One of the things we want to work on with Freighter this spring/summer is to stretch out his marks.  A mark is a bumper or bird which the dog watches being thrown in the field for it to retrieve.  Freighter is a good marker and is used to doing marks at about 100 or 150 yards, but we have not always had the space to stretch him out farther than that.

Long single marks benefit a dog’s hunt test training in many ways.  It teaches them to look out farther in the field.  It also reinforces running in a straight line to where they are sent to retrieve.  It is also a great way to exercise and condition the dog.

One of the first Master tests that I worked, I was assigned to take birds from the judges after the dogs retrieved them from the field.  I was amazed as I watched handlers turn and line their dogs up for each retrieve.  Even if the dog did not see the mark fall, or maybe the dog forgot where it fell, as long as the dog held the straight line it was bound to come across the bird.

Running in a straight line is easy when it is on a flat featureless field, but can be much more difficult when you add in hills, ravines, water and cover.  So we train it.

This particular single was out about 280 yards (for a visual, think almost the length of three football fields).  Since it was a long mark, the gunner stood in the field in a white jacket while he threw the mark to give the dogs a visual to mark off of.  To get to the mark, the dogs had to run through a field where they had just run a set of triple marks.  Running over the same area where they already picked up birds can be tough because the dog must ignore the scent left from the old falls.  The dogs also had to run over a little hill and then down through a shallow ravine, break some cover, and the mark was at the top of another small hill.  There was also a large tree off to the right that drew some of the dogs over toward it and kind of threw them off.  Some dogs did not mark the fall and went way way long off toward the back of the field and had to be called back.

Freighter has not done a lot of these super long marks.  I looked at the set-up and figured that he might break down before he got all the way out there and need to be handled.  However, he held the line he was given and after a short hunt, he came up with the bird.  Good boy!

The day we were training, it was on and off rain and there were storms in the area.  I took pictures huddled under and umbrella because it was sprinkling.

This weekend Freighter has a dog show and because of the times we were assigned, we won’t be able to get any training in.  The entries for the show are low, so I am not sure how it will turn out or if there will be any points.  It depends on whether the dogs entered show up and compete.  Freighter is still chasing 4 points to finish his Championship.

Have a nice weekend!

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