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. 

As I described in a post on the blog I use for Lumi’s and Laddie’s work, Laddie and I are attending a five-day workshop with a training pro. Lightning is not registered for the workshop, but he’s still with Laddie and me 24/7.

Our days in the workshop are ten hours and more, and most of the time, when you’re not running your own dog, you’re watching other trainers run theirs. You learn so much from both parts of the work, primarily because the pro wears a mic and you’re able to learn from his guidance to other trainers as well as to you during your own turns.

As a result, Lightning sirens most of his time in the crate in the back of our van. But I have found to take him out to air and for at least four training sessions each day, two yard work and two field work.

For the yard work, we are currently working exclusively on simple casting. In a relatively non-distracting environment, Lightning was able to run the version of the drill with multiple bumpers in each pile. But in the highly distracting training grounds, his returns to front became unreliable so we’ve gone back to practicing Over and Back with a single bumper, and Lightning wearing a 30′ check cord so I can prevent him from escaping to play with the other dogs who happen to be out at the time.

For the field work, Lightning and I should be working on singles off multiple guns and doubles, but we don’t have the logistics for those kinds of setups, so instead I’m taking him to various ponds when they’re not being used and running him on various swimming experience. When stands of reeds are available, I throw the bumper so that he needs to go thru them to retrieve it, then lengthen the throws so that he’s going thru the reeds even when in obvious path around then is visible. I also run him across channels whenever possible to continue to practice LWL retrieves. And we use poorman marks to practice relatively long land entries for both open water and LWL retrieves.

Although i would like to have help working on gunner-thrown singles and doubles, Lightning’s exposure to so many venues for the work we are doing is nonetheless invaluable, not least because of the extensive proofing he’s receiving for his returns and deliveries. I had expected us to continue work in the current areas of concentration for some time anyway, so I think we’re still on a good schedule while perhaps ahead of schedule in some of the proofing.

And meanwhile, Lightning is also somehow able to understand when I call out to him to be quiet in his crate when I’m running Laddie, so that’s one more skill he’s picked up. I just wish he didn’t have to spend so much time in his crate day after day, but I guess that’s the life of a competition field retriever.