Cheaters, Land-water-land, Traversing Mound

Summary

• Series A. At Cheltenham, cheating singles with angle entry (Lumi)
• Series B. At Cheltenham, practicing land-water-land retrieves (Laddie)
• Series C. At Cheltenham, practicing retrieves lengthwise over a mound (both dogs)

Although I've shown these as sequential series, I actually did a little work with Laddie on Series B first, then switched to Lumi and Series A, and finally went back to Laddie and Series B for a more extensive session. When that was complete, I worked with both dogs on Series C.

Series A. After Lumi's easy success with straight entries into a channel yesterday, today we worked on another channel. Lumi did six retrieves, taking the same entry point from shore to water on all of them. The entry point was along the back edge of fading point.

We used three start lines (SLs) and three falls for throws into the channel. The three SLs were at 1-10-20 yards from the entry point (SL1-SL2-SL3), and the three falls were at 10-20-50 yards from the entry point (F1-F2-F3).

Lumi's six retrieves were as follows:

1. SL1, F1
2. SL2, F1
3. SL3, F1
4. SL1, F2
5. SL2, F2
6. SL2, F3

Despite the diagonal entry, Lumi seemed to have no inclination to run the bank in either direction or square the shoreline on her returns. Her enthusiasm remained sky high.

Series B. This series consisted of land-water-land (LWL) retrieves for Laddie on various channels.

Today, Laddie had consistent auto-returns (no whistle or verbal cue needed) if dummy was:

• In open water
• In water at far shoreline
• On far shore within about one foot of shoreline
• On narrow island when throw was over it or onto it
  

In general, Laddie always returned even if throw was further inland on far shore, though he showed mild avoidance tactics such as shaking off, looking for a different point to enter the water instead of coming back the way he came, or picking up the dummy and carrying it further inland. With one exception, one or more verbal or whistle recalls brought him back.

On the single exception, Laddie dropped the dummy in some reeds and then marooned, seemingly unable or unwilling to pick up the dummy again. I sent Lumi to retrieve the dummy, and when she delivered it, she and I played games. Seeing our play, Laddie swam back over to our side. I put him in the van and worked with Lumi on Series A. Laddie did not maroon again when he and I resumed practicing LWL retrieves after Lumi and I finished Series A.

Series C. To help the dogs dry out in the warm sunshine, I walked with them to a nearby mulch mound and set up to run them over the mound lengthwise.

We used two start lines (SLs), at 10-20 yards from our end of the mound. I threw the dummy from our end, so that the dummy traced the path I wanted them to run.

I then ran them alternately, the other dog honoring. If one of the dogs took an incorrect path over the mound, I called Here. If the dog picked up the dummy and started to detour around the mound coming back, I called "No, this way" and used an "over" arm cue to direct them back over the mound. When either of those happened, I immediately ran that dog again, and in every case, the dog ran the retrieve correctly the next time with no cues.

After about half a dozen retrieves for each dog, we returned to the van to dry off, pack up, get the dogs' breakfast, and head for home.