At Saturday’s training the dogs worked on retrieving a single and then running a blind.

I drew a rough diagram of the first two set-ups.  I put them both on the same diagram so that you can see how our trainer sets up one set-up and then changes it slightly for the next one.

The first set up was an angle back throw into the water and required the dogs to swim a bit, run over a point of land and then get back into the water to get the bumper.

After they ran the mark, they immediately ran the blind which again required that they swim a bit, get up on a point of land, go in between some trees, then enter the water again for a longer swim to the blind.

Storm did really well on this set up.  Freighter did a nice job on the mark.  He had a bit of trouble taking the correct initial line to the blind and got hung up in some cover on the point, but got it eventually.  He is now running the same set-ups that the master dogs are running which is great.  Once we get his breaking issue under control, he should be on his way.

Speaking of which, his coming to the line and sitting at the line was so much better than it has been.  He did not whine, toe-tap or spin.  We just have to continue to be super strict with his obedience at all times and practice, practice, practice.  We are holding him out from tests for now so that we can work on his sits.

Here are some pictures of Storm running the first set-up (purple lines):

The second set-up was a mark thrown on the far side of the pond.  The dogs had to again swim a bit, cross the point of land, but this time look out and swim a longer distance to the mark.  The blind was also on the far side of the pond.  This blind was complex because the dog had to swim in between the island and the land point.  Any land usually pulls a dog toward it and don’t forget that the dogs retrieved a mark in the water near the land point on the first set-up so that was an additional pull.

Again, Storm did a nice job on this.  This was a complicated set-up for Freighter and he was able to hang in there.  The mark was not an issue for him.  In the past, he would get distracted on longer complex marks like this, but he held the line pretty well and made a nice retrieve.

The blind was hard for him.  He ping-ponged between the land point and the island, and at one point got up on the island.  It was a bit of learning for both Freighter and his handler because his handler was instructed to enforce the whistle sit.  (I call it whistle sit because the command is “sit”; however, depending on the depth of the water, the dog is not really sitting, but treading water.)  Freighter’s handler was also told to really slow down on his casts and make sure that Freighter is looking at him before he casts.  Eventually Freighter got it.  The good thing was that Freighter’s handler did not need to move up to give casts on this long water blind and Freighter got out of the water to get to the blind which had been an issue for him in the past.

Some pictures of Freighter running the second set-up (yellow lines):

The weather was beautiful and we had a great day training with Farpoint Retrievers.