Yesterday I had things on my mind but thought I should get M out for a short training sessions before the funeral visit and friends arrived from the west coast. We went out and I set up a drill on the pond designed to teach swimming parallel to shore, out to sea and long entries. Ran the first line parallel to shore which she did well then moved back to extend the entry. She did swim parallel to shore but when she got close to the corner she wanted to switch to one of the other bumpers. I kept casting her back to the corner and she would not come up with the bumper. Finally she started to swim back to me so I called her in and decided I would walk around and show her the bumper in case it had sank. Much to my dismay when we got to the corner I realized that I had only left one bumper there. I felt terrible and thought maybe I had set myself back on the long entries. Let her see me leave bumpers there and went back to the starting point, she flew into the water got the bumper and the rest of the drill went great. I learned my lesson if I expect the dog to trust me then I better trust the dg as well. She was telling me there was nothing there, next time I will check earlier in the process.
Similarly, when a dog "blinks a bird"... you have to go out to see what's going on. There was a HT where the handler kept handling the dog back to the mark... finally the dog brought it in but his nose and lips were covered in yellow jacket bites... poor dog. (It was a dead bird thrown from a winger, but for some reason, that bird had hit a spot of ground where the others hadn't.)
Yellow jackets are nasty. I stepped on a nest last year out by the pond, My running shoe is still buried in the mud out there. I always have Benedryl on hand for stings and bites. Right now the deer flies are ferocious.
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