Land Blinds

AM: Oaks Area 1

SERIES A. Triple land blind (Lumi only)

For Lumi, I set out three ODs with SFs in open meadow. Running them in ascending order by distance, the first blind was to the left at 80 yards, the second to the right at 110 yards, and the third in the center at 160 yards, on an angle 30° to the flanking blinds.

Lumi was responsive on all WSs and made good starts on all her casts, though on the last blind, she began digging back toward the flag to the left and took several WSCs to get her veering more to the right.

SERIES B. Triple land blind (Laddie only)

For Laddie, I used the same SL as I used with Lumi for Series A. Leaving both dogs at the SL, I went out and removed the SFs for Lumi's first and third blinds, then ran Laddie.

Laddie's first blind was to the right at 110 yards, the same placement as Lumi's second blind. His second was to the left at 180 yards. His third was down the center at 290 yards. The angles for Laddie's blinds were a bit narrower than Lumi's because of the added distances.

Laddie lined the first blind to the right, then easily handled the other two. He sat immediately on all WSs except one, all at distances greater than 100 yards and one at over 200 yards, and cast enthusiastically and accurately. Watching your dog respond so nicely is beautiful, even touching.

On the last WS for the third blind, Laddie was veering to the left at 260 yards and had already responded to an angle back to the right earlier. When I whistled the second time, he apparently glanced toward 2 o'clock, spotted the SF, and ran to it.

Combining Sit and Come-in Whistles

As Laddie approached the third blind after slipping the last sit whistle, I blew come-in. In the past, I've thought that that had some effect of nullifying the slipped whistle, but Alice Woodyard explained recently in private correspondence that it may do that in an on-looker's mind, but it doesn't help the dog's understanding of the WS, and may even cause some deterioration by reinforcing the slipped whistle (known cues can act as conditioned reinforcers).

I think I blew the come-in whistle with the idea that you can strengthen a cue if you give it just before the dog performs the behavior correctly. Since I anticipated a picture-perfect pick-up and delivery, blowing a come-in whistle was intended in my mind to connect the come-in whistle with that response.

However, on reflection, comparing the cost of reinforcing the slipped whistle with the negligible benefit of reminding Laddie what a come-in whistle means, the net effect was probably negative. I'll try to remember not to do that so often in the future.