Land Series

AM: Sundown Road Park

The terrain at Sundown is mowed lawn with a few minor elevation changes. Several of today's blinds for both dogs were run thru keyholes formed by a variety of trees and chain-link fences. Temps were in 30s and 40s with overcast skies and little wind.

SERIES A. Triple blind with poison bird (Lumi)

First, I placed six blinds, three for Lumi and three for Laddie.

Then, with Lumi at the SL, I used an RL to "throw" a PB, consisting of a weighted streamer and a pre-positioned duck, at 50 yards to the left of the leftmost blind. Next, I ran Lumi to each of the three blinds. Finally, I sent Lumi for the duck.

All blinds were ODs without markers. The first blind was to the right at 90 yards. The second blind was in the center at 120 yards. The third blind was to the left at 140 yards, between the second blind and the PB.

SERIES B. Triple blind with poison bird (Laddie)

With Laddie at the SL, I used an RL to "throw" a PB, consisting of a weighted streamer and a pre-positioned duck, at 50 yards to the left of the leftmost blind. Next, I ran Laddie to each of the three blinds. Finally, I sent Laddie for the duck.

All blinds were ODs without markers. The first blind was to the right of the PB at 140 yards. This was the leftmost blind. The second blind was to the right at 160 yards. The third blind was in the center at 240 yards.

SERIES C. Hip-pocket double with blind (Laddie, then Lumi)

This course was intended to resemble a Senior-level Hunt Test land series, though the hip-pocket configuration may be somewhat more difficult than a typical Senior-level test. In place of throwers, I used RLs with streamers and pre-positioned ducks.

The first mark, the memory-bird, was thrown right to left from behind a large tree at 100 yards. The second mark, the go-bird, was thrown right to left so that it landed in front of the tree at 50 yards. The line to the go-bird was to the right of the line to the memory-bird but in line with the line to the "thrower" for the memory-bird, making this a hip-pocket double. After the dog picked up both birds, the dog ran the blind, an OD at 140 yards.

The line to the blind was to the right of a white sports pole resembling a large lining pole, and thru a line of small trees that traversed the line to the blind at nearly a right angle. The OD was placed without a marker five yards inside the large area to the right of the field, covered in unmaintained, knee-high, clumpy grasses and weeds.

Notes on performance. During the blinds for Series A, B, and C, both dogs showed considerable agitation and slowed responses to handling compared to recent sessions. I believe that was because of the presence of the ducks, especially for Series A and B when the duck had been "thrown" but not yet retrieved while the three blinds were being run, but also for Series C, when both ducks had already been picked up.

Apparently, using an RL for the PB represented an unusually high level of conflict for both dogs. I missed the quality of performance both dogs have been giving recently and decided not to use any ducks when running blinds for the next few sessions. When I do reintroduce ducks, I think at first I'll make the blinds shorter and use wider angles between the PB and the blinds.

Another indication that the dogs were affected by the presence of the birds was that Laddie chewed thru the cotton leash attaching him to a tie-out behind the SL as I was running Lumi on Series A. I thought it was interesting that, after he chewed thru, he did not leave the area of the tie-out.

After we completed the morning training, I purchased a 4' chain lead for use with the tie-out, to replace the lead Laddie had chewed thru.

PM: Oaks Area 1

Today, we received a mail order for six camo canvas dummies (CCD) with orange ropes. For Series D and E, I placed the CCDs as blinds while the dogs waited in the van, then ran each dog, the other dog waiting behind the SL, Laddie fastened to the tie-out during Lumi's turn.

Because Laddie did not do well on the last blind of Series E, I then had him wait in a stand of trees while I placed another CCD for Series F, then ran him on that single blind.

SERIES D. Triple blind (Lumi)

The first blind was to the left at 50 yards. The second blind was to the right at 120 yards, in a wide gap between two trees. The third blind was in the center at 140 yards, thru a keyhole formed by two trees.

Lumi was responsive on all WSs, but her body language was not quite as confident as it has been in recent days. I suspect this was a lingering effect of this morning's work with ducks.

SERIES E. Triple blind (Laddie)

The first blind was in the center at 140 yards, thru a keyhole formed by two trees. The second blind was to the right at 240 yards, again thru a keyhole formed by two trees. The third blind was to the left at 340 yards, once more thru a keyhole formed by two trees.

Laddie's work on the first two blinds was satisfactory but not great, perhaps owing to lingering effects from this morning's work with ducks. Laddie became unresponsive on Back casts at around 300 yards on the third blind, and I had to walk up until I was much closer to him before he would take a Back cast to that blind. I attribute Laddie's difficulty with this blind primarily to the distance, which was longer than all or nearly all of the blinds he's run in the past.

SERIES F. Single blind (Laddie)

This blind was 270 yards. Laddie was responsive on two WSCs, the second at around 200 yards. Although he then veered too far right, I considered him to be in his danger zone, meaning that he was fairly likely to spot the CCD and not sit if I blew WS, so as planned a few days ago, I did not whistle, planning to wait until he was well past the blind. However, Laddie crossed a small ditch, then looked to left and spotted the CCD, which I had placed on the far bank of the ditch. So I think my decision not to blow WS was the correct one, since it's likely that if I had whistled, Laddie would have spotted the CCD about that time and slipped the whistle.