July  2nd - day off for all
        July 3rd morning - 1) ran all four dogs on the 164 yard pattern blind, Daisy & Gunny ran
                      the reverse of the same Swirl Drill with a "vacuum" factor  at Roscoe River Park
                               note: Daisy did well....Gunny not as good, but for where he is at = decent
                      2) Gunny ran four "inlines" at the Rockton Sport Complex with Anne W. throwing
                               note: first three were excellent, the longest had him run toward the gunner
                                        (almost) and then recover to the fall
                      3) water work at the Winnebago County Pond DTA with Gunny running four water
                          singles over the peninsula to two marks in the water and two up on land
                               note: easily distracted once up on the peninsula with a lack of intensity in
                                        remaining focused on the fall (swimming to the gunner)......tired?
                               note: Gunny needs more marks.........with birds & shorter blinds with birds 
       July 4th day off - rain early
       July 5th late morning - trained at the Square Pond and did the Hunting Drill focusing on
                    patience, steadiness from the Ultra Low dog hide using duck calling, popper gun,
                    an HRC bucket, two wingers for two marks with a Dokken & an Avery ATB teal,
                    delayed retrieves, a "dry shot" & two OB sessions spread out over about 30 minutes
                    routine = 100 yard OB walk at heel to the blind, placed in the hide and followed by
                    five minutes of sporadic duck calls and finally a dry shot, after another ten minutes
                    the long single is "shot" with no immediate retrieve, another five minutes passes &
                    the second mark with a Dokken splashes up close in the decoys with a popper shot,
                    after a few minute pause the dog retrieves each mark and then does the second OB
                    drill of walking to each winger and remaining at sit while I reload the two wingers,
                    the drill ends with a 100 yard walk off lead back to the van to get the next dog
                               note: Daisy went first.....had a correction for a slight exit on the dry shot & was
                                        flawless after that
                               note: Gunny was second.....and was almost perfect (was distracted for awhile
                                        with eating grass out of the front of the hide)    
                               note: Taffey was third and "whiney" for awhile, then exploded out of the hide
                                        on the dry shot.......which got her a "firm" correction....after that she
                                        was more careful and did well  
                               note: Kooly was last (by design) and really "whiney".....waited a lot longer on
                                        the dry shot, but he too exploded out of the hide on the shot......which
                                        resulted in a "no nonsense" correction, after that the ten minute wait
                                        did decrease his "whining".....he never barked which was unexpected,
                                        he was steady after the first correction and really intense when he
                                        finally was allowed to retrieve
                              note: The main focus of this drill is to make sure each dog is aware of the
                                       expectations when we hunt waterfowl this fall and winter. There should
                                       be some value in this drill as it relates to hunt tests, too. However, this
                                       is a secondary focus.  
                                                               (left click to enlarge thumbnails)
 

"The Line"

"The Setup"

"OB Lesson #1"           (Gunny)

"OB Lesson #2"

      July 6th group training session was down to two - trained at BT's hay field - setup two
                   different doubles with a real gunner at the long station and a winger for the
                   memory........used an HRC bucket at the line with the long bird being shot with
                   a popper gun
                            note: shot at the line with Daisy on each double (put up and came back out
                                     for the second).....did a good job with each and was excellent at the
                                     line........yesterday's "Hunting Drill" session on the pond seemed to
                                     have had some positive impact
                           note: did not shoot at the line with Gunny on the first double and used a
                                    short tab, did shoot the popper gun for him when he came back out
                                    for the second double......solid at the line and marked well 
                           note: Taffey assisted in working with another dog in an honoring drill
                           note: Kooly attempted to assist in an honoring drill with another dog,
                                    but he started barking (as per his normal behavior) and never
                                    picked up anything.....obviously yesterday's session had zero
                                    impact on his never ending noise issue
                    Frontline Plus - Taffey, Daisy & Gunny with Kooly in the middle of his Preventic
                    Collar timeline
     July 7th - afternoon - setup a No-No jump drill in the Square Pond DTA "grassy" section
                     this is a review for Taffey, Kooly & Daisy and an "intro" phase for Gunny
                           note: Daisy was the demo dog - she was sharp
                           note: Taffey & Gunny ran the jump straight on and at two different angles
                           note: Gunny was extremely quick a catching on to the concept, a couple of
                                    early "explanations" and he clearly understood what was expected of
                                    him, his "mo' was excellent because he was thinking..."This is fun!"
                                                               (left click to enlarge thumbnails)
 

