Out-of-order Double, Blind, and Retired-gun Single

Oaks Area 2

The cover at Oaks has been too long for training for several months, but today I discovered that the park service has finally mowed. Oaks is our closest field, and good for land training when time is short. In this case, I was squeezing in a training session with Laddie after returning from a day of work. At this time of year, sunset has begun coming pretty early.

PRELIMINARY

I placed an LP as our SL, and a chair with my white coat at 200 yards to the far left of the field we'd be facing. That would give Laddie plenty of time to notice the position of the gun station for Series B.

SERIES A. Out-of-order land double and blind

For Series A, the first mark was on the right, a BB throwing left to right at 70 yards. The second mark was well to the left of the first one, a BB and stickman throwing right to left at 120 yards. The second mark was thrown from under one tree into an area near two other trees, one closer to the SL, the other further. The ground in that area of the field was somewhat marshy, with soft, uneven footing.

Laddie picked up the long mark on the left — the one with the stickman — as the go-bird first, requiring a small hunt. He then nailed the short mark on the right — no white coat — as the memory-bird.

After Laddie had picked up both bumpers, I ran him on a blind at 180 yards, even further to the left. This blind was placed at the foot of the rearmost tree among a group of trees in that area of the field, requiring Laddie to enter an area that by that time was deep in shadows.

After Laddie ran the blind, I had Lumi run the long mark for fun, since she has seemed interested in doing a little retrieving lately. She also required a small hunt on that mark. I'm not sure why neither dog was able to pin that mark. Maybe it was the unusual fall among trees.

SERIES B. Land single with hidden gun

When both dogs were done with Series A, I walked out to get the BB on the right that still had an unfired bumper and carried it out to the chair and coat I had positioned far to the left earlier. When I got to that station, I positioned the BB, lay the chair flat on the ground, picked the coat up to carry with me, and walked straight back to the SL, where Laddie was in a down waiting for me. As I walked, I put on the jacket.

When I got to the SL, I fired the BB and sent Laddie. He ran a laser mark with no under-run nor over-run.

See discussion of this series in a separate post: Practicing Retired Guns without a Bird Boy