Tuesday water work

Like last Tuesday, today I went with Laddie and one assistant to a property an hour from home that has numerous technical ponds. There I set up one single mark after another for the assistant to throw and Laddie to run, a total of eleven in all.

Though they were in different locations and varied in length, they all featured at least one, and sometimes two, "cheating" water entries, requiring Laddie to enter or re-enter the water to stay on line to the fall when a slight detour on land was available and visible.

In the case of marks that included a point, Laddie was allowed to go over the point, as long as he continued straight into the water on the far side, or swim around the point.

In the few cases where Laddie attempted to run the bank, I simply called him back and sent him again, and that gave him enough information to run it correctly the next time.

Land blinds with lining poles as diversion

Today I brought Laddie to the dog park for socializing, but firsti I ran him on three blinds in a nearby field.

A. 370y past stand of trees on the right at 200y. The suction to the right was strong past the trees, not only because Laddie tends to wrap behind such obstacles anyway, but also because temps were in mid-80s and the only available shade was back there. In addition, I placed an orange lining pole with a ribbon tied to the top in the field behind the outcropping of trees on the right so that it suddenly became visible as the dog ran past the trees.

B. 240y and a smaller mirror image of A, including the lining pole, but in a different part of the field and with a different orientation.

C. 250y from same start line as B but on a different line to the right, which went thru a tight keyhole between two trees at 180y. The same lining pole that acted as a diversion for B also acted as a diversion for C, and in addition, the lining pole that makes the blind for B also acted as a diversion for C.

These blinds were just as important for my training as for Laddie's, because it is essential that I anticipate where the flection points are and stop him before he suddenly darts to the side. If I wait till he veers off, he is too fast for me to stop him before he gets out of sight.

As these blinds illustrated, a strategically placed lining pole, perhaps with a white bumper or a bird at the base, can greatly increase the difficulty of a blind that might otherwise not be too much of a challenge for the particular dog.

Follow up on yesterday's group training day

When I reread yesterday's post about Laddie's work at the group training day, I saw that it did not seem to reflect my generally positive feeling about Laddie's work. So I thought I'd explain that Laddie was running perhaps the most difficult versions of each series.

For example, for Series A, as far as I know, none of the dogs ran the long blind on the right under the arc while the poison bird was still down, and if any did, it was only one or two of the most advanced dogs. But unlike Laddie, many of the dogs ran the shorter blind on the right without the poison bird down. In addition, as far as I know, no dog ran a tighter line on either of the blinds, and several required significantly more handling.

For Series B, no other dog ran it as a full quad with all the memory birds retired, and as far as I can remember, everyone except Laddie who ran #2 (the water mark) with the gun retired had the gunner un-retire, and in several cases even throw another bumper, before sending the dog. Yet Laddie was one of the only dogs, or perhaps the only dog who completed the final land segment to the fall without a hunt. Also, Laddie was not the only dog who got on the last point and then tried to run the bank, and at least one dog, and possibly several, actually did run the bank since the handler did not or could not bring the dog back.

Finally, many of the dogs ran #1 (the longest mark) with the gun out, and most or all of those few who ran it with the gun retired as Laddie did also had big hunts, and in some cases also needed help.

In other words, while Laddie's work was not perfect, it was actually quite good despite the fact that he was running particularly difficult versions of the setups. 

Given how much more experience some/most of those trainers have than me, and given how much more experience with all-age trials some of the dogs have than Laddie (who broke on the first series of his only all-age stake), I think it's fair to question whether I used good judgment in running the versions that I did. I felt that Laddie and I benefited from the training, but given that we choose pretty much the most difficult options, I wonder if a more experienced trainer working with Laddie would have opted for easier versions.

One last note. I mentioned in the earlier post that Laddie has little experience with quads, but this morning I realized that that's not entirely true. Evey morning I take Laddie into the front yard to run one or more little marks before letting him air to get him used to coming straight back even when he feels a need to mark or eliminate, since we were once dropped from a qual after three good series with the explanation from the judge, "too much airing on returns."

Well, after Laddie got his MH, I began running most of those morning exercises as little quads. So Laddie has had an opportunity to practice counting to four.

Group training day

Today Laddie and I had an opportunity to train with a field trial group. The dogs were at a wide range of levels, so people ran each of the two series differently depending on their dogs. Here I'll describe them the way Laddie ran them.

Series A (all land). Double blind with poison bird

First a duck was thrown RTL at 40y. Then, having Laddie change sides to help him understand he should leave the "poison" bird alone, I ran Laddie on a 120y blind on the right of (behind) the gun. Next I sent Laddie to pick up the poison bird. Finally, I ran Laddie on a 150y blind under the arc of the earlier throw.

Primary factors for the blinds were angle entries into medium high cover and diagonal slope traversals.

Laddie did a nice job on this series. I was particularly pleased with his initial line on the second blind, which took him close to the gun positioned atop a narrow curving raised path, requiring Laddie to take a good initial line and then hold it on the curving slope under the arc of the previously thrown bird.

I believe Laddie needed only two or three whistles for each of the blinds, though that could be faulty memory on my part.

Series B. Land/water quad

The first mark was on the right, thrown RTL at 180y over land. The second mark was inside the leftmost gun, thrown RTL at 160y. The line to this mark consisted of a long downhill land segment, a water segment with three points for the dog to go either over or around, and a final uphill land segment. The third mark was inside the rightmost gun, thrown LTR at 110y over land, the throw converging with #1. The forth mark was on the left, thrown LTR at 80y back and into the pond and accompanied by a popper cartridge shot by a shotgun rather than blank pistols as used for the other guns. #4 converged with #2.

I asked the three memory guns to retire when I sent Laddie to #4.

I had Laddie pick up the marks in the reverse order thrown. He started by nailing #4 and #3. He then took a nice line to #2 on land and a nice entry into the pond. He held his line between points on both sides but then, instead of navigating around the final point on the right as I would have preferred, he held his line, which took him over that point. He started to continue on to the back side of the point, but suddenly darted to the right and behind some reeds, attempting to run the bank of the last inlet. I blew a prolonged series of tweets till he came back into sight, then cast into open water to the outside of the point, enabling him to complete the swim to the far shore. He then ran straight to the bird, which was harder than it sounds; most dogs needed to hunt for that mark. 

