to share with us. The first short clip is our dog being released in the field to burn some steam off. We were the only ones to run across a wild bird, but not the way I would have liked. Just a few minutes after the video footage, we were down in the valley, and called our pup for water. About the time my husband got the waterbottle to her mouth, a rooster busted about 30 feet in front of us.
The next quick clip is of her holding point on one of the launchers we planted. I went up to kick around, and my husband launched the pigeon. Of course, of all the directions the pigeon could have went, he headed right for the dog. Fortunately, she's getting fairly steady to wing. (The pigeon is hobbled due to being 30 miles from home and my having a limited supply of them.)
The next quick clip was I guess what you would call a distraction or steadiness exercise. We have several members that are into DKs and DDs and german testing and training. From what I barely overheard, this is an exercise that may orginate from that. Feel free to inform me if you know about this. Anyway, I believe they called it "walking the line". We had 4 dogs participate (all gunbroke) and 4 walkers out in the field, with guns to fire and cooking pan lids to clang. The dogs were doing great until the greatest distraction of all (a leftover planted chukar)flew out of the field and over their heads. You can tell who the younger dogs are. Since I don't like to cook, at least I've found a new purpose for my pots and pans.
The final ensemble of 3 quick clips is of our dog's first ever duck search. As you can see, she lacks desire.
The wing clipped mallard was thrown out and swam to the far left corner. Evidentally, she missed it's landing and location. She jumps in the water like she's doing a field search. We should have ran her sooner, as 5 other dogs had already ran and she kept hitting on their ducks scent......so that's why you keep seeing her head to the cattail marsh area on the right. Anyway, she swam and searched for 5-10 minutes, and you could see the lightbulb come on as far as learning to scent the water. Then we threw out a dead duck as a reward. This was her first duck retrieve too. As you can see, she fiddlefarted a little with it, but we're still pleased as punch. Roxi is 13 months old now, and we hope to give the UPT a try next spring.It was a fantastic day with great weather and a great group of dog friends helping each other out with training and cheering each other on. I'm counting the days down to the next training day................. Denise
http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa28 ... 8a5f77.pbr
