There is never enough time to train

[TuMicks]

The season is coming to an end. We are going on a long vacation to Scotland/Ireland and it takes so much preparation. This on top of a year with very little water. Then my mom in another state became ill and I needed to go take care of her.

But the good news is, we'll be out at a ranch tomorrow and get to do mixed land/water with live fliers. So I'll have a chance to report in.

While in Ireland I'm going to get a chance to visit a retriever training pro there and soak up their perspective on all things Labrador. I have a cap I got at the Master National a few years ago that I am going to take as a gift. (I look totally awful in ball caps so I've never worn it.) I'm thinking about taking a whistle as well because I don't think they use the type we do. I'm looking forward to it very much.

More later!

[POPTOP]

Sounds like an awesome trip. Take plenty of pictures and share please.

[barry581]

Sounds like an awesome trip! Let us know how it goes!

[IRISHWISTLER]

TuMicks,
Make certain ye visit a pub or two for a seisiun of "TRAD" (Traditional Irish Music). Ye will surely hear some of the best, nothing like it whilst sharing good craic and a pint o' the dark with others. I have been blessed to make the aquaintance of many of the finest Irish Trad musicians in the world.


Frankie Gavin (left) and Irishwhistler (right). Frankie Gavin is undoubtedly the greatest living Irish fiddle player in the world.


Frankie Gavin

Safe travels and enjoy ye journey.

Slainte,
Irishwhistler

[Anna Scott]

I envy you your trip it sounds great. You will have to tell us all about the training in Ireland. M has a number of Irish and Great Britain field trial champions in her pedigree. Would love to be able to do what you are going to do.

[TuMicks]

Dear IW: We will certainly take in some music. I told hubby each eve after we've stopped someplace we'll inquire about where the music is. I shall report to you when I'm able.

Here's what we did Saturday:


By way of perspective, the blind was maybe 200 yards. One way or the other this ate each dog's lunch. After they left the line, they went down into the water and weeds and lost sight of where they were going. Bridget swung her head to the flier the instant before I sent her for the long mark, split the difference and went toward the break in the trees behind the flier. (Note to self... we are going to do singles until this head swinging thing is fixed!) I handled her to the long bird, she got the bull dog and flier fine. She's a very good handling dog so the blind was trivial for her.

I didn't run Rocket Dog Saturday. But RD was steady (big plus there.) She got the long bird. On the flier, she got up in the featureless field and had trouble. (The wind was erratic so hard to tell what she was or wasn't winding.) She didn't see the bull dog go down and handled to it, but that's OK since these are not judged as marks in real life (or HT's).

Today... OMG!!! 100 plus degrees. There is no wind. The smoke from all the wild fires is hanging like a shroud over our landscape. I am having an awful time with asthma. But we were out running blinds.



Bridget had no problems. (She never does on a blind spread.) I ran Rocket Dog. It was very interesting. Poor thing was absolutely SURE she was supposed to get in the water on the first one. It took maybe 4 whistles to get her to run past it. Since water levels are low, it was necessary to run up closer to the water in order to see what line the young dogs were taking through it. So after kicking her off for #2, I ran about 50 yards. (66 years old, two knee replacements, sweating bullets, and asthma.) I was really glad I did it. RD, having gotten in the water figured she had to swim the length of the water, even though it was 90 degrees to the line on which she was sent. So I handled her out and kept her on line. We got number 2. Pretty much the same deal with #3. My handling was getting slower and slower because I was so out of breath. But that's FINE with RD. (Handle a slow dog fast and a fast dog slow, as they say.) So by #4 she seems to have the idea of angling across the water. I hit her with a whistle as she exited, cast her back and WOW! I thought she would carry right to #4. Nope, she careened back to #3 and I was too slow on the whistle. I had to run around the pond, take the bumper, put it back at #3, and then from that side just handled her to #4. Blind 5 was OK. But now I'm more breathless. My handling was getting really slow. When I sent her for #6, it took a few casts (again) to keep her on the edge of the water without getting in. Because I was so slow to handle, she broke from her sit. BINGO! She got a prime correction, so it worked out great.

Overall, since almost all the dogs (except Bridget) had problems, I think RD did pretty well.

But, I gotta tell you... the drought and fires are killing us out here. Everyone pray for a lot of snow for us this winter.

[Anna Scott]

I really have to hand it to you training under those conditions. It has been hot and humid here (somewhere in the 90's with the humidex. I have not poked my nose outside the door for 2 days. I can not take the heat. Last week I sunburned my lips and nose. One of these days they are just going to fall off I'm sure.
Your second set up is much like the drill we do to teach the dogs to cut the corners of the pond.
Your first set up is like a delayed triple . We don't often use fliers I have no where to keep them. The last two ducks I had spent all summer with us living in the lap of luxury. I had them in a dog run and my husband went out a built them an extension using X-pens so they could get out and graze on the grass. He also rigged up a tub so they had a place to swim. Big mistake we called them Daisy and Donalda. I gave them to a friend with a farm in the fall. We can't use shot fliers in our tests up here so only use them when we want to rev a dog that is down up.
I hope you get the snow that you need this winter. The conditions out there are down right dangerous. We have a thunderstorm rolling through right now.

[TuMicks]

Anna... if we waited for days in the 70's to train, we'd probably get a week of training all year long. (Someone laughingly said NV had a great spring this year... but he was out of town that weekend and missed it.) I gotta complement our pro. We lost both our technical pond and the reservoir early this year and we thought we were totally screwed. But she scrounged around and begged property owners she knew for the use of their ponds. We all scouted rivers and state land in Northern CA and found places we could drive in to.

But seriously, if we don't have a very robust winter in N CA and NV, all of us are going to become Retriever Training exiles come spring. I'm glad I'm retired and have some flexibility if the worst happens. But we're all doing serious time on our knees praying for rain/snow.

I think going to Ireland/Scotland will be good for my lungs. No wild fires, moisture in the air, and even if there is pollen, it's probably stuff my immune system isn't reactive to. I'll try not to burden the National Health Service and am going with a full amamentarium of medications, just in case.