Although I normally let Laddie run the bank on returns, virtually no one else does and I decided to have him swim all the way back. At midpoint he seemed to become distracted, dropping the bumper and starting to swim toward me without it. However he instantly responded when I called "Fetch". He had another lapse on the return uphill -- he dropped the bumper and began to roll on it, I guess trying to dry off and give himself a back massage at the same time. I knew that would be a serious and disqualifying fault in an event. I instantly called "Get up", which he did, but then he started toward me without the bumper, so I again had to call "Fetch".

Finally I lined Laddie up on #1, the long retired mark on the right. Based on his body language, he seemed to remember it, though we rarely run quads and all the guns were retired. Indeed, he took a good line the first 140y, that is, to the bottom of a shallow ditch, the same ditch that the converging #3 had been thrown into. At that point, Laddie lost his bearings and began to hunt, then suddenly darted toward the old fall of #3, at which point I called for help from the #1 gunner.

That completed Laddie's work on Series B, and despite my detailed description of his faults, this was one of the most difficult versions, if not the most difficult version, of the way the various dogs ran this series, and Laddie showed his good marking ability throughout, even with all the memory birds retired, with the exception of having apparently forgotten the distance of #1. In retrospect, I might have been able to help him by saying "way back" before sending him if I'd realized that might happen. Granted he tried to run the bank for the water re-entry during #2, but as another trainer commented, he seemed to remember where the fall was and might well have run straight to it after running around the inlet if I had not handled him.

After everyone had run and all the equipment was sorted out, one of the trainers was kind enough to help me with one last retrieve for Laddie. Namely, I had Laddie rerun just the water segment of #2., with the thrower using a silent throw. I was pleased to see that this time, Laddie swam between the first two points as before, but around the final point rather than over it, completing the entire swim without difficulty. He then picked up the bumper and completed the return swim, again without difficulty, rather than getting distracted halfway back.

Too bad he hadn't run the water segment that way the first time, but I guess that's why we have to continue training. Like any other field dog I guess.

Three land blinds

Again getting out early to beat the expected hot temperatures later, Laddie and I drove to a property in Germantown to run blinds.

A. 370y, featuring a down slope at 160y resulting in dog being out of sight for several seconds, an S-shaped road of which the line to the blind repeatedly crossed the edges, taking the dog on and off and on and off the road, both short and high cover at road's edge, and woods on both sides past the cover.

B. 570y, featuring large trees casting shadows on the right and acting as suction from the heat of the bright sun, an opportunity for the dog to wrap around a large tree on the right at 520y and out of sight, also a crest at 520y requiring the dog to go out of sight for a few seconds, and a diagonal road crossing at 530y while the dog was out of sight. I was able to handle Laddie to the crest, then stop him without waiting to see whether he would veer behind the tree since then it would be too late to stop him in time, and finally cast him straight back, over the crest, out of sight, diagonally across the road, and up a hill where he came back into sight as he ran straight to the bumper.

C. A re-run of the last 210y of the first blind.

Retired singles with multiple guns out

On two different training days - once a couple of years ago and once last weekend - Laddie had difficulty on a particular kind of setup that none of the other dogs happened to have those days. The setup in each case was a triple with all the gunners visible in their white jackets, but with me calling for only the long mark and then sending Laddie.

This is known, I believe, as "singles with the guns out". I think the idea is that it helps dogs develop skill and confidence in accurate marking.

It's also supposed to help with head swinging. That's because, if the dog comes to believe that she might be sent immediately after a throw, she's less likely to take her eyes off the mark until something (typically the next gunshot) draws her attention away. That's a desired behavior, since it maximizes the dog's time to memorize each mark, though some dogs are successful turning away from the throw as soon as it lands. The most harmful kind of head swinging, I guess, is when the dog looks away before the throw even occurs.

Naturally Laddie has often run singles with the guns out, but he's not generally a head swinger, and following suggestions I've gotten from Alice Woodyard, I tend to run multiples, especially triples, perhaps more often than some trainers.

Based on Laddie's behavior on the two occasions I mentioned, he found the fact that he was being sent after just one throw, when other guns were visible, confusing. In both cases, he launched when I called his name, but after running some distance with an increasing appearance of uncertainty, he finally spun around and looked at me ("popped"). "I don't get it, Daddy," he seemed to be saying. "Why did you send me? Did the other throws happen without me noticing? Which bird am I supposed to be picking up?"

This may have been exasperated because the last few months we've been training with a lot of fake throws to give Laddie confidence in case sometimes he doesn't see the throw.

So I guess suddenly seeing a single, when in fact we might have been using a fake throw for one or more other marks, or maybe he just missed the real throws, was a bit too confusing. Of course he should be able to tell the difference between a single with guns out and multiple throws or fake throws, but the pictures were apparently difficult for Laddie to separate in his mind based on his experience.

To work on the issue, this morning Laddie and I went out with two bird-girls, making an early, 7am start because of the expected heat later. I created two setups in succession, virtually identical but mirror images and at different orientations on the field. In each setup, one gunner was at approx 280y, the other at approx 150y. The left gun would throw LTR and the right gun would throw RTL, that is, a pinch configuration. The angle between the guns placed the long gun in line with the short fall.

In each setup, Laddie ran two singles, for a total of four marks for the session. We ran each setup as follows:

- I asked the short gun to waggle her arms until Laddie locked in to make sure Laddie was aware of her, even though (unbeknownst to Laddie) she would not be throwing.

- I asked the long gun to waggle her arms. She was about to throw.

- I called for the throw from the long gun.

- I threw a bumper to the side for Laddie to pick up, giving the long gun a chance to retire (that is, put up an umbrella to hide behind).

- I sent Laddie to pick up the long retired mark.

- Again calling for guns up, I asked the long gun to waggle, though this time she would not be throwing.

- I asked the short gun to waggle. She was about to throw.

- I called for the throw from the short gun.

- I threw a side throw while the short gun retired.

- I sent Laddie to pick up the short retired mark, with the long gun visible in the same line but of course further back.

Laddie did a nice job throughout the session, showing no hesitancy or confusion at any time. His only difficulty was that, after nailing the long retired mark with the short gun out, he overran the short retired mark with the long gun out (and in line with the fall he was running to) on the first setup. I didn't think it was too bad, though, since he immediately circled back straight to the fall.

For the second setup, he just ran two nice marks.

Hopefully today's work will help Laddie avoid becoming confused next time we go to a training day and run single with the guns out.

Land blinds with wraps

With evening temps in the mid-80s, I took Laddie to a huge field I've discovered in Germantown and ran him on two land blinds.

