Poison Bird Blinds, Adventure Drill

Power Line Right-of-way off Fieldcrest Road

SERIES A. Double poison bird blind, with both marks picked up after their associated blinds (Laddie, then Lumi)

Series A was the following sequence:

1. With dog waiting at the SL, I threw a duck at 50 yards left to right to a fall on a line 30° to the right of the first blind. In other words, this was a TAL PB.
2. I ran the dog on the first blind (unmarked OD), the blind on the right at 100 yards.
3. I sent the dog to pick up the PB thrown in Step 1.
4. With dog again waiting at the SL, I threw a duck at 50 yards left to right to a fall on a line 30° to the left of the second blind. In other words, this was a TTL PB.
5. I ran the dog on the second blind (unmarked OD), the blind on the left at 130 yards.
6. I sent the dog to pick up the PB thrown in Step 2.

Instead of keeping one dog tied to my belt while running the other dog as I often have to do given time constraints, for this series I kept one dog in the van while the other dog ran. In Laddie's case, I kept him in a crate to prevent further damage to my van's interior. Although he barked a little at first, I was pleased to see that he quickly calmed down, perhaps because I was out of sight.

Both dogs showed excellent WSC responsiveness, though Laddie's casting was more accurate than Lumi's as usual. Lumi may have had her concentration affected by the PB; Laddie showed no sign of doing so. Neither showed any suction toward the PB on either blind. In fact, Laddie lined the second blind on the left.

Needwood Lake South Creek

SERIES B. Adventure Drill

For Series B, both dogs ran a number of AD retrieves — LWL retrieves of ducks in rugged terrain — as we hiked along the creek that runs south from Needwood Lake.