Although Lightning’s third training session, described in “First Duck Interaction”, showed progress and promise, I later realized that in one respect, I had attempted a much larger increment from previous training than I had intended. A Mallard weighs as much as 3-1/2 pounds, several times more than any object Lightning had ever carried before. That, combined with unfamiliar scent, taste, and texture was, apparently, a bit too much for a pup who, after all, himself only weighs 21 pounds.

Yet I wanted to take the next step from retrieving bumpers, though of course we’ll work plenty with bumpers, too, in the future. The solution to taking that next step: let Lightning retrieve a duck wing rather than a whole duck.

So that was the third goal of today’s session: to see whether Lightning could retrieve a duck wing as well as he had a slipper, and then an orange bumper, in previous sessions.

The training plan was the same, and Lightning turned out to be crazy about his duck wing. The only difference was that he took much longer to drop it than previous articles, but I urged Peter to be patient and not take it away. As I’ve mentioned previously, I don’t want Lightning learning that returning to the handler means something undesirable will happen, in this case, having his prize taken away from him. We’ll get to deliver-to-hand after teething, in a few months.

By the way, from 20y away, I was ecstatic with Lightning’s work, but Peter later told me that Lightning was chewing the wing. That will need to get fixed when we train Hold, but that won’t be for months. I don’t want to be digging a training hole in the meantime, so for now I don’t plan to train with duck wings or ducks at all again for some time. We’ll use bumpers to continue introducing Lightning to the PRT pre-teething skill set.

Yet I’m not quite finished telling you about today’s session. Yes, we had met all three of our training goals, but as we began packing up, I noticed two unusual facts: for once we were not rushed for time, and for once we had a second assistant, Evan. Lightning was certainly not used up, not as long as that duck wing was in the picture.

So this was a fine opportunity to try Lightning out on gunner-thrown marks, something he had not seen before. Evan acted as the thrower, and Peter continued his sterling work as handler. Since Peter had Lightning’s check cord to guide Lightning’s returns, it went smoothly. Peter would call for the throw, Evan would attract Lightning’s attention and toss the duck wing to the same location Peter had been tossing it, Lightning would be on the wing in the blink of an eye, and Peter would gently guide Lightning back to the start line. Then, Peter and Evan would patiently wait till Lightning dropped the wing for an instant, giving them an opportunity to grab it off the ground and set up the next trial.

I almost think Lightning could have played this game all afternoon, but I called it off after three trials, while Lightning’s motivation was still assuredly at its peak. This time we really did pack up, and the session was finally complete.