Man... she is brilliant in the first series!!!
And she broke in the second.
The marks and blinds were not long, but with our types of terrain and vegetation, it just ate the dogs up. Kinda lumpy humps of sand with sage brush heavily dotting the area. There was no straight line to anything. You could lose your dog in a split second. The flier was first, by the time the dogs dug that out, many had no idea where the memory bird was. Rocket Dog went directly to both. The blind was through a narrow corridor. One quick step the wrong way, and you could not see your dog. RD did go out of sight... I stopped her, gave her a come-in, a small over, then straight back verbal back and she was on it.
And she broke in the second.
I've been thinking about it, and it occurs to me that we ask so much of these high rollers. This was a double header and since it was our club, I was out on the grounds a day early to set up. So here she is watching hundreds of dogs going hither thither and yon, shotguns going off, live and dead ducks being hauled around... She's in her crate most of the time, living in a high intensity environment. OK for most dogs, for one like Rocket Dog... that is a lot to ask. I think by the second series, she is well over threshold.
So, I've been looking at the issue as one of walking from the blind to the line in good focused condition. I believe the trick will be to help her LIVE in the high stress conditions, and keep her mind on her job. That means learning how to bring her down every time we do anything on the grounds. Eating, airing, going to the sight of the series, waiting, and THEN going to the blind and to the line... THEN doing it again.
I'm going to keep on with what we've been doing... high standards around the house and in training. NILIF. Had we not been doing that, she wouldn't have made it through the first series.
But, wow... any suggestions for what to do when the conditions stretch over a period of days??? (I have a dog behaviorist person that I'll be discussing this with. Her bread and butter is over-threshold dogs. But I'm open to other ideas as well.)