My primary objective was to run Laddie past stands of trees at distance. Laddie has a tendency to wrap around large objects like hedgerows, and I need to practice anticipating the wrap and blowing a sit whistle before he veers off course. If I wait till he actually breaks to the side, he's too fast for me to stop before he gets out of sight being the obstacle.

Our first blind was 240y, featuring a keyhole at 80y and a stand of trees on the left at 200y.

Our second blind was 490y, featuring a diagonal road crossing at 30y, a stand of trees on left at 150y, ascending a slope on a long diagonal at 180y, and a stand of trees on right at 450y.

Working on water honesty

I wish I had time for a catch-up post on all the interesting (at least to me) work Laddie and I have been doing, but I guess I'll just write a single- day journal entry for now.

Yesterday I brought Laddie and one bird-boy to Cheltenham to work on water honesty. Temps were in the high 80s, too hot for much land work, but Laddie seemed fine with the hour or so of water work.

I used a half dozen or so single water mark setups intended to give Laddie practice choosing water rather than land to stay on line.

I say "practice" rather than "train", though of course it's still training, because I found that whenever Laddie attempted to cheat, I never needed to blow the whistle and handle him, as I would have if this were earlier in his development. Instead, I found I could call "no, here" (or some variation thereof), bring him back to heel, and send him again. In all cases but one, he then ran the mark as I wanted him to, taking water, indicating to me that he just needed to practice this concept rather than requiring detailed guidance. For the one case where re-sending didn't work, which featured an ambiguous initial water entry followed by a point and unambiguous but difficult re-entry, after he cheated the first entry twice, I decided to move up to make the first entry unambiguous, and then he ran both entries correctly.

One of my favorite performances was a mark consisting of a longish swim to a point, across an inlet to a second point, and finally across another inlet to the bumper. I had the bumper thrown so that it would be visible from the second point, so there would be no question, if Laddie cheated, as to whether he knew where the direct line to the mark was.

For this setup, I was willing to accept Laddie going around either or both points, or getting on and off either or both points, as long as he didn't run the bank around either inlet. But it was a big swim if he chose to swim around both points. Yet that's what he did, and then stayed on line and in the water even as he got close to the bumper, rather than squaring the bank to shorten the last few yards of his swim. I thought it was a nice display of courage, facing down that long swim, as well as of water "honesty".

The last setup of the afternoon featured a longish land entry, a difficult angle into the water, and a swim across the pond parallel to, and a few yards from, the shoreline. When Laddie took a nice entry into the water, and again did not come out of the water early as he approached the far bank, I felt that was a good retrieve to end our session with.

As for other training Laddie and I have been doing since he completed his MH, I'll just mention that we're training approx every other day, training with field trial groups whenever possible, and working as best we can on the skills Laddie will need for all-age competition. I'll provide additional detail in future posts whenever possible.

In our first all-age, Laddie broke

Well, Laddie's been in six events this spring: five Master tests, and today's Amateur, our first all-age stake ever.

In the week before three of those events, we trained with flyers, and Laddie passed, enabling him to complete his Master Hunter title.

In the week before the other three events, we did not train with flyers. In those three events, Laddie broke on the flyer in the first series.

I could discuss the obvious lesson (we need to train with flyers right before an event), and perhaps some not so obvious lessons, such as not letting a young dog break in early training, thinking that having the gunner pick up the bird is a good way to train the dog not to break (it's not, it's a good way for the dog to learn to break).

But instead, I'll just say, it is no fun coming back home without seeing what your dog could have done if he hadn't broken.

Laddie passes fourth Master

Yesterday afternoon, Laddie completed the last series of the DelBay Master test, nailing every mark of an inline land/water triple and receiving a round of applause from the gallery, to wrap up his fourth Master Hunt Test qualification. One more will earn him a Master Hunter title.

Preparation the last week included some marks and some blinds, but most of my focus was on trying to minimize the chances that Laddie would break on a flyer. I also continued work from last week on practicing good deliveries.

I'll digress here to say that except for one bird Laddie dropped before completing delivery and needed to pick up again, Laddie's deliveries were perhaps the best they've ever been in a competition - come to heel, hold reliably, sometimes sit sometimes not, but no diving or otherwise rushing needed.

As for steadiness, this test was hardly a severe breaking test, thank goodness, but still had some challenges:

- an out-of-order flyer on a walk-up land triple in the first series

- an honor for the water double in the second series

- a go-bird flyer on the land/water triple in the third series

Laddie was steady as a rock for all three. Here are the initiatives I took this last week attempting to accomplish that result:

- After Laddie broke on a flyer last Saturday, we trained with flyers on Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Altogether, Laddie saw approximately 25 flyers last week, including nine honors.

- Except for the last few marks on Thursday, Laddie wore a collar with a tab (very short lead) attached, and I held it slack as he watched each bird, moving with him if he stood. I only let it become taut, so that he would feel it hold him back, if he tried to break, and he only did that twice all week.

- On those two occasions, I yelled at him. I would have preferred not to do that, but some of the people I train with have always preferred that Laddie suffer some consequence for trying to break, and I decided to do it this week. I don't know if it mattered, but I acknowledge that it might have been a useful part of the training.

- In general, the way we trained was as follows: Laddie would run a triple with a very close flyer as either the second or third bird thrown/shot, then honor the same setup with Laddie and me positioned as close as possible to the shooter. I used long delays before sending him, and I encouraged the working handler to do the same on Laddie's honors. We used those kinds of setups nine times during the week, and never used the same setup twice.

- We were shooting the birds for the first two sessions, but we used clipwings in Thursday. For the triples that day, the flyer was thrown with the shot of a shotgun popper. Using poppers instead of live ammo may not have been as good preparation for a test, but we ended up with several live birds after we had run all the triples and my friend, who had been running his dog for Laddie to honor, had to leave.

- So at the end of the Thursday session, I had my assistant repeatedly throw a clippie, using duck call and primer blank pistol, just a few yards in front of Laddie's field of vision, then I sent Laddie to retrieve the bird. We did this half a dozen times or more, always moving to a different positron. Laddie became so steady during this process that I decided to take his collar off. My feeling was that that would be bad if Laddie then broke, but it would be good if it helped him experience steadiness with no collar, since he can't wear a collar in competition. He was rock steady; I saw no evidence that the collar made any difference to him. I believe this last bit of training, with one bird after another thrown at close range, may have been one of the most important parts of the week's preparation, if not the most.

