Today, on a short, damp, gloomy, and chilly day, my assistant Peter joined Lightning and me for our second training session together.

Since my working window is limited by gathering pain when I’m not lying down, Peter did virtually everything today, following my instructions cheerfully and suggesting his own valuable innovations as we worked. I stayed inside lying down as he prepared our work site, then bundled up and watched as he carried out the training. Afterwards, I retired to the couch indoors to recover while he put everything up. Kudos to Peter for a job well done!

Here’s how the session went:

• Although our yard is a bit slick from the rain, I still wanted to use it if possible rather than the driveway. Peter’s first job was to select a suitable area and clear as many leaves, branches, and other possible distractions as possible. In the end, we used that area for a few retrieves but something in the distance kept distracting Lightning, so mid-session Peter selected a different location that worked better, where we finished the session.
• Both areas were on a hillside, but we eliminated the risk that Lightning would tend to swerve off-track because of gravity by working on the hill’s axis, with the trainers at the bottom and the article tosses straight up the hill. Diagonal hill retrieves will come later.
• We brought about six kinds of bumpers and also one of my slippers to try as articles.
• As before, Peter’s instructions were to draw Lightning to us if he picked up the article and then went in some other direction than carrying it back to us. That never happened a single time.
• Also, Peter again followed the principle of tossing the article again immediately as soon as Lightning dropped it. We ran about a dozen trials and that was again effective, Lightning each time seeming increasingly engaged and comprehending of the retrieval pattern.
• Peter did get one use of the check cord. A couple of times, Lightning dropped the bumper early. I suggested to Peter that he gently draw Lightning toward us without the bumper. As I hoped, that engaged Lightning’s anxiety that he would lose the bumper and he grabbed it before he has been pulled too far.
• For the first trial of two, Peter made his re-throws in random directions within our area. I asked him to stop doing that. Instead, return to our start line and re-throw up the hill from there. That eliminated the variable of multiple views, helping Lightning grasp the pattern more readily.
• We only used the slipper once. We also had a little luck with a white bumper. But Peter noticed that Lightning seemed interested in an orange bumper we’d brought, and he was right. We used that the rest of the session with great results.
• And so we had a session of bumper retrieves: Peter would toss the bumper; Lightning would chase it, pounce on it, pick it up, and bring it back in his dancing, puppyish way; finally he’d drop it and Peter would pick it up and run the next trial.
• After about a dozen trials, while Lightning’s enthusiasm was still at maximum, we wrapped it up. Lightning never had a chance to begin to lose interest.

What’s next?

We could simply repeat today’s session several times over the next few days, strengthening Lightning’s understanding of the retrieve pattern.

But I think we’ll try adding one more element. I asked Peter to take one of my ducks out of the freezer to thaw overnight. If it thaws enough, perhaps tomorrow Lightning will retrieve his first duck.