Several weeks ago I signed up Laddie and Lightning for a five day training workshop in Tennessee with an excellent pro there. Today I’ll drive there with the pups, since the workshop begins tomorrow.

But I think I’ll withdraw Lightning from participation. He’s been fighting a staph infection for a couple of months and isn’t allowed to swim. Meanwhile, I’ve also suspended training himon handling until his returns on marks become reliable again.

In our daily training sessions, I run him on walking singles, singles off multiple guns, and doubles depending on how many assistants I have. The quality and consistency of his returns depend on the articles we’re training with. He’s fine with 2″ bumpers, fairly good with 3″ bumpers with streamers, not too bad with duck dokkens, less reliable with pheasant dokkens, and completely unreliable with partially thawed birds. 

That level of performance, plus the restrictions on what he can work on, mean, I think, that he’d get little benefit from the workshop. So sadly, he’ll have to spend most of the next week in his crate in the back of the van. I’ll take him out as often as possible to exercise him and run him on poorman marks, anyway.

Meanwhile, I’ve entered Laddie in a trial next Saturday in Virginia. I’m hoping that the workshop will prepare him well for the trial. I’m also hoping my own physical and mental condition are up to all that driving and the long days of training and competing. I guess we’ll find out.