- In the test that Laddie passed earlier this year, I ran Laddie on long blinds both the day before the test and the morning of the test, and then took him for a couple of long walks while waiting our turn. My goal was to possibly take some of the edge off Laddie's energy and therefore possibly reduce the chances of a break. I didn't do that for the two tests where Laddie broke. So for yesterday's test, I did that again, with additional exercise between setups, arranging to time the exercise even though Laddie was #1 in the running order. Laddie was by no means exhausted at the line and honoring, but he may have been slightly less springy than normal, and perhaps that helped.

- Finally, during those walks and also while walking to the final holding blind as we approached the line for our turn, I repeatedly cued Laddie to sit, working to strengthen the cue as much as possible for when he's be watching the birds. I don't believe that drilling was sufficient to prevent a break, but I do believe it may have helped.

Laddie is entered in several more Master tests this spring, including one next weekend. I will make every effort to repeat last week's initiatives during the coming week, though we may only train with flyers once (on Thursday perhaps) and we may use clippies again. If by some misfortune Laddie breaks next Saturday, then I'll know we have to repeat training with shot flyers and live ammo after all in preparation for subsequent tests.

Here's hoping that won't be necessary and Laddie will complete his MH next weekend.

Dodging a Bullet for Laddie's Third Master Pass

Laddie earned his third Master ribbon last weekend. I had thought it was a pretty straight-forward pass, but I learned later that I'd come close to getting him disqualified.

First, a quick summary:

• 59 dogs entered
• 51 dogs ran
• Laddie ran as #56
• Series A was a land triple with honor plus a single land blind, no flyer, no walk-up.
• In Series A marks, Laddie nailed #3. When I sent him to #1 next, he veered around and picked up #2. He then nailed #1.
• Laddie nearly lined the Series A blind. I stopped him with a safety whistle as he raced past the blind on the upwind side, then cued angle-in to the bird.
• 41 dogs called back from Series A
• Series B was a water double with flyer go-bird, walk-up, diversion shot, and double water blind which you could pick up in either order after picking up the marks.
• Laddie nailed both Series B marks, but had mediocre returns, dropping the bird in front of me to shake off instead of delivering to hand, then taking time picking bird back up. (We've worked in that in two water sessions this week.) For some reason, returns and deliveries on the two blinds were fine.
• Laddie ran the second water blind on a different line than any of the other dogs (see below)
• 40 dogs called back from Series B
• Series C was a water triple.
• Laddie nailed #3.
• I had planned to run Laddie on #1 next (out-out-in), but he locked in on #2, so I sent him there, and he ran it well, taking difficult angle entries to maintain a fairly straight line rather than squaring the bank on the two channel swims.
• I then ran him on #1, making that last retrieve of the test. I needed to handle Laddie, but I thought little of it till I happened to chat with the judges later and asked them if they had any thoughts on Laddie's performance. That's when I discovered that we'd nearly gotten knocked out of the test on that mark (see below).
• 40 dogs qualified

Now a little more detail on a couple of items:

• The line for the second water blind was across a point, with a tempting cheat on the left rather than reentering the water. One of the judges had specifically said during the instructions, "This is a water blind," which I interpreted to mean not wanting to see the dogs run the bank after arriving at that point. I believe about half the dogs did run that bank, but I guess the judges decided not to knock them out for that. Some handlers did not handle the dog when the dog reached the point, or cued "back" from the point, both of which risked the dog squaring the bank of the second water section and then running the bank some part of the way to complete the blind. Other handlers (including me) cued "over" from the point, with the intent of casting the dog into open water off line but well clear of the bank, and then handling the dog to the bird from there. In most cases, that still resulted in the dog beaching early and running the bank to the bird. But Laddie's line was unique. Once he had taken the cast off the point, he began swimming parallel to the bank, like a channel swim. I waited until he was even with the bird, then cast him with a straight over to complete the blind. I liked the fact that he didn't get close to the bank at all until he was swimming directly to the bird, and I felt he'd successfully "challenged the line" with his no-whistle initial line from the start line to the point.
• The reason that Laddie's performance on the last water retrieve was much riskier than I had realized is that, when Laddie crossed the two channels and arrived on a strip of land a few feet from the left-most bird, he didn't realize it was still in front of him. Instead, he chose to turn right and run toward the center of the field on that strip of land. I waited a few seconds to see whether he would turn back, and when I realized he wasn't going to, I blew the whistle and handled him to the bird, which had rolled just over the bank, behind a ledge that made it difficult for several of the dogs to find the bird even when they were close. As mentioned, it seemed like a fairly routine way to end a test, handling on the last mark since we hadn't need a handle on any of the other marks in the test. However, what I hadn't noticed was that when Laddie made that right turn, he was headed straight for the old fall of #2. My delay in blowing the whistle in retrospect had no advantage. I could just as easily have blown it as soon as Laddie turned away from the line, and I should have. Instead, I waited until, without my noticing it, Laddie had come perilously close to what is called "returning to an old fall", which is a DQ. How perilous? The judges told me later that if Laddie had put down his nose, they would have had no choice but to knock him out of the test.

I can only hope that I learned my lesson, and will be more aware of the possibility of returning to the old fall, even when my thoughts about what's going on are elsewhere. Meanwhile I count my blessings that I didn't have to learn this lesson at the cost of a ribbon, the price I've paid for so many other handling errors in the past.

Ups and downs, downs and ups

Since I haven't posted much this winter, in this rather long post, I'll try to provide some info on our training the last few months, as well as including details of this last weekend, in which many things happened that I, as least, thought were quite interesting.

I've felt that Laddie has been training well this winter, with good marking and handling. Whenever the weather allowed it, we trained about four times a week, including monthly training days with one of our clubs. Then this last Saturday, Laddie ran in his first Master Hunt Test of the year, and on Sunday we went to New Jersey for a training day with another club.

Perhaps thanks to the Fake Throw drill we've been using periodically, Laddie hasn't had a pop in quite some time, so I'm optimistic that we've made some progress on that this winter. Time will tell.

On the other hand, Laddie's occasional vocalizing on blinds has now spread to land blinds as well as water. I have no more idea to solve it on land than I did on water. It will probably hurt us with some judges, but since those would probably be the same judges as the water vocalizing, I guess it won't hurt us more now than before.

I think I've noticed one data point about Laddie's vocalizing. In general, I think he's more likely to vocalize on early handling than on handling further out. Since I don't understand why he vocalizes in the first place, something he's done since before he was a year old, I'm not sure what it means that he's more likely to do it on early handles, but maybe it means something.

