Three water doubles and a water blind (with photos)

Today I picked up two assistants for a session at our nearest training property. It was a beautiful, sunny day with blue skies, a few fluffy clouds, and a light breeze. However, temps were in high 80s, so I used water for all retrieves and hopefully avoided over-heating or over-exerting Laddie.

Series A. Double bridge plus side throw

The first mark was LTR across a channel, with the line including a cheat-y re-entry. The second mark was also an LTR across a channel, with the line past an island. I then threw a side-throw into the water to add some memory challenge.

I've never seen a setup with two bridge marks, but I thought it would be good practice. Laddie had no difficulty with any of the retrieves.

Series B. Double bridge plus side throw

Series B was a mirror image of Series A, with bumpers thrown the opposite direction (RTL) over the same locations on the zig-zagging channel. Again I added a side-throw to the two bridge marks. Laddie picked up the side-throw and the shorter mark without difficulty. However, the long mark served as a training mark. First I needed to handle Laddie away from the right side of the island, since that risked taking him to the old fall, and then I needed to handle him into the water at the re-entry from the strip of land near the end, since he started to run the bank on the left.

Here are photos of the setup. The first one shows normal focus, the second one is zoom focus. In the second photo, the bird-girl for the shorter mark is on the far right of the image and the bird-girl for the longer mark is in the center. Both girls threw bridge marks RTL.

Series C. Water double with side-throw

The first throw was supposed to be LTR, but the bird-girl accidentally threw it too far to the left, so it was directly behind her, meaning that Laddie didn't see an arc but rather the bumper seeming, in 2D, to go straight up and straight down. The line to that mark was down a hill, across a land segment, into water with a difficult angle entry, across the strip of land that the bird-girl was throwing from, across a channel, and up onto the embankment, with the bumper thrown into cover. So this was Laddie's fifth bridge mark of the day.

The second throw was LTR on an angle back up the shore, but the throw wasn't as far as I had hoped. The line to mark was down an embankment, diagonally across a channel, diagonally across a strip of land, a water re-entry across the corner of a pond, and thru cover at water's edge to the bumper on land. Because the throw was short, the corner was shorter and more cheat-y than planned.

After the marks were thrown, I again threw a side-throw.

Laddie had no difficulty with the side-throw or the second mark. He also took an excellent line to the first mark (the last one retrieved), but hunted the near side of the final channel for a short time before deciding to swim across and directly to the cover containing the bumper. I thought it was a good piece of problem-solving and good practice for a bridge mark thrown behind the gunner that Laddie might encounter in competition.

Series D. Water blind across corner of a pond, then beside treeline to back of a plateau

We finished with a water blind. Here are two photos, one with normal focus, the other with zoom focus. Laddie handled well running this blind. He took the water entry as part of his initial line and finished with three zig-zag casts, with tight whistle sits, to the blind.