Saturday, April 9, 2011

Angle entries, shoreline blinds, de-popping

[Transcribed from @LindsayRidgeway tweets]

Rolling Ridge

Overcast, 50°.

Six retrieves total, in pairs, each pair made up of mirror images:
  • Pair 1: Poorman water marks with pistol shot, very sharp angle entry after land segment, easy and obvious cheat. This was the goal of our skimming drills last year, and Laddie did fine, as he had in last weekend's Master test on a similar entry.
  • Pair 2: Shoreline water blinds.
  • Pair 3: De-popping drill, one retrieve at 400y, the other at 270y. Set up as follows: I planted stickman, with white bumper 10y to the side. I then walked with Laddie to our start line and brought him to heel on the same side as the bumper was to the stickman. I stepped away, fired pistol, holstered it and stepped back next to Laddie. I lined him up, got him locked into the stickman, and sent him on his name. For each retrieve, the line took him across a steep valley and thru high cover and ditches with run-depth water, and more importantly, thru long segments where the stickman was not visible on other side of a crest. The intent was for Laddie to face uncertainty as he ran -- he hadn't seen a throw, and now he couldn't even see the "thrower" -- without turning to me for guidance.
Laddie did an outstanding job all day, including Pair 3, where he not only did not pop, but also never got "behind" the gun. That is, he kept to the same side of the imaginary line running from me to the stickman, from the time he left the start line till he had picked up the bumper.

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