In any case, I was optimistic going into the weekend Master test that Laddie would be successful, but it didn't work out that way. He came to the line as #50, watched the first dead-bird throw, and then watched as the out-of-order 2nd-throw flyer took a looping glide high above the gunners and then downward between the gunners and the start line, making a safe shot impossible and also creating strong temptation for the working and honoring dogs to break. Fortunately the honoring dog remained steady, but when the judges called "no-bird", Laddie broke, raced out, and brought the bird back.

My first impulse had been to run out after Laddie when he broke, but I remembered Lumi being disqualified from a Senior test once when I went out to get her after she broke on a no-bird, so I checked myself and waited for Laddie to come back with the bird.

To my great surprise, and perhaps in part because I'd stayed at the line, the judges did not disqualify Laddie for breaking on the no-bird, but rather said I should bring him back for a re-run after some other dogs ran. I arranged to run him last, about ten dogs later, giving him plenty of time to rest in the van, but it was no good. He still ended up breaking on the re-run. While I was extremely grateful to the judges for giving Laddie a chance to stay in the test, it might have actually hurt Laddie's training, since he has now started the season with not one, but two, successful breaks on flyers in the context of a test. There's no telling yet how difficult it will be to dig out of that training hole. I shudder to think that it's even possible he's now hopelessly test-wise and ruined. But of course I hope not.

I'll get to the Sunday training in a moment, but I thought I'd mention that I was also grateful to the Head Marshall for giving me a chance to work on the next series, a water triple with a water blind. I worked gun station #3 using a duck call, winger, and popper gun, then shot the diversion shot when called for, and finally planted the blinds, so with reloading the winger and gun, I was active almost continuously. Having Laddie get knocked out of the test was painful, and the opportunity to work was a valuable emotional counter-balance. I felt much better because of it.

In any case, once back at the van, I began sending out texts, emails, and voice mails, trying to make arrangements with as many as people as I could think of to find a way for Laddie to train with flyers between then and our next Master test in two weeks. I also considering scratching him from that test (I could get my entry fee back if I did it today), and perhaps that would still be a good decision. But based on yesterday's training day up in New Jersey, I'm feeling more confident that Laddie can handle both working and honoring flyers, despite his breaks on Saturday. For now, I don't plan to scratch him, but I will continue to try to find more opportunities to practice with flyers between now and then.

In addition, I plan to have him wear a tab (a flat collar with a short lead attached) whenever training between now and the next test. I'll grasp the lead whenever I feel there's any risk of a break, and Laddie will wear the tab at all times whether break risk or not so that he doesn't associate the tab with steadiness training. Hopefully, when he's running and honoring at the next test, the steadiness training will continue to apply even though the tab won't be there.

If I had not been able to arrange for flyer work on Sunday, I had planned to return to the test to continue helping, and also to watch the third setup and how the dogs ran it to learn what I could. But I was most fortunate to receive an invitation to train with flyers on Sunday, so Laddie and I got up at 4am and traveled to New Jersey for training instead.

With regard to yesterday's training day: It went very well, thanks primarily to the guy who invited me to participate, who is also the organizer for that club's training days. The participation rate was unusually high for such an activity — more than 70 dogs — yet everything went off without a hitch and I was home by 6pm despite the 3+ hour drive each way.

As often happens in training days, each trainer was allowed to run a version of the set-ups that best met his dog's training needs. Here are the versions that Laddie run:

• Series A. We moved our start line to about 35 yards from the flyer station, which also changed all the angles. Laddie then ran a round-the-horn triple with the flyer as the go-bird, followed a blind under the arc of the second throw. I requested a hand-throw for the second throw, since the winger would have thrown the bird straight behind the gun. Laddie was perfectly steady and didn't even get out of his sit when the flyer was thrown. He didn't handle as well as I would have liked on the blind, and I soon saw why — he needed to eliminate. But his marking was excellent, his returns and delivers were fine, and I felt his blind was OK though below his normal standards.
• Though we didn't have an opportunity to honor a triple with a flyer, I did have Laddie honor a number of additional throws, including two flyers, for various dogs that followed. More on that below.
• Series B. Laddie watched a round-the-horn triple, but when I looked down at him to send him for the go-bird, he was locked in on the middle bird. Someone in the gallery called out that Laddie hadn't seen the go-bird. I sent him to pick up the middle bird and then the first throw, which he didn't nail perhaps because he was drawn by a duck that was running around on the other side of the gun station having been missed when shot at earlier in the day. But Laddie quickly gave up on the loose duck, and ran back to pick up the mark and bring it in. At that point, the guy working the line and I discussed throwing the last mark again as a single, but I looked down and Laddie had lined up on it on his own. So I came to the conclusion that he had seen the throw after all, but had turned his eyes away from it by the time I looked down at him. I sent him and he nailed it. I then ran him on both of the blinds. I think he lined the first one. He blinked the bumper when I handled him to it on the second blind, running past it, but then he picked it up and brought it. Given all the distractions — the loose duck, the fact that Laddie was running behind a female in heat (see below), and the fact that I had kept Laddie out of the van for a long time before our turn came (also discussed below)  — I thought he did well.
• Series C. My friend at the training day was aware that I wanted Laddie to get as much work with flyers as possible, and told me that the set-up with the flyer station had some extra birds. So we ran another series there. Once again we moved our start line close to the flyer station, and this time I requested that the second station use the winger, resulting in a throw that for us was angled almost straight back. But this time, I asked that the flyer be thrown out of order, that is, as the second throw, and then the middle gun, which was 180s in the opposite direction from the flyer station, be thrown as the go-bird. Thus Laddie would need to watch a long mark be thrown left to right, then turn all the way around to watch a flyer be thrown right to left, then turn all the way around again to watch the go-bird be thrown left to right. Our position made the first and third marks into a reverse hip-pocket. We'd run the blind again also, but it would be in front of the second gun, not under the arc. While my primary concern was with whether Laddie would take up the slack on the tab while attempting to break on the flyer, this was also a challenging set-up even without the possibility of a break, especially considering all the effort I'd gone to in order to elevate Laddie's excitement level. As it played out, the flyer was only wounded, and the "cripple" began moving toward cover after it landed. Yet Laddie did not try to break, and when the third station fired his gun and released the winger, Laddie turned to look at it over his shoulder. When I sent him, he raced to the go-bird first. He then ran back to me with that bird, keeping his eye on the still active flyer the whole time, and as soon as I took the bird and called his name, he darted out to pick up the flyer. To finish up the triple, I lined him up for the long memory bird, on a line just behind the go-bird's holding blind, and though I remembered the fall as being wider than it actually was, Laddie remembered it correctly and nailed it. He then finished by running the blind again. We were running from a somewhat different location than Series A, it had been several hours, and a lot had happened in between, but it may not mean much that he ran the blind well this time. I'm glad he did, though.
• Again, Laddie honored several dogs after he ran Series C, including two flyers, though no one was running the same set-up Laddie ran.

