Land Series

AM: Cheltenham

General notes: I've seen in the past that Lumi and Laddie are sometimes less responsive at Cheltenham than elsewhere, which I attribute to the many strips of high cover criss-crossing most of the fields there. Therefore, I decided to dial back our distances for today's training, watch for high quality responses to all handling cues, and then over several sessions try to build up to longer distances. For Lumi, I'd hope to build up to 150-200 yards, for Laddie, 400 yards or more.

Today was sunny with temps in the mid-twenties and a gusty, frigid wind.

Although we ran in three separate locations and orientations, our three series this morning had several things in common:

• They were all triple land blinds
• All blinds were CCDs
• The lines to all blinds were thru several strips of high cover, and most of the blinds were in high cover, all but two with no markers

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

The first blind was to the left at 50 yards. The second blind was down the center at 80 yards. The third blind was to the right at 110 yards.

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

The first blind was to the right and atop a mound at 60 yards. The second blind was to the left at 90 yards. The third blind was down the center at 120 yards.

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

The first blind was in the center at 70 yards. The second blind to the right at 100 yards. The third blind was to the left at 130 yards, on the ground at the left of a mound.

PM: Oaks Area 2

SERIES D. Land double with a blind (Lumi, then Laddie)

Last time I used ducks in the set-up with blinds, I tried using RLs for PBs, and both dogs had a drop-off in handling responsiveness. In addition, I don't like using birds in the rain because they don't last as long when they get wet.

But today we had a dry day, and I'd like Lumi and Laddie to retrieve birds regularly, though not as PBs just yet. I think training with birds is good for the dogs' motivation, and of course I don't want them to lose their ability to run series that combine marks, blinds, and birds.

So Series D was intended as an easy reintroduction of such a series. We used RLs, weighted streamers, and ducks for the double.

The first mark, the memory-bird, was on left, thrown left to right at 70 yards. The second mark, the go-bird, was on the right, thrown left to right at 40 yards.

After the dog picked up both marks, the dog ran a blind on a line just slightly to the right of the line to the left mark. For Lumi, the blind was at 70 yards. For Laddie, the blind was at 240 yards. Both blinds were unmarked CCDs. To avoid confusion, I left the dog at the line and went out to pick up the left streamer after the dog completed the double, before running the blind.