As Mike Lardy explains on the TRT video, the last step of the double T progression is disciplined casting, which is the field trainer’s term for stopping the dog during his/her return and giving a cast while he/she is already carrying a bird or bumper. 

Yesterday Lightning had a good session of step 7, the double T itself, with the side piles at 30y, and today he was doing well with the side piles at 25y, so I tried blowing a sit whistle on one of his returns, then casting him with an Over to one of the side piles even though he already had a bumper in his mouth. He took the cast instantly. Later on, he took another disciplined Over cast with equal ease.

The only problem he had with disciplined casting was with a Back cast. That confused him. But we’ll work on it some more over the next few sessions as we continue to wrap up our Stage 2 yard work, with sessions at the swim-by pond as often as possible. When swim-by is done, we’ll begin Lightning’s Stage 3 training.