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.

Freighter Coming To The Line At Heel
Freighter Coming To The Line At Heel
Freighter Watching The Mark And Freighter's Handler Watching Freighter
Freighter Watching The Mark And Freighter’s Handler Watching Freighter

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 Waiting For A Cast
Freighter Waiting For A Cast

Freighter was good, but not perfect.

A Crooked Sit Which Is Not What You Want
A Crooked Sit Which Is Not What You Want
Much Better
Much Better

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.

Coming To The Line And Paying Attention To His Handler
Coming To The Line And Paying Attention To His Handler
"Sit"
“Sit”
Freighter Has Already Busted One Of The Gunners Who You Can See In The Background
Freighter Has Already Busted One Of The Gunners Who You Can See In The Background
Watching The First Mark--Nice Solid Sit
Watching The First Mark–Nice Solid Sit
Watching The Second Mark--Again Nice And Solid
Watching The Second Mark–Again Nice And Solid

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.

Turning Around To A Single Mark
Turning Around To A Single Mark
A Nice Solid Sit
A Nice Solid Sit

Freighter is still super excited on the line, but the way he has been showing it is by licking his lips.

Can't Stand The Excitement
Can’t Stand The Excitement

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.

14 thoughts on “A Change Of Scenery

  1. It must be difficult for the dog to hold back its excitement. Glad to see Freighter working hard and learning. Happy Monday!
    Oz

  2. Good work Freighter! It’s so challenging working on training in new areas. The smells are just too tempting!

  3. 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.

  4. 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!

  5. 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.

  6. 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?

  7. Hi Y’all!

    BOL!!! Freighter! You look like you’re sittin’ on a catapult!!!

    Y’all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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