Archive from Daisy's Journal       June 1 - 15, 2007       

   
June 1 Dr's appointment in the morning and vet appointment for Taffey in the afternoon, rain & day off
              note: pup's heart beat normal 220 per minute, still awaiting natural labor, if pup's heart beat
                       decreases appropriate action will be taken = under 200 and no labor - induce, under
                       170 C-section 
              note: no temperature drops in the last four days as of 10:30 pm Friday night,
                       whelping box is ready 
June 2 (morning) train at the vacant industrial DTA (dodging showers) remote winger Y-drill with the
            wingers hidden behind a holding blind - 150 yards in short grass (angle back right, angle in
            left, flat right) 
                   note: Daisy stepped on all three (that was expected) and with the holding blind in front of
                            wingers she was watching only the marks & focusing on the fall - good!
                   note: Kooly did them right, too
                                                                    (left click on thumbnails)  

            (evening) trained at the Square Pond DTA = set-up a seven orange bumper tune-up
            drill with long water entries, "cheaty" lines and very "cheaty" angle exists 
                      note: Daisy has begun to take great initial lines and is "clicking" into a nice
                               lock on the "dead bird" cue = good job
                      note: Kooly was good initially, but was "scalloping" to the shore too much,
                               he needs birds 
June 3 day off
June 4 rain, Taffey to vet's = no change, 62 days, Daisy has a good sized puncture in her left hind
            paw - on top between her middle toes (about pencil diameter), open &  slight infection, rinsed
            with a little peroxide and filled with Polysporin = to the vets this afternoon along with Taffey,
            probably jammed it into a grass hidden shrub "stump" cut off when mowing 
                  note: looks like Taffey will have her pup tonight
                  note: Daisy will be taking antibiotics twice a day and soaking her paw in warm water
                           and Epsom salts occasionally = I had originally thought no training for ten days  ,
                                    but it was closed up and good to go three days later
June 5 busy with Taffey and the new pup, Kooly and Daisy day off
                  note: soaked Daisy's paw in warm solution of Epsom salts (three times), continue
                           antibiotics  
            Daisy's paw needs some time, the swelling has gone down & warm water is working
June 6 (evening) trained at the Square Pond grassy area mostly to see if the paw was healed enough
            to keep from breaking open, it was very surprising how fast it closed up
                  note: both did a heavy dose of walking baseball = good job, Kooly not nearly as excited
                  note: Daisy was taking very precise angle backs with some different angles - awesome!
                           her paw is doing great = hard to believe even after seeing it 
June 7 (late afternoon) trained at the Square Pond DTA grassy area - two sets of remote winger
           wide, easy doubles working on HRC bucket drill (left to right and then right to left)
                  note: Daisy needs to "lighten up a bit", repetition should help, paw looking good
                  note: Kooly gets really "amped" when asked to do anything but focus on the marks,
                           the "heel" command with get you a whine & it gets him a correction, but we are
                           making some progress, he is not as physically animated as Daisy, but inside he is
                           turning giant cartwheels, need to desensitize him somehow
June 8 not too happy with Kooly or Daisy at the line and marking off the gun, decided to break it
            down and simplify the expectations - first step will be to get a command = will chain "gun"
            with "good" while selecting between two wide, but close visible piles of bumpers. focusing on
            having them only move their head (that's the plan at least)...there are too many things to work
            on while the main one is not understood by either (they are looking for marks, not focusing on
            the meaning of a swinging with the gun, but waiting for a different cue and then wondering
            why ?? I'm saying "here" or "heal" which causes them to relocate (move their butt) which I
            don't want them to do
                   note: piles were of the Avery 2" bumpers (½  flashers  & ½  orange), both handle these a
                            lot better than the soft rubber bumpers when it is hot
                   note: Daisy initially didn't want go on her name because it wasn't a mark, to her a pile
                            required a "back"  which I thought was kind of neat, at first I had to chain "fetch"
                            with her name, then she was fine with the drill
                   note: Kooly's initial hang-up was, "Ok, I'm facing directly at that pile while looking at the
                            other. Do I go the direction my body is facing or where I looking?" He figured it
                            out very quickly.
                   note: got just what I wanted = solid "planted butts" right beside me at the finish and dogs
                            looking off the gun at the target by just moving their heads......repeat for effect
                            (become a routine, with a comfort level), later I can add shooting at the line and
                            more excitement 
June 9  (morning) repeated the Kwick bucket drill with two piles and then transitioned to a four
             wagon wheel like set-up, the difference is the dog remains sitting facing in between the 2nd
             and 3rd bumpers and follows (marks off of) the gun to the selected bumper, the gun is  dropped
             down toward the bumper, when the dog locks on it a "good" cue is given and they are sent, that
             bumper is returned (tossed back) and the dog remains in the same sit position (aimed between
             the 2nd & 3rd), the logic of this is when we start running Seasoned the dog will be sitting
             almost splitting the difference between the memory and go bird. This way viewing both will
             be easier without any "butt" movement (no need to reposition)  one more time on this and then
             we will add the popper gun to two bumpers & simulating an angle one might expect in a
             Seasoned HRC test   
                 note: Daisy went first and made an excellent transition to the four bumper set-up, she is less
                          animated, sitting much quieter and more focused (she's not all over my leg anymore),
                          good effort  
                 note: Kooly is much more in tune with the gun than Daisy because he has seen something
                          similar before, he switched over to the four bumpers quickly and was looking for the
                          gun with his butt planted (good "stuff") & for a drill he was very up beat
                                      (left click on thumbnail)  

