The Training Continues

So, I've updated on his health status and so far since he has no other symptoms other than drinking and urinating a lot, I've decided to keep him active and keep on training. It's what he loves and was bred for, he deserves to do it. You would never know he's sick so we'll keep going as long as he says it's ok.

We were doing well with the quiet issue in training mode. If he's just in play mode or whatever and someone throws something he can't have then he goes nuts. We took him to Hunting and Fishing Days and he heard the trap shooters so we went over and he went nuts because he didn't have anything to retrieve. But when we are in training he doesn't do it. So it's a slow continuous process, I am still searching for a surefire way to teach him that quiet means quiet, now.

I took him for a walk on the Ontario Pathway today and brought a bumper along. On the way down the trail we just walked really and he got to smell everything and just take in all the sights and sounds. When we got to the end it was a little wider trail and I threw him a few retrieves. I threw into the edges where the weeds were higher and he did excellent. I let him hunt for awhile because we haven't done much cover work and it was a good learning experience. He did great, he's very tenacious. One throw went into heavy brush and tree roots hanging off the creek bank that I didn't intend and he had a heck of a time bringing it back up but he did it. He wouldn't give up. I was very proud of him.

Today we also worked on back casts, just left-sided. What I did was let him walk out ahead of me and I would set the bumper down while he wasn't looking. Then I'd continue walking and call him to me (his here was pretty much dead on today, off-lead) and heel him (heel off-lead was beautiful as well, first time we really have done it off-lead). Then I would have him sit from heel (awesome! first time we did this too - took him a few times to understand that he had to sit even though I was going to keep walking). I walked out and turned to face him. He's seem the arm motions for the casts before so I gave him a back cast. Probably the first 4 times he was confused and I walked a few feet and then he saw the bumper and took off like a bat out of hell or it. After that he really got the hang of it and took the casts perfectly. By the end he was even jumping the gun a little because he was anticipating the cast.

Overall I was very pleased with him today. His OB is good, needs a little refining for sharpness, but I'm happy with it. His retrieving is good but we need to lengthen his singles and get him working singles off multiple guns and work in a little cover. All things I need some help with. If I can continue to get him steady, or hook him up, I can go out and throw and then either remote send or return to unhook him. But I think to do this we have to get the drive under control. All things we will continue to work on and will come in time. Like I said, overall very happy with him, his natural talent and ability are unbelievable. He's too exceptional to waste his talent so I'll work on keeping him healthy and improving his chances of longevity and he can work on doing what he was bred to do.