"jump components"	"assembled"	"straight on"	"1st step - here"
" 2nd step - here"                 (opposite direction)	"identifying"	"Daisy's back"	"the hurdle"
"Daisy's return"	"tweet/sit/over/back"  (Gunny's correction)	"Gunny's back"     (after teaching)	"diggn' the pile"
"the hurdle"	"get out of the way"	"Here's Gunny!"
"the launch"                     (another return)	"Gunny's Up"      (last retrieve)

                    evening - training group....trained on land in an "industrial grassy area" (similar to
                    a cut hay field), Daisy started with a cold honor, was put up and came out to run
                    a triple with a blind - did not remember the third mark, Gunny ran the three marks
                    as singles.....came up short by about five yards on the longest = big hunt & finished
                    off with a very "hacky" series of handles = again....wingers "suck" for a young dog
                    learning to mark & need help, stepped on next two singles though & did an honor
                              note: Gunny's natural instincts are excellent, but his immaturity impacts his
                                       focus (at times), the flashes of being a very nice dog are coming along
                                       more often as his experience builds
     July 8th - morning rain - went for a long walk wearing rubber boots with an umbrella, all 4
                    dogs had a good "romp", along the way a series of sits to flushes were done, with
                    an occasional whistle sit upon a bumper in the air ("the bird"), each dog had their
                    turn making a retrieve while the other three remained on sit and honoring......this
                    went well 
                              note: Gunny was the only one wearing an e-collar 
     July 9th - late morning - setup a No-No drill on the 164 yard pattern blind at the Roscoe River
                    Park, Gunny was doing the intro and Taffey, Kooly & Daisy would do it as a review,
                    this is a progression from the camo jump drill completed on Tuesday of this week,
                    the steps in the photos are 1) identify the pile and run from between the stickmen,
                    2) & 3) increase the distance, 4) is from in front of the jump, 5) goes over the jump,
                    6) adds more distance and 7) is the full 164 yards
                             note: Gunny did the early sections with zero errors - not surprising from what
                                      he did the other day, on the last full run he wanted to run around the
                                      jump a few times on the way out and had a few more "errors" coming
                                      back, but he dealt with the whistle sits and correcting cast very well
                                      and finally made a perfect run on the last one at the full distance
                                      he kept is "mo" up the entire drill (ten retrieves) = excellent
                             note: Taffey was "bound and determined" to avoid the jump, it took four
                                       full runs to convince her otherwise (did this setup several years ago)
                             note: it took Kooly three times (it has been a few years since he did this)
                             note: Daisy was perfect the second time (she did this about two years ago)
                                                                 (left click to enlarge thumbnails)
 

"identify the pile"	"up the slot"	"adding distance"	"front of jump"
"beyond jump"	"more distance"	"full 164 yards"

                      met with Bob from our Tuesday training group and we ran a short W Drill with his
                      pup Jake and Gunny - five marks were mostly thrown for success and because it
                      was getting warm, threw a short Y Drill for Jake later
     July 10th - morning rain & decided to have a day off, did yard work = mowed the lawn
     July 11th - morning trained early with small group at the new county dog training pond
                      setup two marks, diversion & blind depending on skill level of dog it could be
                      run different ways, had full body mallards in field for each mark, had BB at each
                      "gun station" (no shooting), duck calls, holding blind, real mallards and an HRC
                      bucket with mat at the line........Katie and Gunny schooled the long blind from
                      the peninsula, were put up and brought back out to run each mark as singles with
                      a diversion and honoring, Gina & Daisy ran the double with a diversion and a cold
                      blind with honoring ...the "clump" of full bodies on the left side of the line over the
                      peninsula provided more suction than we thought = dogs off line when in the
                      water after loosing sight of the far gun station with the decoys being very visible
                                                            (left click to enlarge thumbnails)
 

"The Setup"	"The Line"	"Diversion Pod"	"view in the field"
"The Peninsula"	"bodies at work"	"The Enabler"

