A few weeks ago we did a big training day and the last thing we worked on were land blinds.  Thunder and Freighter had already worked on water marks and water blinds.  Click here for my post on that part of the training.  Then Thunder, Storm and Freighter ran some land doubles.  Next Freighter worked on his steadiness. (I still have those parts of our training to share in the weeks to come.)

By the time we got around to land blinds, the dogs had worked pretty hard.  Sometimes when you have had a good training day, you do one last things and it doesn’t work out and you turn a good day into a bad day.  We did not want that to happen so we kept the blind short.

We ran it along side of the water marks/blind and we hoped that even though it was short, it would be a bit of challenge for the dogs.  Maybe the pond and the fact that the dogs just ran marks there would pull the dogs a bit off line?  Freighter especially sees water and is tempted to go in for a swim.  We figured this blind would be a good opportunity to work on control with all three dogs.

Thunder was up first.  He had no trouble with this blind.  It is a comfortable distance for him and he has been running these types of blinds for a long time.  He needed a couple of handles, but got it in no time.

Next up was Storm.  This was her first big training day after her spay surgery.  She was allowed to run, but was not allowed in the water because she still had stitches.  This was probably not the best blind to set up for her.  She should have taken a tighter line, but her handler did not want to get her too close to the water for fear she would get in.  You can also see that shortly after she is sent she “pops”, meaning she stops to look back at her handler.  Usually when a dog pops it is because they are unsure.  I think she lacked a bit of confidence coming off her surgery and maybe she saw the water and thought she should have been swimming.  Her handler gave her a hard “back” and that seemed to snap her out of it.

In the video, you can see how her handler lines her for the blind (remember she has no idea where it is the first time around).  You can also see that her heeling is really coming along nicely.

If the video doesn’t play try here.

Freighter was last to run this blind.  He did a nice job the first time around.  You can see that it takes his handler a bit of time to get him lined up.   He is still learning.  He thought about heading for the water at one point but his handler stopped him and recast him.    (I had to edit the video in the middle because I thought the video wasn’t recording and I took about 10 seconds of the sky.  Oops.  :))

If the video doesn’t play try here.

For some reason both Storm and Freighter swung to the left the second time they ran that blind.  I think they were anticipating that there was a second blind in the field since we have been running blinds in pairs.  It is a good lesson to change things up from time to time.

Today is October 1 and our training membership is finished for the season.  We never got back out to the training grounds after this session.  Hunting season started and there just was no time.  But that doesn’t mean the dogs have been loafing around.  They have been getting out to train locally.  With the kids back in school, the parks are not as busy so it has been a bit easier to work the dogs in them.

Make sure to stop by on Thursday because I have some big news about the This ‘N That Thursday hop.