6 months 27 days
2011/08/18
With NO idea what to expect, we go to the beach again. Will Syn have had nightmares about plowing along underwater with her chin in the sand and water over her eyes? Will Stitch have remembered how to get the ball without worrying? No and no, as it turns out.
When Syn spots the lake, she's excited and ready to rumble. She wants to go to the water immediately, but she's easy to call off... and call off... and call off. The third time she gives up trying to get me to go there and decides to stick around to see what sort of interesting things I'll be doing on land. It's important to work dry first. The lake is warm but Syn has not the tiniest trace of a fat layer and gets chilled fairly quickly (compared to an adult dog with more body-per-square-inch-of-skin). We get some nice short dry retrieves, and start working on more distance. At Junior level the water retrieve is only 25 feet, but at Apprentice it's 60 - a considerable difference. Junior is an introductory level. She doesn't need Jr to enter Apprentice, and I've entered her in both. The longer retrieves aren't a problem as long as she sees where the bumper lands. If she doesn't see it, she runs out 25 feet and starts looking around there. With only 2 more days of water practise, I'm glad this is a problem we can work on at home on the ground. Another little problem is my nephew, who's filming a documentary about our family. He's come to the lake with me to video the training. A problem? No, but when Syn can't find the bumper, he's a bit more interesting than looking for it... not a problem, an opportunity to overcome distractions. ONE more small problem - her grip on the large bumper isn't awfully secure, or she steps on the rope attached to it once in a while, so she drops it sometimes on the longer runs. Not a real problem, since she's allowed to drop it, and she thoroughly understands that it's her job to bring it to me, so it takes nothing further on my part to get her to turn around, pick it up again, and bring it all the way to me.
Then we move to the water with some short retrieves, then longer and longer ones. Same problem there. As long as she sees it, she'll follow the bumper to Christmas and bring it back. If she doesn't see it fall, she's looking short. On the good side, if I wade in a bit, point, pretend I'm throwing it again, and urge her to get it, she goes out further, and as soon as she spots it, she's off to get it.
Last, we try the sinking toy again. She's eager to get it and perfectly willing to put her head under water to do that, but when the whole thing is under water, she can't see where it is. She puts her head in the water 4 inches too soon and misses it. That could build up one of two ways - she could get frustrated and quit wanting to do it, or she could get used to the idea of only being able to find it when I'm holding it. We quit with her still bouncing and excited.
Stitch is fine on the retrieve, on the line, on jumping off the dock, but she's very leery of the ball. She tries to change the subject several times, so we do short easy ball retrieves with nothing else involved and no weight on the ball line to hold it down (the ball at Working level has a weighted rope attached to it so the dog has to put her head under water while swimming in order to grab the rope to retrieve the ball). Five or six short, successful ball retrieves and we're done.
When Syn spots the lake, she's excited and ready to rumble. She wants to go to the water immediately, but she's easy to call off... and call off... and call off. The third time she gives up trying to get me to go there and decides to stick around to see what sort of interesting things I'll be doing on land. It's important to work dry first. The lake is warm but Syn has not the tiniest trace of a fat layer and gets chilled fairly quickly (compared to an adult dog with more body-per-square-inch-of-skin). We get some nice short dry retrieves, and start working on more distance. At Junior level the water retrieve is only 25 feet, but at Apprentice it's 60 - a considerable difference. Junior is an introductory level. She doesn't need Jr to enter Apprentice, and I've entered her in both. The longer retrieves aren't a problem as long as she sees where the bumper lands. If she doesn't see it, she runs out 25 feet and starts looking around there. With only 2 more days of water practise, I'm glad this is a problem we can work on at home on the ground. Another little problem is my nephew, who's filming a documentary about our family. He's come to the lake with me to video the training. A problem? No, but when Syn can't find the bumper, he's a bit more interesting than looking for it... not a problem, an opportunity to overcome distractions. ONE more small problem - her grip on the large bumper isn't awfully secure, or she steps on the rope attached to it once in a while, so she drops it sometimes on the longer runs. Not a real problem, since she's allowed to drop it, and she thoroughly understands that it's her job to bring it to me, so it takes nothing further on my part to get her to turn around, pick it up again, and bring it all the way to me.
Then we move to the water with some short retrieves, then longer and longer ones. Same problem there. As long as she sees it, she'll follow the bumper to Christmas and bring it back. If she doesn't see it fall, she's looking short. On the good side, if I wade in a bit, point, pretend I'm throwing it again, and urge her to get it, she goes out further, and as soon as she spots it, she's off to get it.
Last, we try the sinking toy again. She's eager to get it and perfectly willing to put her head under water to do that, but when the whole thing is under water, she can't see where it is. She puts her head in the water 4 inches too soon and misses it. That could build up one of two ways - she could get frustrated and quit wanting to do it, or she could get used to the idea of only being able to find it when I'm holding it. We quit with her still bouncing and excited.
Stitch is fine on the retrieve, on the line, on jumping off the dock, but she's very leery of the ball. She tries to change the subject several times, so we do short easy ball retrieves with nothing else involved and no weight on the ball line to hold it down (the ball at Working level has a weighted rope attached to it so the dog has to put her head under water while swimming in order to grab the rope to retrieve the ball). Five or six short, successful ball retrieves and we're done.