At advanced tests a blind may be set so that it requires a dog to swim past a point of land.  These land points can trip up dogs because the land looks very inviting, especially if it has been a long swim or if they have picked up a mark off the point of land.  Once the dog gets up on the land, it can be tough to get them off.  Our dogs have failed more than one blind because of a land point.

Last Saturday our trainer put out a set up for both the dogs and their handlers to work on land points.  You see when you have a tricky situation, the handler can muff it up just as much as the dog can by giving a wrong cast.  There is a lot to learn about handling.

To entice the dogs to get up on the land point, some white bumpers were placed there.  The wind was blowing in such a way that as the dogs passed the point of the island, they would catch sight and smell of the white bumpers.  But the white bumpers were not to be retrieved.  The trick was for the handler to keep the dogs off the land and redirect them to the pile of orange bumpers on the far bank of the pond.

The second blind was set to the left of the first blind and way at the back of the field.  Double blinds can be tough because the dogs are pulled back to where they already picked up bumpers.  The handler needs to keep them on course.

Freighter had trouble with the first blind (closest to the white bumpers).  He ran this blind twice.  The first time he got up on the island and retrieved a white bumper.  The second time his handler was ready and gave some different casts.  The idea was to get him to take the cast by turning the correct direction.

Sometimes the handler signals the dog to turn away from where the dog wants to go and toward where the handler wants them to go.  However, the dog may not turn the correct direction and that can get the dog into trouble in a difficult blind.  Freighter worked on turning the correct direction with this blind.  After a few tries, he finally seemed to get it.

Storm did very a nice job on these challenging blinds.  Her marking has fallen off a bit, but her blind work is nice.  It would be great if she would sit still at a test and actually get to run a series.

Thunder also ran some marks and a blind once the competition dogs were finished training.  His training is a bit more relaxed now because he is just trying to keep fit and stay in shape for hunting season which will be here before we know it.

I took some video with my iPhone 5s which takes really good video.  Its zooming capabilities are limited, but otherwise, it does a nice job.

First Thunder ran a double, then he ran this single.

If the video doesn’t play, try here.

Here is a video of Thunder running the blind which was the one farthest from the white bumpers.  His blind was a bit easier than Storm’s because she started farther to the right so it was a much longer blind.  At a point Thunder disappears from sight.  That is because he is swimming.  No whistles means he is holding a straight line which is what you want.  It might be easier to see him if you watch this video in full screen.  🙂

If the video won’t play, try here.

The dogs got  a great work out.  It was so nice to be back training at Farpoint Retrievers.  Thanks Darrin!

Thanks so much to SlimDoggy, new co-host MyGBGV Life, and To Dog with Love for K-9 Kamp and for the FitDog Friday Blog Hop!

Have a nice weekend.