Just wanted to say what a great summer we're having training wise.
Hailey has been doing cold doubles with no problem. I have run her on one triple just for kicks. I think her steadiness needs more work though before I do that again. She remembered all her marks no problem, we just had some obedience issues bc she wanted to GO NOW and then on her 2nd bird she didn't go where I sent her but tried to veer off to the bird she wanted to pick up. I recalled her and she swung back around and went where she should have gone, but it wasn't our best work.
She's been doing long singles at 200+yds, which isn't a big deal in field trials, but I think for hunt tests is good. She is such an excellent marker, and generally takes a straight line to the bird.
Exposed her to live birds, since we didn't know to do that as a puppy. She was slightly aggressive with that first one and I cringed. I see the necessity in her being able to pick up a winged bird, but the training part of it made me very sad. Thankfully she didn't need much encouragement. Have shot some live flyers for her and she's done excellent with those.
We've started on handling. Done the 3-leg lining pattern and now we're on to Simple Baseball. Her sit-to-whistle has finally started to connect as she gets further away from me. I wasn't sure we'd ever get it, lol. I am having so much fun. Our biggest challenge is just the self-restraint getting to the line, and a large part of that I'm sure is just me needing to be firmer.
We had a trap shoot over the weekend and she generally likes to run out and chase the clays as they fall, but I made her sit at the line with the shooters. Which was even more "cruel" bc someone else's Lab was running around out there. She wasn't happy, but she didn't break. Super excited to take her out for duck season this Fall.