               (evening) trained at the Square Pond & ran four different short HRC bucket doubles
               focusing on a still "butt" and following the gun, afterwards ran two long entry/exit water
               blinds with 90 & 125 yard swims with very difficult angle entries
                     note: Daisy & Kooly both did a good job on the doubles, yard bucket drills worked well
                     note: Daisy's angle entries were poor, but once in the water = super lines & few casts
                     note: Kooly did great blinds, but his first entry was too "slinky" (not sure there is a need
                              to do something about this as in a test he is more "amped" and this issue doesn't
                              show up, his water entries on the doubles were super long and fast, it would be
                              great if his water blind entries looked like that (how ? = shackled ducks )
               (dusk) two dog OB lessons in the drive-way (worked both at the same time - off leash)
 June 10  (late afternoon) ran four walkups using remote wingers hidden in a pine tree border along
               the path around BT's hay field, the wingers were spaced out over about three hundred yards,
               the dogs walked at heel, sat on the "flush" with a sit whistle, shooting a popper gun, the steady
               dog was sent for the retrieve, by having long walks between wingers, the routine of off leash
               heeling beside the gunner is more easily established, also, each dog was walked at heel all
               the way back to the start (three hundred yards along the grassy path)
                      note: Kooly moved forward about one yard on the first one, but was corrected and sat
                               solidly right beside me on the last three, his heeling back to the van was solid with
                               a relaxed attitude
                      note: Daisy also sat after a little scoot forward on the first one, then was rock solid on
                               the last three, heeling for her was very good, too
 June 11 (morning) trained at BT's - set-up a two remote wingers to give a single with a diversion,
               used Dokkens, HRC bucket and popper gun, after picking up the mark and diversion, a blind
               was "shot" with a tough angle down and off the levee to the north
                      note: Kooly was good with the marks and single, but squared the slope of the levee
                               after taking a good initial line, the blind was pretty short and he needed two
                               whistle right at the end
                      note: Daisy was good with the single, but dropped it when the diversion was "shot",
                               she didn't switch, it fell right "in her face" and startled her, after picking up the
                               diversion, I sent her back out to the area of the fall with a Dokken in her mouth,
                               called her in and threw a diversion right at her = no problem this time, turned
                               around a "shot the blind" and took some time to settle her into a lock = she
                               lined it with a perfect long angle down the slope of the levee
             stopped off at the house to air Taffey and check on the pup, picked up the "weed whacker"
             and went to the Square Pond to trim the weeds around the north shore, then ran Kooly and
             Daisy on a water version of the breaking drill I learned at Trainin' in the Timber, tried it
             without e-collars    bad idea! quickly stopped and corrected myself, made the "adjustments"
             and everything went fine, need to work on this drill until we can do it with out the e-collars, I
             think the message was teach first.......or sit......still doesn't mean sit.....all the time
                       note: entered Kooly and Daisy in Seasoned at Horicon HRC (WI) for Saturday
June 12 (morning) trained at Brian's (pro) - ran a marking drill - long, short, long = three singles with
             ducks, it was getting warm when Daisy and Kooly ran, fans on and went home to cool "air"
                       note: Daisy had a big hunt on the first mark, did fine on the last two & good at the line,
                                handled the ducks nicely
                       note: Kooly did not have as much trouble with the first mark and was smooth on the
                                last two (had a pretty good "lean" at the line), Kooly handled ducks nicely
             (evening)  water breaking drill at the swim-by pond, run water handling drill, yard work - sit
             on a bucket with dog beside me, throw 10 bumpers out in front, after the dog watches them
             all fall = heel the dog off the line and put up for the night 
June 13 (morning) train with Brian (pro) at Stoughton field trial grounds - first set-up water double
              followed by a single up the middle....second set-up four water singles (chair drill)
                     note: Daisy is still having trouble looking back at the gunner, ran the double and picked
                              up the single, focused on line manners and bird handling, second set-up pretty much
                              ran at two gunners, needed to be whistled off a switch and then didn't drive far
                              enough on the longest mark (with no visible gunners the last few weeks of training
                              and running very short marks = this was almost expected)
                     note: Kooly ran the double, but was asked to pick up the memory bird first (wanted to
                              exercise selection for control) started to go long on the short "go bird")
                              second set stepped on two marks tried to switch on the last after not driving far
                              enough, not very focused at time (seems to be itching quite a bit = allergy issues)