Since Lightning has only been learning to retrieve for about a week and a half, of course he doesn’t completely understand the retrieve pattern. When I tried to run him on setups with gunner-thrown marks too often in a couple of earlier sessions, he became confused about his returns and began bringing the bumper to the thrower instead of back to the handler at the start line.

Realizing that I had not broken the return concept down enough, today we used a plan where Lightning was able to practice retrieving gunner-thrown marks without that confusion. I had brought two assistants, Liza and Peter, so I actually stayed in the van to avoid straining my back and legs, still recovering from my spinal injury, while they did all the training. Here’s the plan I provided:

• Lightning, as usual when we work on outdoor retrieves, wore a 15′ check cord.
• Peter stood at the start line, using the check cord to restrain Lightning till the bumper was thrown. For simplicity, and to maximize motivation, we’re not working on any sort of steadiness yet, just relying on the check cord for restraint. Lightning is released as soon as the bumper is in flight.
• The target spot for all throws, from both Peter and Liza, was planned to be 20y from the start line. Let’s call the direction of that target 12 o’clock from the start line.
• Liza was 30y from the start line, in the direction of 10 o’clock. That means she was throwing LTR to the target. Peter, Liza, and the target spot formed a triangle, approximately equilateral.
• The key to this stage of the training was that Liza was almost invisible to Laddie. I had planned to use a location with a shrub or tree for her to hide behind, which this location turned out not to have without Liza having to step into swampy terrain. But she happened to be wearing a long coat the same color as the trees, and when she turned her back so that her face was not visible, she was entirely camouflaged.
• Another key was that I did not assume, once Lightning had picked up one of Liza’s throws and then returned to Peter at the start line, that all confusion was gone and from then on all the marks could be thrown by Liza.
• Instead, I requested that Peter make the first couple of throws, which I believed Lightning would retrieve correctly, and he did. Then Liza and Peter would alternate, so that Lightning would get to practice a gunner-thrown mark, but then immediately receive a refresher on his earlier experience with a handler-thrown mark. Occasionally Liza might throw two marks in a row, but no more than that without a throw from Peter.
• Altogether, they threw about a dozen marks. Lightning’s performance was just what we hoped for, never once even considering a return toward Liza but instead every time grabbing the bumper and heading straight back toward Peter.
• Peter would then use the check cord to capture Lightning near the start line, wait for him to drop the bumper, and then, as quickly as possible, the next thrower would call hey-hey-hey and throw.

By the way, it turned out that because Peter was actually throwing about 30y, the target spot was beyond the flat area where we had planned the bumper to land, and instead in a shallow ditch, making the bumper invisible once it had landed. Liza saw where Peter was throwing to and made her throws to the same spot. The first time Peter made that throw, Lightning ran in the correct direction but hunted a couple of yards short, unable to find it. After a few seconds, Peter went out to pick up Lightning’s check cord, then took another couple of steps to pick up the bumper as Lightning watched. Ah, so that’s where it was! Lightning never had a problem with the disappearing marks again. He ran the correct line but no longer hunted short. Instead he continued full speed into the depression, grabbed the bumper, and immediately turned back toward Peter, no matter who had thrown the mark.

Though not part of the original plan, I think this was a good step in strengthening Lightning’s confidence in running marks, discovering repeatedly that if he ran in the direction of where he had seen the mark fall, it would be there waiting for him when he got there. Naturally I prefer Lightning taking a straight line to the mark to a strategy of running to the general area of the fall and hunting, or running toward the gunner and then veering over to the mark.

I might mention that in these sessions, Laddie is also getting some work, for example a double plus a keyhole blind, or a double momma-poppa, that is, both gunners throwing two marks, one to the left and one to the right. The work is interesting and hopefully helpful to Laddie’s continued development, but I won’t always take the time to describe it in these posts to Lightning’s journal.

We plan to train again tomorrow, New Year’s Eve. Lightning’s work, at least in the first set of marks, will be the same as today’s, but with Liza throwing RTL this time so that Lightning doesn’t become out of balance in the direction the throws are coming from.

If he is again successful, we may do a second set where Liza begins to make herself visible during part of the work, until eventually, Lightning will always return to the handler at the start line even when gunners, and eventually other distractions, are visible.

For this training, the key will be not to rush into adding complexity to the work, avoiding a situation where Lightning again becomes confused about where to return to. Today was a good step in that direction.