Lightning just turned eight months old, and we are now well into Stage 2 of the PRT program I’m developing based on the Basics section of Mike Lardy’s TRT program.

Today, on our first day home from our trip to the retriever workshop, the dogs and I were able to go out with two assistants, Annette and Peter. I kept Laddie in his crate to rest him after five grueling days, but we also brought along Ryley, Renée’s English Cream Golden.

First, Ryley and Lightning got to run around in the field to play for awhile. Here’s a video Annette took of the two puppies wrestling:

Next, Annette and Peter ran a counter-conditioning session with Ryley to get him over a fear of umbrellas that showed up with all the rain the past few days. They used the same procedure I described a few weeks ago in the post “Distraction proofing.” They did a great job.With Ryley back in the van, I ran Lightning on what will be out final session of simple casting before we go onto our next task in the PRT Stage 2 yard work progression. Lightning did a nice job. Here’s a video that Peter took of a few seconds from the beginning of that session:

Finally, I ran Lightning on three doubles with Annette and Peter as gunners. The throws for the first two doubles turned out to be too difficult for Lightning doubles at this stage, but for the last one, with both throws easy to get to and easy to find, Lightning did great:

1. He tried to break on the first throw but was easy to settle with his tab.
2. He didn’t try to break on the second throw, but drove hard to the mark when I sent him.
3. He brought the bumper to me, held it while swinging to heel at the mat, sat down, and let me take it.
4. He looked out, launched enthusiastically to the memory mark when I called his name, and again delivered to hand at heel.

After some more horseplay with Lightning and Ryley, we packed up and headed home.

In terms of Lightning’s progress, I think today’s session means that Lightning is finished with simple casting on the yard work side, while on the field work side, we’ll continue to work primarily on singles off multiples, with occasional retired guns on singles, and occasional doubles, thrown in. Lightning always works on steadiness with a loose tab, and he delivers to hand at heel on every retrieve or I cue Fetch if he drops the article. We practice line manners coming to the start line out of a holding blind whenever possible. So I guess we’re about halfway thru PRT Stage 2, for both the yard and field progressions.