Saturday, June 14, 2008

Land/water Doubles, Shore-handling Toolkit

Summary. At Cheltenham, with son Eric helping:
  • Series A, B, C. Poorman land/water doubles (both dogs)
  • Series D. Continued work on toolkit Tools #8 and #9 (Laddie)
Series A, B, C. Once again, Eric came to throw for us so that Laddie could continue to develop fluency when a thrower is involved. As on previous days, we set up in three locations, and in each location, created a different set up for each dog. Today, Laddie ran first in each location, then Lumi.

LADDIE

Each of Laddie's series was a double set-up as follows:
  • #1 (first thrown, second retrieved): A retrieve that I expected Laddie to find easy, thrown by me after a gunshot
  • #2 (second thrown, first retrieved): An LWL retrieve thrown by Eric
Laddie had no problem with any of the #1 marks. His performance on the #2 marks was as follows:
  • Series A: Laddie returned to water's edge, then ran along the bank for 10 yards until I called Here. He then entered the water and delivered.
  • Series B: Laddie picked up the dummy and began to run around the water on the crescent of land that ran beside it. I blew WS, then cued an angle-in. He responded perfectly, sitting, then entering the water and swimming back to deliver the dummy.
  • Series C: Laddie picked up the dummy on the run, then spun around, ran straight back to the water, entered and completed the retrieve. This was especially nice to see because the shoreline was fringed with tall grass.
LUMI

Each of Lumi's series was set-up as follows:
  • #1: A pre-positioned water blind intended to be easy for Lumi to execute
  • #2: A cheating single thrown by Eric, intended to require some handling
For Series A, the running order was #1-#2.

For Series B and C, #2 was thrown, then Lumi was sent to #1, and finally Lumi was sent to #2.

Unfortunately, I guessed wrong on all three blinds, and all of them required considerable handling. In addition, I also guessed wrong on all three marks and they all required more handling than I had expected. Hopefully, my judgment tomorrow will be more accurate.

Series D. Today's Series D was virtually identical to yesterday's. Laddie has not yet grasped the idea of swimming to the lining pole and instead swims toward me once he enters the water. However, once he gets near me he is responsive to visual and verbal Over cues signaling for him to divert toward the lining pole. Hopefully, with additional practice he will come to understand that as his original destination. In the meantime, his version of Tools #8 and #9 are still useful, since in practice, the goal is for him to enter the water and deliver the retrieval article to me, and that is exactly what he's trying to do.

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