Land Series

Oaks

Note: Today I decided to leave each dog at home while I took the other one out to train. I took Lumi out first (Series A and B), later Laddie (Series C, D, and E). While leaving the other dog at home didn't seem to significantly affect my training with Laddie, I found that it was a great improvement for my training with Lumi.

SERIES A. Single land blind (Lumi)

The blind was a duck at 120 yards. The line to the blind crossed a hump and ditch, and passed several trees and a hedgerow.

SERIES B. Speed pick-ups (Lumi)

To me, Lumi now seems prepared for most elements of competition I plan to run her in next year. She's not steady honoring flyers, but that's not something we can work on ourselves. While I want to keep her tuned up on marks and handling, my primary interest today was on two areas that I feel can use some improvement: speed of picking up a bird when she reaches it, and overall motivation for our private practice sessions.

So after running a single tune-up blind as Series A in Oaks Area 3, I took Lumi for a hike on the equestrian trail into Area 1. As we walked, mostly I let Lumi carry the duck she had retrieved when running the blind. Every once in awhile, I would have her sit while I would go out to throw a poorman mark for her, distances ranging 20-50 yards. Sometimes I walked back to the SL to send her, more often I released her on her name without walking back to the SL. If she dawdled on the pick up, which she did once or twice, I called out "stop, leave it", ran to her, and led her some distance away, then re-sent her. Most of the time, her pick ups were excellent.

I also gave Lumi some happy throws with both the duck and a WD I'd brought along during the hike, and Lumi seemed to enjoy the play. But most of all it seemed that she just wanted to walk along serenely with the duck in her mouth.

Click here for a satellite view of Oaks, with Area 1 at the north and Areas 2 (which we didn't use today) and 3 at the south separated by a line of trees and undergrowth. The area in the center is fenced off.

Germantown

Series C and D were on a couple of fields near the Germantown soccerplex that I discovered while driving around exploring with Laddie.

SERIES C. Triple land blind (Laddie)

The first blind was on the left at 100 yards, with the blind in a section of sparsely planted shrubbery. The second blind was in the middle at 240 yards, in unmaintained brush at the edge of the field. The third blind was on the right at 340 yards, also at the edge of the field. All three blinds were unmarked ODs. Click here for a satellite view of the field we used for this series.

SERIES D. Double land blind (Laddie)

The first blind was on the right at 140 yards. The second blind was on the left at 300 yards. The line to the second blind went downhill from the SL, across a ball field, and over a ridge several yards into unmaintained brush. Both blinds were unmarked CCDs. Click here for a satellite view of the area where we ran this series.

Model Airpark

Note: Continuing to explore Germantown, I came across a 50-acre property set aside by the county for remote control model aircraft. Leaving Laddie in the van, I went in and found a wealth of possibilities for setting up long blinds. I set up two, then went back to get Laddie and ran him on each of them. Click here for a satellite view of the field we trained on.

SERIES E. Double land blind (Laddie)

The left blind was at 150 yards against the tree line. The right blind was at 240 yards in open meadow. The field was covered in thick, clumpy grass and sparse knee-high cover. Both blinds were ODs marked by LPs.

I feel that Laddie has been handling well for some time now, but the 240-yard blind in Series E may have been his prettiest ever: four gorgeous whistle sits and casts.