We had a splendid club training day. We had several new guys and dogs there. Everyone was in a good mood. Even the Bureau of Reclamation person was there and watched the whole day. Had never seen retriever work. We cleaned a ton of crap and junk off the public lands we use. It was just a good day.
The set-up consisted of a walk-up bird thrown into the water to the left, a pheasant flier on the right, and a long water mark down the middle... followed by a long land blind off the hip pocket of the long bird, and honor. We did not do the walk up. (I thought the flier was enough to fry Rocket Dog's brain.)
I gotta tell you... the girl did a really good job. She jumped ahead of me a little on the long water mark, was steady on the flier (it was "out of order", i.e., flier first) but made no move to break. Once the birds were down and I got my number, I told her to heel and she jumped back into place. She hammered both birds and they were tough marks. Did a credible blind (I gave an angle back that should have been an over, but we recovered.) Was she quiet? I guess she is squeeking a little bit, but in a frequency that is tough for me to hear, and she didn't get sent until she was quiet and still. And she managed the honor, though she wanted so badly to get up.
A friend videotaped us. I guess she has had difficulty sending the file to me. But if we can get the technology to work, there should be a record of it. We'll see if the tape jives with my memory of the whole thing. If it is the way I recall, I'd give us a B+.