                               note: Taffey & Gunny had a good run with the ATV taking equipment down to
                                         the pond (and back)
                               note: Gunny ran the schooled shorter single off the peninsula without an issue,
                                        took a poor initial line ("bounced" off some weeds at the shoreline) on the
                                        full single and had to be handled back to the line, then self-corrected his
                                        line in the second water section to pick up the duck (not very impressive),
                                        line manners with the ducks was consistently good and he did fine on the
                                        shorter single and the diversion, came back out later and did a rerun of
                                        the longer single with a bumper in the water (not impressive again) and
                                        really wanted to switch the bumper for the real duck diversion (didn't)
                               note: Daisy took a poor line to the go bird, hit the shore and made hard left
                                        down the shore headed right for the long memory, whistled her in after
                                        a correction and had the marks picked up, she was not happy = picked
                                        up the go bird and tried really hard to give a "no-go" on the memory,
                                        with some "coaxing" she picked it up and ran the blind with a few
                                        early handles to get her on a better initial line = not impressive
                               note: the perfect ending to a less than average training session happened on
                                        the way home = just limped into the driveway and the van appears
                                        to have blown a head gasket (or worse) = aaarrggh!       
    July 12th until van is fixed??? - "front yard work" and OB
    July 13th second day without the van - friend says symptoms are more like electrical/ignition or
                   some kind of timing issue.......this morning my mechanic says it's probably not a huge
                   issue....I may have it back this afternoon......nope?
    July 14th picked up van around 1:00 pm (it's fixed, but won't know what it was until later)
                   evening trained at the "grassy area" with the Tuesday group (finally got
                   actually permission from the owner), the set-up was three marks and I didn't use
                   the middle one
                                note: Daisy ran a double with a blind, messed with too long on the delivery
                                         because she was rolling he bumper.....a lot, then when I sent her on
                                         memory.....it wasn't......as she totally forgot it, ended up going on back
                                         missed it and then popped, after trying to wait her out she was given
                                         and indirect pressure followed by a "fetch" and she went right to it,
                                         the "ditz" factor was in "full bloom" & ran a nice blind, need to start
                                         running a lot of triples with her - not the normal thing to do, but she
                                         needs to learn how to focus for longer periods of time, singles are
                                         just not forcing her to pay attention and "keeping it together" for a
                                         longer set of "happenings", "one and go" feeds into her "hurry up
                                         anxiety".......1...........2.........3 will extend her to the expectation of
                                         wait.....wait.....wait....for awhile....there is no rush!
                                note: Gunny ran the same setup and had no real issues which made Daisy's
                                         effort look even worse
                                note: Taffey ran a single with a blind - mark super....blind wouldn't take an
                                          angle back until I gave an indirect pressure
                                note: Kooly ran a poison bird, was "amped" and a little vocal, but had
                                         plenty of "mo"
    July 15th evening trained at the Square Pond grassy area with three Dokkens - each dog did
                   a 180º triple with hand thrown Dokkens, the focus was on using very low key voice
                   commands with precise heeling, sitting and a strong, long focus on each toss, the
                   three tosses were first designed to work with the heel "looks" and the second                  
                   focuses on here "looks" 
                                note: Daisy still has trouble pulling off a mark to the next plus looses her
                                         focus when asked, this drill was able to isolated those issues
                                note: Gunny's issue is not waiting long enough to be sent, the drill worked
                                         great for that
                                note: Taffey was asked to slow way down and relax a bit, again the drill
                                         provides a great deal of flexibilty to isolate and deal with specific
                                         weaknesses
                                note: Kooly worked on not getting "too high" (not vocalizing - phase #1))
                                note: each dog was able to "work" on their special needs within the
                                         framework of the presentation.....worked very slowly and quietly
                                         while avoiding any actions which might escalate anxiety 
    July 16th morning trained in BT's hay field....setup a 100 yards X-Box plus two marking drill
                   (angle back left, angle in right, angel back right, angle in left, flat right & flat left)
                   using an Avery Ruff Stand at the line, duck call and primer pistol following the
                   remote line routine  
                                note: Taffey went first "laser like" to each one except the second...over-ran
                                         and quickly checked back down
                                note: Kooly marked extremely well on all but the second mark.....over-ran
                                note: Gunny showed excellent lines & showed some signs of starting to
                                         distinguish the difference between old falls and "real scent",
                                         focus is really improving & intensity is increasing
                                note: Daisy lost it in the OB before we even started, did not focus on the
                                         AOF on the first one and ran straight at the gunner, corrected and then
                                         proceeded to overrun every mark......"ditz factor" took over....coming
                                         in heat.....no signs.....just one of her "daze" 
                   drove to the Square Pond and Gunny ran three water blinds - entries are still not
                   straight as he likes to pick the easy route into the water, still avoiding decoys at first,
                   but insisted on his going through decoy slots or right by a decoy to stay on line, this
                   became less of an issue as the blinds progressed, finished with some de-cheating
                   work on returns by throwing a few simple water marks (where thinking about cheating
                   on the way back was definitely going to happen)....some progress has been made
                   Preventic - new tick collar on Kooly    
                                                              (left click to enlarge thumbnail)

"X-Box + Two"                                                                       (marking drill)