Today Lightning ran three series of approximately six retrieves each, separated by breaks between the series. All marks were 50y, with Peter handling and Liza throwing, but aside from that, we went thru a progression as follows:

• Each of the three series was run from a different start line, with Liza pacing off 50y from there.
• Instead of Liza moving from one side to the other to change the direction of the throws, she stayed in the same place and alternated throws to her left and right. Having Lightning handle that was not my primary concern for today’s work, and we would have switched to repeatedly throwing to the same spot as in previous sessions if necessary. But it was good to see Lightning handle this new picture. Despite the dispersed throws, he ran straight to the fall on every mark, picked the bumper up immediately, spun around, and ran straight back to Peter.
• Our primary goal for today’s session was for Lightning to run marks thrown with the gunner firing a blank pistol before throwing. To introduce gunfire, we proceeded as follows: Liza threw the first four marks with hey-hey-hey, as in Lightning’s last mark from yesterday’s session. After that, I asked Liza to fire the pistol, then check to see if Lightning looked at her to see the throw. If yes, Liza was to go ahead and throw. If not, she would call hey-hey-hey to attract his attention, then throw. Lightning needed the hey-hey-hey the last two marks of the first series because he was confused by the echo from the gunshot and looked in the direction of the echo in nearby trees, and the same thing happened for the first couple of marks of the second series. But by the third mark of the second series, he had figured out that gunfire predicts a throw, and he immediately locked in on Liza as soon as she fired, so she would then throw immediately.
• Despite a 15 minute break between the second and third series, Lightning picked right up where he had left off as he began the third series. Watching from the van, I decided to have Peter and Liza stop after four marks in the three series. Lightning was doing good work and showing good motivation, but I didn’t want to risk pushing him into a drop in motivation or performance.

Lightning has not yet turned 4 months old, so I’m not sure how much more distance is prudent, though I’m certain he has the motivation for longer marks. But rather than adding much more distance, I think the next step is to see if he’s ready to pick up a duck, which was too heavy for him a couple of weeks ago. I’ll take one out of the freezer to thaw overnight.