Typically, a puppy being trained for field trial competition will have trained with field trial groups many times by the time the puppy is 7mo. But due to circumstances such as my health and the severe winter, as well as the general difficulty of getting invited to train with field trial groups, yesterday was actually our first opportunity this year and Lightning’s first ever. It is impossible to overstate how grateful I am for such opportunities.

While we were waiting for the group training to start, I aired the dogs and then set up a Walking Fetch course for Lightning’s first session with that drill, which I described in an earlier post.

Out of curiosity, I ran Laddie on the course first. It was a trivial drill for him and he showed his usual over-the-top exuberance for the work.

Next I ran Lightning on the course. He did great with the Fetch cue but couldn’t bypass a bumper without trying to fetch it. That’s why we worked on distraction proofing this morning, that is, the next day, also described in an earlier post.

For group training, the pro had designed an unusual and difficult all-age level quad with a flyer for the first series, and a double blind with both blinds past the flyer station for the second series, which Lightning of course sat out.

After taking a turn working at one of the gun stations for awhile, I ran Laddie in the first series as a double double, and later, ran him on both blinds. From that work, I saw that Laddie was sound physically, which is great, but a little rusty on his skills, especially taking casts into the wind. I also saw that I was extremely rusty as a handler for both the marks and the blind. For example, when Laddie stepped off the mat while I was calling for the first double, I stepped off also rather than calling him back to heel. And when he repeatedly refused casts into the wind, I just kept recasting him rather than walking out to get him and rerunning the blind. 

When it was Lightning’s turn to run the quad, I called for four singles, and for the first mark ran him with his 15′ check cord in case he decided to play keep-away on his return. But even though four gun stations and all those white jackets were in view, plus additional white diamond-shaped stickmen, adding up to a potentially confusing picture for an inexperienced dog, he picked up the bird and ran all the way back to me with it, never dropping it, and delivered it to my hand though I’m not yet requiring it.

I was pleased, and would guess that our work with stickmen last week, plus of course all our previous training, paid off in the quality of his return. I took off his check cord, leaving him wearing only a flat collar with a tab, and decided to call for a double with two of the remaining marks, the flyer as the go-bird. Again, his returns were excellent, with no dropped birds and delivery to hand both times.

Finally I ran him on the 300y+ mark. Again he picked up the bird, ran all the way back, and delivered to hand.

I held Lightning’s tab loosely to prevent a break on every mark. It was necessary but only barely so. He attempted breaks for an instant till the tab went taut, then he would drop back down into an alert, coiled sit. We also rehearsed good line manners, coming out of the holding blind for the first mark and coming to heel after each delivery.

In terms of where we are in Lightning’s field work, I felt especially good about his returns, since I’ve found the field recall to be the most challenging skill for a positive trainer to train.

On the other hand, though Lightning took good lines on the marks, he needed help from the gunners finding the birds on every mark, or at least I called for help rather than allowing him to hunt outside the area of the fall. I also simplified Lightning’s first mark, which was supposed to be an odd semi-retired mark where the gunner stays visible but moves a considerable distance away from the original throwing position while the dog is picking up the go-bird. For Lightning, I just asked the gunner to sit down after the throw without moving away. In addition, Lightning and I had to move up before I could get him to lock in on the long mark, which was in a hip pocket configuration with the flyer and was thru a stand of trees besides being so long. Of course I didn’t retire the long mark either.

That’s how the day went. It was long and physically grueling, at least for me, but for all of us, immensely rewarding.