Interrupted Reverse Hip-pocket Doubles

Oaks Area 3

For today's work, RLs and weighted streamers pre-positioned frozen ducks for the marks, and ODs for the blinds.

Normally, a stickman (a retired gun rack wearing white overalls) makes marking easier for dogs, compared to having nothing near the RLs, but for hip-pockets and reverse hip-pockets, I believe a stickman near the shorter RL makes it more difficult for the dog to remember the longer fall. Therefore, to make today's series more useful, I placed a stickman near the shorter RL.

SERIES A. Interrupted reverse hip-pocket double (Laddie, then Lumi)

The first throw was on the right, right to left at 120 yards. The second throw was on the left, right to left at 50 yards. The thrower for the second throw was only a little to the left of the line to the first fall. In two dimensions, it would appear that the first thrower was throwing to a location just off the heels of the second thrower, though of course the bird landed 70 yards further out. When the long throw gives the illusion of nearly reaching the second thrower, that's called an "off-the-heels double", or a "reverse hip-pocket". (In a normal hip-pocket, the short throw gives the illusion of nearly reaching the first thrower.)

After both throws were down, the dog ran a 120-yard blind on a line to the left of the second throw. Then the dog picked up the second throw, and finally the first throw. When the dog is required to run a blind after the birds are thrown, but before they're picked up, that's called an "interrupted" series. It's an advanced skill, and the dog frequently has much greater difficulty handling on such blinds, if she can do it at all.

SERIES B. Interrupted reverse hip-pocket double (Laddie only)

Series B used the same SL, but was run in a different direction, and was a mirror image of Series A.

Notes on Performance

Lumi did well on Series A, so I rested her and didn't run her on Series B.

Laddie didn't have a fair test on Series A, because the first streamer didn't fire, so I had to handle him. He ran the difficult blind reasonably well.

On Series B, Laddie again ran the blind well, and this time ran immediately to each bird, but he veered away from the stickman and toward the RL on the long mark, then veered back on line once he was past the stickman. This is called "pushing off the gunner". It's a fault in competition and we'll need to work on it.

In retrospect, I think I should have stopped him with a WS and handled him back to the correct line. That's what we'll do when we train for this issue.