This weekend we had a chance to train in a couple of different places. It was a good opportunity to reinforce Freighter’s obedience.
On Saturday we went to a ball field near our cabin. It is not a large space but it is open with some cover around the edges. We set up a single mark with a double blind. We used one of our training ducks for the mark to make it more exciting.
Again Freighter must sit perfectly still at the line and not tap dance or squirm or whine.
He did well on this which was nice to see since this is an unfamiliar training spot for him.
Freighter has also been working on holding his whistle sits when running blinds and Freighter’s handler has been working on slowing down his casts which forces Freighter to sit still and wait.
Freighter tends to get overwhelmed in unfamiliar places because there is a lot of good smells. He tends to start working his own program and forgetting his handler.
From my position out in the field, he was pretty disciplined about holding his sits and taking casts and Freighter’s handler was good about waiting for Freighter to look at him before giving casts.
Freighter was good, but not perfect.
On Sunday, our club had a training day on the farm where we used to train last summer. Most of the hunt tests held in Michigan are held on these grounds so it was a really good opportunity to get out and train Freighter’s obedience on the grounds where he will eventually test. Ducks were used for some of the marks to up the excitement level.
One of our pals was there to act as “judge” so Freighter needed to behave like it was a real test.
Freighter ran this double and then had to turn to run a single with a blind. This was another good opportunity to work on his heeling and steadiness.
Freighter is still super excited on the line, but the way he has been showing it is by licking his lips.
Freighter’s blind was not as clean. There were times when he blew off his handler’s whistle. OK for a Senior level dog, but we need to clean that up because at a test that can become a dog out of control.
All and all it was a good weekend of training and nice to work in some different areas. I took a ton of pictures this weekend so I will have those in upcoming posts. Tomorrow I will have Sunday’s set-up. Storm ran it as a triple. Come back to see how she did.
So many new smells etc it must be quite challenging. Glad it went well. Have a marvellous Monday.
Best wishes Molly
That takes a lot of discipline for a dog to resist the newness and excitement. Well done, Freighter!
It must be difficult for the dog to hold back its excitement. Glad to see Freighter working hard and learning. Happy Monday!
Oz
Good work Freighter! It’s so challenging working on training in new areas. The smells are just too tempting!
The more I read about Freighter, the more he has in common with Bailie. Bailie likes to sit with poor posture as well. Change of environment is a good thing to keep us on our toes. We do that a lot in nose work these days. He will get it, some dogs are just too busy to obey perfectly right away.
Dogs get so excited about everything, so it must be hard for Freighter to sit and wait like that until he has the command to go…….well done boy!
Love that Freighter is now showing his excitement by licking his lips. Cute!
It must be a great exercise/challenge for them to train in a variety of places. Looks like a busy and productive weekend!
A change of scenery is so benificial. Glad to here his sit stays are getting better.
I do think he does a good job but I wonder, at what age are they expected to be ‘perfectly’ trained for hunt tests?
I bet changing the scenery can really add some distractions, I know my guys sniffers go crazy when we go someplace new to them, or visit some place we haven’t been in a while.
I just started wondering, do the brown dawgs work with different handlers all the time?? Or do you just mean you and your husband when you use the word handler?
Good job, Freighter. You’re crooked sit isn’t that bad as compared to Maya’s. 🙂
Keep up the hard work, Freighter, you’ll get there!
Hi Y’all!
BOL!!! Freighter! You look like you’re sittin’ on a catapult!!!
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog