Hi, everyone, Lightning here. Yesterday Daddy took Laddie, Ryley, and me out together. I guess he couldn’t arrange for an assistant.

I can see why Daddy likes the field he’s been taking us to lately. It’s very versatile. Too bad it’s going to be acres and acres of corn soon, but for now Mr. Farmer said we could train on it. He was very nice.

Ryley is now physically the biggest dog in our pack, but by any other measure Laddie is our big dog, and out of respect, Daddy usually runs Laddie first. So when we got to the field, Daddy opened the van’s tailgate so Ryley and I could get fresh air and watch Laddie run, and then he ran Laddie on a blind.

I guess it was about 140y and had the challenge of running next to, and then past, a stand of woods. You know how that goes. If that had been me, I’d have veered into the woods because of all the scent they carry, thinking that’s where the bird must be, and if Daddy ever got me back on the line outside them, I’d have wrapped around them as I ran past them and gone out of sight behind them. Laddie didn’t do any of that, and he also had a cross-wind to shoulder. Daddy said that was a pretty typical Q land blind set up, so I guess it was good practice for competition. Laddie doesn’t really care about that, he just loves to run. Like me!

Ryley us a couple of months older than me though he’s almost twice as big, and if Daddy had been training Ryley since he was a puppy as he did with me, I guess he would have run Ryley on something next. But Ryley is Mommy’s dog and this is the only week Daddy has taken Ryley out with us, since Mommy is visiting her grandson on the Left Coast. When Mommy is here, she keeps Ryley with her. Ryley doesn’t have much recall or interest in retrieving, but he loves running around with me in the field, so Daddy snapped a 30′ check cord onto Ryley’s jingly collar and off the two of us went, racing and exploring in every direction. Sometimes Daddy would call Here and I’d spin around to race back to him. Then Ryley would chase me, so that’s how Daddy was able to bring Ryley back when we went too far. He also could have come close to us and caught Ryley with the check cord if necessary, so Ryley had no way to play keep-away.

After a while, Daddy disappeared into the van for a moment and came out with one of his blank pistols. Ryley had never seen or heard a pistol so he didn’t notice, but I know the equation all field retrievers know: Gunfire predicts good things. A moment later, Bang! Ryley didn’t bolt, but he was visibly startled, maybe even a little scared. That didn’t last long. Daddy rushed over to him and gave him a piece of deli meat. Ryley was learning the field retriever’s gunfire equation!

Ryley and I went back to playing. I had found some deer bones in the woods and was charging to and fro with those dangling out of my little mouth, while Ryley was discovering how dirty he could get by hopping around in the swampy lowlands next to the creek. Daddy was wandering around, too, changing orientation relative to Ryley but inching ever closer to him. Every 30 secs or so but at irregular intervals, he’d fire the gun again, then rush to Ryley to give him another treat. By the time the gun was empty, Ryley was barely even looking up when the shot went off, even though by then Daddy was only a few yards away. Ryley was still happy to get his treat, though. I think Ryley’s gunfire conditioning would have saved Daddy a lot of running if we’d had an assistant, but it still seemed to work ok.

Now Daddy disappeared into the van again and came out with another loaded pistol. But this time he also brought out a tie-out stake with a steel chain attached, and a mallet. He walked some distance into the field and hammered in the stake, dropping the mallet beside it. The mallet had an orange ribbon tried around the handle. I guess that would make it easier to find if it were lost in the grass one day. Without the ribbon it would be practically invisible.

Daddy snapped the chain onto Ryley’s collar and took off the check cord. Then he called Laddie over and had him lie down about 20′ from Ryley. Leaving them there, he went back to the van and got our rubber mat, which he placed on top of some swampy terrain about 30y from Laddie and Ryley. By now Ryley was digging a shallow hole near the stake. Don’t ask me why.

Daddy called me to him and had me sit at heel on the mat so I could run a poorman mark, and then he walked all the way to the other side of Laddie and Ryley. He fired the pistol and threw a 3″ white bumper with rope and streamers. After it landed, I could just glimpse it lying in some shallow water and grass. It was so enticing! But I couldn’t leave because Daddy had told me to sit. I was quivering with anticipation, though.

Daddy walked back to me. He had veered around Laddie on the way out so as not to give me a clue about the line, since the shortest path to the bumper was between Laddie and Ryley, but on the way back he gave Ryley another treat, then tossed one to Laddie, too. He didn’t give me one when he got back to me, and I didn’t want one. I only had eyes for the mark, and ears for my release. 

Daddy stepped onto the mat beside me, put down his hand near my forehead lke a gunsight, and said, “Lightning!” I was off like a shot. I ran right between my buddies and straight to the bumper, picked it up, and raced back to Daddy with it. I sat down beside him at heel, and when he reached down for the bumper, I opened my mouth and let go. I did a nice job if I do say so myself. :0) I wish we had a video of it.

Daddy ran me on two more marks between Laddie and Ryley, moving the mat to new locations and making each mark longer and falling onto different surfaces. He still gave Ryley and Laddie treats after each gunshot. The line to the last two marks was actually around the outside of the keyhole between my buddies, but I ran between them anyway, then curved over towards the fall. It was more fun that way, and besides, I know Daddy likes me to run between keyholes when I get a chance.

After all the excitement of the distraction marks — just think, I could have stopped to play with my friends when I was running past them, but I didn’t! — Daddy packed up all our gear and let all us dogs into the van, then drove to a different part of the field. He grabbed some 2″ orange bumpers and walked out into the woods, tromping thru the swampy undergrowth, tossing the bumpers to various spots while I watched from the van. I can’t see orange very well so they were invisible once they landed.

Now Daddy ran Laddie on three tune-up blinds, each from a different spot near the woods. They’re called tune-up blinds because, even though they’re short compared to most of the blinds Daddy runs Laddie on, they’re very tight and technical. To run straight to these marks, Laddie had to jump over logs, run through branches tangled up on the swampy ground, and drive thru keyholes made by the sinister-looking trees. Daddy would whistle Sit if Laddie got the least bit off-line, and then Laddie would wait for Daddy’s next cast. Usually Daddy used his arms like he does when he’s teaching me to cast, but sometimes he’d just say Back with his arms still clapped in front of his chest. Laddie seemed to know what everything meant and made quick work of the three blinds. I think Daddy would have liked to run Laddie on more work, but you could see by the way he was walking that he was getting tired. His ankles have been hurting lately and sometimes he can barely walk, but he was doing OK today, slogging around in his soaked running shoes.

I figured we’d go home for lunch, but instead Daddy drive us to the parking lot of a shopping mall. He left Laddie and Ryley in the van, but he put on my harness and 30′ check cord and off we went . . . in search  of geese! It turns out a bunch of geese live at the pond near the mall and, since this is spring, they had fuzzy little goslings in the group.

I of course darted for them as soon as I saw them. They scattered and the big geese began honking as soon as they saw me, and I’m sorry to say that I ignored Daddy when he called Here. That is, I ignored him until he began reelng me back with my check cord. He didn’t jerk the line or hurt me, but I had no choice about where I was going. After a second or two, I gave into the inevitable and trotted back to him. Darned if he didn’t give me a nice piece of deli meat when I got back and sat down at heel.

So we did that several more times as we wandered around the area near the geese. I would usually be at the end of my check cord, and sometimes I would get distracted by something on the ground or some nearby movement from birds. But just as I was getting interested, Daddy would call Here and reel me in if I didn’t come immediately. He always gave me a nice treat when I arrived at heel, so it didn’t take me long to start listening for Here even when I was distracted so that I could run over to him before he had a chance to reel me in.

This was a drill Daddy calls walking recall. I guess it works because it‘s really not cool to have to be reeled in, and you know that Lightning is cool!

That was pretty much it for today’s training, except after lunch Daddy’s assistant Annette came over and we all went to a store for baths: fluffy Ryley first, then feathery Laddie, and finally me. It felt good to be clean and dry after playing in the swampy field this morning.

Mommy finally got home from her trip just before bedtime, so we were all excited, especially Ryley. But when Daddy took Laddie and me to bed, we slept like logs. I dreamed about adventures of my own imagination all thru the night.