Land Work

Mt. Ararat Farm

Today, Gaby and I trained our dogs together at her farm. Gaby worked Gus and Zap, while I worked Lumi and Laddie. The weather was sunny with temps in the 40s, a pleasant winter day.

We didn't have any birds so we used training dummies for the entire session.

SERIES A. Delayed, interrupted land triple with double blind (Zap, Gus, Laddie, Lumi)

Series A was run in a similar form by all four dogs. I'll describe it the way Lumi and Laddie ran it first, then describe the modified version that Zap and Gus ran.

When the dog came to the SL, the dog was given an opportunity to settle down and locate the three throwers. Then the dog was lined up and sent on a 90-yard blind that ran a few feet to the left of the middle thrower. Next the throwers threw the triple, as follows: First, the thrower on the right threw right to left at 130 yards. Then the thrower in the center threw a converging mark left to right at 70 yards. Finally, the thrower on the left threw left to right at 40 yards. After all three marks were down, the dog was run on a 160-yard blind to the right of (behind) the rightmost thrower, over a ridge and across a bowl-shaped depression, with the blind almost at the top of the far embankment. The dog was then sent to pick up the three marks, though not in exact reverse order. Instead, the dog was sent to the 40-yard mark on the left first, then the 130-yard mark on the right, and finally the 70-yard mark in the center.

Zap and Gus ran almost the same series, but they picked up their three marks immediately after they were thrown, and before running the second blind.

SERIES B. Land blind (Zap, Gus, Laddie, Lumi)

This was a 110-yard blind into a wooded area and thru a narrow keyhole formed by two trees.

SERIES C. Land blind (Zap, Laddie)

This was a 240-yard blind thru a narrow keyhole formed by two trees and into a corn patch. Because of the distance, Gaby and I decided not to run Gus or Lumi, neither of whom are expected ever to run Field Trials. Zap already has his Field Championship (FC), so even at 9 years old, this seemed a pretty routine blind for him. As for 2-year-old Laddie, I hope to run him in Field Trials some day, so I continue train him accordingly, even though our immediate goal is to complete his Senior Hunter and then to begin competing in Master Hunt Tests.