6 months 28 days
2011/08/19
Syn's excited again today, but more willing to stay with me on land (wow, good pup!). I put our gear down just before we start and she's grabbing things up and trying to hand them to me, eager to get started. We begin with straight bumper retrieves, going for more distance. She seems to have learned her lesson yesterday. Today she's very carefully watching where the bumper's going and we quickly get some good distance. 60 feet isn't out of the question at all. Then I work a bit on having her stay while I throw and go on cue (in Junior I'll be able to hold her harness, but in Apprentice she'll need a stay). I ask her to stay, wait a second, reward, ask her to stay, wait 2 seconds, reward, ask her to stay, swing the bumper, hold the bumper and wait for her to swing back into heel position, ask her to stay, reward (rinse, repeat). She's so excited it takes her 4 or 5 tries until she remembers what stay means while I wind up and toss the bumper.
On one particularly long throw, she stays well, but takes off just before I release her. I call her back - AND SHE COMES! Good pup! AND after she resets herself, she remembers where the bumper landed and is if possible even more eager to get it (when I release her this time). I'm so happy with her attitude. She's so pleased to be retrieving that she's spy-hopping on her way out to the bumper, and coming back to me so fast sometimes she skids. Very cool.
Then we go to the water. It's very clear today so we start with the sinking toy. I drop it nose-depth, then muzzle-depth twice, then eye-depth, and finally full face depth. She's retrieving it with no problem today. I'll have to remember not to muddy up the water in our warm-up period at the trial.
Next I start pitching the bumper further and further - and again, no problem. The work she did on land translates to the water, she marks the bumper falling and heads straight out for it. She'll need a 60-foot retrieve, and today we get a bunch of 60-footers and one 75 with no trouble.
Today the only Apprentice level exercise she has trouble with is a blind retrieve of the buoy line at 60 feet. She can't find it. Of course, I've spent 3 weeks "losing" her line, saying "Uh oh, where's your line? Look! There it is! Go get it!" so today when it's in the water, I say "Where is it? Go!" and she doesn't have a clue. Duh. I wade about 15 feet into the water before she figures out what I want and goes to get the line.
The only Junior exercise we haven't tried so far is to have me sitting on a boat 60 feet from shore (apparently the water trial committee really likes the term "60 feet") while a steward holds her harness, then releases her when I call her and she enters the water and swims out to me on the boat, then climbs into the boat. I don't have a boat but had a long dock, so my nephew held her on shore while I went 70 feet out on the dock, sat down and called her. SUPerDOG! Cute little torpedo! No hesitation whatsoever. Didn't try asking her to jump off the dock today, it was a bit chillier than yesterday and she was getting cold - and everything she did was brilliant, so we quit. She was MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD that I put her in the truck and then worked Stitch, but she shut up eventually.
Stitch started out looking sort of pouty but picked up quickly. We did a lot of getting the buoy ball after jumping off the dock, and that went well. She's got the hang of it again. Then I started adding more and more objects - in this exercise she has to bring me the ball, a bumper, and a line, all without getting back in the boat. Last year we had a hand signal which told her she had to get something else and another signal to tell her she was done and could board up. Today both of us started to remember the signals, and that's another thing we can work on on land. Two more things to work on. She still has a tendency to spit the articles at me rather than hold onto them until I cue a release. And her final exercise is going off on another boat while the other boat moves (yes, 60 feet) away from mine. Then a bumper is tossed off my boat, she stays, she stays... and then I cue her to jump off, get the bumper, and bring it to me. I'm happy to say that she had some difficulty staying on the dock after I tossed the bumper. Why am I happy? Because anticipation of what comes next is always a MUCH better way to fail something than not doing it at all, or doing it reluctantly. We'll do a little work on stays on land and it'll be fine. Or it won't. If she fails because she's too eager to jump off the boat, it'll have been a good day.
On one particularly long throw, she stays well, but takes off just before I release her. I call her back - AND SHE COMES! Good pup! AND after she resets herself, she remembers where the bumper landed and is if possible even more eager to get it (when I release her this time). I'm so happy with her attitude. She's so pleased to be retrieving that she's spy-hopping on her way out to the bumper, and coming back to me so fast sometimes she skids. Very cool.
Then we go to the water. It's very clear today so we start with the sinking toy. I drop it nose-depth, then muzzle-depth twice, then eye-depth, and finally full face depth. She's retrieving it with no problem today. I'll have to remember not to muddy up the water in our warm-up period at the trial.
Next I start pitching the bumper further and further - and again, no problem. The work she did on land translates to the water, she marks the bumper falling and heads straight out for it. She'll need a 60-foot retrieve, and today we get a bunch of 60-footers and one 75 with no trouble.
Today the only Apprentice level exercise she has trouble with is a blind retrieve of the buoy line at 60 feet. She can't find it. Of course, I've spent 3 weeks "losing" her line, saying "Uh oh, where's your line? Look! There it is! Go get it!" so today when it's in the water, I say "Where is it? Go!" and she doesn't have a clue. Duh. I wade about 15 feet into the water before she figures out what I want and goes to get the line.
The only Junior exercise we haven't tried so far is to have me sitting on a boat 60 feet from shore (apparently the water trial committee really likes the term "60 feet") while a steward holds her harness, then releases her when I call her and she enters the water and swims out to me on the boat, then climbs into the boat. I don't have a boat but had a long dock, so my nephew held her on shore while I went 70 feet out on the dock, sat down and called her. SUPerDOG! Cute little torpedo! No hesitation whatsoever. Didn't try asking her to jump off the dock today, it was a bit chillier than yesterday and she was getting cold - and everything she did was brilliant, so we quit. She was MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD that I put her in the truck and then worked Stitch, but she shut up eventually.
Stitch started out looking sort of pouty but picked up quickly. We did a lot of getting the buoy ball after jumping off the dock, and that went well. She's got the hang of it again. Then I started adding more and more objects - in this exercise she has to bring me the ball, a bumper, and a line, all without getting back in the boat. Last year we had a hand signal which told her she had to get something else and another signal to tell her she was done and could board up. Today both of us started to remember the signals, and that's another thing we can work on on land. Two more things to work on. She still has a tendency to spit the articles at me rather than hold onto them until I cue a release. And her final exercise is going off on another boat while the other boat moves (yes, 60 feet) away from mine. Then a bumper is tossed off my boat, she stays, she stays... and then I cue her to jump off, get the bumper, and bring it to me. I'm happy to say that she had some difficulty staying on the dock after I tossed the bumper. Why am I happy? Because anticipation of what comes next is always a MUCH better way to fail something than not doing it at all, or doing it reluctantly. We'll do a little work on stays on land and it'll be fine. Or it won't. If she fails because she's too eager to jump off the boat, it'll have been a good day.