As part of yesterday's training, I did something that I haven't done much before. Instead of having Laddie wait in his crate in the van as much as possible as I normally do with him both on training days and at tests, I came to a realization: Laddie becomes increasingly excited if he's out with me near the sounds, and possibly sights, of a test for a long time before he gets to run, and that excitement can hurt his performance when his turn finally comes. Reducing that excitement level in order to improve his performance at a test makes sense. But I realized that the opposite is true at training day. I now think that letting Laddie practice under increased excitement levels at training days would help him to prepare for the inevitable excitement of a test. With that realization, I brought Laddie out to wait with me while the earlier dogs were running in the last couple of series. I'll try to remember to do the same at future training days.

Because a couple of the people at the training day were aware that Laddie had broken in a test the previous day, they offered a couple of types of advice. One was the usual advice that I make it uncomfortable for Laddie if he tries to break, such as by having him wear a pinch collar or by using his normal slip lead and giving it a hard jerk. I declined as politely and respectfully as I could, saying that we've had had success using the tab in previous years, that Laddie has been steady in many tests over the years, that even dogs trained as they were describing sometimes break, and that I didn't intend to use physical aversives in Laddie's training now any more than I have in the past, whatever the consequences.

But the other advice, which I've also heard often before, was that I should cold-honor Laddie with a lot of other dogs, rather than just the single hot honor after running his own series. The theory is for the dog to learn that he's not to go unless sent. I decided not to raise the arguments that (a) it isn't going to help, because you're not really training for the situation where the dog actually breaks, (b) you can't train a dog not to do something by putting it on cue and hoping he'll only do it when you give the cue, and (c) I think there's some risk that if the dog learns too often that the birds he's watching are not for him, he'll lose some focus at the line when the birds are for him but he's previously been taught that he probably won't be sent after watching birds being thrown. However, yesterday I reflected that Laddie has always had great concentration on marks, and I felt fairly certain that it could stand up to one day of some cold honoring six years into his career. So as mentioned for Series A and C, I had Laddie honor several dogs running flyers after he's run his series, and in Series B, as I mentioned earlier, I kept Laddie with me in the gallery before it was his turn, so that he got to watch a number of dogs running their series while we were waiting.

And despite my earlier reservations, I came to feel that those cold honors were worthwhile. I don't know how to prove it scientifically, but it certainly didn't seem to reduce Laddie's concentration on his own birds when he was working, and the fact is that he was steady as a rock both working and honoring all day, despite every effort on my part to increase the likelihood of a break. On one honor, he actually lay down while we were waiting for the guns to get organized, and when they began throwing, he just watched from the ground without bothering to get back on his feet. He wasn't distracted; he did watch the throws with some interest. But he showed no inclination to stand up, much less to make a break.

One last point. I learned during the first series that the last dog to run was a female in heat. In fact, that's why the trainer had run the dog last. But when we moved to the second series, I requested that Laddie have the opportunity to run immediately after that dog, so that Laddie ended up running last. This again was to give Laddie an opportunity to practice under the increased difficulty of conditions, rather than having no experience with it in practice and then having to face that situation sometimes in tests.

In conclusion, the weekend started on a painful note, but ended up well, and once again, I'm looking forward to more training and competing as the spring unfolds.

Laddie post at Hunting Retriever Stud Dogs

I found a Facebook group that I thought Laddie should be posted in: Hunting Retriever Stud Dogs

I don't understand Facebook very well. This is a closed group, so you may not be able to see the post without joining the group. Also, unlike my YouTube videos and blog posts, I don't know how to send a link of my Facebook post about Laddie.

But here's what I wrote:

This is Topbrass Lad of the Lakes SH WCX ** (Laddie). In addition to his titles, he so far has two Master legs and six Qual JAMs, including two Reserved JAMs. He began standing stud in summer of 2013, and has bred naturally, with side-by-side AI, and with shipped frozen breeding units. He is one of the only positive-trained retrievers ever in advanced AKC competition and is his owner/trainer/handler's first Master/FT field dog, so Laddie's success, including a JAM in his first field trial when he was 3yo, is a testament above all to his natural ability. His sire was Beau Geste, one-time Field Trial News Golden of the Year for both Amateur and Open, and his dam was Pawsability, a rare combination of a breeding female Golden who also earned a field championship. Besides Laddie's proven talent in the field, he also has remarkable genetics: OFA hips rated excellent, additional OFA clearances for eyes, heart, and elbow, and Optigen status of CLEAR for both of the PRA tests as well as Ichthyosis. See full pedigree, all clearances, and a puppy picture at http://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=257111. You can watch one of Laddie's many online videos athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu7U1OgSeS0. For more info, please send email to LDRidgeway at gmail dot com.

The post was accompanied by two photos (that's the maximum number of photos you're allowed to post for a dog in this group). I attached the following two photos to the post:

Switching to preparation for Master tests

Although we still have a lot of snow on the ground, it was a beautiful and relatively warm day (40s), so Laddie and I went out for some training with two assistants.

The last few months, we've been training primarily with an eye toward running in Quals and possibly other field trial events in the future, and also working on Laddie's popping (for one approach we've been using, see Anti-popping: The Fake Throw Drill).

But I've now entered Laddie in five Master tests for the spring, and will probably enter him in others when they open. He only needs three more passes for his Master Hunter title so we may end up withdrawing from some of the later ones, but in any case, hopefully we'll run at least three.

So, with a month or so to go before the first of those, I felt it was time to switch from predominantly field trail-style setups that we've been running since the fall, and start running more hunt test-style setups. That means shorter marks and blinds, use of duck calls, hidden guns (or retired when hidden not practical), dark colors for the throwers, and occasional practicing of walk ups. We've already been running hunt test-style setups at our monthly RRRC training days, but now we'll also run more of them in our daily training.

