I can see why #3 was a bit tough, but it sounds like she figured it our pretty well!
Today I joined the training group for my first outing since chemo started. The pro ran Rocket Dog, since I'm still puny, but it was fun to watch her.
The only blind she had trouble with was #3. She seemed to get the idea that the line was not going to take her to the island again, and she took the point pretty well. But, having gotten out on the far side of the water, she was absolutely certain that the pile of bumpers she'd just been to, was her destination again. So she did some scalloping... but since she responded to the whistles promptly each time, she eventually understood there was another pile of bumpers waiting for her.
Her line back each time was great.
So a good time was had by all.
I can see why #3 was a bit tough, but it sounds like she figured it our pretty well!
Good on ye J and RD too! 👍
Mikey🍀🇺🇸🇮🇪
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Joanie Madden, Mary Bergin, Adrea Coor, and Nuala Kennedy, each an Irish whistle goddess in her own right.
That's a nice spread for teaching ins and outs or going over islands. B 2 would have a lot of suction to it when picking up 3. Good for handling away from old falls etc.
Today was the first day in over a week that it was cool enough to get out to train. I did a tune up drill on land with M and my sister's dog. It was like driving a Ferrari and a tank. I made the great handler error of turning my back on M when she was headed for the back pile and when I turned she had changed course and picked up an outside bumper. My bad, she is just so darn fast. Huggie on the other hand is slow , slow ,slow and stubborn as a goat. Running the two of them is night and day so I really have to concentrate on the dog. I then put them though a water tune-up, point drill. They had to go over a point, swim passed the point, get on the point and cast off it, and finally swim parallel to the point. The sketch in your blind spread would be great for this drill. By moving the line in different places you could get all these concepts built on that pond. I finished M with a long blind that went over the first point, passed the second and through a channel between the mainland and an island. The pond then opens into a big round sections and the dogs want to either fade left to the mainland or right behind the island. The growth on the points is getting high so I had trouble seeing M as she got through the channel she did fade to the right . We will have to get the points trimmed before we run this again.
Great ideas. I may not have access to a technical pond on my own until maybe I go down to TX in the winter. But those water tune-up drills like you mentioned, or like Dennis Voigt mentions in his dvd would be a great place to start. Obviously, great water is always a challenge to get out here.
The plan is to enter Rocket Dog in the Master at Smith River, CA in August. The pro feels she has all the talent on all the elements to do the work. It's just a matter of can she hold her brain together for 12 or so birds and three series. I think she can. What I've noticed however is that she won't give you a straight up cast refusal, but she'll scallop back. I don't think she's being a bone head or stubborn, she's still just inexperienced, relatively speaking.
But time will tell.
It is amazing what to can train on a small pond. Bill and Don showed us all kinds of concepts to train on a pond that was about 50' by 30' with some terrain around it. We always were tell them they should have made a DVD on the use of a small water area, how to cut patches of cover to train for de-cheating. long water entries, swimby etc. They did all kinds on yard work on a small rectangular pond. The pond in your diagram is great one. You don't need miles of distance to train a concept.
I find M wants to scallop especially if I am trying to get a cast into the wind.
Bill Hillmann said almost the same thing. Makes good sense
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