Land Blinds

General Notes

This was a dreary day, with temps in the 30s and 40s, overcast skies, and intermittent rain and hail.

All blinds today were run with ODs. If the blind was not near a landmark visible from the SL, I used an SF to mark the blind, pushing it well into the ground to make it as inconspicuous, except for its bright orange color, as possible. Since dogs are said to be color blind, the goal was to make the SFs virtually invisible unless the dog was quite close.

The last few days, I've moved to running Lumi on shorter set-ups than Laddie. Today I did that with both series of triple blinds. My procedure was as follows:

• With dogs waiting in the van, put down the LP for the SL and plant all six blinds.
• Bring out both dogs and snap the tie-out lead to Laddie's collar. (As mentioned in an earlier post, both dogs wear collars and 9" tabs during all practice these days, in preparation for steadiness training for flyers when the opportunity presents itself.)
• Give Lumi a little practice heeling to the SL.
  
• Run Lumi on her blinds.
• With both dogs waiting, go out and pick up any SFs that were needed to mark Lumi's blinds in open field.
  
• Put Lumi in a down near the tie-out. She doesn't actually need to be on the tie-out, but sometimes I have the sense that she wants me to attach the lead to her collar for some reason, so I do.
• Give Laddie a little practice heeling to the SL.
  
• Run Laddie on his blinds.

Details of today's sessions follow.

AM: Brook Knoll

SERIES A. Triple land blind (Lumi, then Laddie)

In this series, we practiced a picture that Alice Woodyard once suggested the dogs learn to deal with: Picking up one blind in close proximity to a potential wrap, then picking up another blind on a line close to the first one but past the wrap.

Lumi: For Lumi, the potential wrap was a large, barn-shaped shed to the left of our course. I started Lumi by running her to a 70-yard blind angled to the right. I then ran her to the left blind at 120 yards, on the corner of the shed. Finally, I ran her to the center blind at 160 yards, a few degrees to the right of the second blind and the shed.

Though normally a good liner, Lumi did not keep well to the line on the third blind, but veered to the right, well away from the barn. Once she'd gone reasonably far and showed no sign of self correcting, I blew WS and cast her on a silent left angle back, which she took to the blind.

Laddie: Though Laddie ran from the same SL as Lumi, and was able to watch Lumi run her blinds from his tie-out stake behind the SL, and Laddie's course was in the same general direction as Lumi's, all Laddie's distances were longer than Lumi's.

For Laddie, the potential wrap was a stand of trees and undergrowth about 90 yards behind the barn-shaped shed, again on the left of our course. I started Laddie by running him to a 140-yard blind angled to the right. I then ran him to the left blind at 210 yards, on the right corner of the stand of trees. Finally, I ran him to the center blind at 210 yards, a few degrees to the right of the second blind and the stand of trees.

Unlike Lumi, Laddie took a good line on his third blind, but then wrapped to the left. Our line of sight was not impaired, however, because the stand of trees is at the bottom of a deep valley, and by the time I blew WS, Laddie was on his way back uphill, and he and I could see each other over the trees. Laddie was responsive on that WS, but the cast he took was still too far to the left, taking him into the "danger zone" (see yesterday's post) but without him spotting the OD. As I had planned and described in yesterday's commentary on "danger zone refusals", I let Laddie keep running uphill until he was well past the dummy and more than 30 yards away from it, thus outside his danger zone. I then blew WS, he sat nicely, and then he took a nice angle-in cast straight to the OD. It was good to see a solid WS at 300+ yards.

PM: Oaks Area 1

SERIES V. Triple land blind (Lumi, then Laddie)

Lumi: Lumi's blinds were 60 yards to the left, 140 yards thru a keyhole to the right, and 90 yards down the center. All blinds were in open meadow. The course was within a 90° angle.

Laddie: Laddie's blinds were 170 yards to the left, 220 yards thru a keyhole to the right, and 300 yards down the center. All blinds were in open meadow. The course was within approximately the same 90° angle as Lumi's course.

Notes on Series B: Both dogs showed excellent response on all WSs and all casts. In Laddie's case, that included several challenges he might not have been up to a few weeks ago:

• On the first blind, I accidentally forgot about the danger zone and blew WS when Laddie was a little off line but within 10 yards of the OD. As he turned to sit, his body language showed that he had spotted the OD, but he sat anyway. Yay!
• On the second blind, his last cast was an Over at 220 yards, meaning that he responded well to a WS at 220 yards.
• On the third blind, Laddie's last two WSCs were both at 300 yards, both to the left of the blind. In each case, Laddie sat immediately, then took the Over cast to the right. The first time, he took a few steps and became distracted by something. The second time, he ran straight to the blind.

Series B was not a trivial course. The terrain at Oaks is thick, clumpy, calf-high cover with uneven footing, and the field is home to a large quantity of wildlife, including a herd of deer who stood watching us from about 250 yards from the SL, a bit to the right of our course.

On the other hand, the series could not have been too challenging within the dogs' current level of development, because both dogs did well.

We've been doing some difficult things for several weeks — poison birds, long water blinds including some with obstacles, new concepts such as wraps, the offline drills, and more recently the conflict drills. It has been good the last few days to run some courses where the dogs could excel. But soon, I guess I'll see if I can find some ways to raise the ante again.