Today was an example, so I thought I'd describe it as an entry in this training journal.

We ran two series, each consisting of a land double plus a handler throw to the side, and a land blind on a line between the two marks. The blind was longer than the marks, and all the retrieves were 110-170y. For the first series, Laddie picked up the marks first, then the blinds. For the second, I had him pick up the blind first, then called for the throws. The reason for that change was that the second setup, which was designed by my assistants, had the hot blind too close to one of the throws, risking Laddie picking up the blind when sent for the nearby mark, so we just got it out of the way first.

Another difference was that in the first setup, I had both throwers fake their throws, continuing with the Fake Throw drill mentioned above, but in this session, at shorter distances and with the guns retired, both factors a bit different from earlier sessions of running that drill. As a result of the fake throws, Laddie needed a hunt on both marks, in one case a fairly long hunt. As hoped for, Laddie never showed any lack of confidence in his hunting and never showed any inclination to pop.

However, while that was hopefully good for our anti-popping efforts, I'd also like Laddie to get back in the habit of pinpoint marking under more favorable conditions (to wit, the dog actually seeing the throw), so for the second series, I asked the bird-girls to actually throw the bumpers before retiring rather than tossing them into position while Laddie was still in the van waiting to run. That resulted in better marking, including one mark in confusing terrain where I had lost track of where the fall was but Laddie raced out to it on a beeline.

By the way, I mentioned that the throwers retired in today's session. Hunt test marks use hidden guns, not retired guns, but for this session, hidden guns weren't practical.

I was pleased with Laddie's work on both the marks and the blinds. I think it was a good start for this phase of our winter training.

Distance work at Cheltenham

With temps in the high fifties and even some moments of sunshine, I picked up two assistants this morning and we drove to Cheltenham to train for a couple of hours.

First I set up a water double with both marks offering long swims and difficult cheats, and we ran it as singles. Laddie ran the first one without cheating, but needed handling on the second. Then he ran a big water blind across the point of an island on a line between the two marks. Laddie handled well on both the mark and the blind, but his vocalizing has gotten worse. He vocalized on almost every cast and also vocalized while swimming sometimes even when not being handled.

Although all of the retrieves in the first series were long, we then moved to a new location and set up another water double plus blind where the retrieves were even longer. The double was also a more difficult configuration, a hip pocket double with a cheaty water re-entry on the left and a long swim between two points on the right. And the blind was a channel crossing, a difficult angle water re-entry, and a long swim the length a stick pond channel with a key hole at mid point. All of this work was too difficult for Laddie. He needed to be handled on both marks and needed to try the blind three times, since I called him all the way back when he climbed up onto the point going thru the key hole the first two times. Interestingly, although he vocalized a great deal when handled in this series, he stopped vocalizing once thru the key hole even though he still needed additional handling. I wish I knew why he stopped vocalizing. I've always thought I noticed a pattern of Laddie vocalizing more when he's near me than at greater distances. Today was consistent with that pattern.

To end the day we ran a big reverse hip pocket land double followed by a big land blind that featured crossing the slope of a mound. Laddie ran reasonable marks but hooked the gun on the long memory bird. That was not ideal but, since it indicates he had some confusion, the good news is that he didn't pop but rather worked it out without help. On the blind, he took his initial line across the slope of the mound well and two-whistled the  blind.

Yes, Laddie needed more help than I would have planned for, but we trained on long and difficult retrieves, and he did the work with that characteristic all-out, never flagging enthusiasm I always find so inspiring. For me, it was a challenging but enjoyable session, and I hope for Laddie, too.

LL&L

Winter starts

It's not really winter yet, but we've had some freezing temps, and I've pretty much decided to push Laddie's competition until next spring.

At that time, I plan to again limit our events to Master tests, hoping to earn three more passes and thereby a Master Hunter title for Laddie.

When we've met that goal, I plan to resume running Laddie in field trial stakes: definitely Quals, and possibly Ams as well. Those are the levels of competition I would expect to run Laddie in for the remainder of his career.

The last few months, all of our training has been geared for Master events, but beginning this morning, I decided to switch gears with our future plans in mind. So for most of this off-season, we'll train for field trials. Then as spring approaches, we'll switch back to Master-style training to prepare for the first events we'll be running.

Today, then, Laddie ran two big land doubles, each including a land blind on a line between the two marks. The retrieves were in the range 170-370y, the throwers wore white coats, and we used no duck calls.

Laddie did well. I can't explain why, but Laddie seemed more comfortable with today's big marks and blinds than he has been running Master set-ups, and I was also more comfortable.

As we begin the off-season, I'll miss competing, but hopefully the training will continue to be fun as it always has been.

LL&L

Laddie and water

Some thoughts on Laddie and water:

- Laddie likes to cool off in water when he's hot. This has nothing to do with retrieving and is in fact a training challenge. I designed a drill a couple of years that seems to have put that issue behind us most of the time, though occasionally it still crops up.

- Laddie is so crazy about going out to a thrown article that he'd probably run thru a brick wall and look like he was enjoying it. It is a waste of time to judge Laddie's attitudes about water based on his send outs on marks, especially the go-bird.

- Although it's pleasant to think that Laddie's vocalizing is actually exuberance based on a love of water, it's hard to see the huge problem he used to have with LWL returns, and his new problem with going OOC at the line, in that light. Those clearly were and are avoidance behaviors. Not necessarily of water, but of something, and water looks like an excellent candidate.

- Eventually Laddie became able to perform LWL returns, and as I continue to strengthen his response to "heel", I may be able to eliminate going OOC at the line as a concern in competition. But should I ignore the underlying reason for the behavior in the first place, wherever it may be, perhaps water aversion?

- If I could somehow develop in Laddie a powerful affection for going to an unseen target, comparable to his attraction to a thrown target, it could conceivably solve both the OOC issue and the vocalizing. This is not to say I know how, but it seems to cover the data points on where Laddie is with water. He might still not like water per se, but it wouldn't matter.

More on that last point in future posts, hopefully.

Another near miss

For the second Master test two weekends in a row, Laddie has made it to the third (last) series, and most of the dogs who made it to that series passed the test, but Laddie didn't.

Frankly I don't enjoy writing posts when Laddie (or Lumi) is unsuccessful, and would rather discuss the matter in private correspondence. But in this case, I guess I should include some info in our training journal for the record.

