Land Series

AM: Oaks Area 1

Conditions: Subfreezing temps, frost on ground, sunny. Son Eric came out with us to videotape.

SERIES A. Triple land blind (Lumi)

The first blind was to the left at 70 yards. The second blind was in the middle at 100 yards. The third blind was to the right at 130 yards. All blinds were CCDs in open meadow, marked with SFs.

The ground was too hard for the tie-out, so I had Laddie tethered to my belt while I ran Lumi.

Here's a video of Lumi in Series A:



SERIES B. Triple land blind (Laddie)

Series B was run from the same SL as Series A, and the first blind of Series B was the third blind of Series A. After running Lumi on Series A, I went out to pick up the SFs from Lumi's first and second blinds, then ran Laddie.

For Series B, the first blind was to the right at 130 yards. The second blind was in the middle at 180 yards. The third blind was to the left at 220 yards. All blinds were CCDs in open meadow, marked with SFs.

Here's a video of Laddie in Series B:



PM: Germantown

This afternoon, Lumi, Laddie, and I trained with a man who also trains with Charlie's FT group at Cheltenham. The man lives in a nearby town and has a young black Labrador. He showed me some areas in Germantown to train that I never knew about before.

The area we trained was mostly open, with lines of sight up to several hundred yards in some directions, rolling hills, a line of trees, a road, and a few strips of high cover. As a result, it appears to be an excellent training area, but it has one problem: apparently it's farmland — soybeans, according to my friend — and the terrain looked like it might not be as easy on the dogs' feet as the meadows and lawns that we usually train on. I later found some other areas nearby that appeared to be better in that regard, which I may try in the future, either with or without my friend and his dog.

Meanwhile, here were the three series we ran on the soybean field. For Series C and D, I threw singles for my friend's dog, and he threw singles for Lumi and Laddie. My friend left after Series D, but with another hour of sunlight available, I then set up and ran my dogs on Series E.

SERIES C. Two single marks and a blind (Laddie, then Lumi)

The first single was to the left, the second single was to the right, and the blind was down the center. Both singles were ducks thrown right to left. The blind was an unmarked OD.

The lines to both marks and the blind were thru a strip of high cover.

For Laddie, the marks were 120 and 150 yards, and the blind was 160 yards.

For Lumi, I moved the SL up so that the marks were 60 and 90 yards, and the blind was 100 yards.

SERIES D. Two single marks and a blind (Laddie, then Lumi)

The first single was to the left, the second single was in the middle, and the blind was to the right. Both singles were ducks thrown left to right. The blind was an unmarked OD.

The lines to both marks were thru high cover, and the second mark was thrown deep into an area of high cover. On the second mark, all three dogs cheated around the widest section of high cover, then turned sharply left to get to the fall. I'd like to run them on that mark again a few more times at some point in the future, starting them closer to the fall and guiding them straight into the cover, then moving the SL back until they can run the mark correctly from distance.

The line to the blind was a little to the right of that area of cover, the rounded edge of which faded toward and then away from the line to the blind. All three dogs took a line well to the right of the correct line, and required repeated Over cues to guide them in the direction of the blind, toward the area of cover.

For Laddie, the marks were 150 and 180 yards, and the blind was 200 yards.

For Lumi, I moved the SL up so that the marks were 50 and 80 yards, and the blind was 100 yards.

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

For Lumi, the distances were 70, 100, and 120 yards. The lines to the second and third blinds were thru a strip of high cover.

For Laddie, the distances were 120, 190, and 260 yards. The lines to the first and second blinds were thru a strip of high cover. The line to the third blind was thru a gap in a line of shrubs and diagonally across a dirt road.