We had great weather for training last Saturday.  A lot of people showed up.  The dogs ran a bunch of single marks. (A mark is bumper or bird that the dog watches being thrown out in the field for it to retrieve).  The marks last Saturday were not overly complex but they allowed the dogs to get out and stretch their legs.

The dogs also practiced waiting in line for their turn to run and they practiced honoring other dogs.  Honoring is when a dog watches the marks being thrown for another dog, (called the running dog or working dog).  The honor dog must sit quietly until the running dog is released to retrieve and then the honor dog is excused.

Honoring sounds easy, but it can be really hard.  Especially at a hunt test when they are throwing ducks instead of bumpers.  Ask Freighter.  He blew a couple tests breaking the honor.

In this series of pictures Thunder is the running dog, and the Golden Retriever in the background is the honor dog.

You can see how interested the honor dog is in what Thunder is doing.  It can be oh so hard to sit there while another dog is running.

The running dog can also be distracted by the honor dog sitting there and watching.  The running dog must be steady and cannot go until his handler sends him.  Sometimes just having another dog sitting at the line can make the running dog anxious to go.

Thunder is the steadiest dog we have.  He rarely breaks his sit.

Storm has had a problem being steady, but she did fine on Saturday.

Freighter has had his issues with being steady too.  On Saturday he was fairly composed.  Of course there were no birds involved so that helped.

He was much more patient waiting in line for his turn to run as compared to last year.  We can only hope that at 3 years of age he is finally maturing.

In fact his handler and the honor dog’s handler were still getting in place when the bird boy threw the bumper.  The handlers weren’t ready, but Freighter was.

Freighter’s marking skills seem to have matured.  He is seems very focused and runs in a nice straight line out to the bumper.  Last year he tended to hook a bit as he was headed to the mark.

All three of our dogs did a nice job.  I expected them to be rusty since they took most of hunting season off, but they didn’t miss a beat.

You might have noticed the round silver disc on Freighter’s collar.  That is a Whistle pet activity monitor (like a Fitbit) that we are trying out.  Look for more information and a giveaway in the New Year (the week of January 5th).

The brown dawgs will miss group training this week because we have a pheasant hunt booked.  We have been having so much fun on these hunts, we wanted to get in one more before we get too wrapped up in training and dog shows.

Have a nice weekend!

Thanks to SlimDoggy, MyGBGV Life, and To Dog with Love for the FitDog Friday Blog Hop!