Walk-ups, water blind, and land triple plus double blind

Rolling Ridge

Sunny, 60°, training with Nate.

SERIES A. Walk-up diversion with water blind

As Laddie and I came from behind a holding blind, Nate was hiding behind a nearby stand of trees. Without warning, he fired pistol and threw a white bumper. Trajectory of throw was behind another tree, then into a depression. I then cued "sit", swung Laddie to my other side, and ran him on a big water blind, which he lined without popping. Then he picked up the diversion mark.

SERIES B. Walk-up land triple plus two blinds

First mark was thrown RTL on a walk-up from behind trees at the right edge of the field and into a ditch, with the thrower on my right and Laddie on my left. I had planned to have Laddie facing in Nate's direction by the time he threw, but he threw too soon.  Laddie heard the pistol shot but did not look past my knees fast enough to see the throw, which though not planned was actually a good thing for us to work on, since an unseen first throw of a triple was the same situation that led to our being dropped in our last test. The Bumper Boy for the second throw was in line with the first mark, thrown RTL like the first throw, so that the first two marks were a hip pocket double. The third mark was the longest, thrown LTR across a ditch 90° to the left of the second fall. I ran Laddie in reverse order of the throws, which also had unusual result of being longest first, shortest last.  After Laddie picked up #3 and #2, I lined him up carefully for #1, the mark he had not seen, and sent him on "back" rather than his name as though it were a blind, but he nailed it without a need for handling.

The line to the first blind ran near the fall of the first mark, then a little behind the Bumper Boy used for second mark.  Just past the BB, the line ran to the left of a tree, forming a diagonal keyhole with the BB, then across an old driveway.

The second blind was on a line between the second and third marks, across a ditch, then to the right of a pile of downed trees. Just past the pile, the dog had to be stopped and cast left behind the pile and thru underbrush in front of a tree, making it a sideways keyhole. Coming out of the underbrush, the dog had to be stopped again and cast straight back, keeping to the left of the tree, then across a dirt road. The blind was in a depression beyond the road.

I tried my best to create challenging situations in this session, but Laddie made everything look easy all day.