A few years ago I never would have guessed that I'd be rushing out of work on a Friday to get home and train dogs, rather than to get to a popular happy hour spot...yet this afternoon as my Friday afternoon meeting ran late; all I could think about was getting back to the farm.
It was cold again (it was below 32 last night!) so I decided to do just two long water blinds. We did a lot of quartering and hup to flush drills on the way down to the pond. We ended up flipping the direction of the blind from day 2. Kevin dropped the first one so that he could see it. The line out went perfectly and he popped right back into the water for the return. While returning he got distracted and swam close to the shoreline. Kevin hollered "stop him and cast him over!" I didn't think it would work, but sure as shootin' it did and he stayed off the bank!
While Fred was on his return, Kevin replaced the blind, only just in the vicinity of where it had been and in some weeds. He took the back line nicely and swam right to where the other one was and didn't find it. Fred panicked and hopped back in the water at which point I yelled "Kevin, show him!!" and Kevin went and dropped it so that he returned and picked it up. Whew.
I think I learned a valuable lesson today...we are at a phase of building Fred's confidence, so it is important that once he is well on his way to where I sent him, that he sees (or smells) the blind. At this early phase in the game I need him to trust me implicitly to make sure that he keeps up the good work and doesn't get turned off to it.
Every day that I train I remind myself that its like going to a bar for happy hour that doesn't serve Guinness...you have to be flexible if you want to get the job done...that being said, its time for a few well deserved Friday evening libations now!
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