thanks for hopping.
Always enjoy the follow up. And I still love love the big splash. And those puppies. Who could resist looking at them again and again.
Blessings,
Goose
Urr I’m using my cell to comment and it just wiped out what I wrote! Bummer that you aren’t getting one if Storms babies but at the same time I bet she’ll be loving being the total center of attention!! I bet y’all miss her something fierce! Wow cool giant sling shot! Ok, be honest…what else have ya flung with that winger?!?
Thanks for joining us on FUF, we love having you. More and more I find people in general a bit more self-centered and self-serving, the ones I encounter either don’t seem to have a clue or just don’t care. It is a big world out there and it seems to me people are more isolated from one another and less likely to have consideration for their fellow human beings.
I wonder how much weight that winger would hold? I’m sure I would have been tempted to see how far it would pitch a small boy. 😉
Have a great weekend!!
Thanks for answering my queston about the winger…I understand it now…Never had seen one before, or a hexa bumper…I only had two kinds, white and orange …things have changed 🙂 Another question…Storm and her puppies are so beautiful…Will she be bred again or does this fulfill your contract with her breeder? He a great training weekend
Wow – That is a pretty neat piece of equipment, that winger. I love the first splash! So big! Hope you all have a great weekend!
We have had to take steps back in training when teaching new skills, too. When I teach a drop on recall, we often have to start over with the regular recall because the dog expects to be told to lie down every time.
So glad Storm is doing so well with her babies! What an enormous litter!
We just love the pix in the water. Makes us just want to jump on in too. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
What a fun week, we so love those photos of the grass and splashing as it is May 3 and it is still snowing here…starting tomorrow it should get better but it really makes us crave nice spring/summer weather!
Woof! Woof! Just LOVE that SPLASH photo. Happy Friday n Weekend. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
You know, right, that I scroll down for puppy photos? 🙂 But I love the shot of Thunder running. There’s not much finer that a dog hitting his stride.
I love learning about all the little training bits that goes into a hunting dog! I’m glad to see Storm is healthy, along with her babies!
You always do a great Follow-Up and your photos are always awesome!! Have a great weekend!
Oz
Look at Storms little plumpers. She is such a good mom and taking very good care of those little ones. Great pictures and FUF!
Excellent FUF!! Storm looks wonderful and so do the babies. Funny how the young dogs take two steps forward and one step back…or maybe that’s the other way around 😉 Your park looks huge.
Love the picture of Storm and the puppies! Are all of them dark like Storm? It looks like it. They are so pretty!
A few a just a bit lighter, but most were dark with no white markings. It is possible that they will change color a bit as they grow up.
That first photo is amazing! Really appreciate the diagram of the field you were using. Make it so much easier to visualize the training that day.