Out on the heather – October 1st 2009

Nic came with me this afternoon which meant that we could up onto the heather.  I avoid formal training sessions with both dogs if I am on my own as they can be frustrating at their best, and counterproductive at their worst.  I may send Archie off across the wind, with Grace on a slip lead by my side to find that Grace’s continual whining at being kept on the lead shortens my fuse, which in turn makes my instruction of Archie more tense that it should be, causing the whole event to become difficult.  Or I send Grace off and drop her, to find that Grace hasn’t dropped, but Archie has.  I am then stuck with Archie in the dropped position attached to a lead on my wrist with the need to reach Grace before she forgets what the instruction was.  All very complicated; and easily solved by bringing someone else along.

So, with Nic to help me, both dogs had some good runs.  I ran Archie on a line to be on the safe side, and although we didn’t find any birds, he handled pretty well.  It is difficult using a line, in that it causes him to adopt a low flat running position which presumably helps him pull the line through the heather.  This makes it difficult not to misinterpret his body signals.  Still, with no birds about, there were few signals to misinterpret.

Grace had a few good runs but she continually cut short her beat.  I corrected her every time by stopping her from taking a bite forward too early and sending her on in the direction I wanted her to go in, but it was a persistent problem and I got fed up correcting it.  In the end I picked her up and we headed home.  There is a small chance that I was misreading the wind and at her head height the wind was coming from a different angle but I couldn’t feel this.  All in all we had a useful session.