First of all, the judges did not allow Laddie to complete the last retrieve of the test, the water blind, because he was vocalizing. As Laddie was swimming back, one of the judges offered some suggestions on how to fix the problem. Vocalizing in water is a problem Laddie has had since he was a puppy, though I never noticed it in the early years and then later saw that it was in his videos all along. I guess the judge felt his suggestions might enable me to solve the problem.

This incident reminds me of two things that one of my mentors told me. One was that some judges won't tolerate vocalizing, and Laddie's just not going to pass those tests. This is the first time it's happened, so hopefully we'll have more opportunities to pass with other judges, as we have in the past at every level we've competed. I guess I should make a note not to run Laddie under this judge again, perhaps either of these judges.

The other was that, in my mentor's experience, there are two kinds of trainers: those who have had a dog that vocalizes and tried everything, sometimes over a period of years, to fix it but never could; and those who have never had a dog that vocalizes, and are sure they know how to fix it.

I was actually both of those simultaneously at one time: I couldn't fix Laddie's vocalizing in water, but I was sure I knew how to fix vocalizing at the line if I ever were to have a dog with that issue. :0)

I've written in the past about my efforts to fix the problem and won't discuss it further in this post, other than to reiterate that I'm not working on it any more.

I do have an unrelated insight from today's test, however, that may not be unrelated at all. In several of our Master tests, especially this fall, Laddie has gone OOC at the line, nosing around in cover near the start line and strongly resisting my calls of "here" and "heel" for some time, just before running a second water mark or a water blind. You'd think I'd have seen that this was a pattern, but sadly, it wasn't till today that I realized it is. You'd also think I'd have noticed it in training, but for the last several months, virtually the only water retrieves Laddie has done were in Master tests. I simply don't have the time and money to bring him to water with several assistants I pay on an hourly rate on any regular basis. I don't actually know whether Laddie would go OOC near the line in training or not. Obviously it's not something I've noticed, and that may be because it's recent or because it only happens when we get to water in a Master test, which hasn't happened that many times. Of course I'll begin to watch for it in training, and hopefully get it fixed. Now that I see the pattern, it seems to me that it's some sort of avoidance behavior, whatever that implies as a possible point of departure for a solution.

Following thru on that idea brings to mind a new thought: What if Laddie actually finds water aversive, and maybe both the lifelong vocalizing, and the more recent line control issues, are actually manifestations of that same emotion? This thought is so alien and so unpleasant to me - a retriever with Laddie's superb pedigree uncomfortable with water? - that I can barely stand to consider it. Besides, what about his bold, crashing big air water entries? What about his many competitive successes? What about his lifelong attraction to water at times that I didn't want it, such as going swimming in a pond instead of completing a land retrieve, a training issue I had to contend with when Laddie was younger? Yet I must consider the possibility that something about water, if not everything about water, is a problem for Laddie and that some of his behaviors, maybe even others besides vocalizing and going OOC at the line, derive from that emotion.

For now, I plan to work on the control issue as a training problem and accept the vocalizing as a flaw that will block us from success in some situations. A more general understanding may come with time.

With respect to competition, I think we will end our season today, despite it being on an unsuccessful note. Any remaining tests would be a very long drive and would probably involve retrieving in very cold water, which doesn't seem like the wisest strategy at this time.

Then again, Laddie's pick-ups and returns have improved hugely the last couple of tests, he hasn't broken in a long time, and he's gotten thru all his honors his entire career without any apparent issues with the nearby presence of another dog despite all my worrying. In addition, we did make it to the third series in both our last two tests, and we did get two Master passes this year. Those are real positives to reflect upon as we enter the winter months. We can resume our pursuit of an MH title in the spring.

LL&L

Socializing milestone

With as many as a dozen dogs at the dog park today, mostly the same size as Laddie and some of them pitch black, his ability to run around comfortably with them was of course a welcome reminder of the socialization progress he's made the last few weeks.

And having other dogs trying to steal his puppy bumper as he trotted back to me with it, one dog actually succeeding after a prolonged game of tug in getting the toy away from Laddie, all without any hint of aggression, was a great reprise of behavior I've been starting to see.

But today was a new milestone, when a big Goldendoodle put a paw on Laddie's back, and then attempted a full-blown tackle, complete with the snarling uproar of a all-out dog fight. Except that only one dog was interested in fighting. Laddie simply maneuvered out of harm's way while maintaining a casual interest in the engagement. "As soon as you get that out of your system," he seemed to be saying to the Goldendoodle, "we can get back to playing."

If this trend continues, I think a time could come where I could work with Laddie at an event, at the line or on honor, and not have to worry about some potential incident with another dog. Of course I'm not ready to let my guard down yet, but I really think we might be getting there.

LL&L

Master ramp

Thanks to everyone for all your good wishes to Laddie on me on Friday's Master test. We made it to the third and last series on Saturday.  Laddie picked up all the birds without a handle (he had needed a handle in the first series triple), but he didn't get the pass. Final result was 76 dogs entered, 34 dogs qualified.

As we experienced in other levels of field events, we're on a ramp, and we've reached the stage where we're getting called back deeper into the test and even passing sometimes (Laddie has two Master legs), but we're not yet at the stage where we can pass every test.

We'll try to keep learning the countless nuances of handling. For example, in this test I learned (or re-learned), don't let the marshal tell you to "get your dog" to run out of turn and then stand around, while your dog gets more and more pumped up by the nearby gunfire, as more and more other handlers insist on running ahead of you. Let your dog relax in his/her crate until the marshal really has established a place for you in the line-up. The excitement of an event significantly deteriorates a dog 's performance under the best of circumstances. Don't let that excitement level be raised even higher by the marshal having you bring your dog out just to stand around waiting unnecessarily.

And we'll continue to strengthen Laddie's training -- for example, Laddie's ability to be controlled at the line under sometimes extremely compelling distractions (in this case a scent or perhaps the sound of movement in the cover in front of the line, especially while the dog is in a highly excited state). This is a proofing challenge -- I need to find ways to expose Laddie to an ever-widening range of really difficult distractions. Perhaps our continued visits to dog parks will help with this.

Being on a ramp like this is frustrating and discouraging, because of course you don't know what lies ahead. Will I continue to improve as a handler, and continue to strengthen Laddie's skills,  and as a result have better and better results in competition outcomes? Or are tests and trials so different from one another that the idea of a trend line is meaningless?

Only the future will tell. I see only two choices: Quit, or keep trying. At least for now, we'll keep trying.

LL&L