Marks and Blinds

AM: Neighborhood Lacrosse Field

Short on time and having forgotten our "stand-in" streamers for the launchers at home, I still wanted to introduce both dogs to the concept of an interrupted multiple.

To make the concept as easy as possible, I chose a ball field with easy terrain, and what I hoped would be an easy configuration. Here's what I came up with:

SERIES A: INTERRUPTED TRIPLE WITH DOUBLE BLIND

I began by pre-positioning two birds as blinds, then setting up three RLs for the marks, each loaded with a 2" WD. Once the test was set up, I brought Laddie to the line to run it. After that, I set the test up again and ran Lumi. As each dog ran, the other waited in the van.

The first mark was launched by the right RL at 110 yards. The second was launched by the middle RL at 80 yards. The third was launched by the left RL at 70 yards. After launching all three marks, I sent the dog to the left RL. Next, I had the dog pick up the two blinds, and finally I had the dog pick up the middle mark and then the right mark.

The first blind was a pheasant planted to the left of the left mark at a distance of 90 yards, with a drop-off of the terrain to the left and behind the blind, so that if the dog got too far out or too far to the left, the dog would go out of sight. The second blind was a duck planted between the left and middle marks at a distance of 100 yards. Both blinds were where the terrain began to drop off so that they were invisible as the dog ran toward them until the dog was within 20 yards.

The overall test was within a 180° angle, with the lines to the various retrieves approximately equally distributed.

Although the wind was calm, both dogs seemed to be aware of the bird scent from the blinds as soon as they ran the first mark, if not sooner.

LADDIE: Laddie's WS has deteriorated significantly the last few weeks, and in this test, he picked up the middle mark when I tried to send him to the second blind, which was between the left and middle marks. Aside from that, his lining was excellent and his motivation was as high as ever.

LUMI: Lumi picked up the scent of the second blind when I sent her for the first mark, and when she saw that the mark was a WD, she blinked it and tried to go for the duck instead. But she responded to a couple of WSCs until she understood to pick up the WD, and after that, she ran the rest of the test enthusiastically and well, responsive to all handling on the blinds. Great pick-ups of both the birds and the dummies.